Menus week of April 20
Below are the menus for the coming week! But first, here are some notes on them from a conversation with chef Elisabeth—
I’m feeling a bit nostalgic as the menus transition towards summer. The peepers are absolutely maddeningly loud right now, and we’ve already had some guests sitting outside to revel in it. On the menu we have the last of the citrus season, the last of the hot cider. We’re transitioning to rhubarb, and we have ramps for a short period, and the first nasturtium leaves are in from Little Red Flower Truck.
We also have staff transitions happening—it’s our amazing pastry baker Emily's last week at Tinder Hearth. She's making a beautiful tres leche cake for dessert, to celebrate the end of her tenure with us. It’ll be with buttermilk, Maine Grain cornmeal, the last of the cara cara oranges, and some burnt Vee Bee’s honey. Kate will also be making melon and lemongrass sorbet. The melon is from our garden, and the lemongrass is from Fountain Farm.
And the pizzas! For the Meat special, we’re doing a parsnip baba ganoush with Shepherd's Ledge lamb sausage, honey, and a chimichurri with new fresh scallions from Triple Chick Farm.
I’m really excited about all the veggies! A case of young ramps are making their yearly pilgrimage here from our friends in Western Massachusetts, via Frank’s truck. They will go on the Veggie special with an arrabiata red sauce, with spicy Calabrian chilis, and we're trying out that buffalo mozzarella that Tim loved from Micucci’s Grocery in Portland.
We’ve been so in love with @atlanticholdfast dulse lately. We put it fried on the scallops last week, and it was really fun, so this week we're going to do a bar snack plate of just the fresh fried dulse. We’ll also have the pickled carrots, which feel absolutely perfect for the season right now, with the turmeric just really popping those colors. The house-made ricotta has been stunning—so creamy! I’m still in love with the spring salad. And this week we have a super fun goat skewer from Quill’s End Farm — I will slow-cook the goat and then skewer it up to get caramelized a bit with an apricot and prune glaze in Svetlana (the oven).
For brunch! The blueberry pop tart was really sweet last week, so that's on again. The maple porridge is so comforting with the pecan crunch, with the last of the summer's peaches from the Trowbridges next door. Tim was hankering for a pancake option, and so I pulled the crepe recipe from Café Mutton from my time in the Hudson Valley, but I of course couldn't help playing with it so I ended up making it about 75% whole spelt and some of the Maine Grains whole wheat pastry flour, and then I added the whey from the homemade ricotta— it's really yummy so I'm going to keep the toppings super simple with a rhubarb glaze and butter. And we have some really nice, light springy savory brunch options— the omelette with the smoked haddock brandande; the latkes are back!—they’re potato and celiac, with with lox. And lastly a Rainbow Farm roast chicken matzo ball soup. <3
Menus for the Week of March 30th
WE ARE BACK!! It’s been a busy six weeks of projects and winter-scale bread and pastry production for those of us who stuck around. The rest of our team went out into the world, pursuing different projects. Chef Elisabeth is carrying a ton of inspiration back from her time away from Brooksville. She says: “it’s been such a pleasure to come back to menu writing and being able to incorporate all these really lovely things I learned from various chefs along the way, either when eating out at fabulous restaurants or when I staged at the three restaurants in the Hudson Valley.” Check out these menus, see Elisabeth’s notes on them below, and we hope to see you in the barn soon!
<3 Lydia & Tim & the TH Team
THIS WEEK IN THE BAKERY - We are VERY excited about HOT CROSS BUN season. Baker Kate says that it’s bad luck to bake them after Easter, so with the holiday coming early this year we are making the best of it, and baking them on both Wednesday and Saturday this week! We will have a limited amount available at the cafe on Wednesday—you’ll want to order one with butter and jam, yes please. On Satruday we will have 6-packs to take home for your feast table—PREORDERS for those open on Wednesday— and you will find them on the shelf for sale on Saturday here at the bakery and at the winter farmers’ market in Blue Hill. They’re also on the Saturday brunch menu—chef’s got them featured in a playful little bacon little sandwich.
BRUNCH MENU HIGHLIGHTS from Elisabeth: Emily is making a coconut rice pudding and candied Meyer lemon croissant of the day. The omelette is a finnan haddie brandade which is inspired by an omelette that they did at Café Mutton when I was cooking there, with a cheese sauce and touch of mustard.
