The perfect setting for a Ralph Lauren photo shoot: Cape Porpise Harbor in Kennebunk, next to Pier 77 Restaurant and the Ramp Bar and Grill. Photo: Laura Butterworth Read

From Ralph Lauren shooting fashion spreads in Kennebunkport to Shipyard bottling beer for the Caribbean, as Maine goes, so goes the world.

Maybe you’ve seen Ralph Lauren’s “Kennebunkport” plaid, a cheerfully preppy red-and-white affair shot through with blue, green, and yellow. But did you know Lauren commissioned fashion shoots up here last summer, too? Whatever zeitgeist of ‘Maine’ he’s searching for, it seems to hang out at the Kennebunk River Club and in some of the old cottages along Ocean Avenue.

“Some of the shots were all about the timeless look of the River Club,” says Laura Butterworth Read, the founder of Portland Models Group, a talent agent, and today a real estate agent at Prudential Prime Properties of the Seacoast.

Shooting for the men’s catalog, the Lauren crews also ‘found Maine’ in “Andrea Irvine’s house on Ocean Avenue, across the street from the Stone House,” with views of Walkers Point. More mystique was unearthed “below Pier 77 in Cape Porpoise, next to all the buoys. We also went to the house the Harlans used to own on the lovely peninsula at the end of Middle Beach,” a sky-blue shingle-style classic perched on a rocky ledge.

For Read, it’s all in a day’s work. “As a real estate agent, I knew all the houses. As a talent agent, I was able to work with the crew, who stayed at the Portland Harbor Hotel by night, to help them find what they were looking for down here.”

by Amy Louise Barnett

“This restaurant is a very personal connection to my family’s love of Maine and Maine food,” Rebecca Charles says of her Pearl Oyster Bar in Manhattan. “My family’s gone to Maine during the summer ever since my grandparents started staying at Forest Hill House—now the White Barn Inn—in 1917.” Not only did Charles’s mother buy a house in Kennebunk, Charles herself lived in Maine “from 1979 to 1987, and I continue to visit several times a year.

“As an homage to my grandmother Pearle and my family’s long association with Maine,” she says, “I opened Pearl’s Oyster Bar 10 years ago. It’s a small restaurant with a big personality. To copy that personality is just criminal.”

Charles is embroiled in a knock-down drag-out legal battle with Ed McFarland, her former sous chef, who opened Ed’s Lobster Bar across town in March. “He took everything lock, stock, and barrel,” she says. “The food is prepared and served exactly the same way. It looks like it was built from photos of my place.

Pearl's Oyster Bar, 18 Cornelia Street, New York City, est 1997

“He said he was going to open an Italian restaurant, [but then] we started hearing it was a knockoff. One of my former customers who loved [our] restaurant funded it. He’d moved to another neighborhood and wanted one near him. It did well right out of the gate—people heard they were getting Pearl Oyster Bar food.”

We’re not talking about a similar dish here and there. “I don’t lay claim to the lobster roll—that’s absurd. It’s the most copied concept in New York. But here is my exact lobster roll, Caesar dressing, bouillabaisse—more than a knock-off. It was a rotten thing to do. We have a right to protect the business we started.”

In addition to food and decor, Charles says McFarland even worked to poach her staff. “He’s tried to get every staff member I have to work for him—my waiters, cooks, and prep guys.”

Ed's Lobster Bar, 222 Lafayette Street, New York City, est. 2007

We tried to get McFarland’s side of the story. “At this point I can make no comment pertaining to the lawsuit,” McFarland says. “I didn’t copy. I wish Rebecca well, and I’d like to see her wish me well.”

Charles, 54, says her restaurant is “a little piece of Maine for New Yorkers who can’t get up there. The place looks like a seafood shack, but more New York than Nunan’s Lobster Hut in Cape Porpoise, a favorite of mine—we have no buoys.

“This is not about a couple of dishes. It’s about 31 dishes—the entire menu—in a setting meant to look exactly the same.”

