Harbor Bar

When I was a child my family and I would vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine. We would load up our sleeping bags the night before in the back of my mother’s brown station wagon. My three brothers and I would sleep the entire drive up to our beautiful rental house. My family and I have tons of memories from those vacations. Eating fresh clams my brothers shucked earlier in the day, the teddy bear sheets we only used on special occasions, and the world famous Harbor Bar Ice Cream sandwiches.

These ice cream sandwiches were like no other ice cream sandwich we had ever eaten. They weren’t your typical Chip-Which. These bad boys were huge, delicious, unique ice cream cookie creations. The Harbor Bars ranged from chocolate, chocolate chip cookie with mint chocolate chip ice cream, to vanilla cookie with blueberry ice cream, to their world famous strawberry shortcake bar.

One evening after purchasing this delightful treat, we headed back to the house as usual. My mom placed it in a bowl for me, all broken up, because it was too big for my tiny, five year old, hands to hold. Halfway through my treat, I needed to use the powder room. Upon my arrival back to the Harbor Bar, I saw the treat was gone, vanished, disappeared. My little body panicked, scanning the room for evidence. I quickly realized the culprit. I saw the remains of strawberry ice cream on my dad’s mouth. On the top of my lungs I screamed, “DADDY ATE MY HARBOR BAR!!!!” and instantly broke into tears. After much consoling, my dad put me back in the car, and got me a new Strawberry Shortcake.

Over the years, this has been a running joke in my family. Whenever anything went missing, from a sock, to a baseball card, we would all scream, “Daddy ate my harbor bar!”

It is only fitting then, the night daddy’s little girl officially grows up, we serve Strawberry Shortcake Harbor Bars.

My mom and I scouted out a local chef to recreate these creations for us the night of the wedding. I hope you enjoy them as much I do!