After a very pleasant hiking trip in Acadia National Park, we decided to have our celebration meal someplace that was on the way back towards NH and MA. We decided that Ellsworth, just outside of Acadia National Park. was a particular good spot to check out. Ellsworth started as a fishing site, then in the early history of our country grew into a major 19th-century lumber and shipbuilding powerhouse, before those industries started to shrink. Nowadays, Ellsworth is primarily situated as “The Gateway to Acadia National Park” and the “Downeast” region. Looking over the available options, we found a quirky one that sounded just up our alley: Josie’s Country Café, located inside Josie’s Country Store on Surry Road, just outside of downtown Ellsworth.
To discuss Josie’s Country Café, you must first discuss Josie’s Country Store. It’s basically one of the example of the New England style “general store”: convenience store, light groceries, lottery tickets, and a random assortment of other items. And about a quarter of the interior is taken up by the food counter and kitchen. While you can order some sandwiches and the like from the inside counter to go, you’d be missing out on a lot of the greatness. Since the wraparound porch around the entire building is the dine-in seating for Josie’s Country Café, with a surprisingly extensive menu of dine-in options.
While the seating area with the nice views and breeze is awesome, that’s only a small fraction of the surprise. The second surprise was the menu. Sure, it has a great array of breakfast and lunch options from the classics of American breakfast fare. And some great sandwich options, like a Chicken Caprese sandwich. But it also has has a good selection of Mexican dishes (quesadillas, breakfast burritos, etc), Italian dishes (arancini, bucatani), Chinese dishes (Orange chicken, Char Siu buns), and even Filipino food (Lumpia, for example). Seriously, it’s one of the broadest menus I’ve seen in the region, and it gave me a lot of options to choose from as I sipped on my delicious Thai iced tea.
Then, it was time for some lumpia, because, hey, I so rarely see this on menus in New England. The thinner cousin to the more classic egg roll, Lumpia are a great little snack, with a paper-light wrapper and a very flavorful and spiced ground pork filling. The version at Josie’s Country Café was the perfect little appetizer to start off our brunch.
When it came to order my main course, I was sucked in by one of my breakfast favorites: biscuits and gravy. Particularly since Josie’s makes it a order (with the menu having the oddly precise warning that this dish takes 17 minutes). This was a well-above average biscuits and gravy. The biscuit itself was fresh, and that makes a huge difference. Then add in a very nice gravy made with local milk and sausage (the French-Canadian heritage of the area results in a lot of really great tourtiere-style sausages, rich with sage and clove). This was a solid breakfast, and well worth the 17 minute wait.
For the rest of our party, they reported satisfaction with their dishes, in particular the nicely-crisped breakfast burrito, and a reasonably servicable corned beef hash.
Overall, Josie’s was a great find. A great location, a friendly staff, a pleasant dining porch… and a surprisingly diverse menu of well-executed dishes. It’s worth checking out if you are in the ara.
