Harding Lee Smith is a Mainer by birth. Once he graduated from Portland’s Deering High School, Harding left Maine to experience the rest of the world. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University, he moved to the San Francisco Bay area and attended the Culinary Institute of America’s West Coast Campus in Napa Valley. After an apprenticeship in Venice, Italy, Chef Smith relocated to Maui, Hawaii where he was the chef of several well-known restaurants. After six years on the island, family and the Red Sox were calling and he returned to Maine in the fall of 2003. After spending the winter of 2005 at the venerable Back Bay Grill in Portland, Harding embarked on his dream, the opening of a casual neighborhood restaurant and bar.

 

Dedicated to offering classic food made with quality local ingredients at moderate prices, Chef Smith opened The Front Room Restaurant & Bar in late 2005 in Portland’s hip and scenic Munjoy Hill neighborhood, steps from Casco Bay at 73 Congress Street. The Front Room, recently featured in a story on Munjoy Hill in the Washington Post, continues to garner enthusiastic acclaim from regional and local press, and was recognized by the Portland Phoenix as the city’s Best New Restaurant of 2006.

 

Smith’s second restaurant, The Grill Room & Bar, immediately became a popular lunch and dinner spot and has been packed since opening in May 2008. Located at 84 Exchange Street in Portland’s historic Old Port district, the “urban steakhouse” features a wood-fired grill and pizza oven that turns out boldly flavored steaks and crisp pizzas from the open kitchen, featuring local, organic, and all-natural meats from Wolfe’s Neck Farm in Freeport. The Portland Phoenix named The Grill Room the city’s Best New Restaurant of 2008.

 

Chef Smith opened his third establishment, The Corner Room Kitchen & Bar, in early July 2009. The restaurant is located in the space formerly occupied by the Salt Institute at the intersection of Federal and Exchange streets in Portland’s Old Port (110 Exchange Street). With the same comfortable rustic ambiance as the first two Rooms, The Corner Room features fresh housemade pastas, antipasti and artisanal breads – affordable rustic Italian-inspired food at its best.