Winona’s is owned by Hannah Adams and Chef Devin Dearden.  With just 20 seats it’s small and very casual.  Hannah does the front as well as wine service and Devin cooks in the open kitchen.  They named it for their cat Winona and are the only staff.  The menu changes every 3 weeks and during the two years they’ve been open they’ve offered about 29 different menus.  It is all a la carte but the recomendation is to order one of everything and share it as a modified tasting menu.  Most of the tables were large, well spaced round ones sitting on large checkerboard of wood squares.  Art was on the walls and the bathroom was filled with cat art that Frankie adored.  Music was in the background and the windows on the front looks out at the little street.  It’s a cozy bohemian look that worked well with the owners personalities and food choices.  They only serve beer and wine as alcoholic beverages, you have to rely on street parking and the napkins are paper.   However, I would highly recommend this place when in the area – it’s a hidden gem.

Set-up

 

Food

Sourdough bread was toasted and served with ranch butter.  The sourdough bread was from a Rockport  bakery and tasty with nice texture.  The butter had ranch dressing spices and sour cream in the mix and then was lightly salted on the top.  Good start.

 

Cured salmon was plated with dill-coconut yogurt, beets and wasabi greens.  The tender salmon was fun with the very sweet beets, greens and sauce.  A lovely mix.

 

Greens were mixed with rhubarb vinaigrette, roxanne cheese and puffed wild rice.  The cheese was from a Maine producer and tasty with the amazingly fresh, tender greens.  Not a dark spot on them.  The puffed rice added a fun crunch to make this a very tasty dish.

 

Turnips, pistachios, dates, radish and whipped tahini made up the next dish.  Some turnip greens were mixed in with the tasty sauce and tons of toasted pistachios.   The turnips were cooked to perfection and a good contrast to the crunchy radish.  The sweet sauce was wonderful with the mix.

 

Halibut was beside fennel and potatoes, all with a lemon garlic butter sauce.  Fennel was mixed with parsley to make the salad mixed with the roasted potatoes.  The moist piece of halibut was locally caught and delicious in that sauce.  The potatoes and salad mix rounded out the plate nicely.

 

Carnitas were plated with refried beans, jalapeno, pickled onions and cilantro.  The braised pork was topped with a bit of apple jam and a sweet and sour jalapeno.  The dish was not spicy, a la the preference of Maine residents but the onions gave a bit of punctuation to the dish.  If you didn’t want both main courses I would opt for the fish.

 

Fudge also includes almond and lemon.  Some almond extract and 100% cacao made up the fudgy square.  Topped with a bit of salt it was dense, sweet and delightful.  A glass of plum saki was a perfect pairing to go with it.  I saw the portion and thought we’d need two but I was wrong, this was fantastic yet heavy.  Overall splitting the menu worked great for the two of us.  With an ever changing menu this is a place to go back to.