The Maine Grind

We stopped off here for lunch and a break from driving, and were pleasantly surprised by the standard of the sandwiches. Available toasted, there was a late variety of fillings, and table service from friendly, helpful staff.
The coffees and desserts are also excellent, so if you’re ever passing through Ellsworth, the Maine Grind is well worth a visit.

We were staying in Acadia but needed to find free Wifi and a quiet place to work during the week-​never an easy feat on the road (we usually end up going to McDonalds, ugh). We found both at the Maine Grind, a quirky little coffee shop/​restaurant/​art gallery conveniently located just off 3. The hazelnut coffee was fresh and delicious, the chicken park sub was top notch, and they were even playing old timey music, my favorite! It definitely got crowded but remained pretty quiet. There are quite a few sockets but don’t hog them and offer to plug others in. We’ll be back again for sure. My only gripe is the lack of parking past two hour spots. We watched the meter maid walk by at least one time every hour. Could use a free lot!

We went in for coffee to go. Long wait. Unhappy, unsmiling staff. It was really noisy. The cappuccino was a cup full of foam with maybe a tablespoon of espresso. :(

Unimpressive. Coffee selection is limited and the baristas wouldn’t last long in a real coffee house.

We had been to this place before, I think October 2013, and it was OK. I remember I liked their caesar salad but my friend said the soup was really bad, so we thought we would try it again. It’s in a great location, and the atmosphere is pretty cool with the art gallery right there, but the guy at the register just wasn’t really all there… We ordered a latte, chai tea, mixed berry smoothie, and two caesar salads. What we got was a latte, a chai, and two mixed green salads. My friend said it was one of the worst chai teas she had had. When we did get the caesar salads, the lettuce was brown in parts, no croutons, and no anchovies like we had also asked (and they advertised). But we figured we should just cut our losses, eat, and move on. Probably won’t eat here again, but it would have gotten 2 stars if not for the location and atmosphere.

Warm and welcoming on a frosty afternoon. Great place to recharge and warm up. Free wifi is a bonus.

I was there during the lunch rush, although most of the people were waiting for a table. It’s now Cleonece and Maine Grind as one, not sure if the menu has changed. I opted for a take away sandwich since I thought it would be quicker. I was wrong. I waited for at least 20 minutes for my melted Fontina and artichoke pesto on foccacia. It was tasty, as were the pickles, but pretty small for the price. I wouldn’t make the sandwich larger, but charge less.
Last time I was here it was crowded and a long wait as well. Not sure I would go back except at a quiet time. Or order ahead to take out.

The espresso here is as good as anyplace I’ve been. I came here on two occasions a few days apart so I can verify that it wasn’t one particular barista but that the staff overall that seems to know how to pour a shot and cares enough to do it right!

If I lived closer I could see this being a regular stop for me. The coffee and chai were great as were the breakfast sandwich and wrap. They have free wifi, tables as well as couches to relax on. The Cleonice restaurant is moving in and sharing the space later this month and I don’t know if it will change the vibe here.

Stopped by here for a bite to eat while walking around Ellsworth recently. It was mid-​afternoon so we passed on the coffee and opted for the sandwiches. Wife had the grilled cheese with sliced tomato (she pronounced it a big «meh») and I had the caprese which was quite delicious. Fresh mozz and tomato with lots of my favorite basil. Not only the fresh stuff but also in a good slathering of pesto on the bread.
The garnish was a fabulous house made pickle. I don’t normally gush about pickles but my oh my this thing was good. Even my wife liked it and she hates pickles. I’d go back just for another pickle.
At least the pickle made up for the handful of straight from the bag plain potato chips which attempted to fill the void as a «side.» To that I say nay. If you put that kind of love into a pickle then put a little love into some coleslaw or potato salad.

My wife was not impressed with the pre-​made sandwiches. She was expecting better and was disappointed. We also think it’s a mistake for Cleonice to move into that building. I’ve seen too many restaurants move to expand and lose their charm.

This is a great coffee shop in a remote part of Maine, was happy to find it. They had Chai and good coffee and lots of baked goods, sandwiches and the perfunctory lobster roll. A good selection of sodas, from Maine Root to Spindrift (yay, Charlestown, MA).
They also have wi-​fi, which they put a jar out for a pay what you think it’s worth… which is cool, so it’s either free or a small tip…
It seems like a nice earthy crunchy place to hang, have lunch, or coffee and a pastry, surf the web, multi-​function sorta bohemian vibe to it.
And compared to the tourist traps in Bar Harbor and the rest of the stuff around Acadia, this was a breath of fresh air, I didn’t mind giving these folks my money and receiving some good stuff in return.
Oh and don’t let the crass commercialism of Bar Harbor turn you away, Acadia is beautiful, but just don’t expect too much from Bar Harbor… it’s built to grab you by the ankles and shake every last penny from your pockets…

we stumbled upon this neat little coffee shop in ellsworth while in search for a local bakery… this place definitely had one of those small town coffee joint feel to it… they had a lovely selection of breakfast items… wild blueberry muffins, bagels and different types of breakfast wraps… I’m giving 4 stars based on the lovely breakfast choices and becus they have a huge parking lot in the back on this kind of busy street which was awesome! If we weren’t just in search of buying breakfast to bring back to the house, I would have loved to enjoy the cabin-​ish atmosphere while sippin’ on a latte :) … maybe next time

Hung out there on a rainy summer afternoon, I used the free wi-​fi and drank a cup of .99 cent coffee. This place rules!