We’re bringing back the lox on rye, which feels lovely for this time of year
I’m going to continue with a Maine Grains ancient grains savory porridge, which will be with a dashi made with with Micah’s Atlantic Holdfast kelp, swirls of miso and brown butter and soy sauce, and I'm going to serve it with some pickled Downeast Mushrooms —Caitlin dried some in the fall, so we’ve got a stash to reconstitute, and will serve them with roasted turnips and a poached egg.
Then we will have a lovely little shepherds pie with some Spingtide Farm lamb and Roaring Lion beef, with cabbage and mashed potatoes.
And the pie will go beautifully with a beautiful simple green salad with Four Season Farm butter lettuce, arugula, and our shallot vinaigrette
And don't forget! We're keeping the espresso martini on board for brunch — it’s got three beans on top for good luck.
FOR PIZZA We’ve got a beautiful new buttermilk ranch recipe inspired by Sohail at Brushland Eating House— he dusted his spring salad with a dried thyme-forward za’atar that was really nice.
It might be the last week or two of scallop crudo, if we're lucky.
I had a beautiful citrus salad at Stissing House, so I’m going incorporate some aspects of those different shapes that they cut the citrus into with our base Sicilian citrus salad recipe, which of course is originally from Coco, who I worked for briefly in East Hampton, Massachusetts.
Our favorite arancini is back in the line up. And that's going with a cilantro salsa verde because Triple Chick Farm is amazing and has cilantro.
Then there’s wood-fired kale raab from Four Season Farm with little florettes that come up once the kale has overwintered. I had a fun little side at Pizza Marvin in Providence where they had sautéed raab with a with a spicy tahini and cashew cream, so we’ll do something like that, with throwing the raab in the pizza oven to get some char.
For pizzas we’re bringing back chicken marbella—it feels like the right time of year for prunes, so I'm excited about that. The veggies is a beautiful classic with artichoke hearts and spring spinach, béchamel, and some preserved lemons that Yussuf made. The vegan will be fun— it’s a smoky parsnip baba ghanoush have za’atar, caramelized dates and some beautiful fresh arugula from Four Season Farm.
Then we have an exciting coconut rice pudding that Emily's making with some barberries that I got as a present from Sohail Brushland. Inspired by him we’re going to fold those into a turmeric whipped cream.
For the second dessert I'm going to try out a beautiful looking olive oil and ricotta cake from Anna Higham’s cookbook The Last Bite, which was THE cookbook of 2025 for me. For that we’ll reduce some strawberry juice that we have left over from last spring and fold it into some lightly whipped cream. The ricotta is from Crooked Face Creamery.
A new pastis spritz is going on the bar the menu which is my new crush drink — I had it at Sammy’s Deluxe when we all went out after at toboggan fest, and then again when I was in more recently in Italy, and it's just beautiful and sort of bracing and calls in warm weather and it's really fun.
Winter closure announcement
Hello friends!
Tinder Hearth will be fully closed for two weeks in February, and then partially closed for the month of March. Read on for all the details!
The Tinder Hearth cafe and restaurant will be closed for 6 weeks starting on February 16th. Everyone needs a bit of respite, a chance to do some travel or study, and there are some rather large projects to tackle in the bakery (new dish pit??!!).
So the week of February 9th (hello Valentine’s Day) will be our final week open for a bit! Come see us before the closure! (Valentine’s Day reservations will open on Monday Feb 9th as per usual.)
After being entirely closed for two weeks, the wholesale bakery portion of Tinder Hearth will start up again on March 4th and provide bread and pastries by delivery out to our store accounts, as well as through preorders here at Tinder Hearth and through Farm Drop. The barn will remain closed through the month of March. Preorder pickup will take place in the bakery kitchen, and we may have a few extra loaves & croissants for sale on the rack if you are stopping by.
The Tinder Hearth cafe and restaurant will reopen on April 1st, with the same schedule as we have held for this winter: Bakery Cafe Wednesday mornings, Pizza Friday and Saturday evenings, and Brunch on Saturday mornings.
May we see you soon, and your fires burn bright—
Lydia & Tim
Timmy at the dough mixer circa 2018 photo by Emily Delamater
Bakery Closure Schedule & Menus for Week of Feb 2nd
Happy Imbolc, happy Ground Hog’s Day, happy Super Bowl week to those who celebrate. Sending big love to everyone in this midwinter moment, may the sun’s return bring us moments of grace in this time of tumult.
