Arrow-matic

Theme nights bring out the best

By Jill Strauss

ARROWS: transporting you to Hawaii for slightly less cash than flying.

It was calm, clear and bitterly cold. There was no moon, but the cloudless sky blazed with stars. The Atlantic was like polished plate glass; people later said they had never seen it so smooth.

I was picturing that opening scene of Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember as we looked out the window of our stretch limousine on a crisp December evening in Maine, but my reverie was interrupted by my next-door neighbor, one of three guests I had invited to accompany me on this mini-voyage to Arrows Restaurant in Ogunquit, where we were about to partake of a regional dinner called: “The Titanic Sails Again,” one of the last in an ever-changing series.

“Shall I refill your glass?” my generous chum, who had hired the limo, asked politely. “It looks like you could use a little more champagne.”

“How gracious of you,” I replied, as she poured a bit more of the bubbly into my glass. We were all feeling a little giddy and terribly rich in spite of the fact that two of my companions were wearing fake furs and none of us, including my friend, Elsa, who was born three years after the R.M.S. Titanic sank, happened to be dressed in a hand-beaded gown from the Edwardian period. We weren’t too concerned about this lapse, however, until we entered Arrows and were ushered to our seats by 40-year-old co-owner Clark Frasier.

Frasier, a tall, handsome, blond is always nattily attired, but on this occasion he was sporting a spectacular tuxedo, complete with glittering vest and white bow tie. As a matter of fact, the entire wait staff was dressed in specially fitted tuxedos and the cumulative impact of this visual was dramatic.

As is the custom at this 18th-century former farmhouse, a magnificent four-foot high arrangement of fresh flowers greeted us as we entered the main dining room, but something was slightly off. “Of course,” I muttered to myself as I looked again at the framed French antique posters on the wall. They were all tilting to the right. “That’s not an accident,” my waitress said as she served me a fresh glass of Moet & Chandon White Star champagne. “We want you to feel like you are on a listing ship.”

My knowledgeable server also emphasized that Frasier and his partner, executive chef Mark Gaier, care so much about authentic details that they designed a sumptuous five-course menu very similar to the one eaten by passengers in the first-class dining saloon. Some recipes, including the dessert “Oranges en Surprise”, a simple hollowed out orange filled with frozen orange sherbet, topped with meringue and torched to resemble a mini baked Alaska, were based on the actual recipes served on that fateful night of April 14, 1912.

Arrows was not the only restaurant in the country to play off of the enormous popularity of the book A Night To Remember, the cookbook Last Dinner on the Titanic, or the movie Titanic last year, nor will it be the only restaurant this year. “Titanic evenings” have been, and still are, celebrated at upscale restaurants and hotels that want to differentiate themselves as specialty institutions. Theme nights also allow restaurants to build a rapport with their patrons, as well as educate them about the finer indulgences. But theme nights, if they are done with respect for historical accuracy, require a huge commitment of time, which is why most restaurants only produce these events on occasion. This year Arrows decided to produce 14 of them.

Three that I attended this spring: “An Evening in Charleston” (the cuisine of the old south), “An Evening in Barcelona” (with tapas and other great food of Spain), and “An Upcountry Hawaiian BBQ” (a night of island treats and aloha) were profoundly different from each other in terms of ingredients and flavor, yet strangely alike in that the seasonings were never overpowering and even barbecue presentations were far from crude.

“We try to be very accurate,” Frasier told me one sunny morning a few weeks ago as we sat on a bench several feet away from his bountiful and meticulously maintained vegetable gardens. “But we look for recipes that are appealing to us. For example, Roman tastes were very different from ours. They laced things with a tremendous amount of herbs, fish sauce, and wine. When we created a Roman dinner last year, we used some of these ingredients sparingly to capture the essence of certain dishes, but we refined them with stock and altered them for Western tastes.”

