This South Portland Neighborhood Is Maine's Next Big Dining Destination

Beat the crowds to Knightville's seafood, soft serve, sandwiches, craft beer, and bread with true terroir.

Just across the Casco Bay Bridge from Portland, Maine, the South Portland neighborhood of Knightville has long been a locals’ hub, stretching from a location of sandwich chain Amato’s — founded in 1902 and home of the Maine Italian, a regional specialty — to Red’s Dairy Freeze, a classic shack from the 1950s, where the limited arrival of strawberry soft serve ice cream each summer is like a town holiday. The densest section features the lively Mill Creek Park and a shopping center by the same name, the state’s original strip mall.

But Knightville has finally become a destination in its own right, pulling visitors who might otherwise pass through without stopping on their way to iconic Fort Williams Park and other beaches in Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough. “It’s an amazing mix of long-lasting businesses and new,” says Lucas Myers, co-owner of SoPo Seafood, referencing community necessities like a bookstore, hardware store, post office, and mainstays like Verbena Cafe alongside exciting newcomers such as Cafe Louis, one of Myers’ favorites, and a brewpub called The Send Brewing Company coming this fall from Cole Corbin, the former director of brewing operations at Maine Beer Company.

SoPo Seafood is one of those places that draws serious gourmands “from away” as well as regulars from the area. The sustainably minded raw bar and fish market, which has its warehouse operations on Portland’s working waterfront, serves a selection of pristine local oysters and crudo, fresh lobster rolls and smoked trout rolls, kelp burgers, and a tight drink list — it’s like Eventide Oyster Co. meets Harbor Fish Market without the lines, at least for now. Myers and his co-owners, Matthew Brown and Joshua Edgcombe, bring to the table decades of experience in the industry, including time at Portland’s Browne Trading Company, which supplies seafood to some of the top restaurants around the country. “Approximately 95% of our seafood products come from the Gulf of Maine,” says Myers. “By directing dollars to our working waterfront, we believe we are helping to protect Maine’s ecology and economic base.”

From SoPo Seafood, it’s a short walk to another pair of hip new arrivals: Night Moves Bread and Lambs, in adjacent units at the same address. The best part is that the walk is mostly along the Greenbelt Walkway, a 5.6-mile separated walking and cycling path that runs the length of Knightville and beyond, all the way northeast to Bug Light Park, named for its adorably tiny lighthouse overlooking Portland. Over the course of about seven years and multiple production spaces, Kerry Hanney built Night Moves into one of the country’s best bakeries, stone-milling sustainably grown local grains in-house for sourdough breads that channel the terroir of Maine. In 2023, she moved the business to its current home, a former car service station now surrounded by boisterous flower boxes, between the Greenbelt and waterfront, where you can pick up loaves of Nordic rye and the New England classic anadama, chocolate chip and seasonal fruit thumbprint cookies, and BLTs with high-quality coffee and tea.

Night Moves has even instituted weekend pizza nights, so you can order a naturally leavened pie topped with pepperoni, anchovies, or seasonal veggies and take it next door to Lambs for drinks on the patio. Wade Ritchey also opened his business here in 2023, and since the food menu is mostly snacks like tinned fish and charcuterie with Night Moves breads, he hosts plenty of pop-ups. Pizza nights pair will with local beer, cocktails that lean heavily on fresh herbs like a Tarragon Gin Sour or Ant Reviver (gin, lemon, basil, olive brine, honey, and Herbsaint), and natural wine including Maine-made options like Oyster River Winegrowers’ Morphos pét-nat and R A S Wines’ blueberry bubbly, Arkadia. And you can’t beat the views of Casco Bay.

Knightville’s recent success is also attracting fresh expansions of popular Portland businesses. The Professional Bowling Association has said that Bayside Bowl may have the best view in bowling thanks to a unique lane-side lineup inside the cool Portland bar; its new sibling, Broadway Bowl, may have the best outdoor view in bowling, with a quiet, tree-lined back patio facing the water just a few steps down the Greenbelt from Lambs. Dok Mali, a buzzy restaurant on Portland’s India Street that mixes dim sum and Thai street food, just launched Dok Mali Noodle Bar in the same building as SoPo Seafood, where owner and head chef Nonglack Thanephonesy’s menu similarly juggles compelling East Asian flavors, from pad Thai to spicy cashew ramen, and playful cocktails like a Thai Long Island Iced Tea.

Thanephonesy was a regular in the neighborhood before opening up shop here, often dining with her daughter at Taco Trio — a beloved Mexican restaurant that, surprise, also started in Portland before landing in Knightville — and Cia, a chill cafe whose name stands for “coffee, ice cream, art.” “We are so grateful to be a part of a supportive, welcoming, and patient community,” Thanephonesy says. “So far everything has exceeded our expectations.”

For more Food & Wine news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Food & Wine.