Weekender Favorites: Martinis and Hot Dogs at Room for Improvement
The new Portland, Maine bar focuses on the classics while serving a can't-resist dog.
In Today’s Newsletter
Weekender Favorites: With red snapper hot dogs and excellent cocktails, Room for Improvement is one of our top new bars.
On The Road: When driving through Ohio, we always make a stop for burgers and malts at this Cleveland institution.
Weekend Reading List: Stories from Alabama, Montana, and New York plus a reflection on Jimmy Buffett (and a margarita recipe).
The Order: The “secret chicken” menu at a Portland, Maine newcomer is perfect for adventurous eaters.
Featured Field Guide: How to download your complimentary copy of our digital dining guide to Portland, Maine.
Old Port’s Laid-Back New Cocktail Bar
PORTLAND, MAINE — When we visited Portland a couple years back, we went to Crispy Gai for dinner. The food was great, but the cocktails from bar manager Arvid Brown wow-ed us. Mini pineapple-lime leaf daiquiris. A tom kha-inspired drink with rum, galangal, and ginger. A fruity shaken cocktail with guava, lemongrass-lime cordial, and local Bimini coconut gin. All were well-balanced with a fresh perspective and interesting flavor combinations, and we left knowing that Brown was one of the city’s best bartenders. When I saw that he opened Room for Improvement in April with Nick Coffin, it shot up to the top of my list for our trip last month.
It’s even better than I had anticipated. The menu focuses on classics with a gentle twist (my preferred approach to cocktail making). The martini is my favorite — it includes apricot for some stone fruit notes. The cosmopolitan has a blend of curaçaos as well as “Cranpari,” a Campari-cranberry cordial that adds bitterness. I don’t typically drink dirty martinis, but this one is pre-batched and frozen and made with vodka, manzanilla sherry, and Castelvetrano brine. It’s great. There’s a daiquiri section (Brown is so good at this cocktail), and the nuclear version has overproof Jamaican rum, Génépy, and falernum. Over two visits, we tried nearly all the drinks in the “Play the Hits” category, as well as the daiquiris; a contemporary update on the mind eraser with layers of vodka, amaro, and Allen’s Coffee Brandy; and the Peño Colada with jalapeño and ginger.
Room for Improvement stands out from most drinking spots in the Old Port. It’s dark and divey with low, wood-beamed ceilings, brick walls, neon signs, and vintage liquor posters. So while it feels like the perfect spot to wrap up your evening with a nightcap, I propose you go when it opens at 5pm. That’s because there’s a tight food menu that includes red snapper hot dogs, a classic Maine food. You should sneak one in before your dinner reservation.
The team uses Rice’s brand red snappers (which are made and sold through a former competitor, W.A. Bean & Sons; yes, the history between Rice and Bean is just as convoluted as you were hoping), natural casing beef and pork links that are a vibrant red (it’s just dye, a lasting marketing gimmick). They’re super flavorful and served on buns made for the bar by Little Spruce Baking Co., and dressed with your choice of condiments like yellow mustard (good); cheddar whiz, local Little Brother’s chili crisp, and fried onions (very good); or local Morse’s Sauerkraut and a housemade mustard sauce (excellent). Get a red snapper, order a martini, and then, like us, go back and do it again the next night. 41 Wharf St, Portland, ME 04101
Galley Boy Crazy
CLEVELAND, OHIO — When we drive from the Midwest to the East Coast, our route most often takes us through Ohio, and we’ve started timing our trips so we’re in the Cleveland area for a late lunch. There are some great places to eat and drink in Cleveland (we’ll be sharing some soon!), but there’s one that’s perfectly primed to be a road trip lunch stop — Swensons Drive-In.
