Eating in Ellsworth

For a long time, if residents of Hancock County wanted to find above-average food near home to nosh on - be it expensive or not - they had to head to MDI in the summer or venture out to a handful of places on the Blue Hill peninsula. Ellsworth might have been a good place to go buy tires or a coffee maker, but usually if they were hungry during their shopping trip their options were fast food or something similar.
Don't get me wrong, I love a greasy spoon. A grilled cheese sandwich with a side of fries for $4.95 is sometimes exactly what I need. But variety is nice and having quality fare among your choices is even better.
The explosion of fine food options in southern Maine (Portland, specifically) is finally rippling north, with tasty choices becoming more apparent in Ellsworth of late. Thankfully there are multiple Ellsworth eateries where you can pay with the few bills in your wallet and don't have to pull out your credit card. They are casual joints with flavors that make your taste buds pop instead of falling asleep.
So, to the chase: Finelli Pizza & Subs has been around for close to a decade now and likely will be for a while. When they came on the scene (first in Bar Harbor for a year or two before relocating near Rite Aid), they instantly raised the quality of pizza that can be found in Downeast Maine. Their pizza was named the best in eastern Maine by the BDN, and deservedly so. A mid-sized pie runs about $20, but you call fill up on two slices for $4, a lip-smacking bargain.
86 This at the lower traffic light on Main Street opened a few months ago. They have great, flavor-filled burritos they also can be made in salad form. Marinated chicken, pork, beef, veggie and with all the spices you crave. They tend to be open for lunch hours, but stay open into Friday and Saturday evenings. Closed Sun & Mon.
For dessert, Morton's Moo on School Street (behind the Maine Grind) is the penultimate ice cream parlor. They have great homemade ice cream (chocolate chipotle was on the list tonight, and the ginger is awesome) plus cake slices, Belgian waffles, sorbets, cookies, and other sweets. The atmosphere is fun (look for the toy train that comes through the wall above the counter) and family friendly.
There's also Cleonice, a fine restaurant on Main Street where you more than likely will pay with a credit card, but it is well worth it. The owners produce much of their own ingredients at their farm in Bucksport and their wine list is somehow simultaneously terrific and unimposing to novices (like myself). I almost never order wine when I eat out, but they make it easy. The chicken wings on the tapas menu are to drool for, and there's a lot more that will make you do the same.
Of course, there are other good food institutions in Ellsworth that have been around for some time. There's the iconic Rooster Brother, which does not prepare any food other than cookies, different coffee drinks and breads to go. But between the gourmet food items on the first floor and its kitchen and cookware selection on the second floor, it draws people from miles away (dozens definitely, maybe hundreds of miles). It has been in Ellsworth for decades and there is nothing like it in eastern Maine.
There also is John Edward's Market on Main Street. John Ed's is a straight up grocery store, with most of their items made in a sustainable way (organic, 100% recycled, etc.). I'm usually in there at some point every day, getting coffee or a bag of chips and a sandwich. They also carry a large supply of dietary supplements.
And there are other places to eat, too. Some places that I've never been to have decent reputations. There are others that I've not frequented enough to put higher up this list but are worth mentioning. Finn's on Main Street is one (I had a good, greasy fish sandwich there last week). The Maine Grind is another.
The Maine Grind is in transition; it is being taking over by the owners of Cleonice, who plan to install a pizza oven in the coming weeks. Prior to the change in management, it would not have made this list, but already they are offering soups that are a cut above most places. It's long been a decent place to hang out with laptop and ride the wifi with a cup of coffee, and I'm hoping the new selection of pizza and sandwiches make it that much more appealing.
Why are the owners of Cleonice doing this? Apparently, they will have to move out of their current location sometime later this year, and are considering the large, open, unfinished semi-basement of the Maine Grind building as a location for their restaurant. Running the cafe upstairs too seems like a natural match.

Assessing the Valuation

Prompted by a question from my friend Mario, I've been rummaging around during the past several days on the Town of Bar Harbor's assessing database, looking up information about who owns what and how much the town thinks it is worth. In particular, I was looking for property assessment information on four major local landowners: Acadia National Park, The Jackson Laboratory, Ocean Properties (which operates in Bar Harbor through many llc's) and David J. Witham. Ocean Properties, owned by the family of Bangor native Thomas Walsh, and Witham are the two big rival hoteliers in town.
I found that together, these four entities own more than two-thirds of all the property wealth in Bar Harbor, which the state estimates to have a total value of $1.44 billion. Acadia's land in Bar Harbor (not counting parts of the park that lie outside the town) represents 45 percent of all the land value in Bar Harbor. Acadia and Jackson Lab are nonprofits, of course, which means they do not pay the town property taxes, the way Witham and Walsh do. Walsh is likely the largest taxpayer in Bar Harbor.
During my rummaging, I also came across the 2011 state valuation figures for every municipality and county in the state. Bar Harbor, incidentally, has the 25th-highest valuation of all the municipalities in Maine.
So, to make it all somewhat easier to digest, I slapped together a spreadsheet that lists:

• The highest municipal valuations in the state (>$1B).
• The valuation totals for each county.
• The municipal valuations for Hancock and Washington counties.
• The property assessment totals of the four Bar Harbor landowners mentioned above 

Admittedly, it's little more than a collection of stats. If you see any larger trends here, feel free to point them out.

Concordia Catastrophe

This is a nightmare situation anywhere. Although why it was so might still be debatable, there's no debating that the Costa Concordia was too close too shore before it ruptured its hull and then tilted over.
Based on news media reports, the captain claims he prematurely left the ship because he tripped and fell (wow) into a lifeboat being deployed off the ship. Surviving passengers have said they first were given inaccurate information and then, in some cases, were better prepared than nearby crew members to get themselves safely to shore. Not all did, however. According to the latest reports, 11 are dead and 21 still missing.
Cruise ships glide in and out of Frenchman Bay, off Mount Desert Island, by the dozens each summer, and local officials seem to be aware of the need to be ready in the event of an emergency. In the spring of 2011, state, federal and local officials held an emergency drill in Bar Harbor to rehearse what might happen if two tenders collided in the harbor while ferrying passengers between shore and one or more cruise ships anchored in the bay.  That is a much different scenario than what the photo above depicts, though two tenders could easily carry 30 or more people, which is roughly the same number of those believed to be dead and missing from the Costa Concordia.
But the chance of something similar to the scale of the Concordia incident happening in Frenchman Bay would seem relatively low. According to Bar Harbor Harbormaster Charlie Phippen, all cruise ships coming in and out Frenchman Bay have to have a certified pilot familiar with Frenchman Bay at the helm. When they come in, the ships stop at a buoy at the mouth of the bay and pick up the pilot to ease the ships around the Porcupine Islands to the anchorages.
Still, I wonder if a future training exercise might imagine a more disastrous scenario off MDI.