Good Eats in Town: Eat-a-pita & Cafe2 – Southwest Harbor, Maine

Good Eats in Town ~ 8th issue

Well folks, here it is, my first posting of places we’ve enjoyed in our area, and what do I do, but take you on vacation with us to Mount Desert Island in Maine which is the home of Acadia National Park.

There are a number of villages and towns on the island, one of our favorites being South West Harbor, on the “quiet side of the island.”

We spend a week in Acadia every summer, and camp at Sewall, a national park campground. Almost every day we either stop in Southwest Harbor for something to eat or at least drive through. This year, it seemed that every time we were in town, the patio at Eat-a-Pita & Cafe2 was full. We decided to make it a stop during the week for lunch or dinner, to see what all the fuss and fun was about.

So, on a late afternoon, after spending all afternoon boating around the Cranberry Islands, we dropped in. The place is actually two restaurants. During the day, it is Eat-a-Pita, a very casual patio/bar/ burger and sandwich type of place. They have a fun outside bar and serve a number of island brewed beverages.

Around 5 O’clock, they switch over to Cafe2. We arrived just after five. We decided to eat in and check out what the inside of the place was like. The waitress came over and we ordered drinks…I had been dying to try one of the island’s famous micro brewed beers, so I ordered a Bar Harbor Real Ale. Delicious!

After we got our drinks, we opened the menus and this is where the surprise came. This was no burger and beer joint, but a very nice Italian restaurant! The atmosphere was so comfortable and casual that we just didn’t expect such a gourmet dinner menu.

The kids both ordered pasta and marinara sauce and requested if they could add some meatballs, no surprise there – standard kid fare. And, “of course,” was the answer to the meatball question.

Tracy ordered a filet minion and I got a seafood alfredo. Our meals came with salads, which were fantastic. Certainly not the typical iceberg lettuce and tomatoes. This was a salad with all kinds of vegetables, sprouts and chickpeas.

Our meals were fantastic, too. Tracy's steak was perfect and I thoroughly enjoyed the seafood and pasta. Not only was the food delicious, but each dish came “decorated” as the kids, say… A piece of artwork you almost feel bad about disturbing with your fork.

Cafe2 has a great desert menu, too, but honestly, were too full to order anything more. I know that we will be back to Acadia next summer, and certainly we will come back here. There is still breakfast and lunch to try, as well as the dauntingly delicious desert menu.