After spending an afternoon at Shire Sharing and the early evening driving around New Hampshire, we began to get hungry. Don’t get me wrong, they fed us at Shire Sharing. But that was hours ago.
We left Shire Sharing and explored Manchester. After a bit, we headed on to a town called Exeter, New Hampshire. On the way there, we noticed a grinding sound on our front left. We found a great little place in Exeter called Graham Tire & Auto. They took our car in at 30 minutes before closing, diagnosed the issue with Ebony, got the parts, fixed her and got us back on the road before closing time. And, they did it all for less than the estimated price.
We left Exeter heading towards the larger town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We fired up Yelp and picked a restaurant. When we arrived, there were things going on in their downtown and we could not find parking. We circled many city blocks multiple times and still no luck.
Mama Nomad said, “Hey! Kittery, Maine is literally a mile or two away. Let’s try it!” Game for adventure but not wanting to go far because of our hunger, we headed on over to Maine. Again we fired up Yelp and found a few places. One stuck out to me and with a description and a suggestion from me, we were off to Rudders Public House in Kittery, Maine.
We arrived in front of Rudders and the parking situation was similar to Portsmouth; there was none! However, I was determined to find something this time. We circled the blocks until I found a law firm’s parking lot about a block away. We checked for signs of “Don’t park here or we’ll tow you away.” After we carefully reconned the whole area we determined no signs existed, we parked Ebony and we made out way to Rudders.
When we got there, the interior was packed. On top of that, the capacity was a little on the smaller side; like a neighborhood pub (which it was). We were promptly greeted and asked if we wanted to wait for an inside spot or eat outside. Now, to help you understand things better, it was between 30 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside. So the prospect of eating outside was not exactly appealing. But, they had heaters overhead and the deck was enclosed in rainproof plastic. We were quite toasty.
Emma, our wonderful server, came out to greet us. I say wonderful because she was polite, upbeat and very friendly. She maintained this throughout our entire time there and kept our drinks full. Big bonus for us! It didn’t take us long to decide on our order.
The selections we chose ranged from bacon wrapped meat loaf to a grilled chicken sandwich with shredded BBQ pork and coleslaw on it. On top of all of this, when the fries came out, they were curly (even though they were advertised as regular). This made Mama Nomad happy as she enjoys curly fries. They even had chicken pot pie soup! That was a new one for us. And, another bonus, they had Scottish Ale on tap. This is one of my favorites.
While we waited on the food as well as while we ate, one thing I kept thinking was “what a great atmosphere.” The vibe was pretty chill and relaxed while modern music was being played over the sound system as we were taken care of by a wonderful server and friendly staff that made us feel like we came there all the time.
The pricing was reasonable, the food was good and the service was excellent. We do not commonly frequent a place twice while on the road, but, I can tell you, if we are in the vicinity of Rudders Public House in Kittery, Maine, Daddy Nomad is going to make another visit. Safe Travels.