Delicious breakfasts and very friendly service. The bagel and lox I had was great tasting, and the café itself is very cozy and comfortable if you are there to use their free wi-​fi.

Ok, this place is so nicely done and very relaxing. Good pastries and lunch until 2pm. I can agree wholeheartedly with Christine K.‘s reveiw.
Can’t wait to comeback since my Boothbay Harbor coffee shop closed. Ellsworth is my new fave spot.

Good café food, I recommend the blueberry smoothie. Wifi access is available, and Internet speed is good. The place is nice and cozy, leather couches etc.

We came here for breakfast and for the wi-​fi, since the hotel where we stayed at the night before was supposed to have wifi, but didn’t. I LOVE that the Maine Grind had a wide selection of Mighty Leaf teas. Most cafes that carry the brand at all only have two or three kinds.
They have conventional and organic teas, sandwiches (egg, veggie), breakfast wraps, soups, pastries, muffins and bagels, and I’m sure many other things I’ve left out.
The Maine Grind doesn’t just have wi-​fi. They have entire power strips and multiple outlet adapters to enable the internet addiction of nearly everyone who comes in and grabs a seat. Compare this to the coffeeshops I’ve gone to, where the outlet-​to-​customer ratio is something like 1:20. On their internet accessibility alone (and laid-​back atmosphere), the Maine Grind would have gotten 4 – 5 stars.
The food, however, is what brought them down to 3 stars; I would have given them 2 stars if I didn’t need the wi-​fi so badly and had simply gone there to eat. I ordered a quiche with small salad ($ 7.50) and my boyfriend had the bagel and lox ($ 6.50).
The quiche I received was the saddest-​looking I’d ever seen. It looked and tasted more like steamed-​then-​burnt (I mean, baked) egg custard with flecks of green pepper. I’ve had better quiche from a supermarket. The small salad that it came with was composed of mixed greens, straight from a box of mixed greens or mesclun salad, drowning in balsamic vinaigrette. I love salad dressing, but the amount on those few leaves was just disgusting; it was more fitting over three or four times the amount of salad. I tried to rub the leaves’ excess dressing on the side of the plate before eating, and I still felt too queasy to finish it.
My boyfriend liked his bagel and lox (mostly because he loves smoked salmon), but if I got what was essentially a breakfast sandwich with that big of a piece of onion on it, I wouldn’t have been happy. A huge piece of raw onion, first thing in the morning? Whose brilliant idea was that?
In retrospect, the food was on the expensive side, especially considering the portion and the quality. I hope their other menu items are better; otherwise, you’d be better off just sticking to drinks. And the free wi-​fi, of course.

As was already said, the Maine Grind is a great office… a coffee shop reminiscent of the once great coffee shops of Chicago, where you might pay a couple bucks for unlimited amounts of coffee that you would punctuate every so often with a pastry, a sandwich, or possibly something from fermented grains or grapes if you were working into the wee-​hours.
The food is well thought out, and well executed for such a small «kitchen.» The baked goods are made locally, as is the coffee (well, roasted). Local fare, and local art, punctuate the menu, and the walls, respectively. The yellow walls remind me of Urbis Orbis in Chicago, but for different reasons… Urbis’s walls were once white. You can’t smoke anywhere anymore, which isn’t bad for your lungs, but boy does it cut down on the level of interesting people in a place…
The breakfast burritos are tiny, though. Half a burrito is not a breakfast, nor is half an egg. Charge another 1.50 and give me the whole damn thing, please.
Free wifi, because the new coffee house is the internet. At least people here talk as well as use their computers.

I don’t live in this town but whenever I visit I make sure to come to the Maine Grind which is in a neat old brick building on the mainely quaint part of Ellsworth, Main St.
Maine Grind has great strong coffee from Rockland, free wifi, nice old wood floors and awesome bagels with smoked salmon that comes from Stonington. They also have great homemade soups and the usual smattering of pastries, from local bakeries.
In addition to tables there are some leather couches that are especially fun if you have kids.
Since my last visit an awesome craft store owned by 7 local artists /​craftspeople has opened with really cool glass, rock art, ceramics etc.
If you’re in Ellsworth or passing through en route to Bar Harbor and want coffee, just swing a right on Maine and you’ll see it in half a block. As someone who lives for a good café, trust me that you’ll love it!
This may sound like an ad but in fact it’s really just a San Franciscan stoked to have a great café in Ellsworth.