Two things happened in Cape Elizabeth this year that look unrelated until you put them side by side. In July, The Good Table on Ocean House Road tore up its elegant comfort-food menu and reopened as a pizzeria with a pick-up window. In May, the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust quietly finished a trail expansion that more than doubled the walking miles in Davis Forest, a wooded parcel most residents drive past on Spurwink Avenue without a second look. Neither event made national news. Together, they mark two notable changes in Cape Elizabeth: a restaurant reopening with a pick-up window and a trail expansion that more than doubled the mileage in Davis Forest.
The Menu That Used to Cost $39 a Plate
The Good Table has been a fixture on Ocean House Road since 1986, run for most of that time by its original family owners as a family-style American and Greek restaurant. That changed in 2023, when the Prentice Hospitality Group, the company behind Portland restaurants like Evo Kitchen + Bar and Twelve, bought the business and brought in chef Matt Ginn to reinvent it. The 2024 version was polished: Press Herald food columnist Andrew Ross reviewed it as a bistro with a roast chicken running $32 and a steak at $39, calling it a place that felt like it was for grown-ups.
Not everyone wanted grown-up prices at their neighborhood restaurant. Regulars said as much on social media, and enough of them said it that Prentice Hospitality heard it. Vice president Alex Wolf told the Press Herald the goal this time was different: a space that felt democratic and accessible rather than upscale. The restaurant closed for the season at the end of 2025 and came back this July with housemade pizzas, baked goods from Not A Bakery, beer and wine, a pick-up window, and simpler seating. Wolf described the intent plainly: they wanted an easy community space that matched what people had actually been asking for.
Here's what changed on the menu itself:
| 2024 Version | 2026 Version | |
|---|---|---|
| Signature dish | Roast chicken, $32 | Cheese, pepperoni, or mushroom pizza |
| Format | Reservations, full dinner service | Pick-up window, relaxed seating |
| Other menu notes | Pork schnitzel, duck fritters | Pastries, salads, breadsticks, seltzers |
Prentice Hospitality spoke with community members before making the change, and many of them said they wanted a pizza place of their own. The 2026 version answers that request with a lower price point and an easier way in.
Other Cape Elizabeth Food Options
Cape Elizabeth's food scene already included counter service and pastry cases. The Lobster Shack at Two Lights has run the same counter-service model since long before the current owners of The Good Table ever touched the building, open daily from April through late October with a menu of market-price lobster and a case full of homemade pies. The Cookie Jar Pastry Shop on Shore Road is on the town's list of restaurants and markets. Sea Glass, overlooking the water, has kept its identity steady.
The reimagined Good Table adds a pick-up window and relaxed indoor seating on Ocean House Road, bringing another casual option to that mix.
The Land Trust Doubled a Trail Nobody Was Watching
While that story was playing out on Ocean House Road, the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust was finishing a much quieter project on Spurwink Avenue. In 2022, the trust acquired 15.5 acres from Arlen Davis, son of the family that had held the land, and named it the Davis Parcel. Last year it added an abutting 32.5 acres purchased from the Purpoodock Club. Combined, the property is now called Davis Forest: 47.88 acres and 1.3 miles of trail, up from roughly 0.6 miles before the addition. In a town where undeveloped forest of that size is rare, that's more than a footnote.
CELT executive director David Briman told the Press Herald the new trails took four or five volunteer work parties to cut, clearing invasive plants and mapping routes usable for walking, running, biking, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing. The forest sits at the headwaters of Trout Brook, which flows to Casco Bay, and is home to deer, foxes, coyotes, weasels, and rabbits with, as Briman put it, big areas to roam. He also made a point of framing the location itself: this much open space exists within ten minutes of the largest population center in the state.
That framing matters. Davis Forest isn't a remote preserve for weekend day-trippers. It's a chunk of contiguous woods a short drive from Portland, with its expanded trail network.
How the New Section Connects to the Trails You Already Walk
Davis Forest doesn't stand alone. The land trust's own trail map shows two new connector trails linking the expanded parcel to abutting conserved land, which ties it into a network residents already use. The Cross Town Trail runs from Fort Williams Park at its northern end down to Kettle Cove and Crescent Beach State Parks at its southern end, with additional entrances off Wells Road, Cross Hill Road, Apple Tree Lane, and Hawthorne Road. Robinson Woods Preserve, a short drive north on Shore Road, adds several more miles of walking trails through white pine, red oak, and hemlock stands some of which are centuries old, plus off-leash dog hours on its Pond Trail before 10 a.m. and its Outer Loop Trail after 4 p.m.
None of these pieces are new to Cape Elizabeth. What's new is that Davis Forest now has enough trail mileage of its own to function as a real stop on that network rather than a small parcel most people didn't know was walkable. A resident who already loops through Robinson Woods or ends a Fort Williams walk at the lighthouse now has a third option that didn't exist in usable form a year ago.
Two Notable Changes in Cape Elizabeth
Put the two stories together and Cape Elizabeth has two notable updates to its local offerings. The Good Table reopened with a pick-up window, and Davis Forest now has 1.3 miles of trail, up from roughly 0.6 miles before the addition. This year, the town's food and trail options both changed in visible ways.
That's worth knowing whether you're deciding where to grab dinner after a Saturday at Crescent Beach or figuring out which trailhead to try next. The town's two biggest changes this year added a pick-up-window option for dinner and more trail mileage at Davis Forest.
If you're watching how Cape Elizabeth keeps evolving, from its restaurants to its trail network, and want someone who tracks these shifts as closely as the town itself does, reach out to Ashley Fearon. She keeps an eye on this town for a living, not just for a season.