Frasier also acknowledged that theme nights could never happen without the support of his very able and willing staff. I know this claim is not an exaggeration since I made a special effort to watch the kitchen staff of Arrows produce “An Upcountry Hawaiian BBQ” from start to finish two weeks ago. The menu included lettuces, herbs, and baby bok choy that could be picked fresh from Arrows’ gardens. The snapper and rock shrimp cakes were not terribly difficult to cook, nor was the aku poke (raw ahi tuna tossed with lime juice, sesame oil, ginger and seasonings) or the grilled New York steak with teriyaki marinade. But the 26-pound suckling pigs — which night-sous-chef Justin Walker determined had to be brined; then marinated in chopped pineapple, plum purée, chopped cilantro, and ginger for two days; then wrapped in banana leaves, covered with additional kosher salt, and cooked indirectly over white hot coals in a 2 and a half by 4-inch pit; covered by a specially made galvanized tin cover; and checked every 20 minutes for eight hours — very nearly wiped him and the lead line cook out before service even began.

You would think that something so young that had been cooked so long amidst so much smoke would be tough or tasting of charcoal, but the indirect cooking and the banana leaves protected the baby pig. The skin was seared, but when Walker pulled the flesh away from the bone it was moist and soft, and when I took my first bite, I was transported by the tender texture and delicate flavor. Happily, nothing too strong was paired with this course. The coconut yam purée, long rice, apple onion relish, and baby bok choy were subtle accents and offered just enough sweetness, color, and contrasting crunch.

The only thing hard to swallow for some people dining at Arrows might be the price. If you go during the summer when the regional dinners take a sabbatical, you may be shocked to pay $39.95 for an a la carte entrée. But if you are smart, you will make a reservation now for the fall five-course regional dinners priced at $68 per person that begin again in October. Yes, they are costly. On the other hand, they are so entertaining, so informative, so beautiful, and so civilized that I don’t know any dedicated armchair traveler who could resist such an opportunity.

It was calm, clear and bitterly cold. There was no moon, but the cloudless sky blazed with stars. The Atlantic was like polished plate glass; people later said they had never seen it so smooth.

Upcoming theme nights October 14 A Napa Valley Harvest Dinner Featuring the famed valley’s food and wine October 21 A Dinner in Old Vienna’s Empire The elegant cuisine of Eastern Europe October 28 A Dinner in the Palace of the Sultans The grand cuisine of Turkey November 4 A Dinner in Dordogne The wonderful food and wine of Southern France November 11 A Black Forest Wild Game Diner The robust food of Germany December 2 The Titanic Sails Again The elegant cuisine of a bygone era. *Guests are encouraged to wear the costume of the era December 9 A Dinner in the Italian Lake Country The lusty food and wine of Northern Italy All at Arrows Restaurant Berwick Road, Ogunquit (207) 361-1100

I was picturing that opening scene of Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember as we looked out the window of our stretch limousine on a crisp December evening in Maine, but my reverie was interrupted by my next-door neighbor, one of three guests I had invited to accompany me on this mini-voyage to Arrows Restaurant in Ogunquit, where we were about to partake of a regional dinner called: “The Titanic Sails Again,” one of the last in an ever-changing series.

“Shall I refill your glass?” my generous chum, who had hired the limo, asked politely. “It looks like you could use a little more champagne.”

“How gracious of you,” I replied, as she poured a bit more of the bubbly into my glass. We were all feeling a little giddy and terribly rich in spite of the fact that two of my companions were wearing fake furs and none of us, including my friend, Elsa, who was born three years after the R.M.S. Titanic sank, happened to be dressed in a hand-beaded gown from the Edwardian period. We weren’t too concerned about this lapse, however, until we entered Arrows and were ushered to our seats by 40-year-old co-owner Clark Frasier.

Frasier, a tall, handsome, blond is always nattily attired, but on this occasion he was sporting a spectacular tuxedo, complete with glittering vest and white bow tie. As a matter of fact, the entire wait staff was dressed in specially fitted tuxedos and the cumulative impact of this visual was dramatic.

As is the custom at this 18th-century former farmhouse, a magnificent four-foot high arrangement of fresh flowers greeted us as we entered the main dining room, but something was slightly off. “Of course,” I muttered to myself as I looked again at the framed French antique posters on the wall. They were all tilting to the right. “That’s not an accident,” my waitress said as she served me a fresh glass of Moet & Chandon White Star champagne. “We want you to feel like you are on a listing ship.”

