Original subtitles

♪♪

[ Indistinct chatter ]

♪♪

[ Utensil tapping glass ]

♪♪

I just wanted to welcome you all

and thank you so, so much for coming out tonight

to my very favorite place in the entire universe.

I know that some of you have traveled a bit of a way

to be here, and some of you have just waited a long time

to be here -- maybe even years.

I don't know what happens in this room,

but there's something that happens,

so whatever it is tonight,

I hope that you see it and you feel it.

It's so much more than food,

and whatever it is, it's all come together.

You found your way here,

and I just want to toast tonight.

This is to the way you felt in Freedom.

Thanks so much for coming.

Cheers.

[ Indistinct chatter ]

[ Glasses clinking ]

♪♪

I'm Erin French.

After spending years trying to get away

from my small hometown of Freedom, Maine,

I not only came back to live, I opened a restaurant.

WOMAN: There's a lot of people.

They're all outside.

Are we ready?

My kitchen family and I had no formal training

and no idea what was going to happen,

but we trusted that everything we needed was right here,

and soon, people were coming

from all over the world to visit us.

♪♪

Every week is a new story.

New ingredients.

Bottoms up.

It's delicious.

New diners.

Mmm.

New challenges for me and the team.

The only constant is...

it's home.

Welcome to my favorite place in the whole world --

The Lost Kitchen.

♪♪

All right, this is downtown Freedom.

There's not much here.

We're in Freedom Maine,

which probably no one has ever heard of.

It's in the middle of nowhere.

We have about 719 people.

Downtown Freedom, you could miss it

in a blink of an eye if you're driving through.

We have the general store,

which is pretty much, you know, one of the only businesses.

♪♪

And here's the post office that doesn't get a lot of action

except for a couple of weeks out of the year in April

when we do our reservations by lottery and by postcard.

And then, it becomes the North Pole

for a couple of weeks.

The only way to get a seat at the restaurant

is by mailing us a postcard in April.

It's a lottery, and everyone has the same fair chance.

It still blows my mind that so many people

from all over the world travel to this little town

just to eat my food.

If you had told me that I would be running a restaurant

in my hometown of Freedom --

the place I tried to run from for so long,

the place I tried to get away from --

I would have said... [ Laughs ]

"There's no way."

♪♪

We are open from the beginning of May

until the middle of October.

This is the end of our season right now.

This is the final week of the restaurant.

WOMAN: Hi!

What's up?

ERIN: Oh, my God, I love your parents.

Aww, me, too.They were so hilarious.

Your mom looks like Shirley MacLaine.

We are a staff of all women...

WOMAN: Hi. Oh, hi.

...except T.J.Hi, Teej.

...who is our... [ Laughs ]

...our number one dishwasher.

WOMAN: How's this look for turnip?

All right?That's probably good.

No one had a huge résumé of culinary training at all,

but who needs training when you've got heart, passion

and a Maine girl's work ethic?

It's like... [ Laughs ]

We truly are --

We're like sisters.

This is my family.

I'm gonna put pears and fennel and cabbage in it.

Do you think pears and olives are weird?

No, I think that'll be delicious, actually.

I think the sweet and the salty

is gonna be really good together.

We change the menu every day.

It's all driven on what's fresh and what's perfect that day.

It's not the season, so they don't have as many running.

So it's kind of like a big deal.

I know people say "farm to table."

They're like, "That's my style of cooking -- farm to table."

But, for me, growing up in Freedom,

always having a garden,

you're always surrounded by fresh food.

It was like, "This is the only way you should eat --

with fresh, local ingredients."

Hey, Skye? Yeah?

I need, like, triple the dill that you gave me.

We are low on it,

so I was trying to do half, but, great.

I'll do more.

Could you double the thyme

and double the tarragon, too?

Yep, yep.

ERIN: Late in the season...

you do start to see the shift

in what's available from the farmers.

All the fresh things are starting to go away.

But even when we don't have a lot of produce to work with,

it doesn't stop the expectations

from being just as high as they are in July,

when the produce is flowing.

We're gonna do Napa with apples.

We still have the two different varieties of apples?

So, the two apples.

We have four days left at the restaurant.

In getting ready for the final night,

I'm definitely feeling the pressure.

I really want to end perfect on this last night,

so I need to get out to see my farmers

and find out what's available and what's done for the season.

People are coming from all over the country

with big expectations of having the best meal of their lives.

No stress, no pressure.

♪♪

CHENEY: Let's go get some oysters.

Ooh, I'm so excited.

We'll go to the other side of Pebow Island there

and we'll show you the farm.

See were your oysters come from.

Let's do it.

I definitely want to include oysters

on our final menu of the season.

They just feel so celebratory.

So if you're going to a friend's house and you have oysters,

that feels pretty special.

So when you come to Lost Kitchen,

I want you to feel that special.

We have these metal boats because we can bang into things

and it really doesn't matter.

