A hum-dinghy

Right off the boat at New England Shrimp Company

By Kathy Gunst

New England Shrimp Company, 148 Main Street (located around the back of the building, off Water Street), Saco, (207) 282-5100. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner served Tues. through Sun. from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and from 4:30 to 9 p.m. Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and Amex accepted. Full bar.

REAL GOOD: Fresh, simple seafood comes to Saco.

It’s the kind of winter day that dazzles the senses. A few inches of fresh powder, brilliant sunshine, with blue skies and puffy white clouds that look straight out of a Magritte. I’m driving north with my good friend, the artist, who is sketching the clouds as we whiz by at 65 mph. We’re headed to the New England Shrimp Company, a new seafood spot in downtown Saco.

When we pull up to a renovated mill building and discover that the parking lot is full, I anticipate good things to come. Then I see the Saco River, moving along both sides of the restaurant, and catch a whiff of the always-alluring scent of French fries, and I’m ready for anything.

But when I walk into the place and see a room so bland and generic that it could be the dining room in a Hilton Hotel circa 1970, I begin to despair. We are seated facing a blank white wall and as soon as the waitress hands us the menu I know we can’t stay at this table. A couple leaves and we grab their prized spot, right by a huge window. I now have the sense that we’ve entered the “right” restaurant. The sun is pouring in, bouncing off the fast-moving water. There are nautical touches throughout the room, with a shelf of impressive model sailboats. Behind the bar, at the end of the long, narrow room, an old dinghy filled with a stainless steel table acts as a raw bar filled with fresh seafood each night.

It is seafood we have come for — fresh, local, and simple. Peel-and-eat shrimp (steamed with “house seasoning”) is offered along with local oysters, littleneck clams, steamers, and mussels. The signature shrimp, which come from Louisiana waters, can be ordered according to size (medium, large, jumbo, and colossal) — by the piece or by the pound. The jumbo shrimp arrive steaming hot, still in the shell, with savory bits of onion clinging to the them. Dipped into a potent cocktail sauce, with a dash of fresh, make-you-tear horseradish, the shrimp are perfection — tender, juicy, plump, and subtle with the flavors of bay leaf and peppercorns. Local oysters, just barely steamed and sitting in their shells along with a few precious drops of natural juice, taste like the ocean’s essence. Before we even peruse the menu we order more shrimp to tide us over.

Shrimp seems the natural thing to go for, so I choose the New England Shrimp Company Stew. A steaming hot, decadently rich brew of cream, fish stock, shreds of crabmeat, and (what appear to be) tiny bits of local Maine shrimp arrive. The first taste is dull and flat, like sipping hot cream. I add a serious hit of salt and pepper and miraculously the stew comes alive, full of depth and fresh ocean flavors. A more generous amount of seafood would make it a superb concoction.

My friend decides on the French onion soup — a classic beef broth with plenty of onions, topped with bread and gobs of melted cheese. She devours every last sip, but I find it much like every other French onion soup I’ve tasted in recent years — predictable and mediocre.

The lunch crowd, primarily over 65, begins to thin out as our main courses arrive. Broiled scallops turn out to be everything they are promised to be — exceedingly fresh with butter, a modest dusting of breadcrumbs and a few herbs. No fancy sauce masks the flavor of these sweet, nutty morsels. The Baked Stuffed Shrimp, traditionally a bready cliché, are butterflied and filled with a crisp crabmeat and bread stuffing that is excellent. Thick steak fries accompany the shrimp, golden brown and crisp on the outside and tender and flaky inside. The only problem with the meal is the vegetable — a pile of pre-cut carrots cooked with thin strips of red and yellow peppers that lack imagination, not to mention flavor.

Maine used to be filled with places like the New England Shrimp Company, where simply cooked, local seafood could be found at affordable prices. But old-fashioned fish houses have all but disappeared. We now have plenty of stuffy, overpriced seafood restaurants, or diners that more often than not serve frozen seafood “from away.” At New England Shrimp Company, the most expensive entrée at lunch is $8 for the scallops or shrimp; or a London broil, baked haddock, or fried shrimp plate. Dinner entrees offer many of the same choices, with the addition of several interesting steak dishes — or pork tenderloin topped with roasted shallot and rosemary demi glaze, grilled local salmon, and more. Dinner entrées range from a very reasonable $9 to $15.

As we watch the river move along, we try the apple crisp and a slice of chocolate mousse pie. The fresh-baked crisp, well-spiced with a fabulous, crunchy oat topping, is smothered by two huge scoops of store-bought vanilla ice cream. I’d much rather have a dollop of real whipped cream to compliment the apples. The mousse pie, made “off-premises” is dense and chocolatey; we don’t leave a single morsel.

If you’re looking for a solid, straightforward seafood house, New England Shrimp Company is a good bet. You won’t be dazzled, but chances are you won’t be disappointed either.