I Lived in NYC for a Decade however the Pizza I Dream About Is in Maine

I lived in New York Metropolis for a decade, however the pizza I dream about isn’t within the 5 boroughs, it’s in Maine. Sure, Maine.

And never in Portland, the northern state’s metropolis that has been having fun with a wealthy culinary renaissance. The pizza that haunts my goals is in part of the state Mainers check with as “Down East,” in a rural neighborhood on the Blue Hill Peninsula known as Brooksville, inhabitants 923. For over a decade, Tinder Fireside has been a vacation spot unto itself, serving recent, seasonal pizzas to those that make the trek to its hidden nook of the world, and it’s what I take into consideration all winter lengthy. 

Those that have been fortunate sufficient to eat at Tinder Fireside are inclined to get a bit misty across the eyes after they speak about its charms. Sourdough pizzas, made with the freshest native substances, and baked in a Quebec-style clay oven, are served on mismatched dishes collected at native thrift shops and donated by neighbors. Dozens of picnic tables are unfold throughout a multi-acre backyard surrounded by vegetable and flower beds abutting farm fields and meadows. A chicken’s eye view would present you a mowed postage stamp of grass within the wild panorama of Maine bordered by the Penobscot Bay not too distant. 

The magic of Tinder Fireside is the alchemy of Tim Semler and Lydia Moffet, husband and spouse Mainers who started their enterprise by promoting do-it-yourself sourdough bread at native farmers markets and retailers. Ultimately they began making sourdough pizzas for occasions across the space, and in 2012 they remodeled the grounds of Semler’s childhood residence into an informal al fresco restaurant.

Information unfold domestically in Brooksville and the encircling Blue Hill Peninsula, an space with deep ties to the farm-to-table motion, and in the present day Tinder Fireside serves upward of 300 folks per evening in the course of the quick excessive summer time season of July and August. “It wasn’t that we got down to make the most effective pizza on this planet,” Semler says. “You attempt to do your greatest with the supplies you’ve, and we’re actually fortunate to be in a spot the place there’s simply actually nice farmers round.” 

Inclusion on the 2023 New York Instances’ Restaurant Listing introduced in folks from farther away within the state and “from away.” But regardless of their growing recognition, Tinder Fireside’s distant location—about half an hour from the closest inn or motel—has reigned within the reputation, barely. Whereas the Blue Hill Peninsula sees nowhere close to as many vacationers as elsewhere within the state, akin to Kennebunkport of Acadia Nationwide Park, like a lot of coastal Maine, Brooksville’s inhabitants swells within the summertime. 

Those that make the trek to the agricultural restaurant have a small choice to select from—there’s a meat pie, a veggie pie, and a particular, all depending on what the world farmers and purveyors have advised Tim and Lydia they’ve recent that week. The produce shapes the menu, which at all times additionally consists of salads, freshly shucked oysters from Deer Isle Oyster Firm, wine, and ice cream.

Reservations go dwell as soon as per week, on Monday mornings, and e-book up virtually immediately. These searching for a barely quieter expertise, which doesn’t contain Olympic-level efforts to attain a reservation, would possibly go to within the shoulder season of June and September and even within the winter after they serve pizza as soon as per week on Friday and breakfast pastries twice per week on Wednesday and Saturday. 

“One of many issues I actually love about pizza, particularly, is that you do not have to clarify to anyone what pizza is,” Semler says. “All completely different sorts of individuals are actually passionate and obsessive about pizza.” 

And it seems numerous them are prepared to journey for it.