A Weekend In Bangor, ME

Feb 10, 2019

In early January, Monica and I took a long weekend trip up to Bangor, ME. I hate the cold weather so you may be wondering why we went to an even colder location during Winter? I don’t know. But we have fun going on weekend trips to different places and my best friend Marty had recently painted the inside of a brewery in the town over from Bangor, Orono.

So we went up on a Thursday and stayed until Sunday and we had a blast. They have a casino in Bangor called The Hollywood Casino Hotel. We went there after we got there Thursday night. We gambled for a bit and then made our way to a nearby bar called “Seasons Lounge and Grill” where we had a few drinks and some food. Say what you want about chicken fingers but their chicken finger and fry basket was killer. After a few drinks we called an Uber and went back to our hotel. Oh funny story about Uber up there. We went during college vacation (unplanned) and all the bars and restaurants were dead all weekend. This area is filled with college kids so it’s super quiet otherwise. Anyway, the Uber who brought us to the Casino earlier in the night was the same guy who picked us up later.

The next morning we went to a breakfast place called ‘Governor’s Breakfast.’

This place was great; a real classic diner feel. The service was very friendly, food was delicious, and prices were reasonable. After this, we explored Downtown Bangor and did some window shopping.

Downtown Bangor was pretty cool. Definitely an old town vibe with small thrift stores and antique shops, but a nice change from a city like Providence where we live now.

We even bought some wine in this antique shop that was made right in Maine. The wine was made by Savage Oakes and it’s called Ruffed Grouse, actually a very good wine.

We kept walking around the town and I shot a few photos of different areas and the sunset from our parking garage.

Later on, we went to a few breweries, one being Sea Dog Brewing Company which was great. They have a ton of beer that can accommodate anyone’s beer preference. That night we went to dinner at Woodman’s Bar & Grill in Orono. The owners of that restaurant also own Orono Brewing Company, where my friend Marty painted the inside. Woodman’s had some amazing food. We highly recommend it. We had pulled chicken egg rolls as an app, Monica had the buffalo chicken salad and I had the Patty melt burger. All delicious. After dinner we went to Orono Brewing Company in Orono, ME. Here’s what the inside looks like.

Marty did an incredible job painting the inside; I highly recommend following him on Instagram, as well as Orono Brewing Company.

The next morning we got coffee at this tiny diner, like real tiny. They didn’t have different flavors of coffee, no lattes, no espresso, just hot or iced coffee, black or with cream. It was very old school. Bangor has a small mall, for those of you that have never been, think like a smaller version of Warwick Mall or Walpole Mall in Mass. Small and very quiet. Then we got lunch at this bomb mexican place. It was called Las Palapas and it was right by the mall, super good food, huge portions, and great service.

I had never been to a trampoline park so we went to one of those, I felt like a 10 yr. old kid again. We bounced around for about an hour and then went back to the hotel. I haven’t used that much energy in a long time so I slept great that night.

But anyway, that night we went to dinner at this place called Blaze in downtown Bangor. We had some chicken wings for an app and these wings were probably the best chicken wings I’ve ever had.

Blaze is known for it’s wood-fired pizza so we of course tried the pizza. We got this one with ham and bacon and sausage I believe? And arugula. I forget the name but it was super super good.

We finished it off there with one of the adult milkshakes which was delicious.

We went to a few different bars after this and had a great time. What was great was everything is very cheap up there, so at one bar we each had 1 or 2 drinks and we each had 2 shots, so about 4 drinks and 4 shots, and the total was $48 I think, which down here would have been much more expensive. The next bar we went to was $18 for 2 shots, a beer, and a cocktail, unbelievable.

All in all, it was cold but it was a great time. If you’ve never been to Bangor and you like exploring and seeing new places, it might be worth your weekend. It’s a long drive, about 4 and a half hours from Providence, but it was a fun time. I don’t think I could entertain myself for a week but a 3 day weekend was just enough time to see what we wanted and not get bored.

Hope you enjoyed this article! If so, leave a comment and pass it along. Thanks for reading.

Mike

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