My knowledgeable server also emphasized that Frasier and his partner, executive chef Mark Gaier, care so much about authentic details that they designed a sumptuous five-course menu very similar to the one eaten by passengers in the first-class dining saloon. Some recipes, including the dessert “Oranges en Surprise”, a simple hollowed out orange filled with frozen orange sherbet, topped with meringue and torched to resemble a mini baked Alaska, were based on the actual recipes served on that fateful night of April 14, 1912.

Arrows was not the only restaurant in the country to play off of the enormous popularity of the book A Night To Remember, the cookbook Last Dinner on the Titanic, or the movie Titanic last year, nor will it be the only restaurant this year. “Titanic evenings” have been, and still are, celebrated at upscale restaurants and hotels that want to differentiate themselves as specialty institutions. Theme nights also allow restaurants to build a rapport with their patrons, as well as educate them about the finer indulgences. But theme nights, if they are done with respect for historical accuracy, require a huge commitment of time, which is why most restaurants only produce these events on occasion. This year Arrows decided to produce 14 of them.

Three that I attended this spring: “An Evening in Charleston” (the cuisine of the old south), “An Evening in Barcelona” (with tapas and other great food of Spain), and “An Upcountry Hawaiian BBQ” (a night of island treats and aloha) were profoundly different from each other in terms of ingredients and flavor, yet strangely alike in that the seasonings were never overpowering and even barbecue presentations were far from crude.

“We try to be very accurate,” Frasier told me one sunny morning a few weeks ago as we sat on a bench several feet away from his bountiful and meticulously maintained vegetable gardens. “But we look for recipes that are appealing to us. For example, Roman tastes were very different from ours. They laced things with a tremendous amount of herbs, fish sauce, and wine. When we created a Roman dinner last year, we used some of these ingredients sparingly to capture the essence of certain dishes, but we refined them with stock and altered them for Western tastes.”

Frasier also acknowledged that theme nights could never happen without the support of his very able and willing staff. I know this claim is not an exaggeration since I made a special effort to watch the kitchen staff of Arrows produce “An Upcountry Hawaiian BBQ” from start to finish two weeks ago. The menu included lettuces, herbs, and baby bok choy that could be picked fresh from Arrows’ gardens. The snapper and rock shrimp cakes were not terribly difficult to cook, nor was the aku poke (raw ahi tuna tossed with lime juice, sesame oil, ginger and seasonings) or the grilled New York steak with teriyaki marinade. But the 26-pound suckling pigs — which night-sous-chef Justin Walker determined had to be brined; then marinated in chopped pineapple, plum purée, chopped cilantro, and ginger for two days; then wrapped in banana leaves, covered with additional kosher salt, and cooked indirectly over white hot coals in a 2 and a half by 4-inch pit; covered by a specially made galvanized tin cover; and checked every 20 minutes for eight hours — very nearly wiped him and the lead line cook out before service even began.

You would think that something so young that had been cooked so long amidst so much smoke would be tough or tasting of charcoal, but the indirect cooking and the banana leaves protected the baby pig. The skin was seared, but when Walker pulled the flesh away from the bone it was moist and soft, and when I took my first bite, I was transported by the tender texture and delicate flavor. Happily, nothing too strong was paired with this course. The coconut yam purée, long rice, apple onion relish, and baby bok choy were subtle accents and offered just enough sweetness, color, and contrasting crunch.

The only thing hard to swallow for some people dining at Arrows might be the price. If you go during the summer when the regional dinners take a sabbatical, you may be shocked to pay $39.95 for an a la carte entrée. But if you are smart, you will make a reservation now for the fall five-course regional dinners priced at $68 per person that begin again in October. Yes, they are costly. On the other hand, they are so entertaining, so informative, so beautiful, and so civilized that I don’t know any dedicated armchair traveler who could resist such an opportunity.

Jill Strauss can be reached at straussj@adelphia.net