An Espadrille Wedge About Town

This week, Michael recaps his fifth trip to Midcoast Maine. We've also unearthed some nice-looking, not-expensive white oak frames and non-pokey down pillow inserts, as well as an espadrille we keep seeing at parties. —Simone Kitchens, Winnie Yang, Lauren Ro, and Michael Zhao

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* The Strategist just launched a new column, “What Goes Here?,” in which readers write in with a design conundrum that we then present to interior designers who help us solve it with product recommendations. For the first edition, Frances Merrill, Sally Breer, and Colin King told us what to put in a nonworking fireplace.

* Michael saw this French helmet bag from Joseph Bonnie on the L train. These bags are so named because they were originally developed to hold pilots’ helmets. The Porter Yoshida Tanker brought the style back, but you can get a similar one from military-surplus stores for $30.

* Lauren and Simone both bought solid oak frames from Amazon that are quite nice and come with mats and realized they’re from the same brand, Axeman. Lauren’s are square, while Simone’s have rounded corners.

* Winnie has been searching for good quality throw-pillow inserts for years and was frustrated that so many of those labeled “down” from major retailers turned out to be 10 percent down and 90 percent feathers (or even sometimes 100 percent feathers), which often means they are very pokey. She found CushionsXpress, which has all kinds of custom options for couch and outdoor cushions and pillows, including foam and varying ratios (10/90, 30/70, 50/50) of down to feather. She ordered an 18-inch-by-48-inch pillow insert with 100 percent down, which cost $140 and arrived in eight days. So far, no poking.

* Alex Crowder and Simone Bodmer-Turner wore made-in-Spain espadrille wedges to the Walker Street Market opening party last weekend — Alex’s were Diegos, Simone’s were Castañer. Joana Avillez also wore Diegos espadrilles to opening night of her drawing show at Picture Room.

* A mesh-backed ripstop cap with a clip-on leash (for your wet suit or rashguard), for use on land or in the water.

Michael and his wife spent the week leading up to the Fourth of July in Midcoast Maine — their fifth visit in the past six years. Here are all of their favorite recent discoveries and the places that get repeat visits.

* We stayed at the Waldoboro Inn, a self-service, three-suite bed-and-breakfast owned and operated by interior and clothing designer Alexa Stark. Cotton percale sheets, real down pillows, tasteful vintage furniture, and a welcome package of locally made bath and skin-care products from Holmes & Hudson made up for having to schlep our own bags and prepare our own breakfasts (from provided ingredients).

* I got an Hermès dress shirt in excellent condition for $90 at Curator Consignment (383 Main Street) and picked up several secondhand baby dresses and books at Little Fox (395 Main Street) next door. The Goodwill just north of downtown has the best book selection of any I’ve come across.

* Just up the coast in Camden, we caught up with Zoë Sessums over dinner at the Norumbega Inn, a luxury boutique hotel with a restaurant and lounge on the first floor serving Peruvian food with no “local twist” besides the fish selection — I’d never had halibut ceviche, but it works. A pair of Vitrea pendants hangs over the bar.

* The owner suggested we check out the Art of Antiquing (4 Back Shore Road) in nearby Round Pond for exceptional European antiques, but we couldn’t squeeze it in this time.

* Former Reliquary general manager Em Gift opened Working Loose in Blue Hill (49 Main Street), a gallery and concept store that stocks Bedrock Sandals and clothes from Earth/Studies, Jungmaven, and MEALS alongside jewelry from Reliquary and Ursa Major, as well as homewares like Dye Kween silk pillows, funky handblown glasses, and Peter Shire mugs. I considered these hand-shaped salad servers and picked up a second Earlywood spatula for our apartment.

* The Kingfisher & the Queen (79 Main Street) is densely packed with European homewares and sundries (Laguiole and Opinel cutlery, German candles, Swedish egg-white soap, Spanish tinned fish), interspersed with vintage demitasse spoons and local cocktail syrups. The entire back room is dedicated to nice kids’ stuff: silk butterfly wings, Caldecott-awarded books, organic cotton onesies, and German wooden toys.

* Elsewhere in town, we got a preview of something good to come.

* We didn’t make it this time, but we have enjoyed the guided tour of Glidden Point Oyster Farms (637 River Rd) — reservations required.

* Two of the craftsmen who work with Walker Street Market, Bicyclette Furniture (78 Main Street) and Village Handcraft (52 Water Street), have storefronts in Wiscasset. We were lucky enough to see Bicyclette when it first opened in 2024, but it was closed this time. We did get to spend almost an hour chatting with Eric at Village Handcraft while he finished making a broom in his workshop, where you can pet his cat while shopping for his brooms and hand-carved spoons.

* Right next door was the newly opened Plain Goods (54 Water Street) — the first satellite location of the Litchfield, Connecticut, antique and clothing store carrying Margaret Howell, Orslow, East Harbour Surplus, and an extensive house line of Italian cashmere knits.

* Around the corner, down Shin Bone Alley, is the Butterstamp Workshop (55 Middle Street), which sells cinnamon-scented beeswax ornaments pressed from its vast collection of antique pewter butter stamps (a few of which are also for sale). They also sell pressed-flower beeswax luminaries, perfectly sized so that a tea light placed within will light it up without melting the wax.

* A few doors down is Michael Dunn Antiques (49 Middle Street), which carries mostly Chinese and some Middle Eastern antiques — he has sold pieces to the Met and V&A, among other museums.

* Widener Company (101 Main Street) had affordable European antiques, locally blown glassware (designed by the owner), village-crafted baskets, Niwaki gardening tools, and jewelry made by former Field Studies florist Dunton Ellerkamp. Unfortunately, the mochaware plates from Arkansas aren’t available for shipping, but the potter sells some on her Etsy.

* There are many free beaches in the area, yet we happily pay $5 to return to Pemaquid Beach Park. It has the silkiest sand (groomed daily); clear, calm waters; functional bathrooms; and plenty of space to set up beach shade. You can rent a chair if you need to, and there’s a decent takeout window that’s both cheaper and better than it needs to be.

* The park has showers, but we prefer to rinse in the freshwater swimming hole by the dam on our way out of town.

You can find a map of all the places below and more about them on Rec League.

Coffee/breakfast:
Cafe Grazie
Perch Café
Treats
Moody’s Diner

Lunch:
Day Boat Café
Chase’s Daily
Cafe Grazie
Schooner Landing
Oxbow Brewing

Dinner:
Sammy’s Deluxe
Jolie Rogers raw bar
Odd Alewives farm brewery
Shuck Station

Ice Cream:
Blanchard’s Creamery
Round Top Creamery
Dorman’s Dairy Dream