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Chase's Daily
(207) 338-0555
96 Main Street, Belfast
Hospitality-Busy, but the service is up to speed and accommodating
Open Tuesday through Saturday 7-10:30 for breakfast, 11:30-3 for lunch (2:30 off-season ), dinner Friday 5:30-8:30, brunch Sunday 8-1
Entrées $14 to $16
Reservations almost always necessary for Friday-night dinners
A beautiful vegetarian paradise (especially during harvest season) with great soups, salads, and lunch and breakfast, and Friday dinner feasts
The Chase Farm in Freedom stocks the back room of this high-ceilinged space; on my visit in August, the crates of tomatoes, baby artichokes, French filet beans, and long, snaky pale purple Japanese eggplants filled that space with their glamorous shapes and colors.
Those vegetables were on the menu in front, in the roasted eggplant sandwich ($8) with peppers, fresh greens, and walnut sauce on grilled white sourdough bread; and in the heirloom tomato salad ($9), worth every penny. The roasted escarole omelet with feta held slightly caramelized greens and liquefying tart cheese in buttery eggs, and was one of the best breakfasts I have had in years.
Some people have been known to complain about not being able to get bacon with their breakfast here. But when you can order a Swiss chard and feta omelet ($6.75) with potatoes and toast, or buttermilk pancakes with fresh blueberries ($6.25), you can postpone bacon, if not forever at least for a day.
The room is packed on Friday night for dinners of enchiladas and Middle Eastern specialties, or vegetarian tarts and baked dishes. One late summer item was an heirloom tomato tart ($16) with savory custard, Gruyère, and thyme, served with salad greens in a thyme vinaigrette.
Imagine for dessert the chocolate cake ($5) with raspberry filling and chocolate buttercream icing.
The bakery makes anadama bread, rye walnut loaves, and semolina bread, and bakes fresh ginger-cream scones and pear-almond muffins. Cheeses like Manchego from Spain and Great Hill Blue from Marion, Massachusetts, are available at the counter.
This is a place to seek out, especially in late summer and fall, and enjoy. One couple we encountered there had driven up from Portland just for lunch.