In addition to the selections listed below, you can get good local pizza at Rosalie’s on Cottage Street (tel. 207/288-5666); eat upstairs or down, or take out a pie to go. There’s also a solid natural foods market, A&B Naturals (tel. 207/288-8480) at 101 Cottage Street, which has prepared foods and a good little café inside.
If you’re craving something sweet, head over to Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium, 66 Main Street (tel. 800/806-3281 or 207/288-3281), for a big ice-cream cone. In the evenings, you may have to join a line spilling out the door. Visitors are often tempted to try the place’s novelty ice cream, lobster ice cream. Like butter? Then be bold and give it a shot.
Or if you enjoy experimenting with other ice cream flavors, Mt. Desert Island Ice Cream, 7 Firefly Lane ( tel. 207/460-5515), right beside the tourist office, is the place for you. It gives all the appearances of being just another ho-hum scoop shop of the vanilla-chocolate-strawberry ilk, but there’s little conventional about a place featuring gourmet concoctions spiked with tarragon, chili, and wasabi, among other flavors. (President Barack Obama sampled a coconut cone during a surprise 2010 visit.) There’s another branch at 325 Main Street (and, for your trip home, one on Exchange Street in Portland). Both locations serve coffee, tea, and yerba maté, as well.
Packing a picnic in Bar Harbor
Even in downtown Bar Harbor, you can have a nice picnic experience simply by settling onto a bench on the Village Green—that’s the green, rectangular space tucked behind and between Mount Desert and Kennebec streets. People-watching abounds, and art shows and festivals sometimes come to the green. Closer to the water, at the tip of the land (at the end of West and Main streets), the pocket Agamont Park is superlative for its picnic spot and a view of boats and islands. There’s also the quiet campus of earthy College of the Atlantic, back on Route 3; they surely won’t mind if you plunk down a basket and graze. The great natural-foods store A&B Naturals, at 100 Cottage Street (see above), is your best bet for prepared foods, drinks, and healthy snacks. It’s open Mondays through Saturdays from 8:30 to 7pm, Sundays 10am–6pm.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.
