Dinner with the Bulldogs: The Olde Post Office Café

MT. VERNON – Here at the Daily Bulldog we’ve done our share of traveling, and we’ve had more than our share of great meals in a dozen different states. None of them though, were any nicer than the completely fantastic and somewhat funky dinner we just enjoyed at The Olde Post Office Café in Mt. Vernon, Maine.

What was fantastic was the food, which was fresh and locally produced and all perfectly prepared. What was a little funky was the fact that we got to bring our own wine and beer – and we brought a good supply because the Café doesn’t sell alcoholic beverages – and that we ordered our gourmet meal at the counter while the musical group Highway 41 Revisited played in the background.

There were five of us in all, and we managed to sample nearly everything on the menu and none of it disappointed us. The starters were equally delicious: one, a salad of mixed field greens, fresh blueberries, goat cheese and sugar-spiced pecans was tossed with a creamy Dijon vinaigrette; the other, a simple combination, perfectly prepared, of sliced heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil, dressed with olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar.

While we waited for our main courses to arrive, we enjoyed the live music and lamented with the three tourists from Ann Arbor, Michigan who shared our table about the dire state of the Wolverine football fortunes. When those courses arrived though, the discussion became limited and we dug into our wild mushroom raviolis and bistro steak with blue cheese butter and a lobster roll piled as high you’ll ever see anywhere.

The meals were delicious, and as full as we already were, in the interest of research we ordered all four of the desserts on the menu; a tart apple crisp, a decadent chocolate cake, a fresh berry sundae and wonderful local goat cheese with fruit and cashews drizzled with honey. Each was better than the last, and the combination of all four was a wonderful end to a meal we all hope to repeat again sometime soon.

The Olde Post Office Café serves breakfast and lunch Monday-Friday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturday and Sundays 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and are open two Saturdays a month for dinner/music nights. The next dinners are Sept. 11 and Sept 25, from 6 to 9 p.m. The meal on Sept. 11 will feature the music of Robbie Coffin, Phil Dibinski and Scott Elliot, while diners at the Sept. 25 meal will be entertained by Chris Poulin. For reservations, call 293-4978. Click here to view menus and more. 

Maybe you could go somewhere else to have a more enjoyable dining experience, but we’re not sure where that would be. And if you do go, call first for reservations, because the night we went we snagged the last five seats. Oh yeah, and bring your own wine.