Worry free

Woody’s is good, and good for you

By Jill Strauss

Woody’s Bar & Grill,
43 Middle Street, Portland, (207) 253-5042.

Tues. through Thurs. from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 5 to 10 p.m., on Fri. from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to close, and on Sat. from 3 p.m. to close.

All major credit cards.

Full bar.

WHAT ABOUT THOSE POOR APPLE TREES?: Woody’s impresses with a fruit-grilled flavor.

In the background, Joni Mitchell is singing about rows and floes of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air. I close my eyes and sway to the strumming of Mitchell’s acoustic guitar. I am not in Portland on a blustery January day in the year 2002, trying to keep warm while waiting for my lunch to be served. No . . . it is 1969 and I am in San Diego, on a beach, watching the clouds as Joni describes them and listening to the crashing surf. My young waitress with the ring in her nose, oblivious to my reverie, places my order in front of me. Mindlessly, I stop humming “Both Sides Now” so that I can bite into my Baha-style fish tacos.

Two crunchy, sizzling strips of batter-fried loins of shark are folded into warm, faintly smoky corn tortillas with zesty salsa verde and shards of shredded cabbage. The dish is finished with a squirt of lime and honey-infused sour cream. So lightly done, so delicately flavored — I must be California dreamin’. But then the front door of the restaurant opens and a blast of cold air shocks me back into reality: I’m not sunbathing on a beach in southern California. I’m eating lunch at Woody’s Bar and Grill in southern Maine.

My companion, a well-traveled woman with sophisticated tastes, does not share my lust for tacos, but the menu is so limited, and so focused on the house specialty (burgers) that she succumbs to the pressure and orders a cheeseburger, medium-rare on grilled deli rye. When it arrives, however, we both gasp with pleasure. Her sandwich oozes with melted Swiss and cheddar cheeses and underneath her perfectly grilled, hormone-free chopped beef are silky caramelized onions. While my friend picks on her homemade French fries, I insist on taking a bite of her burger. The quality of this meat (courtesy of Caldwell Farms in Turner, Maine) is impressive — sweet and fresh tasting and not the kind of patty you would find at most fast-food joints. “It’s so different órom McDonald’s fast food — where the meat is over-processed, frozen, and thawed,” says Jon Green, the 31-year-old chef/owner of Woody’s Bar and Grill during a recent telephone interview. “My fast food is not going to do you any harm at all.”

I don’t know if I would go that far. I admit Green’s onion rings are the thinnest I’ve ever seen. And the fries are quite slender looking. Even the four-ounce hamburgers seem dainty, but I doubt your cardiologist would approve of this chic cholesterol-laden food as a steady diet, especially if you can’t resist slathering the above with Green’s homemade garlic-roasted mayonnaise. You can opt for more healthful choices, however. There’s always the Boca Burger (It’s not a bad pre-made vegetarian patty, but I’d prefer a homemade veggie burger) or better yet, order the blackened chicken sandwich. The breast is a little spicy and cooked till the outside is charred and the inside is juicy.

At dinner, Green has been known to roast his free–range Island Acres chickens and serve them with seared polenta wedges and sautéed organic Swiss chard. Dinner prices are not any heftier than lunch prices, though, and you can still get a sandwich, a taco, or a burger at dinner. You can even order a traditional English breakfast at dinner that includes eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, grilled tomato, sautéed mushrooms, and toast — all for $7.50. Need a little fresh OJ to wash down your breakfast? No problem. If you prefer something stronger, especially at dinner, try a bottle of Callahan Hill’s Australian Shiraz. (Woody’s offers 17 food-friendly, mostly European, bottles of wine and none of them exceeds $18.) Or try a draft of Boddington’s Cream Ale. The creamy Irish brew nicely complemented the grilled beef fajita special I ordered one evening.

There are only two desserts to choose from, and I would go with the dense, and intensely flavored, gelato, since the apple cranberry crisp we dug into was mealy and a bit too tart. Although the crisp needs some work, I was contented with everything else that I consumed at this quirky, greaseless spoon.

One of the reasons the food tastes so good at Woody’s is because most of it is cooked over a custom-made, apple-wood fired grill. Green, who learned a lot about grilling over apple wood back when he worked at Fore Street, fell in love with the sweet, smoky quality of the fruit wood and decided that when he opened his own restaurant, grilled fare would be the focus. The décor of Woody’s (named after Green’s beloved grill) is as stripped down as the menu — a few close-up photos of vintage cars decorate the repointed brick wall beside the five green booths. The floors, which have been sanded down, still have an unfinished look, the modern lighting fixtures are almost adequate, and the two small ceiling fans try in vain to spread some heat around.

It only seats 25 and it’s nothing fancy, but if you like intelligently prepared, upscale fast food for a fair price, you’ll love Woody’s Bar and Grill.

Jill Strauss can be reaced at straussj@adelphi.net.