In less than four years of writing this column, I’ve seen some bar locations turn over as many three times. The latest is the former Lady and the Mensch in Saco, which was one of my favorites and saddened me when it closed. New owners renamed the bar Unwind, but they didn’t last long and, in turn, sold it to another pair of owners, who kept the name but completely revamped the cocktail menu.
My three drinking companions and I showed up on a Tuesday, which is cribbage night at Unwind. Cribbage starts at 5 p.m., so when we arrived shortly before 5:30, the high-top tables and many of the seats at the bar (which I am pleased to report has purse hooks underneath) were already taken by a lively and friendly crowd. Luckily, the front portion of Unwind has two seating areas with sofas and armchairs, so we settled in and took a look at the menu. It gets noisy quickly, so it might not be the best place to bring someone who is hearing impaired, especially not on a busy night.
There appeared to be only one person working, which made it even more impressive that the service was excellent. I don’t know how she did it, but we never had to wait long, and she bent over backwards to ensure that we were happy. We had been looking forward to checking out the “delicious snacks” that Unwind’s Facebook page had advertised for that evening, so we were disappointed to learn that they did not, in fact, have any food. I was really hungry, so I was delighted when our server scrounged up some pretzel thins to tide us over. I don’t care if she found them at the bottom of her purse – I just wanted something in my stomach before the cocktail tasting began.
From Unwind’s cocktail menu: Rocas de la Fortuna, Fortitude, Remember the Maine, and the Pepperelborough.
And what a cocktail tasting it was! I ordered the Rocas de la Fortuna (rum, lime, grapefruit and byrrh, a French aperitif made from red wine and quinine). One friend ordered the Pepperelborough (Unwind’s version of a Manhattan), featuring whiskey, Timbal sweet red vermouth and oak bitters. Another ordered the Remember the Maine (Unwind’s take on a margarita), made with tequila, sherry and yuzu and lime juices, and finished off with a cinnamon rim. The third ordered the Fortitude (Unwind’s twist on a Moscow mule), containing vodka, ginger beer, pineapple, ginger and a house-made turmeric shrub. All cocktails were $11 if made with house liquor and $14 if made with local spirits. Many of them come as spirit-free/mocktail versions for $9.
All four drinks blew us away. Each one came in a different type of glassware, and they were all visually stunning, with balanced layers of flavor combined in ways we hadn’t tried before. All four tasted phenomenal, but my absolute favorite was the Fortitude (a surprise, since I’m not a huge fan of Moscow mules), with the Remember the Maine a close second. You wouldn’t think a cinnamon rim would work on a drink like that, but it did. I now want to add yuzu juice to all my margaritas.
Unwind has two other signature cocktails, including their flagship Water + Main (the name of the two streets that intersect where Unwind is located), a martini made with vodka, dry vermouth, orange bitters and salers, a bitter French aperitif made from white wine. They also offer four wines by the glass ($10) and have $9 rotating local drafts.
I’m still marveling that the drinks were impressive enough to calm down Hangry Angie. If that doesn’t convince you to stop by Unwind, I don’t know what will.
Retired diplomat Angie Bryan writes about Maine’s cocktail bars while making as many puns as her editor allows.
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