That’s where guests find pie: raspberry, cherry, wild blueberry. There’s a microwave to warm up a slice anytime, and local French vanilla ice cream to slather on top. The ice cream was named tops by the World Dairy Expo three years in a row, but the pie has made it to the Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay and ABC’s The Chew. It’s baked by Mike and Cheryl’s mothers.
Says Cheryl, "Part of hospitality is making people feel welcome, comfortable and at home. When guests raid the pantry in the middle of the night, they are at grandma's, in their bathrobe, having pie." And, she once confessed, the moms don’t care for each other's recipes.
There'll be no disagreements, however, about LimeRock Inn. The 6,000 square foot Victorian home has its own television history: it was featured on an episode of HGTV's If Walls Could Talk. Its original features, meant to reflect the status of its original owner, a former state attorney-general and four-term congressman, include stained glass windows, a Louis XV style chandelier, and gilded radiators. When Frank Isganitis and PJ Walter left the Manhattan rat-race to buy the property in 2004, they added a few family heirlooms of their own, making a period place with modern comforts. Their welcoming attitude helped them become Maine’s top B&B in 2013 and 2014, as named by a DownEast Magazine readers’ poll. Breakfasts surely helped with that.
In the sunny, comfortable breakfast room overlooking a gazebo-graced garden, guests might enjoy a savoury dish like wild mushroom frittata one day and a sweeter entree (lemon blueberry pancakes, anyone?) the next. That final cup of coffee can be sipped on the porch, named New England’s best wraparound by Yankee Magazine.
Frank does kitchen duty. “It’s painfully apparent I like to eat,” he quips, blaming an Italian mom and Lithuanian dad for “eating our way through the calendar.” But he focuses on “good, wholesome comfort foods,” adding: “We want people to feel like you’re going to visit family – but family you want to visit.”
If the kitchens are anything to go by, all three inns are my kind of family.