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The elegance and distinctiveness of Chef Erik Desjarlais' Evangeline menu has attracted the attention of critics and diners alike since the day the restaurant opened in April 2008.
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By Norman & Stephanie Vanamee
Photograph by Robin Blair Riley
Summer 2009
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From "Perfect Weekend - Portland, Maine"
Erik and Krista Desjarlais, the chef-owners of Evangeline and Bresca.
Where to Eat
Portland’s latest boom began in the mid-’90s when a handful of chefs abandoned familiar Maine menu items (clam chowder, lobster rolls, and steamers) and took a fresh approach to regional cuisine. At the vanguard was Sam Hayward, who converted an Old Port factory building into a cavernous dining room with an open kitchen and began serving simple preparations of seasonal local fare, such as Casco Bay mussels cooked in a wood-burning oven, and turnspit-roasted pork loin. Ubiquitous now but revolutionary at the time in Maine, the minimalist, let-the-ingredients-speak-for-themselves style at Fore Street (288 Fore St., 207-775-2717) received astonishingly good reviews from national publications and suddenly Portland became a culinary destination. Next came Hugo’s (88 Middle St., 207-774-8538), where Rob Evans adopted a more technique-driven approach: A recent menu included Atlantic flounder and Maine shrimp en croute. Then Steve Corry opened 555 (555 Congress St., 207-761-0555), a two-story restaurant with an attached cocktail lounge. The James Beard Foundation named Hayward Best Chef in the Northeast in 2004 – and Evans in 2009. In 2007, Corry was included in Food & Wine’s annual list of Best New Chefs.
Along with accolades, these restaurants have drawn epicureans from all over the Northeast – allowing a second, equally compelling wave of smaller, less-polished restaurants to flourish. Ranging in size from a spot with a few counter seats to a full dining room, these establishments are scattered in odd corners of the city and often reflect the passion of their owners. There’s Lisa Vaccaro and Abby Harmon’s Caiola’s, a snug neighborhood joint on Pine Street, and Paciarino, an Italian spot run by two recent arrivals from Milan. Bresca and Evangeline are two of the best in this category: They each got their start through an adventuresome chef, Krista Kern and Erik Desjarlais, respectively, who met and fell in love while eating at the other’s restaurant.
In a narrow, one-story Old Port building, Bresca (111 Middle St., 207-772-1004) has 20 seats, including four stools at a bar. The chef and owner Krista (now) Desjarlais works with a sous chef in a closet-size kitchen with just six burners, a Salamander broiler, and no walk-in fridge. Meals in the small dining room are intensely, sometimes awkwardly, intimate. Everybody hears everyone’s order. Service gets backed up. But right when things begin to feel tight, one of Krista’s brilliant, Mediterranean-themed dishes appears – say, braised black kale and pancetta topped with a trembling soft-boiled egg – and a gratified hush falls on the room.
“Portlanders are really supportive,” says Krista, who has worked at top kitchens in New York, Las Vegas, and Paris. “I always knew I wanted to open my own place. And I knew that this city had the kind of community that would support what I wanted to do.”
Her husband, Erik, was 26 when he descended on the Portland dining scene with a flurry of French technique and big ideas. In 2003, he opened his first restaurant, Bandol, which offered an ambitious, don’t-ask-for-any-substitutions menu heavy on organ meats. It won him rave reviews and a small devoted following, but not much commercial success. “The city wasn’t ready for the prix-fixe menu,” says Erik, who kept the place going for three years. After closing Bandol, he spent a year regrouping (and falling for Krista, whom he first met when she looked at his space as a possible location for Bresca) and then opened Evangeline (190 State St., 207/791-2800), a 38-seat bistro facing Longfellow Square. Here Erik focuses more on winning over customers than his own agenda. The result is a carefully measured push and pull. The menu includes crowd pleasers, such as chicken breast wrapped in bacon, but also left-fielders like flash-fried glass eels and crispy sweetbreads. “There weren’t a lot of brains being served in Portland when I started,” he says. “But people tried it, and now it’s our most popular dish.”
On Monday nights, Krista joins him at Evangeline where the pair prepares a three-course menu for $25. “Even though we run our own restaurants, we’re good in the kitchen together,” she says. “We can cook a whole night without having to say a word.”
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