The Harstone Inn is excited to be participating in Maine Restaurant Week for the third year in a row!

What is restaurant week?

“Simply put, a restaurant week is a celebration of the culinary talents of area restaurants. During restaurant week, restaurants offer specially priced three-course menus. Chefs work hard year round to take care of their customers. During restaurant weeks, they go above and beyond. The concept originated in New York City in the early nineties and caught on in Maine in 2009.”

Hartstone Inn Restaurant Week Dinner Menu

$30 per person

In the Spring Cake Decorating Class, students will learn to make and color a variety of beautiful edible sugar flowers such as hydrangeas, triple layer gardenias and daffodils. In addition, each individual will be provided with a tray of full of completed sugar flowers and a fresh cake that has been finished with buttercream icing and covered in rolled fondant. Everyone will decorate each of their cakes with a variety of sugar flowers while learning how to attach sugar flowers to cakes, cupcakes, cookies and just about any type of baked goods. In addition to taking home their completed cakes and flowers, everyone will bring home a folder with simple to follow instructions, a vendor supply list and recipes will be provided to each individual making it simple for them to be able to make these at home. These sugar paste flowers can be made ahead of time and kept in sealed containers for months at a time making it convenient to use them as needed. This will be a fun and casual class and no experience at all is required!  Weekend cooking class packages are $352 – $542 and include two nights lodging, breakfast each morning, afternoon cookies and tea, a gourmet candlelit dinner for two and enrollment for one in the cooking class.  Enrollment for the class alone is $65 per person.

We are excited to be part of this unique event!  For the adventurous foodie, the Camden Gourmet Adventure features two fabulous courses in two different restaurants and an after party with desserts, live music and dancing hosted by Cellardoor Winery and Megunticook Market at the Winery. The four participating restaurants are 40 Paper, Francine Bistro, Hartstone Inn and Natalie’s. Here’s the hook. Four excellent restaurants are involved, but guests will dine at only two. You won’t know where you’re eating (or what culinary surprises await) until you are delivered to the door of the restaurant!  

Guests of the event are asked to park/meet in the Camden Harbor Landing parking lot. You will be delivered to the restaurants, then to Cellardoor Winery, and then back to the lot.

Tickets cost $79 per person and are inclusive of transportation, dinner, tax, gratuity and the after-party. If you are part of a group please purchase your tickets as a group, we will do our best to keep you together.

To perfect the menus for the evening the chefs need to know of food allergies and intense food dislikes. Two quick questions about allergies and dislikes are included in the ticket order process.

It’s going to be a dining adventure like no other event in Maine, and it’s all thanks to the creative minds at the restaurants, Megunticook Market and Cellardoor Winery.

Find more information or purchase tickets here.

The Rockland Yacht Club will host Maine fisherman and author Linda Greenlaw on February 5, 2012 at 1pm.   The event will be held at the Owls Head Transportation Museum and is open to the public at no charge.  Following the speaking engagement in which Greenlaw will be discussing her new book “Seaworthy”, there will be a book signing.  Copies of both her new book and her cookbook “Maine Summers Cookbook” will be available to purchase.  Attendees are also invited to bring their own books to the signing,

Greenlaw is the only female sword fishing captain in America and is featured in the hit Discovery Channel series “Swords.”  Greenlaw first came to the public’s attention in Sebastian Junger’s book, ” The Perfect Storm”, where Junger called her “one of the best captains … on the entire east coast.”  She is also author of three New York Times bestselling books about life as a commercial fisherman. In 2003, she won the U.S. Maritime Literature Award and also was winner of the New England Book Award for nonfiction in 2004.

Complimentary snacks and beverages will be available during the book signing.

Below is the 2012 class schedule.  Any one of these classes can be added on to our Gourmet Getaway Package to add some extra fun to your time away!  Not interested in baking?  Cooking classes are offered too!

February 5^th – Valentine Sugar Cookies: Learn to make sugar dough & create beautiful holiday cookies.

February 12th – Chocolate Mousse Cake:  Make and bake a chocolate cake and fill/frost it with chocolate mousse. Fun chocolate decorations will be made to decorate your cake! Just in time for valentines day!

