Mainecore

e Amato family didn’t just invent the Italian sandwich. During World War II, a powerful executive, Camilla Amato, guided the rm toward the Sputnik era while her brothers were o ghting. e lovely stone mansion that the Italian sandwiches built still stands at 114 Stevens Avenue.. Follow this Facebook link to see Mainecore lovers pining away for Portland’s Italian sandwiches all over the U.S.: https://m.facebook.com/amatos/photos/a.10150705201184920/101 50705201199920/?type=3&comment_ SHILLS FOR THE MILL Kennebunkport’s George and Barbara Bush were Mainecore from stem to stern as young marrieds in this 1948 pitch for Lewiston’s Bates Mill in Vogue. #dormroomcore? At press time, eBay had 19 listings for “vintage Bates bed coverings.” Even the Bushes would be shocked to see one seller is asking $499 plus shipping for the Americana Coverlet.

The house the Cushman Cookies built, 187 Vaughan St. in the West End, designed by John Calvin Stevens.

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HARD-CORE MAINECORE

Ride the boat to Chebeague Island to nd a real library where guest writers read from new work and for dessert, there are real Scotch Cookies from a lost recipe from the long-shuttered Cushman’s Baking Company between Elm, Lancaster, and Kennebec

Streets in town. Now that’s hardcore

Mainecore! ( e structure still stands and now hosts the Baxter Academy for Technology and Science.)

Cushman delivered fresh baked goods door-to-door from trucks back in the day. Branding insight: you didn’t have to stand in line. Here’s the recipe. Don’t ever let it go.

CLAMMING UP

Snow’s Clam Chowder used to be the pride of Pine Point. e classic factory with a big red and white Snow’s sign burns in our memory. Now it’s part of the “Maine outside of Maine” (on re ection, a fascinating terrain).

You can still buy Snow’s products at Hannaford, but Snow’s is now owned by Bumble Bee Seafoods, headquartered in San Di-

Secret Scotch Cookie Recipe

1 ½ cups sugar 1 cup shortening ½ cup molasses 1 egg 3 ½ cups our 1 teaspoon salt 2 ½ teaspoons soda 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon mace ¼ cup milk

“Cream sugar, shortening, molasses and egg. Si dry ingredients and beat in, along with the milk. Drop by tablespoonful onto greased sheets. Press down lightly with oured glass. Bake, but do not overbake.”

Submitted by Jean Dyer. Note: This recipe comes courtesy of the Chebeague Island Parents Association and appears in Chebeague Island Cooking, an outstanding guide to ancient Maine cuisine and available when you send $8 to Sheila Putnam, Box 135, Chebeague Island, Maine, 04017.

DOCKSIDERS: We’ve got the look. Even if we invented these shoes, you can’t blame us for yacht rock!

ego. None of which is mentioned on the can I tried.

Snow’s Clam Chowder was founded in 1920 by Fred H. Snow, a true Scarborough local. Early on, he ran the shore restaurant Snow’s Clam Bake Dinners, canning chowder at the same time (possibly during the o -season). Like magic, the business grew into the mammoth cannery loved by so many on Pine Point Road.

In 1959, Snow’s was sold to Borden, but wonderfully the Pine Point factory kept rattling on. Our magazine was ve years old in 1990 when it fell silent.

For decades the Snow family, benefactors of the area, lived in Castillo del Mar, the John Calvin Stevens-designed Spanish-style villa that still stands at 209 East Grand Avenue in Old Orchard Beach.

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh landed the Spirit of St. Louis on the beach in front of the house and stayed the night there.

THE REAL DEAL

Happy Holidays! A sled from Paris Manufacturing Co. of South Paris, dating to the 1800s, is the real ” nest kind” accessory. ey turn up in all the major auction houses. Here’s one that just sold for $120 at Casco Bay Auctions. Did somebody say “Rosebud”?

HUMPTY DUMPTY POTATO CHIPS

Face it, Humpty. You lost your crown when you were bought out by the unclearly Canadian rm Old Dutch Foods. But there are many who would have you believe otherwise... Humpty Dumpty was founded on Second Street o Mussey Street in South Portland in 1947 by George Rob-

A six-ounce bag of Humpty Dumpty chips can be ordered on Amazon for $12.89. Six 6-oz. bags cost $44.81. On eBay, this decorative metal can has the asking price of $149.99 plus $21.54 shipping.

inson and Norman Cole. (Remember King Cole potato chips?) My rst brush with Humpty was as a Cub Scout, when our den visited the new (as of 1950) manufacturing plant on U.S. Route 1 in Scarborough to see Made in Maine in action. At one point they took us to a vat of bubbling fat. We stared down. I think my friend Je Smaha was among the cubs with us. Our guide said, “Here’s something new— the rst in Maine. We call them Bar-

becue Potato

Chips.” In February 1989, during the recession, Humpty Dumpty Potato Chips and its logo were unloaded to Borden, Inc. e Canadian chip manufacturer Small Fry of Ontario snapped them up in January 2000. Sounds like a movie of the week to me. en, according to Wikipedia, “Old Dutch Foods acquired Humpty Dumpty Snack Foods in a $26.7 million takeover bid in 2006.” Old Dutch is headquartered in Roseville, Minnesota, with a chip division in Manitoba, Canada. “ e Humpty Dumpty brand is generally sold in the New England states, Quebec, e Maritimes, and Newfoundland and Labrador.”

Humpty Dumpty, you’re still terri c, you taste great, but personally, I’m still missing the real you. In my mythology I have seen the rst BBQ chips come out of the vat. I was there. at’s why I feel like a ghosted cub whenever I see the logo now, the Humpty bags imposters somehow.

Is loving Maine a neurosis? e buoyancy and amboyance of these lost businesses belong to these shores. What can we do about losing these brands? Nothing. Well, that’s ne. Oh, yeah—love the ones you’re with.

STYLE OR POINT OF VIEW

We know you can decorate Mainecore. But do you think Mainecore?

You know you’re Mainecore if you know that WCSH-TV is named for the location of their rst broadcasts, the top of the Congress Square Hotel, which still stands.

It’s like e Da Vinci Code, except it’s the Forest City Code. e world made sense (ha ha). e Porteous family, owners of the Porteous, Mitchell and Braun department store that’s now home to Maine College of Art & Design,

the Strand eatre formerly at 565 Congress Street. You know it because he told it to you once, when you were too young to be the editor of Portland Magazine. You know that Rudy’s last address, in Hollywood Hills, was on a street he tried to rename Rue de Vallee. You know that at his boyhood home in Westbrook at 36 Monroe Avenue, there’s a Yale knocker for the bandleader of the Yale Collegians mounted on his bedroom door.

Do you know 117 Lo s, the yellowbrick luxury apartment buiding on 117 Preble Street that’s leasing one- and two-bedroom units? Apartments start at $1,300 plus utilities, parking, and a pet fee for a studio. e building is so cool it looks like a set design for e Hudsucker Proxy. Designed by John Calvin Stevens, it was built in 1927 as the headquarters of the world-famous Schlotterbeck & Foss food-service and condiment company, creators of Mos-Ness Dressing, a staple for cafeterias everywhere from universities to hospitals to military mess halls to asylums in both world wars and well into the 1990s. It’s great on salads and roast oysters. Occasionally you can still nd it at Whole Foods, but at press time it’s not for sale in the Portland store, though it’s Portland to the bone. We bought some in May through Amazon,