Lovely weather and lighter crowds make late autumn the perfect time to visit Maine’s Chebeague Island Inn.
By Ian Aldrich
Oct 16 2015
The Inn’s famously long porch, evening home to some of the finest sunset views in New England.
Photo Credit : Chebeague Island InnIsland getaways can be ideal escapes. That’s because they require effort. There’s the car, then a bus ride, followed by a boat, then a shuttle. It’s not simply a matter of putting in a few hours on the interstate. It’s an investment of time. But that investment yields some real rewards. I didn’t think about the window I needed to trim out at my house, or the story I needed to finish writing. I felt the way a good vacation is supposed to make you feel, like I truly was away.
The Inn certainly had something to do with it. Chebeague has an easy feel to it. A familiarity, even if you’ve never stayed there. The great room became an easy place to hang out for an evening glass of wine, or to sit back during the day and catch up on some reading. The porch was another favorite spot, with long views of the water and the promise of one of the finest sunsets in all of New England. We took it all in during our stay and then on Saturday night headed back to the mainland and into Portland for a memorable dinner at the Inn’s recently opened sister restaurant, Evo. There, we savored the chef’s tasting menu, a full Mediterranean excursion of seafoods and wines, followed by a first: baklava ice cream. Then it was back to the island and the Inn for the night. We were, you could say, following a tradition that began in the late 19th century when the hotel first opened. Then known as the Hillcrest Hotel on Chebeague Island, the original building burned down at the start of the 20th century and was rebuilt in its current form in 1924. In 2004, the Inn underwent a massive renovation. Much of the charm of the Chebeague is that it’s a part of island life. Monday night dinners are a regular event for island residents during the summer. During our visit, neighbors streamed in and, on Sunday night, the final night of the season for the big place, Food and Beverage Manager, Matthew Kurt, Executive Chef, Joel Frahm, and Front Desk Manager, Tina Lewis, welcomed a full house to the dining room for one final meal. “Join us Sunday to drain the keg!” a handwritten sign advertised. One of the memorable faces of the Inn is Ricki McDonald, an island native who returned to Chebeague in 2011, after spending many years in Boston. Her first job had been in the kitchen when she was thirteen and the Inn was owned by the parents of one of her friends. Now she was back. She has many stories about the Inn. One of my favorites involves the search for the coveted silver dollar in the Inn’s large stone chimney. As legend has it, a stonemason had hidden a coin in the stone in 1924, and whoever found it was promised a lifetime of health and happiness. Ricki said she had spent hours over the years looking for the dollar. She and another colleague had even gone so far as to use a metal detector to locate the thing. They still came up empty. “I’m beginning to wonder if it’s actually there,” she told me. Just before we left on Sunday morning, I took my own stab at finding the coin. I scoured the outside of the chimney, where it was supposedly located. Like Ricki, I came up empty. But maybe I didn’t need it. After an early October weekend tucked away on quiet Chebeague Island, I felt the kind ofrejuvenation that I think the mystery coin promised. Chebeague Island Inn. 61 S Road, Chebeague Island. 207-846-5155; chebeagueislandinn.comIan Aldrich is the Senior Features Editor at Yankee magazine, where he has worked for more for nearly two decades. As the magazine’s staff feature writer, he writes stories that delve deep into issues facing communities throughout New England. In 2019 he received gold in the reporting category at the annual City-Regional Magazine conference for his story on New England’s opioid crisis. Ian’s work has been recognized by both the Best American Sports and Best American Travel Writing anthologies. He lives with his family in Dublin, New Hampshire.
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