Loon Lodge not a very far cry from excellence

With August pressing down even at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, it's clearly time to head to the mountains. And if you are wondering where to go, Loon Lodge on Rangeley Lake makes a splendid destination.

Elaborate dinners served in the restaurant were for the most part good, and in some details excellent, but the entree menu would benefit from some editing, just as my own writing does every week after I e-mail it to this newspaper.

In a dish like stuffed sirloin braciola ($23), for instance, savory beef from the teres major, or shoulder, is stuffed with spinach, garlic, cotija cheese and bacon, then sliced and served with Bearnaise sauce. It was too much, though each element was perfectly good. I would prefer the steak simply grilled when it comes with Bearnaise sauce, or when stuffed, accompanied by a red wine deglazing reduction.

Which is not to say we didn't eat it all up, because we did.

Dinner can be enjoyed on the deck overlooking a lawn, the lodge's dock – to which diners arriving in boats are welcome to tie up during dinner – and the vista of mountains and water. The dock is also a destination after a meal for some stargazing, perhaps while sitting on the deck with your feet in the water.

We began with a cocktail on the deck, a simple gin and tonic ($8 with Beefeater gin). Later, we tried a bottle of Graffigne Malbec 2006 ($22) from Mendoza, Argentina, but it was acidic and undrinkable, utterly unlike a typical Malbec. We refused the bottle, and opted to pay more for the Abadia Retuerta Rivola 2004 ($40), Tempranillo blended with Cabernet Sauvignon from Spain.

We were nonplussed by the fact that the wine was cold. The server said it was served at 67 degrees, but it seemed colder. When this light-bodied wine got a chance to warm up, its smooth dark fruit proved charming indeed.

Five whites and five reds are served by the glass, like New Harbor Sauvignon Blanc ($8) Marlborough, New Zealand, and Nozzole Chianti Classico Riserva 2004 ($9).

An appetizer of dates wrapped in bacon set on slices of spicy chorizo ($8) had perfect impact. With its heat and salt and chewy sugar, it was right on target.

A cup of roasted pepper and roasted garlic soup ($4), the soup of the day, came down too hard on the roasted, dark flavors of its ingredients, but was intriguing nonetheless. The creamy texture and dark orange color, flecked with black and brown, pulled us in for taste after taste, because it was so close to delicious.

Calamari Portofino ($11) served on linguine sounds like a big appetizer; shrimp cocktail and antipasto platter for two ($14) are more conventional appetizers.

Pub fare served under the moose antler chandelier inside Pickford Pub includes baby back ribs ($15 for a half rack), a lobster roll ($18) and fish and chips ($12), plain and simple. "It's affordable and it's an alternative to the bigger entrees," Karen Seaman, general manager, said about the pub.

Trout baked and stuffed with celery, onion, red pepper, Ritz crackers, sea scallops, Maine shrimp and lobster with seafood cream sauce is a dish on its way overboard.

There is a plain grilled steak ($25) and chicken piccata ($20) with its classic sauce, and steamed lobster ($30) and prime rib ($22 for 12 ounces, $26 for 16 ounces) were specials.

But pork Wellington? "Layered with sauteed apples, apricots & cranberries, wrapped in phyllo dough baked golden brown served with a double cranberry sauce $23," the menu reads.

The best thing I tasted was Spanish Duck ($26). Thick slices of duck breast were rosy and juicy and rimmed by an expertly crisped skin seasoned by Spanish barbecue spices. The toothsome duck leg meat was tender and long cooked.

But the sour cherry sauce and the three-cheese polenta seemed like misfits on the plate, reminding me just how difficult pulling together a fabulous composition of tastes and flavors can be. Perhaps the discord came from the cherry sauce and the cheeses in the polenta, when one or the other would have charmed on its own.

On both entree plates, green beans and yellow wax beans made excellent sides.

I vowed over my slice of pie never to request pie warmed up again – a microwave does too much damage. The starch in the filling had thickened and sucked away the juices, and the pastry was less than flaky. But the flavors of the three-berry pie were not defeated – big blackberries, raspberries and strawberries were intact and in force.

Panna cotta ($6) had been made with the berries sunk inside it instead of scattered on top, and did not achieve something greater than the sum of its parts by being fused into one.

N.L. English is a Portland freelance writer and the author of "Chow Maine: The Best Restaurants, Cafes, Lobster Shacks and Markets on the Coast." Visit English's Web site, www.chowmaineguide.com.

Loon Lodge Inn & Restaurant