The Best View of Camden Is Hiding in Plain Sight

Jul 9

Most people know Camden Harbor from one direction.

They've stood on Bay View Street, watched the schooners leave the public landing, or climbed Mount Battie for the postcard view.

Salt Wharf turns you around.

From the rooftop, Camden becomes the view. Downtown rises across the harbor. Schooners glide past. Sailboats weave through the mooring field. It's a side of Camden that's been there all along, but only recently became a place to linger.

Crystal Longo saw the opportunity almost immediately.

After spending 15 years running concert venues in New York, she moved to Maine in search of a different pace. A week before the move, Lyman-Morse called about a hospitality position. She interviewed the day after arriving and started work the following Monday.

Since then, she's helped shape Salt Wharf into a restaurant that locals and visitors have embraced equally, expanding the patio, growing private events, and building a team that keeps coming back each season. But ask her about the food, and she doesn't launch into a speech about technique or ingredients.

"I want to work at a restaurant where I want to eat all the food," she says with a laugh. "If you don't want to eat all the food, you're at the wrong restaurant."

Ask Crystal what to order, and she doesn't hesitate.

"The fish sandwich is out of this world."

Then come the Maine oysters, lobster rolls, burgers, seasonal produce from nearby farms, and a cocktail program she thinks deserves far more attention. The bartender behind it, she says, is "a mad scientist."

For all the attention the rooftop gets, Crystal keeps coming back to the people. Nearly everyone on the seasonal staff returned this year, something she's especially proud of in an industry where turnover is part of the job. She talks about the kitchen crew with the same enthusiasm she talks about the menu.

In a town known for its harbor, Salt Wharf has found a new way to look at it.