Brianna Hicks, server at Camp Pennant, delivers drinks to a booth in the dining room, where the decor goes full tilt on its summer camp theme. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

My dinner guests and I are halfway through tearing apart our second toasty, homemade soft pretzel ($8) of the evening, dunking salt-sprinkled segments into ramekins of beer cheese and hops-infused mustard, when I realize that we’ve been laughing nonstop since we took our seats at Camp Pennant. All before our drinks have arrived.

I point this out to a friend across from me at our cabin-like, canvas-draped booth. She suggests our cheeriness might be contagious, possibly spread through the effusive, bubbly tone of our server, who in her branded t-shirt and shorts, resembles a camp counselor.

Another of my guests thinks it’s a side effect of the whimsical, retro ambiance of the former Liquid Riot space – staged to look like a cross between a scene from Wes Anderson’s “Moonlight Kingdom” and one from “Wet Hot American Summer.” Me? I think it’s both of those things, plus the fact that our double-trunk, live-edge tabletop is shaped like a rather pert posterior, and we’ve all noticed.

Over the next half-hour, that surface will be obscured by a progression of pizzas, sandwiches and vegetables roasted in the wood-fired Le Panyol oven. The menu’s theme is casual, mostly comfort-food dishes that go along with what co-owner Mike Fraser (Bramhall, Café Roma) describes as Pennant’s “inland woodland mixed with coastal summer camp vibe.”

Camp Pennant’s Camp cabernet. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

The playful, rustic concept also extends to the restaurant/brewery/distillery’s beverage program. On tap, you’ll find a whopping 20 options ranging from Pack In/Pack Out (all house-brewed draft beers are $8 for 9- to 16-ounce pours), an exuberantly fruity Southwest-style IPA, to Camp Classic American Lager, a long-lost identical cousin whose initials might also be “PBR.” If you’re not in a beer mood, there’s cider on draft, as well as two Hobo “Camp” wines, including a light, lean Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon ($12 glass/$65 liter).

Venture farther into drink options to see how Fraser and his team have subtly tweaked spirit distilling to highlight the “underappreciated foundations of what Eric (Michaud, the founder of Liquid Riot) was doing, focusing on making them more appealing to the general masses, and simplifying to make things more broadly approachable without losing their unbelievable flavors.”

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Camp Pennant’s warm pretzel with beer-cheese sauce and hops-infused mustard. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

I tasted the Friendship Bracelet ($15), a high-voltage, Manhattan-esque cocktail made with bittersweet amaro, Zirbenz pine liqueur and Pennant Distilling’s branded bourbon: a blend of their local ingredient-based brown liquor, as well as more popular, familiar bourbons from Indiana and Kentucky. In a mixed drink, it’s a winner.

The Friendship Bracelet is also balanced enough to work with most of the food on the menu, including dessert. When I visited a few weeks ago, there was only one sweet item on the menu, the deconstructed then reconstructed S’mores ($10). Here, wedges of devil’s food cake are stacked like firewood over blowtorched blobs of sweet meringue and dusted with fine graham cracker dust.

Conceptually, this dish – a collaboration between chef Max Mejia (who was also the chef at Liquid Riot) and his sous chef, Nace Cohen (Paper Tiger) – works well, especially as a substitute for fiddly tableside s’mores service, which was what Fraser originally planned. “All the goodness of s’mores without the second-degree burns on your tongue,” our server joked when she delivered the dessert. And frankly, this dish would have been a knockout, had the cake not been overbaked.

A few baking kinks need to be ironed out on the pizza side of the menu, too. In particular, the sausage-and-artichoke pie ($19) tastes terrific, with excellent balance among the layers of melted mozzarella, grated Pecorino Romano, artichoke hearts and crumbled Italian sausage from A Small Good in Rockport. But the out-of-sequence layering of wet toppings creates a soggy pizza base that persists even after the pie is baked in Camp Pennant’s superheated oven.

Camp Pennant’s anchovy pizza. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Fortunately, the same isn’t true of the anchovy pizza ($21) an ultra-savory pie topped with fresh oregano, slices of Bumbleroot Organic Farm tomatoes and a healthy spoonful of fiery Calabrian chili paste. My table of anchovy lovers was divided on this one: Half of us loved it as-is, while the other half found it too salty. Me? I ate two slices and would have gone back for a third, had I not been eating for work.