McFarland, 34, has not lived in Maine but says, “I have some land on Crowley Island near Jonesport.” As he hasn’t yet built on the coastal property, he says, “I camp on it.”

McFarland says of Ed’s Lobster Bar: “I get as much lobster from Maine specifically as possible. Our decor was decided by committee. We looked at a bunch of places in the Northeast—I did a lot of my research in Boston.” The result, McFarland says, is “New York meets upscale beach front.”

What would Charles’s best-case scenario look like? “I’d like it if some of those dishes came off his menu, particularly my mother’s Caesar salad recipe. He put his name on it: Ed’s Caesar Salad. When I taught him to make it, I said, ‘You’re not going to use this anywhere else.’

“He’s opened an unauthorized franchise. I think it would be fair for him to pay a franchise fee, and a percentage of the revenue. I understand he has plans to chain this and take my food national…this is one of the reasons I was moved to do what I did. I think it could be an important case for the rest of my industry.”

Asked about expansion intensions, McFarland replies, “We have no plans at this time. We want to make this a success first. Who knows what the future brings?”

The lobster wars continue. It’s anyone’s guess which restaurant will claw its way to the top.

Las Vegas, Maine: “It’s a Good Thing”

Visit The Wall Street Journal’s real-estate website and you’ll see reports of the housing market slipping. With one exception.

“All across the country, home builders are gasping for air as sales plunge, inventories rise, and profits disappear. But in one small corner of the housing market, the sales picture is a little brighter: There is steady demand for houses designed in part by Martha Stewart and built by Los Angeles-based KB Home.”

With KB projects comparatively sagging otherwise, cookie-cutter Stewart house plans are all the rage. And of the four model homes she’s created, Dunemere, Skylands, Lily Pond, and Katonah (“with prices ranging from $148,990 to about $500,000,” the Journal site reports), at least two are fragrant with the Maine seashore. The diminutive Skylands, with vestiges of its sweeping porches still intact, is named for Stewart’s Maine getaway in Seal Harbor.

At press time, new Stewart developments are cropping up from Gold Coast, Florida, to the deserts of Nevada to greater Los Angeles, many of them freshened by a distinct Maine breeze.

by Brandi Neal

Maine’s really been getting around—the globe, that is.

From lobsters to libations, from jewelry to patio decking, from the Caribbean to Down Under, people are lining up to buy Maine products outside the United States. A renaissance of cultural colonialism seems to be taking place, with Maine at the forefront of the movement.

It’s not domination of local culture—it’s seduction. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where New Englanders are drawn to the balmy weather like moths to a flame. They arrive with their favorite can’t-live-without-them items in tow and in doing this have turned a whole new market on to “the way life should be.” Beginning with a connection to Maine’s Shipyard Ale.

“The thing was, a lot of the beer down here was light beer,” says Kevin Chipman, co-owner of St. John Brewers. “We moved down here six years ago and bought a simple ($50) beer-making kit. We wanted the beer we had back in the northeast.”

Chipman, who was raised in upstate New York, and partner Chirag Vyas of Rhode Island, longed for a more full-flavored beer and decided to try their hand at brew-making. Initially, they bottled their homemade brew themselves, using recycled sterilized bottles. The fruity concoction was dubbed Virgin Islands Pale Ale.

“We started with a keg at a time,” Chipman says. “We‘d share with friends,” swapping notes on taste. “It’s unique.”

Before long, the beer became so popular that Chipman and Vyas began searching for a bottling company stateside. That’s when they hooked up with Portland-based Shipyard Brewing Company. Refining their concept, the duo studied with Shipyard’s internationally acclaimed brewmaster Alan Pugsley.

“We’re changing the palate down here; I don’t think there’s another mango beer on the market,” Chipman says.

St. John’s Pale Ale drinker Marty Johnson couldn’t agree more.