Our very favorite oyster farm is Johns River,

which is down in South Bristol,

just an hour south of Freedom.

CHENEY: We buy a lot of propellers.

Every six months, we buy it.

That's how we know where all the rocks are.

[ Laughing ]

We love Dave.

He is diving for all of his oysters,

which is different for the way

that most people are raising their oysters here in Maine.

But you're literally diving in February.

You're diving into that frigid, cold water in February.

Yeah, I mean, 35°, 40.

It's short and painful,

but what else are we gonna do?

[ Laughs ]

I mean, in Maine,

you're either an alcoholic or a workaholic,

and I'd rather be a workaholic.

♪♪

So, an oyster really isn't mature

until the bottom plate is flat.

That one really isn't mature.

This one, on the other hand, actually is.

That's a good one?

That's the oyster that you'd probably like.

Yeah, that's perfect.

It's got that nice cup to it.

Look at that little perfect one.

We forgot the sauce.

Sauce? It's all right in there.

You don't need anything.

That's the whole thing with Johns River oysters.

You don't need anything.

It's so clean.

They're sweet.

Okay, do you eat these?I do.

How many you eat a day?

♪♪

[ Laughter ]

Oh, yeah, baby!

They don't get any better.

We had different size last week.

We got the white bags. We usually get the red bags.

Oh, you got cocktails.

You got this stuff.We had big boys.

Which were too big?

I mean, when you're having a lot of food,

you want to just give someone a taste here and there.

The small ones are good.

I come from a Polish family,

and my grandmother really fed us,

so I'm trying to give value.

I feel that if I'm giving a bigger oyster --

When people come to my restaurant --

I grew up working in a diner.

It's like, your job is to feed 'em!

You gotta feed 'em! [ Laughs ]

Dave was so cute.

He said, "I just want to grow them big

so people feel like they're getting their money's worth."

And that's, like, such a Maine thing.

And then, for us to communicate, and say, "Well, Dave,

these are the ones that I really like,

and this is the reason why I like them."

That was an epiphany, I think, for him.

He was like, "Oh."

We're gonna need five bags.

We've the big, special dinner this weekend, so...

Bag 'em and tag 'em.

♪♪

When the people who are growing our food

start to understand how we use it,

that relationship is producing a better dish together.

♪♪

CHENEY: This is the farm, you have the tables and...

[ Laughs ]

♪♪

Wanna come look at postcards, Erin?

Yeah, give me one sec.

KATHARINE: You guys want to see these?ASHLEY: Yeah.

Come in.

Let's see where everyone's from.

Maine.New Jersey.

Kansas?!

ERIN: Really?Yeah.

On our final night of the season,

we have people from all over the country

flying in to eat with us.

ASHLEY: Minnesota. Wait...

Minnesota?Wait a second.

Hold on, don't put this on camera.

What's "MN"? [ Laughing ]

WOMAN: Oh, showing your Searsport, Ashley.

[ Laughter ]

ERIN: Our restaurant's small.

We seat about 50 people a night.

Because we're only open four days a week for six months,

It's really challenging for people to get in.

♪♪

A few years ago, we came up with a new reservation process.

We found out that our post office was reducing its hours.

It was kind of this buzz around town of like,

"What's gonna happen?

Are we gonna lose our post office?"

All we have in Freedom is the post office

and the general store.

It's like, we have two things...

[ Laughing ] ...so, to lose one of two,

it was kind of a big deal.

So we made a reservation system that is a little different.

You can't make it by phone.

You can't make it by email.

It's by postcard.

"This girl can hardly wait to find out

if she will be celebrating her 50th birthday

at the Lost Kitchen this year."

And she is. Yay!

We open our reservation process on April the 1st every year.

If you think of Valentine's Day on crack, this is what this is.

It's poems.

It's recipes.

It's intimate stories of people's lives.

There are drawings. There are paintings.

Oh, these are all scratch and sniffs.

[ Laughing ] Are they really?

Each year, we've got 20,000 postcards.

"For the most amazing woman in my life,

I have a romantic day planned.

It includes me getting on one knee

and asking if I may put a diamond on her hand."

So, he's going to propose to his lady friend.

I can't wait to see this.

What table are they at?

What table are they at? They are at Table 2.

I'm gonna have to keep a straight face.

[ Laughter ]

I've heard people say they've been trying

for four years to get in, and, like, that's no pressure.

What? I mean, come on.

It's pressure, and, you know,

expectation is building,

and it's definitely a lot.

♪♪

I've been thinking about how I want to shape

the final menu of the season,

and one thing that I'd love to serve

is this really beautiful tomato soup that --

all of the ingredients were grown by a few of the women

who work at the restaurant -- every single ingredient.

This would be the perfect way to end the week

of just celebrating these women

and celebrating our accomplishments.

So, I'm hoping we can squeeze in one last big bowl of tomatoes,

even though it's late in the season.

♪♪

KRISTA: These are bachelor buttons --

the last of them.

