The Lost Kitchen
Restaurant · Freedom ·
Inventive New American fare served in a restored mill
Inventive New American fare served in a restored mill
"The Lost Kitchen is a unique dining experience characterized by its intimate and delightful atmosphere. The restaurant, located in an old restored mill, offers a five-hour dinner with about 14 courses. Guests start the evening with a refreshing drink and a visit to the wine cellar before moving to the dining room. The open kitchen serves 53 people each evening, with a menu that changes daily based on fresh ingredients. The venue is known for its picturesque setting, including a flowing waterfall and seasonal flowers, enhancing the sensory dining experience."
"I drove out to a depopulated mill town called Freedom for dinner in an old gristmill that now feels like a culinary pilgrimage: Erin French's hardship-turned-success story has made the place a national phenomenon (about 20,000 postcard applicants a year for roughly 4,600 covers). We were seated at a water's-edge table, served by mostly local staff while Michael Dutton lit braziers on the lawn, and the meal felt intensely local and seasonal—French talked about finding a patch of Jerusalem artichokes that afternoon, literally walking to the farm where our lettuce was grown, and waiting on last-of-the-season raspberries for a caramel-custard dessert. Lobster on a biscuit arrived as a starter, and the overall experience was intimate, artfully informal, and rooted in foraging and local farms; the tasting menu is listed at $175." - Kevin West Kevin West Kevin West is a writer, food consultant, and “canning evangelist” (according to NPR). He’s the author of the cookbook “Saving the Season,” and his work has appeared in Travel + Leisure, Martha Stewart Living, Condé Nast Traveler, Bon Appétit, and Food & Wine. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines
"A notoriously hard-to-book, essential New England restaurant will again use a mailed-notecard reservation system (requests accepted April 1–15) with random selection for offered reservations; owner Erin French, a James Beard semifinalist, emphasizes the slower, personal process as part of the restaurant’s philosophy that connecting and cooking with joy enhances the dining experience." - Dana Hatic
"Run by Andrew Manning, Megan Fitzroy Phelan, and Patrick Phelan, this restaurant grew from a bi-weekly DIY pop-up into a brick-and-mortar after a multi-year renovation, with the team juggling day jobs in butchery, catering, and pastry while refining dishes through late-night calls. Their defining item is a savory egg custard they continually rework: a November 2016 version used jasmine-rice–steeped milk and egg yolks, steamed and finished with crunchy cauliflower mushrooms, yuzu jelly, and Maine uni; an August 2017 summer iteration became a corn custard piled with Chesapeake blue crab, both shiitake jelly and mushrooms, a seaweed-cured egg, and shiso; and a June 2018 take paired asparagus with blue crab and was crowned with summer flowers—this last version secured the custard’s place on the debut menu in the new space. The dish showcases a chawanmushi-inspired technique, obsessive tinkering, and a willingness to top a single custard base with wildly different, seasonally driven accents." - ByElyse Inamine
"Housed in a converted grist mill in rural Freedom, Maine, this seasonal restaurant from self-taught chef Erin French has become one of the hardest-to-get tables in the country and a touchstone in discussions about the future of American farm-to-table cuisine. Critics and food publications have lavished praise on the dining experience, and the chef’s cookbook has won awards; when the venue opens for the season on April 1 (it’s closed all winter), phone requests flood in until the summer schedule fills. Reservations are handled by mail: applicants must send a 3 x 5–inch index card with personal information in an envelope received between April 1 and 10 to a Mill Street mailing address, after which cards are randomly drawn on April 11 and selected diners are contacted to arrange dates. The restaurant’s website provides a downloadable five-page PDF that explains the earnest but detailed process (including two pages recommending other local restaurants); persistence won’t help and only registered or tracked mail offers peace of mind, so securing a table remains largely a matter of luck." - David K. Gibson