El El Frijoles

Name: El El Frijoles
Address: 41 Caterpillar Hill Rd, Sargentville, ME, 04673, US
Telephone: +12073592486
Price range: $
Rating: 4.8

We are proud to be serving high-quality food that is tasty, healthy and nutritious. Try it, you'll love it! Frankly, I found nothing but pure happiness here."
(265)

We make pretty much everything from scratch, every day and strive to serve as much locally produced and organic ingredients as we can find. Here's what the Portland Press Herald says "Honest food, expertly prepared in all instances, in an atmosphere that verges on joyful -- this is El El Frijoles. Add to that a commitment to wholesome fare made with the very best ingredients sourced with an eye to

ecology and community. There's a satisfying coherence of mission, setting and food. And it's all proffered without pretension, irony or holier-than-thou hipness. In the Summer, we are open all week serving up delicious riffs on Bay Area/Mexican street food made with really local ingredients. In the Winter, we hold monthly Supper Club dinners, 5 courses of really varied, unusual and awesome food served in a barn in the woods in the snow! We are open Wednesday and Thursday 11-7 for Taqueria stuff too! Sign up on our Email list (the tab is on the left of this page) to get all of our updates and information.

09/05/2026

“Spinning Plates”…
“How’s your vacation going?”… We’ve been asked more than a few times as of late. Truth be told, we are only slightly less busy than we were two weeks ago, and we have only poor Shannon as our sole remaining Taqueria employee. We’ve got events to plan, lot’s of chores to attend to (I put all the EL EL T-shirts in their Winter bins today!) and we are producing much tasty food for sale up at the shop.
Makers’ Market Shop and Studio is performing as expected- which is busy, and we are indeed selling plenty of food to The People from our weird little store.
Today, for instance, we have just received (still warm!) a pretty sizable assortment of freshly baked things from our friends at Tinder Hearth Baking. Bread, people, we have bread! We are in this weird seam betwixt high season and THB’s annual Fall hiatus, so we are getting bread on Saturday mornings again. FWIW, we are open 11-5 on Saturdays now, so your time frame for scoring fresh bread is a tad foreshortened.
Salads! Sorry to yell, but we are excited by a good green salad. We have the famous EL EL FRIJOLES green salads for sale up there now as well, just a few today, but there is plenty of Mexi Corn and Teriyaki Tofu to add a little something’ something’ to your salad, makes it a pretty good meal for two with a hunk of bread and a bottle of wine (which we also have…).
The ever-charming Ms. Ella is with us today, she’ll be whisking and scurrying about if you need any questions answered, gift ideas suggested or want to try any jewelry or clothing on. The store looks great, we’re full-up on all sorts of things, and is a lovely space to spend a little time. Pop in for a visit!

09/04/2026

“How near is now?…
Well, we find ourselves again at a Friday. Nice job, getting through the week, everybody.
We have been busy around here, even though the Taqueria has technically been closed all week. There is still plenty to do, creating and producing all the food for Makers’ Market Shop & Studio, planning and prepping for a variety of catering and events we have taken on (who knew Craft Services was in our wheelhouse?) with some success and some failures. And of course we have the long list of seasonal chores laying out in front of us, mocking me.
So, yeah, I paid the lawn guys some extra cash to move and stack all our picnic tables, it had to be done, they are freaking heavy (especially now they are wet!) and Michele and are both old, broken and busy. Our day laborer has gone off to college, so we are forced to outsource! If I can figure out a way to offshore the painting of the trim on the barn, I am all set…
Meanwhile, while we are on our way out to an island to plan an October nuptial celebration, Sue will have Makers’ Market open and ready for you today 11-5. We have new watercolor workbooks (literally, anyone can learn to paint with these things!) from artist Emily Lex. We also have a bunch of great, affordable sets of really nice watercolor paints, brushes, sketchbooks, printing supplies- you know, anything you need to get creative. We have gifts, too, and cards- so many cards! There is clothing and jewelry, too. And of course the food. I am bringing up Wild Blueberry & Lemon scones as soon as they cool, there are fresh Baguettes, all of our Fresh Salsa, Schmears and a tasty Gazpacho (goes well with the Pickled, Chili-Citrus Shrimps we have!) and all the other stuff. You get it, come in for a visit, chat with Sue and have a look around. Peace out!

09/03/2026

“May the odds be ever in your favor”…
I’m finishing the latest Hunger Games book, and while the actual event itself definitely yields a page-turning drama, the whole concept of The Capital lording over all the Districts from afar, operating them as resource factories and giant labor camps is pretty interesting. There are a lot of parallels to our own current situation, which I am sure is pretty much the whole point, but from out here on the edge of the continent I have to wonder what our “district” is used for?
Is Maine District 13? Our role is to supply a tourist destination for The Capital? Maybe we are headed to being like Croatia’s Istrian Peninsula- set up for Tito’s vacationing Yugoslavians to have somewhere to go in the summer? Can you imagine government-built and run, subsidized family vacation retreats along the Maine coast? A place for the Workers to relax and recharge?
Of course Tito did grab a whole archipelago of islands (like 14!) that he made into his own palatial summer residence. Being President for Life has it’s advantages…
But that’s not us, that was then and this is now. We have the freedom and the liberty to make whatever choices for ourselves we please. Plus, with the way the modern business world is playing out, it is all going to be short-term, app-based rentals anyway.
I guess that is the whole point of reading science fiction- imagining if/how/when parts of it could ever actually happen. I imagine Orwell’s book sales have been huuuge these past few years! Still, the summer escapist reading is always a key part of the Maine experience, as are the workers and the mosquitos. Soon, we’ll be into Fall colors, and we can discuss the Leaf Peeping phenomenon.
But for now, we invite you to visit our charming little shop in the woods! Today we are offering a Crab & Corn Chowder, we have some lovely mixed green salads (with Shrimp or Chicken or Tuna to add a little protein) we have fresh Scones and artist’s supplies with which you can while away the rainy day. 11-5 today.

