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NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR: Too Much Limoncello Gets Danny DeVito a New Product
by John Mariani

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Up in Maine: Oakland House Seaside Resort
By Naomi R. Kooker

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There’s a place where you can go where the ocean is like a lake, a lake as clear and as smooth as glass, the night sky so dark the stars and moon the only navigators (unless you have a flashlight), the food sumptuous, and the only thing for you to do is read, sleep, take walks, hike, kayak, and sit and watch the sun fade into a salmon-colored sky.
     A five-hour drive from Boston brings you to Oakland House Seaside Resort in Brooksville, Maine, a 50-acre compound along the edge of Eggomogin Reach in Penobscot Bay. There are two main buildings: Oakland House, which dates back to the late 1770s, with the latest addition built in the late1880s, and Shore Oaks Seaside Inn, a 1907 Arts & Crafts-style inn (below, left).
    The property has been in the same family for eight generations and is run by Jim and Sally Littlefield. Jim is a trained engineer and eminent story teller, Sally has a background in industrial design. The family history is important here because the continuity and care of the place trickles down to the staff that is friendly, warm and helpful.  Jim’s daughter, Sally McGuigan and her husband, Sean McGuigan, are learning the ropes to take over and make it a ninth-generation owned-and-operated property.
    The landscape is all Mother Nature, with a few innkeeper’s touches, such as a gorgeous wild flower and herb garden alongside Oakland House. A small gazebo jets out into the water from the shores near Shore Oaks. Fifteen cottages (right) are tucked in the woods, though many of them overlook the ocean . They have wood-burning fireplaces (except for one, which is gas), bedrooms, living rooms; some have kitchenettes, some full kitchens.

    While Oakland House is relegated to housing the 35-some staff, the inn’s administrative offices and the dining rooms, Shore Oaks inn or the cottages are havens for weekend or week-long getaways. The inn has 10 guest rooms, each carrying a distinctive charm. Mission-style furniture, Art Deco lamps and high, cushy beds that lull you into a completely restful sleep mark each individual room decorated by Sally. Her love and knowledge of the Arts & Crafts time period, which was a deliberate back-to-simple-and-functional backlash against the overwrought Victorian age, shows in the care and details of each room.
      Room No. 6 – a corner room on the second floor that overlooks the ocean, welcomes the shore breezes and the sunset, and has a fireplace – is easily the most romantic. (Some argue it’s No. 7, which is bigger and also has a fireplace.) White sheer curtains, white wicker furniture, an embroidered white coverlet grace the room with a clean airiness. Some of the rooms have a private bath, some are shared. Rooms No. 1, 5 and 8 have deep, soaking bathtubs.
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Old books and games fill a small library; the living room rallies around a stone fireplace. There’s a small dining room where guests eat breakfast on the off seasons; but everyone takes dinner at Oakland House, the place where Jim’s family began the legacy. The dining rooms (below) are an enchanting labyrinth of rooms separated by glass doors and windows overlooking the gardens. One or two dining rooms are reserved for families with small children. On our first evening our hostess seats us at our own table, which will be ours for the duration of the stay. From then on we sat ourselves between 6 and 7:45 p.m. Single white tapered candles – the only place candles are allowed – set the rooms aglow.
Woody Clark, the executive chef of seven years, manages to change the menu every evening and yet maintain the same standard of creativity and quality not commonly found this far in the middle of nowhere. Instead of the rustic, utilitarian fare one might expect, Clark’s is refined if not sensually rendered. He snips herbs and nasturtiums in the garden before service. He uses the fruits of the sea, peekytoe crab and lobster, of course, which are plentiful in these parts. (Peekytoe, by the way, comes from “pick-ed toe”, which means pointed toe in Maine slang, referring to the crab’s leg that has a sharp point that turns inward.) The peekytoe crab cakes as an appetizer are plump with sweet crab meat and enhanced with the zest of a lemony aïoli. We are smitten with the depth of the stock used for his soups, such as the curry pumpkin soup garnished with coconut milk reduction. His short ribs echo the dry rub of an expert Texan, his home state; a pristine salmon filet is cooked just until done. bbbbbb

