Co-stars of Tailgate Picnics, Maine’s fun food, travel and antique car show, Steven Riley and Elizabeth Perrin share an iced coffee at Coffee Roasters of the Kennebunks when they popped by to learn about the fine art of coffee bean roasting. Courtesy Photo/Danie Connolly
KENNEBUNK – It could be described as a little zany, a little other worldly at times, – and a lot fun.
Picture a television show based on eggs – how to boil an egg, hens eggs, caviar and roe, the smallest eggs, perhaps Eggs Benedict, and of course, dinosaur eggs.
Wait a minute, you say, dinosaur eggs? Yes, when the filming crew for Tailgate Picnics went to Raptor Falls to film a show about, well, eggs of all sorts, dinosaur eggs were among them.
Raptor Falls is a miniature golf experience, complete with dinosaurs, on Route 1 in Arundel.
Enter Danie Connolly and show stars Elizabeth Perrin, Steve Riley and Shannon Bard. who intend to make a mark on the food show industry with a series about picnics – featuring cool food, cool cars and cool locations in and around southern Maine, with perhaps an occasional foray across the line to neighboring New Hampshire.
They arrived at the venue in an early-1960s Pontiac LeMans Tempest convertible, one of several antique and collectible vehicles lent to the cause.
Future shows, said Connolly, will feature Maine potatoes in mashed potatoes, au gratin, chips, vodka, and more. And blueberries, lobster of course and who knows what else
A Tailgate Picnic cake, a la Wilma Flintstone, perhaps, featuring cookies from Talula’s Bake Shop in Kennebunk. Courtesy Photo/Danie Connolly
Another show may feature s’mores at area campsites.
“We wanted to do a show that was totally the essence of Maine,” said Connolly. “And have fun with it.”
It is a project Connolly has been arranging for a while. Now, she’s working on selling Tailgate Picnics to a network.
A complete show has been filmed, and the cast and crew are shooting segments.
“For one of the segments, we made a four-tier ice cream cake from Talula’s Bake Shop’s outrageous-sized cookies,” said Connolly. “Then the Tailgate Picnic costars topped it off with iced coffee and the coffee ice cubes that the Coffee Roasters of the Kennebunks is famous for— “it’s a good thing” as Martha Stewart would definitely say.”
Apparently, the cast of Tailgate Picnics, on their way to Raptor Falls to film an episode on a weekday last month, were stopped by the local constabulary, but whether they got a ticket remains to be seen. Courtesy Photo/Danie Connolly
“I love the combination of food, antique cars and local attractions so prevalent in the Kennebunks,” said Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel Chamber of Commerce Director Laura Dolce of Tailgate Picnics. “It’s sure to whet peoples’ appetites for a visit here. Any opportunity to showcase this area and its attractions is a good one, and with Danie involved, it’s sure to be a hoot. ”
As the year progresses, there will be more shows – and perhaps soon, if plans and negotiations go well, Tailgate Picnics be available for television viewing.
“It’s a travel show, a food show, a car show,” said Connolly. “We broke the mold.”
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