My name's Krista, and I'm one of the lead line cooks

at the Lost Kitchen.

I started at the restaurant four years ago,

and I just saw everybody bringing something in,

and I just wanted to contribute in some way.

I wanted to bring something from home to work.

And I just grew one thing and then another

and another and another, and it took off. [ Laughs ]

Krista has become --

I guess if it were a fancy kitchen,

she'd be my sous-chef, if that's what people --

[ Laughs ] If we had real names for it.

But she's literally my right hand at the stove.

She had not a huge résumé

and no real training...

♪♪

...but the thing was,

I knew that she had strengths.

KRISTA: I walked in the door for waitressing.

I had never, ever, ever cooked before.

This is all brand new.

[ Laughs ]

Erin, she saw a little something in me.

She was supportive,

and I was just like, "Wow, if she's willing

to see something in me, then I'm gonna find it, too."

I grow all of the edible flowers

for the Lost Kitchen --

and tomatoes and sometimes spring garlic

and peaches and whatever else I can find and forage

off the property.

Last week was a huge pull of last-of-the-season, tomatoes.

Just, like, you know, boxes and boxes full,

so Erin was able to run with her signature tomato soup.

And this week, they're just not coming on.

They're shutting down.

Temps are cooler, and they're just not ripening.

In the on-season, I can come in every single day,

and I'm picking, like, 10 boxes, you know?

Now I'm lucky if I get one.

♪♪

They take longer to ripen

when when the temps start to cool down a bit.

They ripen rapidly when it's just 90°, 100 in here.

That's a pretty good pull for this late in the season,

but I don't think she's gonna be able

to get tomato soup out of this.

She's gonna have to reconsider

and hope that some different produce comes in.

♪♪

[ Rooster crows ]

♪♪

ERIN: Mom guilt kicking in.

Making breakfast for my 17-year-old

because I'm gone 16 hours a day,

so breakfast tacos make everyone happy.

♪♪

[ Sniffs ] Jaim?

Breakfast is on the table.

My son is Jaim,

and he's 17 years old.

Morning.Wow, thank you.

I think I put a lot more effort

into making breakfast for him in the mornings

because, you know, it's just that one little bit

that I think I can still do for him --

which feels nice to still be relevant

in his life a little bit.

What's the deal with schoolwork?

Do you have all your English stuff ready?

It's not done, but...

The balance of work and trying to be a mom at the same time

is probably one of the biggest challenges.

What about the diorama?

Mm. [ Laughs ]

ERIN: This restaurant takes me away from my family a lot.

I'm trying so hard to be there for him,

and then work a 16 hour work day,

and, you know, making dinner for 50 strangers

when I know that he's at home having a frozen pizza.

I grew up in a diner where my dad was never home,

and I know that that damaged me in a way,

and I'm trying not to repeat that pattern in that same way.

All right, you got ten minutes when we get in the car.

Okay.

♪♪

ERIN: Still funny to think about, like --

this is where it all started,

is this little diner on the corner. [ Laughs ]

And I still remember my mom

pulling into this parking lot for the first time,

and we were in our old, beat-up Volvo.

And look, the potholes -- these are probably

the same potholes that were still there.

And she said, "Look, we bought a restaurant!"

♪♪

I started working here for my dad when --

well, I guess he pulled me in when I was about 12 one day,

and asked me if I would just clean up

all the eggshells that were on the counter.

And then, from there, it just kept going.

I think by the time I was 15,

I was running the line by myself.

And that's most of my -- if not all of --

my culinary experience.

♪♪

It came from this place right here.

I went to college when I was 18,

and I remember that big moment of feeling like,

"Oh my God, I made it.

I got out of Freedom."

But I became unexpectedly pregnant with my son.

I was only 21 at the time.

So I came back pregnant and feeling pretty deflated.

Moved back in to my parents',

back on the dirt road again.

Eight years later, I was about to turn 30.

I was in an unhappy marriage,

I hadn't found my way yet,

and the only thing that I knew how to do --

the only thing that I felt comfortable with -- was food.

[ Food sizzling ]

And I started a supper club.

I would email a bunch of friends and say,

"Hey, look, I'm gonna make dinner on Saturday night.

I can do 24 people."

I've got this four-burner electric stove,

so I could basically put myself through

some sort of self-taught cooking school.

I think I got maybe 12 people to show up,

so it wasn't a great showing, but I made this dinner,

and I remember, at the end of it,

the joy on people's faces.

It gave me this immense pleasure.

♪♪

[ Spoon taps counter ]

As the supper club started to get more popular,

I finally got to a point

where I opened a restaurant.

It was everything I could have possibly dreamed of.

I pinched myself that I was able to pull it off.

♪♪

But if you want to find some cracks in your relationship,

if you open a restaurant, you will find them --

or they will find you.

♪♪

[ Keys tapping ]

My marriage exploded with that restaurant.

I started to become extremely depressed.

I started drinking more.

I started taking prescription drugs.