   Oakland House does have a beer and wine license. The beers are mostly microbrews, such as Bar Harbor’s Atlantic Brewing Company’s blueberry ale. The wine list is a dependable selection that includes Toad Hollow Pinot Noir rosé, Frog’s Leap Zinfandel and Foppiano Petit Syrah, with prices ranging from $18 to $75 a bottle.
     Breakfast is a full, hot buffet served in Oakland House. But because my guest and I visited on the off-season, we are served breakfast à la carte in the Shore Oaks’ dining room. The blueberry pancakes are delicious and full of tiny wild Maine blueberries; the plain ones one morning were a bit overdone, so we happily stuck to the homemade blueberry muffins. In the sampler, eggs are done the way you’d like, and served with sausage or bacon and pancakes.
     Breakfast and dinner (all five courses) are included in the overnight prices, except in the off-season. With prior notice at dinner a boxed lunch can be ready the next day, otherwise you’re on your own. Thursday nights the staff puts on an extravagant lobster bake by the shore – included in the meal plan.
     Jim says to watch for seals that often come into the Reach. We mistake bobbing lobster traps in the dusk for what could be seals’ heads. At Shore Oaks we sit in Adirondack chairs on the small slope of grass. We test the rockers on the porch, reading into the afternoon. There are trails to walk and a nearby lake that’s a tad bit warmer than the icy Atlantic to swim.
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One day we go sea kayaking. Local companies, such as Old Quarry Ocean Adventures in Stonington, ME, (207-367-8977, www.oldquarry.com), deliver the kayaks to you at Oakland House and pick them up when you’re done. We pack a fat turkey and cheese sandwich with the works from Ovenworks (37 Water St., Blue Hill, ME, 207-374-5775), a small sandwich shop that makes its own crusty loafs for sandwiches. It was a delicious picnic on a big sunny rock en route to South Brooksville. You can also kayak to Bucks Harbor, which is in South Brooksville, and shop at the market for provisions.

There’s nearby Blue Hill with all its artist and pottery galleries and quaint shops. Acadia National Park is an hour away. But there’s no reason to leave Oakland House; once you get a taste of the salty fresh air and peace of the place, it’s hard to leave its grounds.

Oakland House Seaside Resort, 435 Herrick Road, Herricks Landing, Brooksville, Maine, 800-359-RELAX or 207-359-8521, www.oaklandhouse.com. Prices range from $370 to $770 per couple for two nights, incl. breakfast and 5-course dinner, depending on season. A 7-night stay for a family of four in a cottage ranges from $2,835 to $5,500, incl. breakfast and 5-course dinner; a cottage in the off-season, early spring and fall, no meals included, starts at $475 for a week. Two cottages remain open year-round.

NEW YORK CORNER
by John Mariani

DEL POSTO eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

85 Tenth Avenue
212-497-8090
www.delposto.com

Avid readers of the Virtual Gourmet may have wondered why, after 18 months, I have not yet reviewed Del Posto in Chelsea, one of the most publicized restaurants opening in 2005, and one whose owners are among the brightest lights in New York gastronomy--Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, her son Joseph Bastianich, and TV chef Mario Batali. It wasn't for lack of interest. Upon its debut the lavish expenditure of money on Del Posto--at least $12 million--for design, kitchen, winelist, and tablesettings was immediately obvious, and the pre-opening buzz, complete with a front page food section article in the Times, was enormous.
"I hate to use the word fancy and I hate to use the word luxury, but it's going to be a fancy luxury restaurant," Batali told the Times. "The last thing I want is the lemmings in their Chanel miniskirts waiting three deep at the bar to have a cosmopolitan." Del Posto was going to be a serious Italian ristorante--with a $240 rack of veal, a $220 shoulder of pork, and a $200 whole king salmon to be carved tableside. There would be artisanal chocolates and Lidia would be making zabaglione in a copper pot in full view of guests.
Then, upon opening, a battle with the owner of the building (a former cookie factory) flared into the newspapers and blogs, dragging on for months of bitter give-and-take. Meanwhile, Batali and Joseph Bastianich were in the midst of planning to open two restaurants in Los Angeles (one, Mozza, has opened) and two in Las Vegas (one recently did). And then. . . everyone waited for the reviewers: Many were lukewarm, accusing Del Posto of overreaching and exorbitance; others didn't think the food was very Italian; The Times' Frank Bruni gave the restaurant three stars out of four, and the Michelin Guide gave it two out of three. Del Posto's owners had hoped for better.
My own response to initial visits in the first three months of operation was to take a wait-and-see attitude. Clearly, despite its lavishness, its pillared, marbled, wrought-iron grandeur, and its exquisite tablesettings, Del Posto had a certain theatricality but seemed rather stiff; the food was good, sometimes excellent, but sometimes bewilderingly dull. Batali was sometimes on the premises, decked out in his usual delicatessen wardrobe of shorts and orange sneakers, but he left all the cooking to exec chef Mark Ladner (right), while Joe Bastianich stayed close as much as possible to get things right. Consultants and cooks came and went, as did the $240 rack of veal and other high-priced items. Everyone complained about the portion sizes, which have incrementally increased. 333tt

