When last reported on, lobsterman Dickie Hildings of Vinalhaven was notable for several reasons: he’d been Vinalhaven’s “Mr.May” in the 2001 Bachelor Lobstermen calendar; he had a premier reputation for lobstering and he was winning a lot of boat races up and down the coast. All of that, in the competitive world of fishermen, counts as legitimate success. But if that last report implied Dickie was at the peak of his career, as if an update now will show a man tempered by age, mellowed by a career of hard work — maybe even ready to slack a bit and inch towards retirement — forget it!
Dickie has only ramped it up. After fishing all day, he goes home to take a hot shower. He brings a crate of lobsters with him for whomever is in the kitchen that night. That’s because home is now a restaurant, a new one Dickie is co-proprietor of, and he’s host as well as purveyor of lobster. Now, that’s not to say Dickie is cooking the catch. The other half of this partnership, Jen Mitchell, is busy all day, there on Vinal Cove, overseeing the kitchen, bar and dining room. Asked how this collaborative creation occurred, each calls the other both the “inspiration” and “perspiration,” and in truth it seems their contributions are so blended it would be hard to parse out exactly who was responsible for what.
Jen has worked restaurants before, including around Boothbay Harbor, where she was when she and Dickie met five years ago, and in Key West, where they vacationed in recent winters. Over the last year, she redesigned Dickie’s out-of-town bachelor pad into an impressive establishment: The What’s Left Lobster and High Tide Pub. “What’s Left” is the name of Dickie’s boat. It refers to the outcome of an expensive divorce settlement, where — you guessed it — he ended up pretty much with his boat. The pub is named after an engineering boondoggle in the neighborhood. When state engineers took action to redesign Vinal Cove’s coming and going, their miscalculations created havoc. Suddenly the island’s main road from end to end was impassable right there during high tides when the road became flooded. Try making the ferry or an emergency run in the face of that. The higher salt waters killed vegetation and blighted the landscape as well. So Jen and Dickie may well have wondered, a while back, how — at high tide — customers might get to their establishment, or ever leave. But with some remedial efforts, the road has been raised and flooding is no longer an impediment. The name, however, stuck.
Of course, lobster is a headliner on the menu, but haddock stuffed with crab and a Lobster Newburg sauce is outstanding as well. And there’s beef. The prime rib is incredibly popular, and steaks get branded with a “WL” Dickie is proud of. Jen’s menu includes an interesting selection of appetizers, including ones with mussels and crab. You can call ahead to have your lobster cooked and ready for take-out, or you can have it packed fresh and shipped. There’s a deck where live bands will play in August, including Yankee Jack from Key West, who wrote a song commemorating Dickie’s divorce. (Meanwhile, the pub is known for its draft beer from Freeport Brewing, “Ex-Wife Bitter Blond Ale.”) Lobstermen from elsewhere are steaming in to eat here. They and others landing in town without cars call the restaurant to check on transportation. Jen says cheerfully it always works out to get people to and fro.
Being a bit out of town (two miles from the ferry, on North Haven Road) seems to be working in What’s Left’s favor. Once there and seated in the restaurant, one looks out large windows to a very green landscape: trees, lawn and Vinal Cove. It is quiet and peaceful.
Dickie says the restaurant is becoming a take-out destination for North Haveners. He smiles as he savors the idea of North Haven needing Vinalhaven for something. And then he describes this current success as “luck.” I remind him he said that to me before, about happening to be where the lobsters were to catch them so abundantly. I say, “It’s not just luck.” There’s been a lot of resilience, persistence and hard work as Dickie has weathered storms in his personal life, and starting this new business has required all that and more.
As my family finishes a meal at the restaurant, Jen comes over to ask Dickie if he’s ready for dinner — something she can bring him from the kitchen. He doesn’t order off the menu. Instead, he asks in a habitual kind of way, “What’s left?” We all laugh. We think it’s so clever, that — really! — the name of the restaurant must refer to that. What Dickie gets for dinner is “what’s left”! Maybe our delight was more about our after-dinner glow than the impact of an insightful epiphany. The restaurant puts you in that kind of relaxed mood. It’s good food and good times. And highly recommended.
Open from 5:30 P.M., Tuesdays-Saturdays, and from 11A.M. on Sundays; no reservations. The restaurant stops serving at 9, the bar closes at 10:30. Take out available, 207.863.4444. Private parties on site can be arranged. Their website is
www.whatsleftlobster.com.