And between the marriage and the drugs

and the booze and the stress...

I had a breakdown.

♪♪

I checked into rehab.

My marriage ended.

I lost my restaurant.

I lost everything.

♪♪

I came home...

and I moved into my parents' cabin.

No electricity.

Was fighting for, um --

to rebuild my life.

♪♪

So, this is my parents' house

right here on the corner with the stone wall.

This is where we grew up.

I haven't been down here in a while.

my parents just got divorced last year,

and my dad still lives at this house.

♪♪

I came home to this place twice.

Two really devastating moments in my life --

one when I when I got pregnant with Jaim

and that wasn't expected.

And I was a single mom,

and my parents took me in that first time.

And then, coming home the second time

after my divorce.

I went back to the idea of the supper club.

I found an old Airstream that needed to be completely gutted

and turned it into a mobile kitchen.

Built tables with my own hands.

And that was the way that I was gonna move forward,

was this kitchen on wheels.

Going to farms and going to orchards

and greenhouses and making dinner for people.

Maybe it was a fried chicken dinner

'cause it was outside and it was a picnic.

Or, you know, maybe we were doing pork chops

under an apple orchard with, you know, apples and --

whatever it was.

Whatever made sense for that farm.

♪♪

Even though I went through some pretty hard times,

those tragedies brought me the restaurant

and the women who are there.

We wouldn't be there if I hadn't tumbled down --

if I hadn't gone through hell before.

♪♪

ASHLEY: Hi, babe.

Hi!

I have some flowers for you.

ERIN: [ Gasps ] You do?

Do you need help? Oh, my God!

Dahlias still!

I love them so much.

You're gonna do the big ones.

Okay.

Are you sad this is the last arrangement of the year?

[ Inhales ] Uh...

Or are you just like, "Bring on the frost!

Let's be done. Kill it all."

I did think, on my way here --

I was like, "This is the last time

I have to carry these heavy buckets in here."

ERIN: Ashley is one of our servers,

and she also grows all of our flowers for us

and helps out with all the arrangements.

She's definitely one of my big near-and-dears.

She's been with me the longest.

She started out helping out

waiting tables in the supper club

and has carried on through everything.

ASHLEY: Been a crazy ride, for sure.

I love Erin.

She's crazy at times,

in, like, your crazy friend, fun way.

I grow for a lot of different people,

and you get to know their personalities.

So I know Erin, and I know what she likes

and what she doesn't like.

Erin's not a giant fan of yellow, but...

[ Laughs ] ...she's gonna get yellow.

I don't have much else,

so she's gonna get the yellow.

For all the things that have changed throughout the years,

Erin is still the same person.

ERIN: What's left in the field?

I think that you're looking at it.

So, it's perfect timing.

New rule. Okay.

When you're down to two ingredients

for your floral arrangements, it's time to close.

[ Laughter ]

♪♪

KRISTA: Hey, guys.

ERIN: Oh, lady.

Hi!

Just put all the goods...

Oh, my God, ruffled basil!

That's a nice surprise.

Oh, my God, it still smells like summer.

All right, so, I brought tomatoes --

like a handful.

Oh.

Cool, all right.

Um... [ Clicks tongue ]

They might be a little challenging to work with.

Yeah.

I just wanted to roll in this week,

I wanted everything to be perfect,

and I had this vision of this really beautiful tomato soup.

But I love Krista for trying.

She brought tomatoes,

but what she brought just won't be enough,

so that means I have to improvise.

So, what soup are we gonna run instead?

[ Dishes clattering ]

Um, I don't know.

I'm not really sure what I'm gonna do.

Okay.

I'll come up with something else.

All right.

Good deal.

♪♪

ERIN: Now, since tomato soup

is not gonna work out this week,

we have to come up with another plan,

and I want it to be a soup that I'm just as proud of

and just as excited about.

I have to think about produce that will have survived

any of the small frosts that we've had already

or may taste better because of them.

Hey, Erin.Hey, Catherine.

How are you?Good to see you.

Good seeing you, too.

I brought you guys some wine.

What? Wedding wine.

Oh, my gosh, thank you.

ERIN: Catherine and her husband Alex,

they are running Calyx Farm,

which is just about 10 miles down the road.

It's a new farm for us to be working with.

And Catherine, I noticed,

had celery on her availability list,

which stands out to me because no one else had that.

Oh, wow, you still have quite a bit.

Yeah. You grew a lot of celery.

[ Laughter ]

I know celery doesn't sound very rare,

but the truth is, celery is a total pain to grow.

It takes a lot of water,

and I think, over the years,

a lot of the farmers that we've been working with

decided to stop growing it.

But Catherine and Alex are new to farming,

and they didn't really know how hard it was.

Lucky for me. [ Laughs ]

I feel very sad to say goodbye to summer

and goodbye to tomatoes

and all those summery, delicious goodies.

but then you've got fall food.

I love fall food so much.

It's so comforting.

