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Fore Street is Fore Foodies

Fore Street in Portland, ME is pretty much a buzz restaurant if ever there was one. Don't go here expecting to improve your street cred. Open since 1996, they were named the sixteenth best restaurant in the U.S. by Gourmet Magazine, and chef-partner Sam Hayward is a James Beard Foundation award winner.

What Fore Street lacks in underground sensibility, it more than makes up for in tastiness. Because the restaurant follows the popular Portland trend of loyalty to what's fresh, in season and local, it's hard to recommend dishes here. The menu is constantly changing. Three courses we recently sampled were a wild mushroom salad with goat cheese, grilled swordfish with summer squash, and a piping hot, sugar coma-inducing apple cobbler. Street cred be damned; it's all about the sugar coma!

The space is casual, with high ceilings and an open kitchen. Reservations are recommended if you want to be a shoo-in for peak dining times, but 1/3 of the tables here are actually reserved for walk-ins. It's pretty easy to visit at 7:00 p.m. on, say, a Sunday, and be seated immediately.