TWELVE’s Award Winning Lobster Roll According to ESQUIRE Magazine.

Chef Colin Wyatt, at  TWELVE Restaurant on the Portland Waterfront This Summer Just Days Before it’s mid-July Opening.

Once again, TWELVE restaurant chef Colin Wyatt, has brought to Portland, Maine more accolades for this waterfront restaurant on the east end of Portland that opened for the first time in mid-July 2022.  It was announced today that ESQUIRE has named TWELVE one of the 40 best new restaurants in the country for 2022.

This time chef Wyatt is recognized for his reinvention of the iconic Maine lobster roll that he has brought to new heights of deliciousness and presentation – the “fanciest lobster roll ever.”  Chef Wyatt uses an entire half lobster presented in a small “very buttery” bed of dough according to the magazine piece.  The article also points out that there are twelve items on the prix fixe menu – the name of the restaurant itself. A theme carried out from the history of the brick pattern storehouse dating back to 1895 – the year the structure was built to the present.

In addition to this honor from ESQUIRE, back in September of 2022, the NEW YORK TIMES named TWELVE one of the fifty best restaurants in the country.  In January of this year, VOGUE magazine named TWELVE one of the ten most anticipated restaurants to watch this year.  The new restaurant that opened on the Munjoy HIll waterfront in mid-July of 2022 has more than lived up to that anticipation!.

The red brick pattern storehouse in which the restaurant is housed was originally the pattern storehouse for the Portland Company, 58 Fore Street, Portland. The Portland Company was the major manufacturing company in the area and the largest employer in the area “back in the day.”  Built in 1895, the structure was referred to as building number 12 and built separate from the other structures for a reason.  In the unfortunate  event of a fire, building 12 and its valuable patterns used repeatedly by Portland Company would be spared.  Whether that was ever put to the test is unknown by this blogger. But, restaurant owner Casey Prentice, of Prentice Hospitality, thoughtfully named the new restaurant by that original number.

The recognition of the Maine lobster in this manner by ESQUIRE could not come at a better time.  In recent months, the Maine lobster has come under devastating attacks from environmental groups who falsely accuse Maine lobstermen of disregarding protections of the North Atlantic right whale.

Chef Colin Wyatt was formerly sous chef at the award winning Eleven Madison Park, New York City.  Wyatt once told this blogger that his wife who is from Maine wanted to return home to Maine.  “What could I say?” he said to this blogger, laughing.  She is employed by the government and works remotely.

TWELVE is part of a major development taking place in almost ten acres of valuable waterfront property on the east end of Portland.  Currently under construction on the same site is the new SUNLIFE corporate headquarters.  A food market, hotel and residences are planned for the future.  SUNLIFE is expected to open in May of 2023.

For more background information on TWELVE and its history, please visit post herein dated September 19, 2022.