Good Eats in Town: Quietside Cafe ~ Southwest Harbor, Maine

Good Eats in town ~ 9th Issue

I know… here it is September, vacation is over and school has already started…and Good Eats is still back on Mount Desert Island, reminiscing about this year’s summer vacation.

I just couldn’t leave the island until I said something about the Quietside Cafe. This is one of my family’s favorite stops on vacation and a must for anyone travelling through Southwest Harbor. We usually stop here at least twice, if not more, during the week. Its a great place for lunch, a casual dinner after exploring some of the islands great park attractions or just as stop for ice cream and pie as you stroll through the village visiting the shops and galleries.

They have a great selection of sandwiches, burgers and pizza and you can eat indoors, sit at the benches out front, or have waitress service at the picnic tables on the patio beside the park. Inside, there is a wonderful collage of photographs and memorabilia on the walls that tell the history of the place.

The food is great and very affordable, but the best part, for my family anyway, is when the meal is done, because then we get to have dessert. This is where Quietside really shines, in my book. They have a wonderful ice-cream counter, where they serve Gifford’s Ice-cream with great flavors like Maine Birch Bark, Maine Lobster Tracks and Cherry Amaretto Chocolate.

The true test of desert, however, is what is made in-house, and at the Quietside Cafe, it is the cookies and pies that take the cake (pardon the pun there). You really can’t appreciate the deliciosity from the photos. The blueberry pie is the tallest and thickest I have ever seen, and I have heard the taste of the apple pie described as a mouth-orgasm. Myself…I’m somewhat partial to an ice-cream in a chocolate dipped waffle cone and a huge cookie on the side. I think if I lived in town, I would probably weigh about 400lbs, because I just don’t have any willpower when I come here

This is a nice, family oriented place to stop. It is very wallet-friendly, if you take my meaning, in a tourist area where most places are not. The service is great and the owners seem to remember us, year after year.

It’s a great place to stop after a day of hiking, biking or kayaking to replenish your energy. And don’t blame me if you have to waddle back to your campsite or hotel because you were seduced by the decadent deserts and succumbed to overindulgence.

The Quietside Cafe