It makes you feel warm and --

So many good fall --

Apples and squash and celery.

Mm-hmm.It might be my favorite.

So, this is perfect,

because we just are not gonna have enough tomatoes

for this final dinner,

so we just stock up on celery and leeks...

Mm-hmm. This baby is pretty hearty.

I'm thinking with the celery, we could totally do

a delicious soup with celery and leeks.

It'll be super fall and delicious.

Add some crab.

Crab and celery. Crab?

Mm-hmm.Ooh.

Oh, man.

You know, kind of like a...

crab salad kind of situation.

Mm-hmm.

I'm gonna taste it even though it's dirty.

♪♪

It's delicious. It's got so much flavor.

Awesome.

People expect celery is supposed to be...

like a supermarket celery.

It's big and watery and...

You can't buy this at the supermarket.

♪♪

I'm getting my fiber today.

[ Laughing ] Yes.

I want a Bloody Mary now.

[ Laughs ]

With the last of those tomatoes,

we might have just enough to make them.

There you go.

[ Knife chopping ]

Okay, I'm going upstairs.

I'm gonna go sautée these.

♪♪

[ Door creaks ]

♪♪

Do another batch, 'cause I was like,

"Oh, I didn't really sautée enough."

So now I've jammed my pans right full,

but that's okay.

I am making a fresh celery and leek soup.

Soup is the one course

that always terrifies me, for some reason.

A soup is just constant layering

from the stock to the ingredients.

I'm never following a recipe.

I'm always just doing it by feel

and by touch and by taste.

I'm not a fancy cook, and I'm not a chef.

I don't wear no white coat.

I didn't go to school. [ Laughs ]

I cannot make you the best dish in the world.

What I'm trying to do is make you feel

the best feeling in the world,

and there's food involved.

If you're a chef, you're supposed to be making

the best dish in the world

and getting recognized for this dish you made.

But what does it matter if it doesn't, like,

make the person who's eating it feel something?

It's not just about food.

It's about how you care for people,

how you take them in, how you make them feel,

how you pay attention to every little detail.

[ Sniffs ] It's all really important.

Steamy close up. [ Laughs ]

♪♪

I always try to make the tags go the same way.

I'm Deanna.

I'm Erin's mom, and I run the wine cellar downstairs.

ERIN: You're darn right my mom works at the restaurant.

When the restaurant opened, I was like,

"I can't do this without Mom.

I need Mom here."

She was hostessing the first year and greeting people.

And then, when we had the second year,

we really needed this wine cellar.

And I think these are all good.

Meanwhile, she's totally terrified,

'cause she's like, "I know nothing about wine.

I thought Merlot and Chardonnay

were the only types of wine in the world."

DEANNA: I really knew nothing.

Really nothing about it.

So I'm like, "Okay, I'll start here,

and take home a bottle."

You know, like, learn how to swish and swirl

and taste and sniff and spit and all that stuff.

And I've never seen her happier or healthier and thriving

and so smart with wine.

Everyone says, "Oh, you're the sommelier."

And I'm like, "No, not really.

I'm a "Mom-mmelier," I guess.

ERIN: Throughout my life, my mom has always been

my biggest champion through all my ups and downs.

DEANNA: Remember, we were counting our dollars like --

we went out to this little restaurant for breakfast

and we're like, "All right, how much money --

how much money do we have?"

I was broke then, you know?

I had just retired and supporting her.

She was drinking boxed wine.

That tells you how broke she was, okay?

Yeah, I was Franzia broke.

WOMAN: Oh, no!

You had to cover my overdraft fees

because when I went on Match.com, I had no money.

I overdrew my account.

I got charged $32

for a $48 Match.com subscription.

She was so mad.

I was living in the Airstream, at that point.

She's knocking at the door.

She's like, I'm not paying for love!"

[ Laughter ]

And you know what? Four days later,

Michael and I became pen pals.

[ Laughs ]

♪♪

Michael.

My dreamboat. [ Laughs ]

My sweet, sweet husband.

My God.

We've been together for six years now.

I was living in a camper at my parents'

and was not really the world's best catch, at that point,

but there was something that just sparked between us,

and there was no turning back.

When we met, I was living in Manhattan

on the Upper West Side.

Took the 1 Train to work every day.

I didn't know anything about Freedom

or restaurants or whatever.

I created a monster. I have to show you.

Look at him. Look at him.

Look at him. He's so beautiful.

Look at him!

He's got flannel, a fire,

and a couple of things called work gloves.

If you didn't know it, you might think

he was a born and raised total Maine redneck.

Yeah, baby!

He's always into burning things, which I find hilarious.

Get them pallets on there!

Fire to a city boy is like, "Oh, my God."

Whoa, fella!

He's growing a beard.

He calls our lawnmower a tractor.

My Boy Scout abilities have definitely improved.

♪♪

That's my man!

Flannel shirts, yes.

More flannel shirts than I've ever had in my entire life --

although, I do keep -- there's a suit and tie

not far away, just in case.

