Melissa Coleman's Final Column: Fore Street's Still got it

Interim restaurant critic Melissa Coleman's last review for the Press Herald appeared yesterday. In her final column for Dine Out Maine, Coleman dines at Maine's seminal farm-to-table restaurant Fore Street with guest Josh Viertel, former head of Slow Food USA and the Yale Sustainable Food Project.

Owner Sam Haywood's classic establishment receives five stars, with Coleman praising everything from its view to its "space, service, local and fresh ingredients and, of course, menu and wine list." She notes her amazement that the bill is "is less than it might have been elsewhere," though she declines to make direct comparisons.

Coleman, memoirist and daughter of back-to-the-lander Eli Coleman, in July replaced former critic John Golden (who continues to blog thrice weekly for Press Herald parent company MaineToday Media; in his two most recent Friday dining reviews of beer bars and a sushi restaurant, he explores his admitted dislike for both beer and sushi). In an interview at the time Coleman told Eater the possibility was open for her to continue in her role as critic indefinitely, but she will return to work on her next book instead.

An editor's note at the end of the column reveals that "Dine Out Maine will go on a short hiatus and return with a new critic soon." Will you be sad to see Coleman and her dining guests go? Have you applied for the position yourself? Speculate as to the new reviewer's identity in the comments or the new Eater forums.