This week at Tinder Hearth we will be open on Wednesday and Saturday mornings for the bakery cafe & brunch, but will be CLOSED FOR PIZZA because the team to heading down to the Camden Snowbowl on Friday, Saturday & Sunday to make pizzas out of our mobile oven for the US National Toboggan Championships!! More information on that below.
Check out these menus, then continue reading below to hear about our planned winter closure.
Click on image for more information
Looking to the future— our cafe and restaurant will be closed for 6 weeks starting on February 16th. Everyone needs a bit of respite, a chance to do some travel or study, and there are some rather large projects to tackle in the bakery (new dish pit??!!).
So the week of February 9th (hello Valentine’s Day) will be our final week open for a bit! Come see us before the closure! (Valentine’s Day reservations will open on Monday Feb 9th as per usual.)
After being entirely closed for two weeks, the wholesale bakery portion of Tinder Hearth will start up again on March 4th and provide bread and pastries by delivery out to our store accounts, as well as through preorders here at Tinder Hearth and through Farm Drop. The barn will remain closed through the month of March. Preorder pickup will take place in the bakery itself, and we may have a few extra loaves & croissants on the rack if you are stopping by.
The cafe and restaurant will reopen on April 1st, with the same schedule as we have held for this winter: Bakery Cafe Wednesday mornings, Pizza Friday and Saturday evenings, and Brunch on Saturday mornings.
May we see you soon, and your fires burn bright—
Lydia & Tim
menus week of Dec 29th
New Year, here we come! The bakery is closed until January 1st — we’re cooking up a special New Year’s Day brunch. Reservations are required for this brunch. We’re back with our usual winter schedule starting on Friday January 2nd!
Holiday Specials & Schedule
The ice has been slick for skating and the lights in everyone’s windows are twinkling — thank you all for being here and helping to make this time of year sweet. Difficulty, darkness, and uncertainty abound, but being here with you is a gift. Thank you.
Tinder Hearth is up to all kinds of things over the next couple of weeks, as well as taking a bit of time off, so here is a little run down for anyone who would like to know!
FIRSTLY — We will be entirely CLOSED Dec 24th-31st. Plan accordingly! Stick some bread in your freezer! Come to pizza tomorrow!
SECONDLY — We are leaving our bakery preorder website open until 8PM tonight for orders for pick up on Saturday! Order up! Orders for pick up on TUESDAY Dec 23rd are also open right now, and will be open until 8PM on Sunday— just choose your date when selecting an item. Some specials are available for both days, others are only one or the other.
We have some very special items that we are making for the holidays — a holiday cookie box (with Ginger Molasses Rye Cookies, Salted Oat Thumbprint Cookies filled with last summer’s roasted Maine strawberries, Vanilla and Chocolate Butter Cookies with Orange Glaze, Rosemary Shortbread, and Bittersweet Chocolate Raspberry Truffles), yuletide buns (6 pack of soft buns with candied ginger, currants, cherries and holiday spices with a crackly sugar glaze on top. Packaged in a tin for easy reheating), and on Saturday a whole wheat chocolate cherry loaf, and on Tuesday an anadama loaf.
Preorder bread and pastry here.
Tuesday the 23rd will be out LAST BAKE OF 2025, and we will be baking for preorders and for the shelves out at our store locations only. The cafe will not be open that day.
THIRDLY - we are making pizza this weekend—Friday and Saturday nights, 4:30-8:00 PM—and the menu is wonderful, and there are lots of seats open for both nights still! Grab reservations here or just call us the night of—I bet we’ll have space for you! LAST PIZZA OF 2025!
FOURTHLY — brunch this Saturday, 9AM-12PM is extremely holiday-festive and full of tremendously exciting locally-sourced items! We don’t accept reservations for our normal brunches—it’s counter-service seat-yourself. So come on down!
FIFTHLY — are you still with me? We’re making it along the timeline here… after we are closed for a week (ORDER YOUR BREAD TO STOCK UP, TRUST ME) we will be REOPENING with a special NEW YEAR’S DAY BRUNCH that is reservation only. Those reservations are up on our Tock website — but I think it’s fairly well booked already, gasp! The thing is, we will also be hosting brunch two days later, on January 3rd! And that will be big and bodacious, but it’s open to everyone, no reservations as per usual. So if you’re not able to score a table for the 1st, come see us on the 3rd!
Saturday Jan 3rd will also be the day that we’re back at it with our regular bread and pastry! And we’ll be baking pizza again on Friday the 2nd and Saturday the 3rd.
