With stark decor, Bread & Olive doesn’t exactly have a cozy vibe you might associate with a wine bar. Photo by Angie Bryan
A little over a year after it opened, I made it to Bread & Olive, on the corner of Congress and Valley streets in Portland, next to the Inn at St. John. Owned by Sarah Martin, who also owns Bar of Chocolate in the Old Port, Bread & Olive is a wine and martini bar that also serves a limited menu of small plates.
When I think of a wine and martini bar, I think of someplace cozy and comfortable, perhaps a bit upscale. That’s not the vibe at Bread & Olive, where the lighting is surprisingly harsh and the décor relatively stark, although I appreciated the photos on the walls. All of the seating is wooden and not overly comfortable. But on a positive note, there are hooks under the bar.
One of the best things about Bread & Olive is the price of the cocktails compared to most places in the nearby Old Port; the 17 mostly classic cocktails on the menu are between $10 and $12. I went with one of my perennial favorites, a key lime martini, for $12. My drinking companion ordered a Sazerac. The Sazerac was good but wasn’t traditional. There was orange instead of lemon, which came in the glass instead of expressed over the top, and we were pretty sure from the overt sweetness that the bartender used simple syrup instead of muddling the bitters with a sugar cube. My key lime pie martini, however, was perfection. It featured the most beautiful graham cracker crumb rim I’ve ever seen, and the flavor balance was 100% on point. Unfortunately, our drinks arrived about five minutes apart. (Despite it being a Saturday night, there was only one table of four people and one other person at the bar, who left shortly after we arrived. The bartender definitely wasn’t slammed.)
Sazerac and key lime pie martini from Bread & Olive. Photo by Angie Bryan
We both ordered a grilled cheese sandwich on sourdough that came with a simple green salad. Both were amazing – the salad rivaled ones I’ve had in France. After dinner we looked at the dessert wine and drinks menu. When I saw a $10 chocolate Skrewball shot (Skrewball being my beloved peanut butter whiskey), complete with a side order of sugar cookies, I knew it had to happen. Plus, my drinking companion is allergic to nuts, so I knew I wouldn’t have to share.
I was confused when my “shot” came in a coffee cup and was steaming hot. Turns out a better description would have been “hot chocolate spiked with Skrewball.” An even better description would have been “this might just be the best thing you’ve ever tasted.” Transportative, for sure.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the wine list. It had six whites by the glass, two sparkling, five reds, a Sangria and five dessert wines, at very reasonable prices compared to elsewhere in town, ranging from $7.50 to $12. There wasn’t as much geographic variety as I would have expected at a wine bar, with all the wines coming from Europe or California.
At several points it felt like Bread & Olive had cut corners just a bit too much in an effort to save money. Water was served in hard plastic glasses like in a cafeteria, the Diet Coke I ordered turned out to be Hannaford’s generic version of diet cola (don’t try this at home), and the sugar cookies were clearly commercially made.
That said, the bartender was lovely and service was great, aside from the timing of our drinks. If I lived in the neighborhood, I’d definitely give it another try.
Retired diplomat Angie Bryan writes about Maine’s cocktail bars while making as many puns as her editor allows.
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