The evening begins with the music, a sample of Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 and #35." This comes as a good-natured roasting of a very popular improv poet.

It's Tuesday night, it's the Port Veritas Spoken Word Open Mic at the North Star Café, and the mood is just right for performer and audience alike to blossom. The jester of a soundman guffaws at the line "they'll stone you just like they said they would," seemingly taken with the irony of his song choice.

The poet takes it in stride, jeering back and swaying with the circus waltz. This reaction is helpful, in so far as I am technically here at a café with the intention of writing about a bar. The crowd is similarly punchy, mad for the brave souls on stage, and this kind of intoxication is available in abundance, for free.

For those interested in a more conventional indulgence, though, the café boasts an unprecedented, outstanding beer and wine list. Every pint is offered for $3.50 (!) plus tax, and the line of taps is beautiful to behold. It's actually a good introduction to North Star's as-local and as-organic as possible approach.

The seasonally rotating offerings currently include Gritty's Pub Style Ale, Long Trail Blackberry Wheat, Geary's Hampshire Special Ale, Shipyard Light, Shoals Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale, Sheepscot Pemaquid Ale, Allagash White, and Sebago Lake Trout Stout. Recognize any of those names?

As a conscientious accommodator of dietary needs, the café also offers a rare draft of Vermont's Wood Chuck Cider and New Grist Beer in a bottle as gluten-free options. For those more drawn to the grape, dip into the delicious Pine and Post wines, either the Cabernet or Chardonnay for the crazy-low price of $4.00 per glass. North Star could never, and would never, be accused of ripping anyone off.

Bars, of course, can also be espresso bars, and the café brings it at a level that would make a corporate-cold Starbucks blush. A warm home-brewed mug of local joe, complete with 50 cent honor-system refills, is never a bad decision, but it is fun to let the bartender/barista have a chance to lend you their steam-wand magic for a cappuccino or two.

John Denver is playing over the loudspeakers , and I have never liked John Denver (more soundman tomfoolery, I presume), but, slowly, as with many components of the North Star experience, it's refreshingly easy to just float into the flow. With the number of feet that have stomped that stage floor, plus all the snaps, claps, laughs shared and tears shed, you can bet that no matter your background, no matter your burden, you'll find an engaged, welcoming ear here.

I was taken aback at the number of broad, joyful smiles that greeted me as I glanced around the room, as though my particular set of shapes and colors was in no way unwelcome in the collective shape and color scheme. Then again, maybe there's just something in the kool-aid.

The poetry is ever-fascinating with no shortage of unadulterated hearts-on-sleeves. I have heard a host of ribald jokes and seen souls combusting with convulsions. "Do you know where you are??" the performer howls from the stage.
"You're in the jungle, baby!" a sassy girl in the crowd shouts in homage to Axl Rose and Co. Fitting retort, as there is indeed a healthy, vibrant, but distinctly jungles feel to the place.

If you want to meet with your fellow humans in a spot that celebrates the primal, the raw, and the unadorned, come to the purist's paradise at the North Star Café.