In recent summers I have made it a regular occurrence to adventure up the Maine coast with my camera gear packed and my taste buds ready to try some great local cuisine. Usually these trips involve a good amount of lobster rolls, which as you can see is a large part of how this website came to exist. In July 2019 I was spending a few nights with my family in Wells Beach and we had been looking for a restaurant to celebrate our last night together. After the first few places we attempted to go had waits of over an hour I came across a new restaurant in Ogunquit called Food For Thought that had just opened in May. Their website describes their food as "inspired by Executive Chef Brad Andries upbringing in Louisiana and culinary experiences living and cooking in Italy. Priding ourselves on serving unique interpretations of classic dishes, original fare as well as local classic reinvented."
We showed up with a party of 5 and luckily only had to wait about 10-15 minutes before a table was ready for us. All of the seating is outdoors and they have an old boat's sail covering many of the tables in a very fitting vibe to the coastal New England setting. All of the staff that we encountered off the bat couldn't have been any friendlier including our waitress. There was an outside bar staffed with a bartender and a super creative drink menu to go along with their unique culinary creations, including an adult Capri Sun served in a pouch like we had as kids. I decided to order a pineapple cinnamon mojito as I looked over the food portion of the menu, which was made with fresh pineapple, Sailor Jerry's rum, muddled mint & vanilla whipped cream. I'm a big spiced rum and pineapple fan, but had never tasted anything that merged the two together and was pleasantly surprised.
The interesting menu options made it difficult for me to choose because I wanted to sample a bit of everything. I had been consuming a few lobster rolls already in the previous 24 hours, so I begrudgingly stay away from the lobster related items as difficult as it was. They have a few standards like their own lobster roll and lobster mac & cheese, but also a few unusual options such as seafood fried rice (w/ lobster) and lobster bake wings. The menu also includes a few items that incorporate local iconic foods like Flo's Hot Dog Pizza, featuring the famous hot dogs & relish from Flo's in Cape Neddick, and The Congdon's Donut Grilled Cheese, using honey dipped donuts from Congdon's Doughnuts in nearby Wells.
I decided to get an order of New Orleans Street Corn & Nashville Chicken Sliders for the table to share and sample a few things off their "Convo Starters" section of the menu. The chicken sliders were amazing and I though they really nailed this one in aspects of the preparation. The zesty "Nashville spice" and the sweet honey sauce on the fried chicken combined perfectly to form an amazing combination, with the Louisiana Slaw & pickles providing a bit of contrasting coolness and added flavors. And obviously you can never go wrong with sweet buttermilk biscuits as your base layer of the sliders. I would strongly recommend throwing in an order of these to split with your party! When the street corn showed up at the table my mouth was almost watering at the presentation of fire roasted corn prepared with a combination of salted ricotta, chipotle crema & bloody mary dust. On the first bite I was super happy with the flavoring, but the corn kernels were soft and lacked any sort of snappy texture that normally makes corn on the cob what we all known and love. I'd say these were the only so so item that we collectively had at the table all night, and the taste wasn't the issue.
I couldn't stop going back to one item on the main course section of the menu, so that usually means you can't fight it and have to make that you're final decision when it's your turn to order. Their Chicken & Waffles Cones feature honey fried chicken with coffee butter & Maine maple syrup served inside Mexican vanilla waffle cones. Always a fan of a good chicken and waffles dish, the uniqueness of this one had me hooked. Like every other dish I saw being delivered that evening, the presentation with this one was amazing and had me antsy to dig in as soon as it was delivered. The chicken was cooked perfectly and the rich supporting flavors had me hooked from the first bite. Usually the waffles portion of this dish takes up a good amount of the property in your stomach, but the more subtle waffle cone let the other half really steal the show here.
Overall I was very impressed by my entire experience at Food For Thought, especially after finding out that they had only been open for around 2 months. Everyone in our party enjoyed their main dishes and couldn't stop talking about how glad they were we ended up eating there. A lot of times new restaurants are still working out a number of kinks further down the line, but they seemed to have it down really well. Not long after they were recognized by "Eater", a publication that recommends dining spots across the country, as the hottest restaurant in the state of Maine. Also opening a location in Boston this past March, I love to see them doing so well and expanding already into one of my favorite New England cities.
US Rt 1
414 Main Street
Ogunquit, ME 03907