      To my mind Lidia Bastianich's 20-year-old Felidia, on the upper east side, is a better, certainly more congenial Italian restaurant, while Joe and Mario have kept Babbo full for good reason since opening seven years ago with the kind of gusto that marked the early Batali style. Then there is the lovable trattoria Lupa, the trailblazing seafood restaurant Esca, the family-style Becco in the Theater District, the high-earning Otto pizzeria, and the tapas-inflected Bar Jamon and Casa Mono. With all those and new projects on their plate, just how much time and personalized touches the owners could put into Del Posto seemed a legitimate question.
       I'm happy to report, then, that over the past year Del Posto has evolved into a stellar restaurant and probably very close to what the owners originally envisioned for this oceanliner-like dining salon. Subtle modifications have made it a warmer, more comfortable place, and the menus, though still high in price, deliver in terms of refined cuisine that manages to balance the simplicity of Italian tradition with just enough flair to make it special and individualized.
      The cotechino sausage, once bland, now has spice and seasonings, sliced at the table and served with lentils that have a good shot of vinegar to them. As has become the case at all Batali-Bastianich restaurants, the selection of salami and sausages is excellent, here served with asparagus pickles. Taking a cue from Esca, there is yellowfin and tail "SUSCI," with radish, fennel, snowpeas and violets, while a cacciucco stew is full of fresh seafood, served with toasted fregola.
      For pastas the spaghetti with crab and lemon is now a wonderfully flavorful dish, and the only thing wrong with the tiny agnolotti dal pin in a rich Parmigiano broth with truffle butter is that I can never get enough of them. White corn crespelle with spinach pesto, lemon zest, and robiola cheese was curiously without much spark. Not so the pumpkin cappellacci with almond milk and black truffles--one of those dishes that lifts Del Posto well above most Italian restaurants in New York, even if the dish is seemingly un-Italian. Chestnut raviolini with partridge ragù and myrtle are good, as are the green garganelli with a ragù bolognese.
      ggwe

Fish have underwhelmed me, especially a Dover sole whose sauce was viscous. Better, though far from exciting, was a roasted turbot with morels and thyme, sauced with a reduction of sangiovese wine. Meat dishes range from a homey but very tasty turkey alla cacciatora made with a condiment of cockscombs and chicken livers called cibreo, and roast loin of pork is delicious, served with cardoons, celery, and an artichoke cassola.
       There is an excellent selection of cheeses here and, on a 1,200-selection winelist, plenty to drink them with. They still have the rich. decadent artisanal chocolates and, if Lidia is in, she'll still whip up the golden, Marsala-laced zabaglione from scratch. Otherwise desserts are fairly simple in presentation but beautifully thought through, whether traditional, like the gianduia with caramelized pears and whipped cream or the chocolate tart with orange buttermilk gelato and a cardomon foam.
         Del Posto is now among New York's top fine dining rooms, and if the Bastianiches and Batali can continue to devote their time and attention to food and service, it should continue to ascend in the culinary firmament. A caveat, therefore, is in order: On a recent Sunday evening my table of five experienced what I call the "Sunday Night Syndrome," when everything at a restaurant seems to slide by a good 20 percent, perhaps because none of the staff has much enthusiasm on Sunday, when many restaurants are closed for good reason. That evening the hostess refused to sit three of the party, even though they arrived early, until the other two arrived. Wine service took far longer than it should, and, most serious of all, most of the dishes were heavily oversalted to the point of the main ingredients losing their flavor.
      I do not know if Mark Ladner was off that night, but neither he nor the Bastianiches was on the premises. Batali has long insisted that there's little reason for him to be so frequently at his restaurants--how could he be?--but it was clear that night that someone should have been there to crack the whip.

      Del Posto is open daily for lunch and dinner. Appetizers at dinner run $15-$23, pastas $17-$26, and main courses $27-$42, with tasting menu options.

NOTES FROM THE WINE (and Spirits) CELLAR

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Too Much Limoncello Gets
Danny DeVito a New Product

by John Mariani

"Staircase in Anacapri" (2005) by Galina Stepanoff-Dargery

When actor Danny DeVito showed up slurringly hung over last November on the TV show “The View” (below), he explained that he’d been out late the night before with pal George Clooney at Scalinatella restaurant in New York: "I knew it was the last seven limoncellos that was going to get me."
Ba-da-bing! A new product was born! DeVito, who says he puts his name on "every single thing I do," signed with Harbrew Imports, Ltd. Of Freeport, NY, to market Danny DeVito’s Premium Limoncello, a lemon-flavored spirit made in Sorrento,

