You can eat a 4-course meal on a Maine oyster float this summer
Want to dine on a four-course meal at sea on an open-air float surrounded by oyster cages? You’re in luck. Dinners like that are being held in southern Maine this summer by an oyster farm.
Mere Point Oyster Company is hosting floating dinners in Maquoit Bay.
“This is the first year that we’ve done an actual sit down dinner,” said Kelly Punch, catering and events manager for the Brunswick-based Mere Point Oyster Company.
The multi-course floating dinners were inspired by more casual tours the company has held for the past few summers. Since 2021, Mere Point has hosted an oyster farm tour with Sea Coast Tours that ended with lobster rolls on the oyster float. Punch said those tours were so popular, the company decided to offer something fancier this year.
“We’re the only ones doing it as of now,” Punch said.
The new additions offer folks two opportunities for seated meals on an oyster float in the bay. On Fridays, Mere Point is hosting VIP dinners with Bangs Island Mussels and The Lobster Shop featuring a raw bar followed by a seafood plated dinner. On Mondays, it’s hosting four course chef dinners on the float.
The float is three 10-foot by 20-foot docks fastened together, Punch said. It has an overhand that provides shelter for the cooking area but diners eat at tables in the open air, surrounded by oyster cages in the water, Punch said.
All the dinners begin with boarding a boat in Freeport helmed by Capt. Peter Milholland of Seacoast Tours of Freeport. While enjoying beer or wine, diners get a tour of Casco Bay, Maquoit Bay and the Mere Point Oyster Farm. Then it’s off to an oyster float for a sit down meal.
The first chef dinner (an earlier one got rained out) will be held on July 24 and will feature Joe Ricchio of Food Coma TV as the guest chef. Ricchio’s menu begins with scallop hamayaki followed by lobster, corn and saffron chowder. The third course will be shrimp curry with coconut rice. And dinners will finish off the meal with a white chocolate and dulce de leche mini cake with blueberries.
Mere Point Oyster Company is hosting floating dinners in Maquoit Bay this summer. Credit: Courtesy of Mere Point Oyster Company
Both the VIP dinners and the chef dinners are $200 per person.
Mere Point also is still offering more casual oyster farm tours that include learning to shuck oysters and eating a lobster roll on the oyster float. Those are $150 per person and happen at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturdays.
And although it’s out in the bay, Punch said it’s still close to the coastline in an area that remains pretty calm. The oyster cages act as a barrier for waves, she said. So far, no one has gotten seasick.
“The cages act as a barrier to keep waves from breaking on the shoreline,” Punch said.