Supper Club: A winter’s feast with Aragosta
by Mike Haimes
When Essie and I first moved to Maine in 2019, one of the things we talked about most was finding a corner of this state we could truly root ourselves in. Not just a place to visit, but a place to return to year after year until it became part of the fabric of our family's life. That search led us, thankfully, to Deer Isle.
Our annual trip has become the most sacred days of our year. There is a stillness there that is hard to find anywhere else, a quality of light and quiet that makes the rest of the world recede in the best possible way. We hike through rocky coastal forests, the girls gobbling wild raspberries and blackberries plucked along the way, we lounge by secret ponds and tide pools, and we crack local lobster and crab at a pop-up dinner in someone's side yard on Burnt Cove. If that sounds too good to be true, I hear you — but this place actually exists. Just don't tell too many people.
One of our family's favorite things to do is walk the mossy, otherworldly path to Barred Island Preserve, a stretch of forest that feels lifted from the pages of Tolkien, accessible only at low tide. Our daughters scramble through the trees, over rocks and ferns and soft green light, arriving at the island with the particular elation that only a hike like that produces.
And then, on the other side of that adventure, we sit down to dinner at Aragosta. I am not sure food has ever tasted as good as it does in that moment. After a day like that, in a place like that, with people you love, Chef Devin Finigan's dining experience does something that goes beyond delicious. It feels like the whole day and the very spirit of Maine arriving on a plate.
We have dined at Aragosta every year since discovering Deer Isle, and we are clearly not alone in our devotion. Food & Wine has named the restaurant to its prestigious lists three years running, just this week honoring Aragosta as the number one hotel for food and drink in America, alongside praise from the New York Times, Bon Appétit, and a James Beard Award nomination. What no accolade can capture, though, is the particular magic of sitting down to one of her meals at the end of a day on Deer Isle. That part you have to experience for yourself.
So it has been one of the genuine privileges of our work to come to call Devin and her team friends, and to welcome them back for their third consecutive Supper Club season, transporting some of that Deer Isle magic into our cozy barn in Buxton. One of the quiet joys of their return is seeing the same familiar faces each year, from management and service to the beverage program and pastry. It speaks to the way Aragosta invests in its people, and that investment shows.
When the invitation goes out for an Aragosta evening, tickets do not last long. This Valentine's eve dinner was no exception, selling out just six minutes after launch. And when February 13th arrived, it was clear that the anticipation had been worth every second of the wait.
Snow-dusted boardwalks, fire lit pines, and a barn glowing with candlelight set the scene for a fitting finale to the 2026 season. Guests arrived at the winter grove for cocktail hour where, in addition to a champagne bar, two handcrafted cocktails anchored the offering: the Snow Bird, a bright tropical rum with overproof rum, salers, lillet, cocchi, pineapple, lime, and orgeat; and the Chai Five, a warm spiced chai cocktail with galliano, creme de cacao, ginger, and cream.
Passed hors d'oeuvres moved through the crowd as guests skated or cozied by the fire: a crab croustade with brown butter, blood orange, and Calabrian chili; a potato churro topped with crème fraîche, caviar, and leek; and a duck pastrami tart with cream cheese, pickled beet, and rye. Each bite was a study in texture, rich and bright, familiar and surprising.
As guests moved into the barn, Chef Finigan opened supper with a scallop crudo dressed in buttermilk, celery, apple, and walnut: clean and precise, with the quiet confidence that characterizes her cooking at its best. An absolute home run, especially considering February is scallop season in Maine. A mushroom pithivier followed, deeply savory with fried maitake and gruyere encased in pastry. The main course was a pepper-crusted venison alongside beet pavé, fennel relish, and beet demi. It was elevated, bold, earthy, and entirely at home in a Maine winter barn.
Dessert arrived in two acts: first a palate cleanser of passion fruit with coconut and coriander mousse, offering a bright lift. Then, a visually stunning conclusion with a rose hibiscus veil over ras el hanout chocolate mousse, with confit blood orange, marzipan, candied almond, and shiso.
If the Supper Club dinner offered a window into Chef Finigan's cooking at its most refined, her debut cookbook offers something equally compelling: the food she makes at home. A Kitchen on Goose Cove: Recipes from the Heart of Maine, publishing May 19, 2026 and available for pre-order now, is written for the home cook and built around the ingredients and rhythms of life on the Deer Isle coast. The 75 recipes reflect what Chef Finigan actually cooks, rooted in Maine's most iconic ingredients, approachable in execution, and alive with the same sense of place that makes a meal at Aragosta so memorable. With 100 photographs and a foreword by Erin French of The Lost Kitchen, it is a love letter to Maine as much as it is a cookbook. Pre-order your copy today.
To Devin and the entire Aragosta team: thank you. For the food, for the warmth, for showing up for our community three years running with everything you have. This barn in Buxton is a better place for having hosted you, and we hope it always will be. See you in 2027 — round four awaits.
2027 Supper Club season details will be coming in the fall. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know when dates and chefs are announced.
A portion of proceeds from this evening was donated to Food For All Services, a local organization providing nourishing food and essential resources to immigrants and refugees in Maine.
Collaborators: Photo - Searching the Shadows, Florals - Timber & Moss, Bar cart - The Roaming Speakeasy, Rentals - One Stop Event Rentals, Lighting - Griffin & Griffin Lighting
