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Dear Friends and Customers of Solo Bistro:

Improbable though it seems to this correspondent, Memorial Day Weekend is upon us. This is one of the two times (the other being just before the 4th of July) when certain thematic metaphors appear in this missive: Evel Knievel launching himself across some impossible expanse; a roller coaster clanking itself to the crest of its initial climb; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid on the cliff above the river; Wile E. Coyote looking down to realize he’s overrun the road and is high, high above the canyon floor . . . . Along about Columbus Day there will be a thud, and a splash of dust, and perhaps a “beep beep!” from some more sensible business. Heck of a ride though!

Courtesy of local food writer Michael Sanders, of Fresh From Maine fame, we recently focused on two initiatives the Gulf of Maine Research Institute is taking with restaurants in Maine to promote underutilized fish species. One of them, called Out of the Blue we will definitely participate in next month, promoting Atlantic mackerel. Chef Ray Franklyn is already working on ideas, and we’re eagerly awaiting the results. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, the 3 course $17.99 Wednesday Special keeps it interesting at a great price, and tomorrow is no exception!

Wednesday Special

This week’s $17.99 Wednesday Special starts out with a sweet pea soup – nothing to do with the warm, humid air masses that are starting to drift into our area where they condense into pea soup of an altogether different sort! The main course will be a fillet of pan seared hake with basil tomato bruschetta, potato croquettes and spicy greens. And for dessert there’ll be coffee ice cream sandwiched between 2 cardamom cookies. Yum!

Friday Night Jazz

This Friday we will be without live jazz as it is graduation weekend for Bowdoin, Bates and Hyde. We will, however, be open for dinner this Sunday, and closed on Monday, Memorial Day.!

As always, we look forward to seeing you on Front Street in downtown Bath, where summer may sneak up on you, but it is no less welcome for its sly arrival!

Pia & Will Neilson, Owners

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Dear Friends and Customers of Solo Bistro:

Over the weekend the maple behind the restaurant has suddenly leafed out. The leaves have gone from indistinct lint balls on the limbs to fully formed leaves 3 inches across, and already a late-spring look is taking hold, especially as one moves away from the ocean. The difference is noticeable even between Arrowsic and Bath, but at the speed green things are growing now, the differential will not last – spring is rolling up from the southwest like the tide up the Bay of Fundy – smoothly, rapidly and inexorably covering the naked bones of the bottom in a uniform sea of green. In a space of hours it will cover all, then deepen. It is a fabulous time to be on the coast of Maine!

When it comes to food though, regardless of the season, Wednesday’s are pretty fabulous in this little slice of the coast, for the obvious reason that that’s the day for the three course $17.99 Wednesday Special at Solo Bistro!

Wednesday Special

This week’s $17.99 Wednesday Special starts out by blending the zing of Tarbox Farm spicy greens with delicious bits of applewood-smoked bacon, all drizzled with a sweet balsamic vinaigrette. That will be followed by chicken sautéed with asparagus, grape tomatoes, and Kalamata olives in a shallot wine butter over torchio pasta (so called because it resembles the base of a torch) with feta cheese and toasted bread crumbs! For dessert we’ll enjoy a strawberry panna cotta with a wild Maine blueberry sauce.

Friday Night Jazz May 17

This week the donna of the double bass, Ms. Xar Adelberg, returns to the New Space in the company of newcomer Tom Luther at the keyboard. The eclectic Ms. Adelberg is well known to devotees of Friday Night Jazz. Her skills on the bass dependably delight and dazzle. Composer and pianist Tom Luther has lately been pursuing improvisational jazz with his acoustic quintet, which recently released its first CD, “Everything Is Blue.” Doubling down on double bass and piano jazz this Friday, May 17 from 6:30 – 9:30 PM!

As always, we look forward to seeing you on Front Street in downtown Bath, where though we may be captive on a carousel of time, you never get the run-around!

Pia & Will Neilson, Owners

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