As devotees of comfort food, we salute a restaurant that makes four kinds of pudding daily: tapioca, bread, Grape Nuts, and Indian. Plus about a dozen pies, including mince in the cold months. Plus good ice cream for banana splits, frappes (milk, ice cream, and flavoring), shakes, and sodas. Cole Farms is known for all these things, but dessert is only the finale to this story of inland Maine foursquare cuisine. Opened as a farmland diner in 1952, Cole Farms still can be relied on to serve boiled dinner in the autumn, corn chowder and chicken pot pie every Wednesday, and a choice of pea beans or kidney beans accompanied by one or two bright red Maine-style weenies.
Every day at lunch there are fine soups and chowders, and delicious clam cakes to accompany any meal. This is one of the few remaining dining rooms in New England where you can sit down to a bowl of American chop suey (the Platonic ideal of Hamburger Helper). Meat loaf (with great mashed potatoes) and chili are exemplary, and for those who want something a little less Yankee, the updated menu now includes such modern dishes as taco salad, grilled teriyaki chicken, and “gourmet cheesecake.”
Cole Farms is a big place, expanded many times over the years and now including a gift shop and banquet room. Even though it is sprawling, each pine booth seems cozy. Decor includes pictures of all the young employees who graduate along with captions saying how long they were with Cole Farms and where they are going away to school.
Sunday | 6 am - 9 pm |
Monday | 6 am - 9 pm |
Tuesday | 6 am - 9 pm |
Wednesday | 6 am - 9 pm |
Thursday | 6 am - 9 pm |
Friday | 6 am - 9:30 pm |
Saturday | 6 am - 9:30 pm |
Other Nearby Restaurants
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Two Fat Cats Bakery
Portland, MaineTwo Fat Cats of Portland, Maine, makes fantastic fruit pies and whoopie pies worth whooping about.
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Clam Shack
Kennebunk, MaineClam Shack fried clams are great; lobster rolls are even more impressive, so huge and fresh. Al fresco dining only at this Kennebunk landmark..
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Bite Into Maine
Cape Elizabeth, MaineBite into Maine offers lobster rolls assembled with obsessive detail. It’s a truck that parks at some of the Portland area’s most attractive locations.
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Simones Hot Dog Stand
Lewiston, MaineA small corner restaurant that’s been a favorite among Maine diner fans for over a century. Bright pink dogs put Simones’ on the Roadfood map.
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Red’s Eats
Wiscasset, MainePilgrims come to Red’s Eats, a Wiscasset, Maine, Roadfood landmark drive-in restaurant, and wait in line to savor what may be the best lobster roll anywhere.
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Five Islands Lobster Company
Georgetown, MaineResilient lobsters fairly burst out of their shell when squeezed with a nutcracker at the unbelievably scenic picnic tables of Maine’s Five Islands Lobster Co.