The verdicts on the straightforward, yet well-executed Caesar salad ($16), as well as the Caprese sandwich ($16) were unanimously positive. “I have to give Maine Beer Company (in Freeport) full credit for that sandwich,” Fraser told me. “They have the same pizza oven we do. We took the idea of building a sandwich on a base of pizza dough, and Max (Mejia) created our own version of it. Everybody talks about how Portland is losing all its lunch places, and you can’t get a sandwich anymore. Here you go. This one will feed you for two days!”

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Fraser wasn’t exaggerating. The scale of this open-faced, calzone-ish sandwich filled with fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil is grand. I also applaud Mejia’s eagerness to explore using the copper-domed oven for more than pizza. I encourage him to keep going, because where that oven shines brightest (and possibly hottest) is in roasting vegetables.

Camp Pennant’s wood oven-roasted vegetables with anchovy-butter sauce, bread crumbs and Calabrian chili. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Our comedic server once again: “Get the roasted veggies ($14). Tonight, it’s broccolini. Yes, I know that’s not something you find at a summer camp, but I can start a color war while you eat if that’ll help!”

No need. When the results are as superb as these still-crisp, char-marked spears seasoned with anchovy butter, dried chili flakes and handfuls of garlicky toasted bread crumbs, the summer-camp illusion seems unnecessary. Indeed, I’d love to see Mejia and Cohen go even further in this direction, expanding the notion of “camp” to include slightly more ambitious, yet still-hearty rustic, adult dishes. I don’t believe the menu needs to carry the weight of the sleepaway camp illusion.

After all, the cabin-like booths, the adorable “Camp Store” adorned with icons and pennants, and the outdoorsy team outfits already do that nicely. Camp Pennant has hit the sweet spot between concept and gimmick with its interior design and ebullient, counselor-like staff. I’ll be happy to wait for the menu to catch up. Around here, nobody is getting homesick.

Maximino Mejia, chef at Camp Pennant, sprinkles pecorino cheese on an anchovy pizza before putting it in the wood-fired oven. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

RATING: ***1/2

WHERE: 250 Commercial St., Portland, 207-221-8889, camppennant.com

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SERVING: 11:30 a.m. – 10 p.m., daily

PRICE RANGE: Appetizers & salads: $5-$25, Entrees & pizzas: $15-$30

NOISE LEVEL: Ziplining with your cabin-mates

VEGETARIAN: Many dishes

RESERVATIONS: Yes, usually not necessary

BAR: House beer and liquor, plus wine

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WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes

BOTTOM LINE: The exterior of 250 Commercial Street has not changed much since it housed Liquid Riot, a restaurant/brewery/distillery that Bramhall’s Mike Fraser purchased earlier this year. The recipes for beers and spirits have remained mostly the same (minus a tweak or two to make these products more accessible and affordable), as well. Inside is another story. In the cavernous dining room, you’ll now find canvas tarps draping cabin-like booths, icons and pennants from real and fictional sleepaway camps, and servers who dress like the cast of “Meatballs” or “Wet Hot American Summer.” “Camp” is a unique conceptual theme for a restaurant, but Fraser not only makes it work, he and his front-of-house staff bring a transportative levity to the experience. Chef Max Mejia’s menu of comfort foods is also solid, especially a Caprese-style sandwich bookended by pizza dough baked in the restaurant’s enormous Le Panyol wood-fired oven, crisp-tender roasted broccolini topped with garlicky bread crumbs, and warm soft-baked pretzels to dunk in hops-infused mustard. It’s not perfect yet, but Camp Pennant is already a charming diversion.

The view from Camp Pennant’s back deck. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Ratings follow this scale and take into consideration food, atmosphere, service, value and type of restaurant (a casual bistro will be judged as a casual bistro, an expensive upscale restaurant as such):

* Poor
** Fair
*** Good
**** Excellent
***** Extraordinary

The Maine Sunday Telegram visits each restaurant once; if the first meal was unsatisfactory, the reviewer returns for a second. The reviewer makes every attempt to dine anonymously and never accepts free food or drink.

Andrew Ross has written about food and dining in New York and the United Kingdom. He and his work have been featured on Martha Stewart Living Radio and in The New York Times. He is the recipient of seven recent Critic’s Awards from the Maine Press Association.

Contact him at: andrewross.maine@gmail.com
Twitter: @AndrewRossME

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