East Wind Inn & Suites — Hotel in Saint George

My wife Ellen and I recently returned from a wonderful week at the mid-coast Maine East Wind Inn. This was my first trip to this historic and beautiful section of the Maine coast and I now find myself asking “why didn’t we come sooner?” Our stay at the East Wind may have been one of the most pleasant vacation surprises we have ever experienced. To start with is the Inn itself: The Innkeeper, Randy Deutsch, has recently completed a top to bottom remodeling of this early 1900’s inn. It’s completely believable that vacationers once arrived here by overnight steamer from Boston around 1920. Over the past 3 years Mr. Deutsch has restored all the rooms and suites in both the main inn building and it’s adjacent Meeting House. The new bathrooms are well appointed and blend well with the historic inn structure and they invite one to luxuriate in following a day of sightseeing along the Maine shore or exploring Tenants Harbor in a boat or kayak. A new fireplace in the lobby offers inviting coffee and the newly excavated cellar stone walls and fireplace have carved out a warm Quarry Tavern that offers drinks and comfort food that includes great Maine chowder. On the main level of the Inn is a truly gourmet dining room, the Wan-e-set-Restaurant that offers lovely views of the harbor and its fleet of lobster boats. The lobster duo was our favorite. In the Meeting House, there is a second lobby, the Common Room, also offering morning coffee and harbor view windows and a comfortable wrap-around porch. One of the best features of the East Wind Inn is its location on St George Peninsula. It’s perfect for a week of 10 minute to 2-hour drives. 10 minutes away and standing guard at the southern end of St George Peninsula is the Marshall Point House where one can take dramatic rocky coast photos and walk to the base of the lighthouse with Forrest Gump. 5 more minutes away is Port Clyde and its lovely general store and Dip Net restaurant – more Maine chowder. Here too one can get the Monhegan Island Mail Boat for a 60-minute ride to Monhegan Island. On the way, one can look out for harbor seals and Puffins. On Monhegan Island, which is a small artist community, we explored the paths and trails and marveled at the amazing color of the wildflowers and even enjoyed an island brewed Monhegan Island Ale. Also, one can travel a bit north of the Inn and visit beautiful Camden and its fleet of windjammers, climb Mt. Battie or to the Owl Point Lighthouse, and visit the shops and museums in Rockland Harbor. There is just so much to visit in and around the East Point Inn at Tenants Harbor Maine. We’ll be back. (guest from June 23rd to June...

Been coming here sporadically for nearly 40 years. Lovely to see the new(ish) owners' restoration of the Quarry Bar which also serves the same menu as the upstairs dining room/porch. Miss the beautiful mountain laurel along the front porch that had to be sacrificed for an accessible ramp; but the restored/expanded main flower bed is a joy, filled with variety and blooms! We were here 4 nights at the very end of July.

THE ROOMS- We stayed in the original inn, now named the Sail Lift (it's original purpose) that houses both restaurants, main lobby and the lovely front porch with its rocking chairs. Oh Happy Day, mini split AC units now installed in rooms/suites! Towels/bath refreshed during our stay but the bed was never touched. No matter. Well equipped with adequate storage. We chose a room with great views of the full harbor/Southern Island so treated to morning sunrises and fog as the natural world chose to provide -- perfection to us. SERVICE-- gracious, personable, hard working, many team members wear multiple hats. Breakfasts a special joy with a bit more time for wait staff to chat. The breakfasts are a chef's lesson in perfect portions without excess-- and delicious. You need to stay at least 4 breakfasts to sample the range of choices! There is no better breakfast than blueberry anything (pancakes, muffin, etc), lean sausages or an omelet served to you on the porch overlooking that narrow harbor, it's wildlife and working boats. If you're lucky, Southern Island will do its veils dance with the blowing fog. ENTERTAINMENT - love that they are featuring Maine talent on Friday nights in summer-- hoping that can expand and the Quarry will become a good venue for music lovers and performers to get together! SMART-- several little compensating touches we found helpful, like: small refrigerator/freezers with ice in common areas (lobby, 2nd floor hallway) for shared guest use. Early morning lobby coffee station and 24/7 water bubbler including refill spigot for your water bottle....

This was a mostly good but mixed experience for us. Firstly the location and the premises itself is gorgeous. Really elegantly setup, and in a beautiful location. The staff were really friendly, breakfast on the porch (which is included) is absolutely fantastic. Theres a lovely firepit on the lawn in the evenings and the views are great everywhere. There are even tasteful little touches like nice nautcal brass keys for the rooms. Very nice.

There were a few things that raised an eyebrow for me though. The tavern, which had potential, seemed constantly out of beer and the poor girl running the show couldn't get any help to change kegs or generally stop things going sideways (and i watched her ask for help 3 times). We also sampled the food while in the tavern and while the menu clearly showed potential there were enough issues there that we ate elsewhere for our remaining nights. Was it the chefs night off and we missed an awesome dinner on other nights? Maybe, but the menu is pricey so I wasnt prepared to chance it.

I was also surprised to find that our room wasnt serviced at all in the 3 nights we stayed. I dont mean towels etc not changed...I mean literally noone came. Bed unmade...absolutely no service. I found this odd as when we arrived there was a nice chocolate gift left acknowledging our anniversary. Its like somehow we were just left undone. (And we were out of the room from breakfast each day). On the last day as I was packing the cleaner busted in unannounced without knocking, and almost met me in my full glory! Odd.

Would I stay again? Probably, yes...it's a stunning place. Now that I know the issues I'd just work around them..ask in advance for room to be serviced and so on. I offer this feedback only because this place is so close to knocking it out of the park.

Thanks...