MANY MAINERS break up winter and escape for a week or two to Florida or a more exotic clime, such as Mexico, Jamaica, or Spain. None of these journeys would be complete without a taste of the local food and drink: Key lime pie made from scratch in the Florida Keys, Red Stripe beer quaffed on a beach in Jamaica, marinated anchovies served up in Barcelona. But marinated anchovies can be found right in downtown Ellsworth in the thick of a Maine winter.
Grilled octopus, calamari salad, marinated anchovies, ice cream-topped tart tatin?
You'll find them in this downeast bistro.
Finding Cleonice, with its ornate bar, ceiling fans, and black-and-white-checked floor, is like discovering an unspoiled neighborhood bistro in Barcelona or Marseilles. With a glass of chilled dry sherry in hand, you can dine on delicately marinated white anchovies with a salad composed of candy-striped beets, gorgonzola, and walnuts. Or create a meal from any of the two dozen other tapas (small plates) on offer, among them grilled octopus with piri piri sauce, smoked shad roe spread, artichoke pesto bruschetta, and razor clam salad with olives and fennel. These run $3 to $9.50 each.
Celebrating a birthday? Settle into a booth and spend the evening over a multiple-course dinner. Sample the calamari salad or the whipped feta with pita crisps as appetizers. For the main course ($20.50 to $24.50), split a bottle of Rioja and order the grilled yellowfin tuna steak or the marinated pork ribs and sausage. Cap the meal with a glass of calvados and a warmed slice of tart tatin topped with homemade vanilla ice cream.
Cleonice (pronounced Cleo-niece), named for Chef Rich Hanson’s Italian- American mother, is also the type of place where a person can come for a drink at day’s end—even read a book or the newspaper— or eat alone at the bar. Hanson gained an appreciation for good food in his boyhood home in the Bronx—meals created with meaty tomatoes, homemade prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, fragrant oregano, and other elements from the borough’s Arthur Avenue Market. His mother’s family came to New York from Italy’s Abruzzo region. They brought with them the ritual of having a big family Sunday dinner that stretched on for hours in their three-room walkup.
