Fore Street is the lauded, long-running restaurant many consider to be the originator of today's food obsession in Portland. Chef-owner Sam Hayward has turned roasting into a high art: chickens turn on spits in the open kitchen as chefs slide iron kettles of mussels into the wood-burning oven. Local, seasonal eating is taken very seriously and the menu changes daily.
Dinner might consist of a beet and parsnip salad, grilled marinated Atlantic squid and roast bluefish with fennel puree. The large, noisy dining room nods toward its warehouse past with exposed brick and pine paneling. It's also ecofriendly. Reservations recommended.