ERIN: [ Laughs ]

What are you gonna do?

Can you just turn that off, please?

Please.

I always tell people, it's the best $50 I ever spent.

[ Laughs ]

♪♪

Hi! ASHLEY: Hi!

And look, I even brought you some flowers.

I should have told you,

I already got some from Hannah.

From the neighbor?No, they're even better.

Sorry.Mine are better?

Her's are better?Her's are better.

Whatever. [ Laughs ]

[ Snooty voice ] "Whatever."

It's the last night of the season.

[ Muffled chatter ]

Hi. [ Laughs ]

No! [ Laughing ]

ERIN: I don't even feel like I realize

that tonight is it.

♪♪

It's just the strangest feeling of thinking, like,

"This is it."

It doesn't feel like it should be it.

Okay. [ Sighs ]

What do I want to do? What do I want?

Oh, maybe I'll do the fish.

I'm kind of at a weird moment right now.

What you waiting on? Cakes?

I'm waiting for the cakes to bake

and I'm waiting for the buns to rise.

Oh, yeah.

I'm gonna do fish.

Don't let me forget I have cakes in the oven, though.

Today, there was a fish auction,

and I found out that there were

a couple of halibuts that came to shore...

Can you get that door behind me? SKYE: Yep.

ERIN: ..which is a big deal right now

because we're not in halibut season.

I'm pretty excited.

It's my favorite fish to cook,

so I'm already looking forward

to cooking on the line with the ladies

that final dish, that final fish.

I know how many people I have to feed each night,

and I know that I have to get a certain amount of portions,

so I have to do a lot of estimating.

So, this is where it gets tricky,

and I have to use my Mount View math skills

to sort of do fractions.

And I only get so many shots with a piece of fish,

and it's an expensive piece of fish, so...

I don't have mad knife skills, but guess what?

My grandmother didn't either, so --

She made pretty good food.

You almost ready?

ASHLEY: Yeah, I'm just gonna put my hair up.

We fight over this mirror.

Every night, we fight over this mirror.

It's like, we have how many women who work here,

and we have one mirror.

WOMAN: You need to take a little leaf of fuzz off your butt.

ERIN: Hey, can you marker me?

Yes.

Should we get this on? [ Laughs ]

This is how you deal with bleep spots.

I like bleach, and I get it everywhere.

[ Indistinct chatter ]

Okay, I'll see you upstairs.

It's time.

[ Water running ]

♪♪

Krista, you're all in good shape?

KRISTA: I think so.

♪♪

♪♪

Time check?5:36.

Thank you.

We got four minutes.

Feeling very emotional.

A little bit on the edge of tears,

which I have to hold in right now.

♪♪

This is all coming to an end.

[ Gasps ] All right, I can't talk about it anymore.

I'm gonna start crying.

♪♪

[ Sniffles ] Okay, gotta be strong now.

It's happy tears, too. It's sad and happy.

♪♪

[ Sniffling ] Oh.

Gonna be fine.

♪♪

Love you. Love you.

How about a coffee filter for your tears?

Have a coffee filter for your tears.

[ Laughs ]

You good? You good?

[ Laughing ]

You good?

Don't look at me! You'll start crying, too.

It's contagious!

♪♪

♪♪

Dale and Kat. Yep.

Here from Denver, Colorado.

Yeah, really excited to come all this way

for the Lost Kitchen.

KAT: In April, we sent a postcard.

I was like, "Why not?

We have the worst luck in the world." [ Laughs ]

You know, whatever.

And then, lo and behold, we got a phone call.

Yeah.

Dale literally called me screaming.

Yeah.[ Laughter ]

Yeah, yeah.

Here's a wine list

and tonight's menu to look over.

I know, I can't...

This is our first date since baby number two,

so we're looking forward to a super epic date night.

We've been waiting a really long time for this.

I think we applied two years in a row.

You feel like you won before you get here.

[ Laughs ]

♪♪

ERIN: And there's a zillion people here already.

♪♪

ASHLEY: [ Gasps ] Is this it?

Oh, my God, I'm so nervous.

I hope she says --

- [ Gasps ] - He's gonna do it!

-Oh my God. -Here it comes.

-Dude, he's gonna do it! -One knee!

He's talking her into it. [ Laughs ]

WOMAN: Oh, she said yes!

That's a big, long one.

That means yes. That's a "yes" kiss.

Can we all clap in the window?

She said yes.[ Laughter ]

I'm Dara.And I'm Michael.

I've been trying to get a reservation

for the past three years.

Is that the actual postcard?

Yes. Can I see it?

Yes. Okay.

"For the most amazing woman in my life."

Awww.

Tonight's an unforgettable night in so many ways.

♪♪

ASHLEY: That scares me.

The entryway scares me when it's full of people.

I have stage fright.

[ Laughs ]

But I can do it.

I'm a professional. [ Laughs ]

♪♪

Hi!

Come right this way.