You’ll find locations of Swensons, which first opened in 1934, scattered around Ohio (including Columbus, Cincinnati, and Youngstown, as well as a new location in Avon, Indiana), but most are in the greater Cleveland area. The restaurants are drive-ins, so a car hop will come to the car to take your order. The menu includes a variety of burgers and sandwiches, but the order is the signature Galley Boy burger, which comes with two patties, a slice of cheese between them, and two sauces. Those sauces are secret, but they’re similar to tartar sauce and barbecue sauce, which give the burger a tangy-sweet profile. It’s speared with a single pimento-stuffed manzanilla olive, so it looks like something out of a 1950s dinner party. It’s completely adorable and also delicious.
All kinds of fried items are available to get alongside your burger, and Clevelanders have their favorites. We like the “potato teezers,” croquettes made with potato, cheese, and jalapeños, but fried mushrooms and onion rings are also on offer. There’s an extensive list of milkshakes as well as a seasonal offering, but our go-to is the vanilla mint malt, an excellent tip from AW reader Rebecca Skoch. Have a favorite spot that’s perfect for a road trip lunch? Let us know in the comments!
When the Coast is Clear: Beach season isn’t over yet, and the Wall Street Journal has some suggestions for a great trip to Alabama’s Gulf Coast. Writer Caleb Johnson found local IPAs, peel-and-eat Gulf shrimp, fried grouper sandwiches, and the requisite bushwhacker at a local dive.
That Night in Montana: In The New York Times, Janie Osborne shares some photos from a three-day road trip along U.S. Highway 2 in Montana. I could go for a root beer float at Joe’s In & Out.
In The Shelter: For day-trippers in New York City, Ivette Manners explores Shelter Island for Condé Nast Traveler. The 29-square-mile island known for its beaches and bikeable roads has some new wineries and restaurants, including one led by a James Beard Award-winning chef.
So Far But Yet So Near: Meanwhile, Heather Clawson visits nearby Sag Harbor for the Substack newsletter
. While we aren’t ready for summer to end just yet, she says it’s the perfect place for a picturesque fall weekend getaway.Words to Make You Happy, Words to Make You Cry: In his Substack newsletter,
, Jason Wilson reflects on Jimmy Buffett and the hard-drinking, adventure-seeking image he cultivated in his younger years. I was introduced to Buffett by my dad, who one day brought home a CD box set of his music, back when such things existed. As a teen, I gravitated toward the hits — upbeat beach tunes that lent a good soundtrack to summers on the Carolina coast. Now, as I join other closeted Parrotheads paying tribute to the late songwriter, I’ve realized that it’s the more melancholy corners of his catalog that I’m drawn to most. Jason’s essay speaks to that. Goodnight, Jimmy.— Compiled by Kenney Marlatt
A Secret Menu to Seek Out
PORTLAND, MAINE — When traveling, we like to chat with local bartenders about our dining and drinking itineraries to make sure that the places we picked are worth our time and to see if there’s anything great in town that we missed. When we told a few Portland bartenders that we were heading to dinner at Bar Futo, a new Japanese restaurant centered around skewers off a binchotan grill, they told us to not miss the “Secret Chicken” menu.
The menu, from Jordan Rubin (Mr. Tuna, Crispy Gai) and chef Ian Driscoll, is not completely secret since it’s included in the menu you receive. But the daily specials list is paper clipped over it so it’s easily missed, and it’s not listed online. The “Secret Chicken” menu features skewered selections of limited parts like the wing, skin, and oyster, but also weirder things like the shoulder and achilles. My favorite was the bonjiri, which comes from the tail and is fatty and juicy. A few of these chicken skewers, plus the crispy miso eggplant, cucumber salad with horseradish ranch and trout roe, and Big Mac skewers (grilled beef meatball and onion skewers dressed with special sauce, sesame seeds, and shredded lettuce), made for a great meal. 425 Fore St, Portland, ME 04101
Bar Futo is just one of our favorite spots in Portland. During the month of September, paid subscribers can get all our picks for the city in our Portland Field Guide for free! Our digital dining guides are formatted for your phone and are the perfect companion on your next road trip. Head over to our website and use the promo code LOBSTERROLL when you download the guide.
We’ll be back next week. Want more from American Weekender? Follow us on Instagram @americanweekender.