February 18^th – Hors d’oeuvres – Hot & Cold: For the people that like to entertain and are tired of cheese and crackers.

February 26th – Pizza: Learn to make different pizza dough’s with lots of topping ideas. Great affordable ideas to make with the whole family!

March 1st – Rolled Fondant: Learn to cover a cake with this edible clay. You’ll be shown different techniques. (All the cakes Steve created on the food network challenges were covered in fondant)

April 1st – Basic Cake Decorating: Learn to put buttercream on a cake like a professional and decorate with different ideas shown in class. Additional $15.00 charge for take home pastry bags and tips.

April 15th – Fun with Pies: Cream pie, chiffon, meringue, lattice, custard, 2 crust and different pie shell options.

April 29th – Sugar Cookies: Make and decorate your own cookies. Over 500 cutters to choose from. Each person will get to make at least 10 cookies!

All classes are limited to 10 people and are hands on!  Must be 12 years of age or older must bring your own rolling pin and apron if class requires. Classes start at 3pm and last approximately 2-3 hours.  $40 per person.

Photo credit: Maine Magazine

Our guests often ask where they can find good Thai food. Long Grain restaurant, which is located only a few doors down from the Hartstone Inn offers that and so much more.

Owners Paula Palakawong and Ravin “Bas” Nakjaroen who are from Bangkok, offer a wide range of Asian food with a Maine touch.  They incorporate seasonal Maine ingredients into traditional Asian cuisine and make nearly all their dishes from scratch.  They serve both lunch and dinner and offer a both beer and wine.  We think this restaurant is worth considering on your next trip to Camden!

View two recent press articles on Long Grain by visiting the links below.

Long Grain - Bangor Daily News March 2011

Long Grain – Maine Magazine December 2011

From their website:

“The Camden Winterfest returns for its 10th annual community celebration of winter on Saturday January 28th,2012. Presented by The Camden Public Library and the Winterfest Committee along with local sponsors.

The centerpiece of Winterfest activity remains the Community Ice Carving Event.Community members transform ordinary blocks of ice into crystaline ice sculptures using the traditional tools of the ice-carving artisan. Chef Tim Pierce of the Samoset Resort donates his time to teaching the craft of ice sculpting.

With or without snow families are encouraged to come and play. A merry band of culinary volunteers serve a variety of delicious hot soups and light snacks donated by local restaurants. Children’s crafts will be in the Picker room.The warm rotunda of the library hosts live music by All That Jazz.

The Winterfest Committee has joined with a group of ice skating enthusiasts to create, in the Camden Amphitheatre, an ice skating rink for annual free, season-long use by the community!”

Schedule of events:

12:00pm – 12:30pm Opening ceremony

12:00pm – 3:00pm Hot food and drink outside

12:30pm – to closing: Open Skate

12:00pm – 2:45pm Ice Carving

1:00pm – 3:00pm Music by All That Jazz under the Rotunda

12:00pm – 2:00pm Children’s activities in the Picker room

2:45pm – 3:00pm Closing event

We hope to have a figure skating demonstration, please check back for the time.

Your romantic two night getaway in the seaside village of Camden, Maine will start off with a romantic bottle of bubbly, a dusting of rose petals and our decadent chocolate caramels sprinkled with Maine Sea Salt. Or award winning dining room will spoil you with memorable multi-course breakfasts each morning and our five course dinner for one evening. There are so many options for your day of fun – skiing, wine tasting, tobogganing, massages….When you are ready to wind down in the late afternoon, we’ll be ready with two signature martini’s and delicious hors d’oeuvres.

Packages start at $327 per couple.

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.  
Camden Opera House

From their website:

“Save yourself a trip to New York!  You can see five Broadway stars and fifty of the greatest characters from Broadway musicals, all in one unforgettable evening!  Direct from New York, you will hear songs from the greatest Broadway musicals such as Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Jersey Boys, Chicago, Mamma Mia and Jekyll & Hyde presented by singers who sang many of these roles on Broadway, supported by an all-star New York band.”

Come to see the show and make it a weekend getaway!  Book our Hartstone Inn Bay Chamber Concerts Package which includes two nights lodging, two concert tickets, sumptuous breakfasts each morning and a five-course gourmet dinner for two.  Pricing starts at $387.