Located in Rockland, Maine is this little farm of wonders that started with one woman’s dream to have a true farm to table restaurant.  Primo Restaurant is not only a restaurant, it’s an experience.

Chef Melissa Kelly has this raw passion to reap all the benefits of fresh farming and to give back to the land.  Having grown up in an Italian American family she found her love of food in her grandmother’s kitchen.   Primo Restaurant has won numerous awards and Chef Kelly has been hailed by Travel & Leisure, The Boston Globe, Conde Nast Traveler, The New York Times, and Bon Appetit for her extraordinary culinary skills.

Chef Kelly is a firm believer in food should be raised with care, and that the freshest ingredients make the meal. Because of this practice, the menu changes daily.  The amount of time that goes into planning the farms rotating crops is astounding.  Anything Primo’s farm doesn’t produce is brought in by local, sustainable farms.  It is a full circle kitchen, and nothing goes to waste.

Primo Restaurant also works under the belief that the animals should be happy. And this is evident as you walk the farm they are indeed happy animals.  We showed up to Primo early for a tour with Evan, one of Primo’s best gardeners.  Our first stop was the chicken coop.  One look at Evan and they came running.  He was gracious enough to catch one for me to love on.  He continued the tour to the baby chicks, pigs munching on fallen apples, two greenhouses, gorgeous veggie gardens and their magnificent barn.  Strolling through the farm made me wish I could have more than one life.  I think I would be very happy owning a farm.  And a barn, definitely a barn.

By the time our tour was finished up there was already a line of people waiting to get in for dinner.  Note: make reservations!  The restaurant is set up in an old farm house, with the downstairs the main dining area, and the upstairs is a more relaxed lounge.  There is a stunning copper bar I couldn’t take my eyes off of as I ordered a glass of wine!

Dinner was, of course, beautiful, delicious and exciting.  Chef Kelly puts together a menu that dares to challenge your palate and lead your senses on an enticing journey.  I started off with their fresh blueberry mojito and then switched to a sultry chablis for the mussels.  Matt and I then split the fresh pasta dish with succulent lobster, sweetened with corn.  And lastly, I had the seared scallops that were one of a kind.

This is truly one of a kind restaurant, and worth a trip to.  It helps that it is in the adorably quaint coastal town of Rockland!

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