Restaurant Recommendations: Newburyport, MA

[HejazSunKat]

A friend of mine that I worked with in Saudi (who now lives in Arkansas) is coming to visit this weekend and I'm meeting her in Newburyport (she's staying with her brother who lives there). We haven't seen each other in 4 years so I'm really excited to see her. We're meeting for lunch on Sunday afternoon and I was hoping some of you had some favorite restaurants in the area (maybe on the water?) to recommend.

TIA! :D

[HeidiD]

Linda,

We have had several great dinners at the Plum Island Grille, which is just outside of Newburyport on Plum Island, and the same management now runs a restaurant in town called the Pow Wow River Grille ... I would imagine that would also be good. Another place a colleague went for Mother's Day is called the Kiwi Grille and she very much liked that as well. Hope you can hit Newburyport on a nice day! Weather still stinks here on the coast.

Heidi

[Gracie]

Linda - is 10 Center Street still there (at 10 Center Street of course!! :D ). That's a really nice place to relax and catch up. It's not cheap though.

Do you have to stay in Newburyport?

Loren

[HejazSunKat]

Hi Guys: Thanks for the recommendations. I've been to 10 Centre Street before Loren and you're right it is a nice place. Haven't been for awhile though so I don't know if it's still there. I'm going to check out both of Heidi's recommendations. Since my friend's brother lives there I thought maybe he'd have something to suggest but just in case he isn't into going out to eat I thought I'd better be prepared. My friend is from the South (got the sweetest Georgia accent) so I'm not sure if she's ever been to New England before and want her to enjoy her visit. No, I'm not staying up there. It's only about 45 minutes from Lowell so no problem going up for the afternoon. Thanks again! Now if we can only get the sunshine to stick around.

[Melman]

No suggestions on meals, but since your friend is a southerner, please take her to some place like Manchester-by-the-Sea. I may have been there on the most perfect day (weather-wise), but I thought that was one of the prettiest places I've seen in that whole area. I still remember a cute elderly couple coming up to talk to us...they told us there wasn't another place that pretty anywhere they'd ever been. We don't have scenery like that ANYWHERE down here!!!

I can't explain why our southern coastal areas look so different than the northern ones, but I love driving around up there with my camera.

[HejazSunKat]

I wish she were here for longer then maybe I'd be able to show her some of those beautiful towns. Hopefully this trip will whet her appetite for more of New England (even though she told me she doesn't know how we stand the weather! :D I told her to make sure she brings a sweater because of our unseasonably rainy cold May). Her brother is going to keep her busy taking her into Boston tomorrow and then she leaves on Monday. She's excited just to get away from the DH and two teenage boys back home - she's not going to have to plan anything for anybody else but just be able to sit back and relax. She needs a change of scenery too - her daughter and SIL just lost a 2 year old girl to an undetected genetic condition that had also taken another child of theirs 8 years ago. They hadn't known with the first one that his death was related to a genetic condition (they thought it was a metabolic disorder) until the second child exhibited the same symptoms in April and the doctors put 2 and 2 together. I'm looking forward to giving her a big hug. :(

[HejazSunKat]

Heidi, just wanted to thank you for a very good restaurant recommendation. My friend Jeannie and I had lunch yesterday at the Plum Island Grille. There was a special on a ham, gruyere and chive quiche with a side of dressed greens (and including slices of pear and red grapes) that appealed to both of us. Topped off with a glass of chilled chardonnay it was a delicious meal and the service there was very attentive. We had a wonderful time catching up on each other's lives in the 4 years since we'd seen each other. I also got to meet her 2 brothers (3 southern accents in one room was almost sensory overload! :D ) and see lovely Newburyport again. Thanks!

[HeidiD]

Originally posted by HejazSunKat
Heidi, just wanted to thank you for a very good restaurant recommendation. My friend Jeannie and I had lunch yesterday at the Plum Island Grille. There was a special on a ham, gruyere and chive quiche with a side of dressed greens (and including slices of pear and red grapes) that appealed to both of us. Topped off with a glass of chilled chardonnay it was a delicious meal and the service there was very attentive.


I'm delighted that you liked it -- they always have interesting specials. Too bad the weather couldn't have been a little more "picturesque" but we seem to be running mighty short on that lately! Hopefully your friend won't go home thinking New England is too dreary.

Heidi

[sarah2397]

I know I am too late for recommendations this time (and I am glad to hear that Plum Island Grill is good.... will have to try it). But I did want to say that DH and I had a lunch last summer at the Kiwi Grill in town in Newburyport and absolutely loved it. It's a nice space too, a converted church.