Bring more than one appetite to this Maine inn

But gradually we began to warm to the place. For one thing, we ate dinner. Lupine's, the inn's little restaurant, was worth the trip to Newcastle -- a small town just off Route 1 on the mid-coast of Maine .

Unlike many fine restaurant chefs who oversee operations but don't do much cooking themselves, Josh DeGroot puts his personal touch on everything that comes out of Lupine's kitchen. His only helpers are one prep cook, a dishwasher, and the servers. He makes all the appetizers, entrees, and desserts himself, including excellent sorbets and ice creams, bakes his own breads, even shops daily at nearby farms and markets, choosing ingredients that are as organic and local as possible. While sipping a demitasse of his cauliflower soup during a cocktail hour before dinner, we saw DeGroot pass by with a flashlight; he was off to pick some garden herbs for the next course.

His Damariscotta oysters were excellent, though somewhat overpowered by the cicely mignonette. We particularly enjoyed a lemon verbena sorbet intermezzo, a duck breast entree with cranberry gastrique along with a duck hash blintz, and a fallen chocolate torte for dessert. Everything was strongly flavored (and liberally salted), which seemed to be DeGroot's signature style, and portions were surprisingly large.

The standout dish was the gorgeous cheese plate. A cheese maker himself, DeGroot knows what to look for in artisanal cheeses and how to accentuate their flavors. For our meal, he chose three fine local cheeses, accompanied by his pear-port sorbet, an artfully arrayed assortment of fruits and nuts, and his homemade pear chutney.

The convenience and luxury of being able to crawl into bed after this big meal, instead of making the long drive home in the dark, was sufficient reason to stay at the Newcastle Inn. When we learned that some wine dinners were in the works, we seriously considered a return visit.