“I think the Pale Ale is excellent—we finally have a decent beer here in the Virgin Islands,” he says. “This company puts some effort into their brewing.”

St. John Brewers recently released their sophomore effort, Virgin Islands Summer Ale, also bottled by Shipyard, sold only in the Virgin Islands, and sold on tap in the St. John Brewers Microbrewery Tap Room.

“It’s a nice, easy summer-style beer,” Chipman says. “It’s well balanced, a great drink with the warm climate.”

Once visitors cleanse their palates with the islands’ most full-flavored mango beer, they head on over to Duffy’s Love Shack on St. Thomas for none other than Lobster Lunacy Thursdays. The popular stop sells out of sweet Maine lobster in less than an hour.

“People love ‘em!” says Duffy’s general manager and Boston native Robert Wolseley.

Michael Good Jewelry, handcrafted in Rockport, is yet another toast of the Caribbean. His striking pieces are sold in Bermuda and at Palms Jeweler in Cruz Bay, St. John, the small island’s largest city.

Sculptor and jewelry designer Michael Good

“What’s different about Michael Good is that people collect his work, almost like art collectors collect paintings,” says a Palms Jeweler buyer who identifies herself as Josy.

Michael Good is a self-taught jeweler and sculptor whose name is synonymous with anticlastic raising, a revolutionary technique that results in sensuous, lightweight hollow structures. Good pioneered the technique, which uses specialized stakes and hammers to move a sheet of metal to create original designs. His collection includes necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and rings in 18-karat gold or platinum.

“His technique is really unique,” Josy says. “He doesn’t solder—he uses an anticlastic molding and molds one piece of gold until he has the finished product.”

In a recent interview with Small Business School for PBS and Voice of America that profiled eight Maine small-business owners, Good’s wife and business partner, Karen, says their signature earrings are recognizable to passersby on the street.

“Whether you’re on an airplane, walking down Fifth Avenue, or on the beach in Puerto Rico, they say, ‘Oh, those are Michael Good earrings,’” she says.

Palms Jeweler, owned by Bill Dreibeleibs and Rick Sarmiento, has carried Good’s designs for the past three years, and while Josy says Good has gravitated more toward sculpture in recent years, that hasn’t lessened the demand for his jewelry.

“People know they’re getting something one-of-a-kind,” Josy explains of the high demand for Michael Good. “They’re getting something really unique that they’re never going to get again.”

It’s not only the Virgin Islands that are drawn to the superior craftsmanship of Maine exports. CorrectDeck, elegant and worry-free composite decking and railing systems, is on the verge of making a big splash in the Australian market.

CorrectDeck(foreground) brings Maine Ingenuity to Australia

“It is actually the fastest-growing portion of our business,” says CorrectDeck president Martin Grohman of the company’s international dealings. “We are focusing more and more resources on our international business.”

More durable than wood, composite materials are a relatively new concept Down Under, but Australian distributor Kim Hurley of DS Agencies says a little marketing and promotion will get them on the map in no time flat.

“We’re spending a lot on advertising and promotion to get the product awareness up,” she says. “[Correct-Deck] is different than most other composites…they roll a surface onto the board whereas most others have a brushed surface.”

This is what creates CorrectDeck’s naturally tailored elegant finish. Hurley says the Biddeford-based company peddles one of the better composites on the market.

“We’re getting reasonably good sales, and we expect sales growth as people become aware of the product,” she says. “We are getting a cross-section of sales from homeowners to architectural specification in commercial jobs.”

Yes, on the international front Maine’s really been leaving her mark; she’s charming to strangers, exotic and seductive to faraway lands, and fast becoming one hot, sought-after commodity. Whether it’s cultural colonialism or just good market management, Maine products are getting quite the reputation—one they’re eager to continue. To learn more about Maine products internationally, visit www.mitc.com.

© 2007 Portland Magazine Colin Sargent, Editor & Publisher editor@portlandmonthly.com Click here to subscribe