"Portland Maine's benchmark table — book Twelve for Colin Wyatt's modern New England prix fixe in a rebuilt 1860s brick hall."
Twelve opened on Portland's East End as the dining centrepiece of the Portland Foreside redevelopment. Its home is Building 12 of the old Portland Company rolling-stock works — a 150-year-old brick structure that was taken apart, tagged brick by brick and reassembled a few yards away on a new frame. The kitchen is led by chef Colin Wyatt, back in Maine after twelve years at New York's Daniel and Eleven Madison Park, and the room was named an Esquire Best New Restaurant.
The format is a seasonal twelve-dish prix fixe of modern New England cooking, leaning hard on the coastline — oysters, lobster, day-boat fish and Maine produce, handled with the precision Wyatt's pedigree implies. The signature bite is the warm sweet potato milk-bread Parker House rolls with brown butter, an early course people remember. The pastry and service lines are similarly New York-trained. The full menu sits in the top ($$$$) bracket; an à la carte option runs alongside it for a lighter spend.
The room makes the building the star: exposed brick, soaring height and big windows over the harbour-side development, warm rather than austere. Service is polished and well-drilled for a city this size. It suits a long, marked-occasion dinner; book the prix fixe ahead, especially on weekends, and take your time. The bar and à la carte seating offer a lower-commitment way in if the full menu is more than the evening calls for.
For an anniversary, a proposal or a client dinner that needs to land, Twelve is Portland's most ambitious choice: the rebuilt hall, the prix fixe and the New York-trained service all serve the occasion. A natural anniversary and proposal table, and a strong impress-clients booking.
Not for a quick casual meal or a tight budget — Twelve is a top-priced, multi-course prix fixe built for a planned occasion, though the bar offers a lighter way in.
Twelve is at 115 Thames St in the Portland Foreside development on Portland's East End, in the rebuilt Building 12 of the old Portland Company works.
Colin Wyatt, who returned to Maine after twelve years at Daniel and Eleven Madison Park in New York, leads the kitchen.
A seasonal twelve-dish prix fixe of modern New England cooking, with an à la carte option and bar seating alongside.
The warm sweet potato milk-bread Parker House rolls with brown butter are the signature, alongside the coastal seafood courses.
Yes. The full prix fixe sits in the top price bracket; the bar and à la carte offer a lighter-spend way to experience the kitchen.
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