[ Indistinct chatter ]

[ Laughter ]

Date night.

This is the best date night ever already.

I can tell.

♪♪

Thank you.

♪♪

When I dreamt of the Lost Kitchen,

I wanted it to feel like

you are coming into my home.

MAN: All right, beautiful.

This is the way I'd want you to feel.

This is the way I want to take care of you.

KAT: You excited?DALE: Yes, I'm excited.

♪♪

[ Indistinct chatter, laughter ]

WOMAN: May I have the same for us?

♪♪

ERIN: When people first come in

and they've finally got their first

glass of wine on the table,

it's always fun to surprise them

and bring out little treats.

And they'll be like, "Wait a minute!

We haven't even started the menu yet."

Hello. Hi.

KATIE: How are you?Good, how are you?

I'm just gonna get you started here.

DALE: Thank you.

All right, so, you have all sorts of little nibbles here.

The first thing that we're gonna give them

is a really beautiful snack board

with lots of local cheeses and olives and pickles.

There are two different butters.

One is a roasted bone marrow and chive butter,

and then, a bit of smoked butter down there.

Quick pickled kohlrabi we made this morning

with some fresh local ginger.

Awesome, thank you so much.

ERIN: You're welcome.

All right, but we're dying to know one thing --

did you have any idea?

No. Come on!

No, no, no, no, no.

Yeah, you're gonna be looking at that all night long.

Yeah.[ Laughter ]

♪♪

KATIE: Oh, my God. So good.

KAT: Cheers. [ Laughs ]

DALE: We've been eating plant-based for how long now?

Six months?

KAT: But for tonight, we felt like

it was a good decision to break vegetarian.

[ Laughing ] It's so good.

It's so good.

It was worth it.Definitely, yeah.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

ERIN: Oh, hi!

[ Laughter ]

Welcome!

I just wanted to welcome you all

and thank you so much for coming out tonight.

I don't know if you all know this,

but tonight is our very last night of our sixth season.

You are here on our final night here at the Lost Kitchen.

My God, I want to cry.

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪

I'm feeling very overcome with emotion tonight.

I grew up here in Freedom, and for most of my life,

I had a hard time finding a reason to feel proud about it.

And then, six years ago, I walked through these doors,

and there was sawdust everywhere,

and it was a construction zone.

We never imagined this little place

would become what it has become, and I'm so proud of it now.

I never thought we'd have a restaurant

that you had to win a lottery to just go out to dinner.

[ Laughter ]

We're gonna start tonight with a soup.

You may have looked at the menu, and maybe you thought,

"Wow, celery.

That's what you're going out with on your last night?

Really? Celery soup?

Wow."

Celery is a pain in the butt to germinate.

It's also a pain in the butt to water.

So people just wiped it off of their list.

They stopped growing it. They stopped doing it.

But we started working with a new farmer this year,

and I thought...

[ Laughter ]

"They have no idea, do they?"

[ Laughter ]

When Catherine showed up with these boxes of celery,

she was looking very stressed out,

and I have to think that tonight,

as we serve this celery soup for the final time,

we're never gonna see it again.

She's never gonna grow this again,

so this is it.

This is the finale of celery.

♪♪

We know all the effort that it took to get here tonight,

and we're so proud and thrilled

to share this dinner with you all tonight.

I'm so excited!

I'm raising my glass as a toast!

This is to all of you,

and the way you felt in Freedom tonight.

Cheers!

Cheers!Cheers!Cheers!Cheers!

[ Glasses clinking ]

♪ Cheers

ASHLEY: Did I get it on that?

WOMAN: [ Laughs ]

ERIN: After all the ups and downs,

I'm so happy with how the final menu came together.

We're serving oysters fresh from Johns River

topped with pickled apples

with sweet apple cider and shallots and chives.

KATIE: To...

The most beautiful woman I've ever met.

Who is it? [ Laughs ]

Thanks for putting up with me.

I love you.

I don't even know how to eat an oyster.

I don't think I've ever had one.

All right, ready?

Cheers.Cheers.

[ Laughs ]

[ Indistinct chatter ]

♪♪

[ Laughs ] It's so good.

Wow.

♪♪

ERIN: The sliders are an ode to my diner days,

and they're made with a local pork

from a fancy Mangalica pig

with homemade mayonnaise, some local cheese,

and last-of-the-season peaches from Krista's farm.

[ Indistinct chatter ]

♪♪

Wow, yeah.

Yeah, this is probably --

I would agree.

This is probably the best thing I've had so far.

[ Laughs ] In my life!

[ Laughter ]

We've made a fresh celery and leek soup

with smoked ricotta and fresh Maine crab meat

that we tossed in browned butter.

♪♪

Mmmm.

You get a really strong celery flavor,

But then you get that sweetness from the crab.

That was my favorite. The crab was amazing.

I'm sorry I can't cook you food like this.

