The Damariscotta River Grill (www.damariscottarivergrill.com) has been honored with two noteworthy awards that highlight the restaurant’s impressive wine offerings and tempting menu.
The restaurant earned Wine Spectator’s “2009 Award of Excellence,” as announced in the magazine’s August issue. The award “recognizes restaurants whose wine lists offer interesting selections, are appropriate to the cuisine and appeal to a wide range of wine lovers.”
For the second year in a row, the Damariscotta River Grill also was awarded a special designation in the “affordability class,” which acknowledges not only the diversity of the wine list, but also its economical pricing options for patrons.
The Wine Spectator Award of Excellence is significant in light of the grill’s popular Wine Club and wine dinner events. The grill hosts regular wine dinners throughout the year that draw a very social Maine crowd and that focus on different varieties and origins of wines.
Designed for Wine Club members and visitors interested in the wine world, the evenings are filled with exploration and discovery as the grill welcomes knowledgeable presenters and showcases unusual or new and notable wines. The wine selections are complemented by Chef Rick Hirsch’s several-course tasting menus, which are specifically designed to best reflect the wines’ countries and topography.
In other news, the grill also was recently voted “Best Brunch in the Northeast” by readers of TastyThoughts (http://www.tastythoughts.info/), a food/cooking/restaurant website that focuses on regional offerings.
The site sought out inventive and appetizing brunches from all over the Northeast and selected five finalists based on what makes them unique and delicious. TastyThoughts then asked readers to vote for their favorite brunch, and Damariscotta River Grill’s diverse menu, fresh seafood offerings, and commitment to sourcing locally grown, harvested and produced ingredients, earned it the “blue ribbon.”
Owned and operated by husband-and-wife team Executive Chef Rick Hirsch and General Manager Jean Kerrigan, Damariscotta River Grill enjoys a first-rate reputation for its exceptional cuisine and wine offerings.