Dysart’s Truck Stop – Bangor, Maine. Just off 95, about two exits south of Bangor. Just plain great. Homemade fresh bread, lots of great pies, they leave the pot of coffee on the table for you, and they include baked beans with several meals, including breakfasts, which really seals the deal for me. The Maine cuisine that people from away don’t think about in their obsession to find ‘quaint’ lobster shacks. That’s ok. All the more baked beans for me. Plus the store attached the the restaurant is huge, which I think is a very important part of a good Truck Stop. You have to be able to buy almost any necessity there, at 3 in the morning, after you fill your belly.
Irving’s has a Canadian chain of 24 hour Truck Stops, with a bunch of Maine locations, and they do a pretty good job too. The food isn’t as good as Dysart’s, but the importance of post-midnight coffee and pie can’t be overstated. I’m so happy that my hometown had one of these, and not another friggin’ Denny’s.