[ Laughing ]

The salad is with Napa cabbage,

heirloom apples, toasted walnuts,

local blue cheese, bacon bits, and buttermilk dressing.

♪♪

Mmm.

Wow.

♪♪

[ Gas range clicking ]

♪♪

There's a magic that happens when I turn the stove on

and it's time to cook the main course.

Ready?

[ Halibut sizzling ]

One last dance.

Lady, may I have this last dance?

We know it's gonna get crazy.

We know that the flames are gonna be going.

The butter's gonna be splattering.

If you think of a normal kitchen, it is fiery,

and people are yelling, and people are intense.

And with us, we don't have to say a single word

to know exactly where we're headed.

KATHARINE: Just a few extra.

Because you can.Just 'cause.

♪♪

KATHARINE: Ready to plate!

[ Indistinct chatter ]

♪♪

You guys, we're plating the last pick-up.

The last leg. This is it.

WOMAN: No, no, no, we did...

♪♪

Nine to go!

♪♪

ERIN: We've made halibut seared skin-side down

till it's nice and crispy

with creamy corn grits,

turnip and cabbage and pear and olives.

♪♪

KYLE: Is the flower edible?

Yes!

How good is it?Haven't tasted it.

[ Laughs ]

It's super good.

It is really good.

[ Laughing ]

KAT: [ Laughs ]

♪♪

So good.We're moving to Maine.

♪♪

The squash cake had vanilla bean custard,

golden raspberries, and a whipped cream

that we folded salted caramel into.

♪♪

The greatest gift

that any of us women in this restaurant can give

is creating a moment that carries on with someone,

and they think about that time that they had.

You're part of their life.

[ Laughs ]

And I love you very much.

[ Indistinct chatter ]

I still struggle with,

"How in the world did this happen?

How did I get here?"

I still pinch myself.

KATIE: This is the best date night ever.

Cheers, guys.

MAN: Thank you.

ASHLEY: Here's to good friends!

WOMAN: And Freedom, Maine!

Freedom, Maine.Yes.

♪♪

KYLE: There's a peacock feather.

Minnesota? Whoa!

This is kind of cool.

It was absolutely worth coming all this way.

It was amazing.

KAT: It was really magical.

Safe travels home.

KAT: Oh, I don't want to go.

DALE: I know.

KYLE: Wanna rest? Okay.

I always have this moment every night.

I'm done with the entrée.

I have swabbed down the stove.

[ Water running ]

I will make my way over to the big sink,

and I scrub all the way up to my arms.

And I have this moment where I think about

when I was 20 and 21

and I was in college,

and I think of what I am now

and what I thought it was gonna be.

And it's like this moment of...

"Here I am."

It's beyond the dream,

and it's so much more beautiful.

My God.

♪♪

Whoo!Whoo! Whoo!Whoo!

WOMAN: You should have made a tower.

Oh, my God. Cheers.

-Cheers. -Well done.

Cheers. Cheers.Cheers.

♪♪

ERIN: This season had to have been

the best that we've had --

yet.

♪♪

I'm just constantly in awe of all of these women.

♪ Oooooooh

♪ La-la

The excitement that keeps me going

is thinking about next spring --

thinking about next season --

and I'm already dreaming of new dishes.

What are we gonna build? Who are we gonna touch?

What kind of memories are we going to make?

♪ Oooooooooh

♪♪

♪♪

REPORTER: COVID-19 infection rates rise.

Maine's small businesses are being hit,

especially... [ Voice fades ]

This season is anything but what I imagined it would be.

♪♪

Are you thinking of opening up

the inside of the restaurant

at all this season?

My gut says no.

We had a machine that was running,

and now, I just had both of my legs

taken out from underneath me.

What am I gonna do?

The Lost Kitchen has gotta change,

and I have to let go of what it used to be.

I have to start thinking about, "What can we get to?"

♪♪

Here's for your puppy. Enjoy.

Maybe people could come and pick up fresh local food

that's supporting local farmers.

But we need to start cooking again

and doing what we do so well.

What if we pulled together

some sort of, like, Lost Kitchen-style lunch?

♪♪

Enjoy!WOMAN: [ Gasps ]

Wow!Pickled rhubarb on top, so it'll be a little sweet.

I know that this isn't all that we can be doing right now.

Why not little private dining cabins

in the middle of the woods?

The glass will be up above you

and looking out this way.

We've finally found some rhythm...

Chicken for two's up right now.

...and it feels good.

[ Sniffling ] Now I'm worried...

'cause what if we all got it, too?

We live here in this place

because we're rugged --

because we're a little bit crazy --

and, you know, we're all gonna be fine.

We're gonna get through this.

[ Gas range clicks ]

[ Food sizzling ]

I just naturally want to feed people.

Welcome.Thank you.

And so, I can't stop.

Right?

You've been keeping the crowds all good.

That's right.

ERIN: This is just pushing me

to find other ways to do that.

If we can pull this off,

it is gonna be so over-the-top beautiful.

Cheers. Thank you so much.