We hope to see you soon. Much love to you and yours, may your hearths be warm, and your hearts warmer.
Lydia and Tim, and the crew at Tinder Hearth
Menus week of December 8th
We’ve got some GORGEOUS menus this week — so much cross-collaboration from across our pizza, bread, and pastry teams. We’re continuing to trial items for our holiday specials (cookie box, more details to come!) as well as some extra fun pizzas this week. Come see us!
Menus week of Nov 24
Do you need bread? Preorder on our sales website here to pick up fresh loaves on Wednesday here in Brooksville. Or find it out at the stores this week — we’ll be making deliveries on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Our schedule is narrowed this week for focus around the holiday. We will be open for Wednesday cafe (and preorder pickup!) 9AM-noon, and for pizza on Saturday evening 4:30-8:00. No Friday pizza, no Saturday brunch, no Saturday bread/pastry bake and delivery. So get enough bread Wednesday to tide you over!
Thanksgiving Plans & Saturday Pizza!
Hello friends!
The light these days is slanting through windows that usually don’t get lit up, and we’re having fun over here coming up with the most scrumptious things we can think of! I’ve got two announcements to offer today: 1) Our Thanksgiving week schedule along with special baked items and how to preorder, and 2) to officially announce the launch of SATURDAY NIGHT PIZZA!
To take the second item first: Out of desire to provide more winter hours for our staff, and a weekend night for y’all to more easily get over here, we are RELAUNCHING SATURDAY NIGHT PIZZA! I don't think we’ve regularly made pizza on Saturdays since… sometime before Kieran was born? He’s 11 now…. Hah! So if Friday night pizza in the winter rarely or never fits into your schedule, I hope you can come on Saturday!! Reservations for this week are currently live here, and you can see this week’s menu here. The winter pizza scene in the bakery is super special, just btw <3 <3 <3
On to the next topic: THANKSGIVING SCHEDULE & BREAD
We will be baking on Tuesday and Wednesday next week prior to Thanksgiving Day (details below), and then the morning bakery cafe and production will be closed Saturday the 29th. We WILL be making PIZZA one day only next week: Saturday the 29th.
THE PIZZA We will be completely closed on Friday the 28th next week, but we will be baking pizza on Saturday the 29th 4:30-8:00PM. Take-out is of course available too, if you want to bring pizza home to yours. Reservations will open on Monday morning at 9AM as per usual, and we will be available by phone starting Tuesday morning next week, for placing take out orders and answering any questions. We will be completely closed on THURSDAY & FRIDAY—so if you need to get in touch that part of the week, send us an email. No one will be tending to the phone those two days.
THE BREAD We will be baking back to back on Tuesday & Wednesday next week! The bake on Tuesday the 25th will be for wholesale delivery only. This will be our typical loaves, available at most of our store locations. Deer Isle and Blue Hill Wine Shop are the exceptions—we will be delivering to these two shops on Wednesday the 26th!
On Wednesday the 26th, we will be baking HOLIDAY SPECIALS along with all of our regular bakery & cafe offerings, available here at the bakery 9AM-12PM. The special loaves will be available here at the bakery in Brooksville only, on Wednesday only. If there are loaves & pastries of any kind that you really want that day, we strongly recommend PREORDERING! Our online sales website will open on Sunday Nov 23rd at 9AM for preorders for pick up on Wednesday, as per usual. If you are not familiar with our preorder website, you can find it here. Take a look! <3
The holiday specials on 11/26 will be:
Potato Dinner Rolls (6/pk)
POLENTA PUMPKIN SEED HERB BREAD
The rolls are so good, I don’t know how to express this!! Smooshy, buttery, hint of rosemary with creamy organic white flour from Quebec and a touch of sifted whole wheat from Maine. We have been feasting on the test batches. They will be packaged in foil pans by the half dozen, so you can easily heat them for your meal. And the polenta pumpkin seed herb is our traditional perennial favorite! Snag yours by preordering on Sunday. Got questions about holiday preorders? Email us at tinderhearth@gmail.com
Our regular winter schedule will resume on Dec 3rd: Bakery Cafe on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 9:00-12:00, and Pizza on Fridays and Saturdays, 4:30-8:00.
With love-
Lydia & the TH team
Menus week of November 3rd
Pizza night on Friday only this week! Not quite ready to take on Saturdays ;) take a look at these beautiful menus and come visit us!
