Restaurants in Ogunquit

Excepting Portland, Ogunquit has got to be the latest-open-hours town in Maine: Amazingly, many places stay open until 10 or 11pm in summer.

Where the main Route 1 strip meets Perkins Cove Road, you’ll find a tremendous variety of bakeries, coffee shops, markets, and restaurants. Bread & Roses Bakery, 246 Main St. (tel. 207/646-4227), skillfully turns out cupcakes, peanut-butter-and-chocolate cake, raspberry mousse, cookies, and the like; there’s outdoor seating as well. The Village Food Market, 230 Main St. (tel. 207/646-2122), stocks good wines, ready-to-go meals, and staples, and it also has a small deli; try the house red-eye coffee.

There are also several lobster pounds packed into and around the little downtown, most of them seasonal; try the Ogunquit Lobster Pound (504 Main St.; tel. 207/646-2516), Oarweed (65 Perkins Cove Rd.; tel. 207/646-4022), or Barnacle Billy’s (50 Perkins Cove Rd.; tel. 800/866-5575 or 207/646-5575). 

For a casual dinner, friendly La Pizzeria, 239 Main St. (tel. 207/646-1143), dishes out dependable sandwiches, meatballs, and pizza pies—plus it stays open later than just about anyplace else in Maine (usually until 11pm in summer). Like most places in town, though, it’s closed in winter.

And it's not just late night eating that's done well in this town. Standout breakfast joints abound in Ogunquit. Try the Greenery Café , 369 Main St. (tel. 207/ 360-0211) for indulgent pastries, lobster omelettes, and more, at an old-school counter or on a canopied patio with plenty of, well, greenery. Also check out the reliable Egg & I, 501 Main St. (tel. 207/646-8777; no credit cards), and the little Cove Café, 4 Oarweed Rd. (tel. 207/646-2422), near Perkins Cove.

Also excellent for breakfast and, well, any time: the venerable Congdon’s Doughnuts Family Restaurant & Bakery (tel. 207/646-4219) on Route 1 between the two towns. Clint and Dot “Nana” Congdon moved to Maine and opened a family style restaurant in 1945; Nana’s sinkers proved so popular that she relocated the whole operation to Wells 10 years later and went into the doughnut business full-time. Chocolate-chocolate is ever-popular, but you can’t go wrong with almost anything else among the dozens of choices—pillowy raised doughnuts; filled blueberry doughnuts; butter crunch, honey-dipped, sugar twist, and chocolate honey doughnuts . . . or one of the seasonal specials such as maple, apple, or pumpkin doughnuts. The secret? They use lard. Yes, lard. Schedule the EKG now. Congdon’s is open Thursday through Tueseay, year-round from 6am to 2pm. 

In the evenings, Congdon’s pivots to hosting New England’s only food-truck park. Congdon’s After Dark hosts 10 or so trucks nightly, from 4pm to 8pm, along with live music, kids activities, and a beer garden serving, among other things, two different donut-infused brews.