Italy

.
At a July launch party DeVito, who pronounces the beverage “lemon-cello,” says that after his appearance on “The View” (click here to watch it) people started sending him bottles and cases of limoncello. The widely reported incident—and DeVito’s comic confessional—sounded like the best kind of hype for a sweet milky-yellow liqueur that has been gaining popularity in the U.S., principally in Italian restaurants. Harbrew’s CEO Richard DeCicco, who knew DeVito before his “View” appearance, contacted the actor and saw a natural fit, saying, "We're thrilled to partner with Danny to develop an exquisite Limoncello that's truly worthy of bearing his name. He's a beloved entertainer with a refined palate and a taste for the good life, and this spirit suits his spirit perfectly.”
DeVito’s is not the first celebrity name Harbrew has affixed to its products: They also market Bench 5 Scotch (“specially bottled for Johnny Bench”) and Duke Ellington Cognac. gy7u

      DeVito’s Premium Limoncello will be in stores mid-August at a retail price of $24.99. Harbrew will distribute in New York, with distributors signed up in other states. According to Harbrew consultant Carmine Valle in a phone interview, they are producing a million bottles, all of which will be imported to the U.S.
     Limoncello is a liqueur most associated with its original source of production, the Amalfi Coast and, more specifically, the isle of Capri. I recall the first time I saw and tasted it some ten years ago while walking along the Via Tiberio on Capri, lined with outdoor stands selling ceramics, scarves, and souvenirs, along with offering little glasses of this bright yellow, cloudy cordial, served ice cold. I was hooked on the first sip.
      After that I enjoyed a small glass after every meal on the Amalfi Coast, and I’ve ordered it in Italian restaurants in the U.S. and have it occasionally after dinner at home.
      Limoncello has a distinctive, clean taste of lemon—the lemons of the area are considered some of the best in Italy—a pleasant sweetness, and a slight burn on the back of the palate.
      The spirit is pretty simple to make. You take lemon rinds, a sugar solution, water, and pure alcohol, and steep it for as long as you wish to balance the flavors. Sometimes grappa is used as the alcohol base. The final alcohol content is about 32 percent. The worst commercially produced limoncellos tend to be viscously sweet and cloying and have a bad burn of alcohol.
     Despite DeVito’s contention that he grew up drinking limoncello in his Italian-American family, you would have been hard put to find a single bottle of limoncello in the U.S. even ten years ago. But now there are perhaps a score of brands available, not all made along the Amalfi coast, some not even in Italy. There are also now variations like orancello, made with orange peel, hitting the market.
      Vincenzo Canale, a hotelier on Capri, claims to have first served her guest the liqueur and patented the name Limoncello di Capri S.r.L. in 1988. There is now a Sorrento Lemon I.G. P. (protected geographical indication) that sets rules about the use of Sorrento lemons, cultivated by the Solagri cooperative of about 200 farmers, and forbids the addition of color, stabilizers and flavorings.
     I tried several limoncellos currently in the market and found that the Capri or Sorrento examples, like CapriNatura ($23) have more complexity and tend to be less sweet than some of those “Made with Sicilian Lemons” like

Lemoncello [sic] Pellegrino ($22). The lemons of Capri and the Amalfi coast are large and have thick skins rich in the oils that impart flavor. Harbrew contends that DeVito’s limoncello is made with lemons from the protected area and the producer is the president of the consortium. I liked the good burn of the DeVito product, though it was a little sweet to my taste. I think it would make a excellent cocktail with a jigger or two of Campari or sweet vermouth.

By the way, the website for DeVito’s limoncello even has an Italian song to go with the product (click here), although this is not the first time the liqueur has been the subject of pop music. Earlier this year singer Avril Lavigne (right) gave interviews claiming her song "I Can Do Better" was written after consuming half a bottle of limoncello and contains the lyrics, “I will drink as much Limoncello as I can/And I'll do it again and again/I don't really care what you have to say/'Cause you know - you know you're nothing.”

Sounds like a new limoncello just waiting to take wing.

John Mariani's weekly wine column appears in Bloomberg Muse News, from which this story was adapted. Bloomberg News covers Culture from art, books, and theater to wine, travel, and food on a daily basis, and some of its articles play of the Saturday Bloomberg Radio and TV.

MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John Mariani. Contributing Writers: Robert Mariani, Naomi Kooker, Kirsten Skogerson, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein, Suzanne Wright. Contributing Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery, Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.

John Mariani is a columnist for Esquire, Wine Spectator, Bloomberg News and Radio, and Diversion. He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink (Lebhar-Friedman), The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink (Broadway), and, with his wife Galina, the award-winning Italian-American Cookbook (Harvard Common Press).

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