09/02/2026

“Knocking them down”…
There is a feeling of Fall in the air. It’s not just that we ordered 13 cases of limes for the Lime Fizz booth at the fair, or that it’s dark when we wake up (and go to bed!) or even that we don’t have the Taqueria open anymore. It is the combination of so many cues, the tells of Fall that let us know change is afoot. The Spiders know, they are hard at work, the other fall bugs are going pretty hard, too- it seems’ as if everyone has a Yellowjacket or hornet story to tell these days. The motivated trees are starting to turn, too. And things are quieting down around here!
Well, yesterday was a fair bit busier than last Tuesday up at Makers’ Market Shop & Studio, but in general I think we are seeing a lot of our summer visitors having to return to The City, kids are getting back to school, the office is calling, there are those pilates classes to get back to. Still, as we al know, we are headed into Shoulder Season- and the leaf peepers should be planning their trips too.
But for those of us who are planning to stay the winter, we are getting on to Chore Time! We have things to do, all those projects we had to put off during the summer craziness need to be scheduled now. Firewood needs to be stacked, things need painting, the gardens are going to need to be put to bed. It’s time to schedule an aeration/dethatching for your lawn, and get some seed and fertilizer on it, maybe treat with a pre-emergent natural herbicide? (I’ve ended up in a weird place on TikTok…).
While you are addressing all of these seasonal tasks, remember we are still here making food for you! Today, for instance, we have brought a trio of our fresh Salsas, we’ve made a few more of those EL EL Salads, with Pickled Shrimp, or Chicken Salad, or Tuna to go with them. There is Mexican Street Corn, fresh Blueberry Scones and a whole freezer full of delicious things to feed your family. Yes, there is Fresh Gazpacho, a few sandwiches and even ½ pints of our fresh Chimichurri- maybe it’s a good night for grilled steaks? We’ll be open 11-5 up there today.

09/01/2026

“Well, Howdy!”
Hey look, it’s another beautiful day in paradise. You knew the good weather was coming, we just had to endure all that heat and humidity and stuff to make it to the other side.
Maybe there is rain coming, we sure as s**t need it, but in the meantime let’s just enjoy what we have going on out here today!
What we are up to, is mostly catching up. Maintenance, errands, chores, taking care of just so much minutiae that builds up while we are working at keeping the lights on at EL EL FRIIJOLES. It turns out, there are only so many hours in a week, ya know?
Anyway, today is Tuesday, ad we have got Makers’ Market up monad running for the week. Miffy and her little dog are staffing the place today, and we have started to fill it with good things to eat. Today, we are rolling out a new thing- We are happy to introduce the EL EL FRIJOLES, Mixed Greens Salad to MMS&S! We’ve found what we think is a pretty usable package, and Michele has assembled our famous salad that you can take home and enjoy even in our absence! We are making them GF/DF so we are not adding the hard cheeses to them (but we actually dropped that in the taqueria last month, and nobody even noticed..). We have our Tasty Chicken available on the side (Spicy Tuna too) if you want to add a little protein to your salad, and we have, of course, put in our famous house-made vinaigrette with which you can dress it. These are somewhat limited while we figure this out, so ….
Also today, we have 3 kinds of Baguette sandwiches available. Both the Spicy Tuna and Tasty Chicken Salads, as well as the ever-popular Ham & Cheese. All made with tons tasty things inside, and a lot of love!
There is fresh Gazpacho today, Michele baked some Wild Blueberry (it’s august, yo!) and Lemon Scones as well as a few baguettes. We have Smoked Trout Spread and our Sun-dried Tomato & Za'atar Schmear, Spicy Pickled Citrus Shrimps and our Mexican Street Corn too. 11-5 today, come for a visit!

08/29/2026

“Mixed Feelings”…
It’s o.k. to have more than one emotion at a time, right? We are over here doing all kinds of emoting this morning.
On the one hand, we are exhausted. This has been the hardest, hottest, humid-ist, and busiest summer ever (20 of em'!). We have served more people, more food than ever before, and the meteoric rise in business at Makers’ Market has only added to our workload responsibilities. Plus, we are getting old.
On the other hand, this is incredibly gratifying work. What we do is special, we create and deliver a product that continually punches way above expectations, we get to work with the most incredible team of people- seriously, together this group could do freaking Anything! And we get to meet so, so many people who come through here. A lot of you are our friends, our neighbors. But increasingly, the folks coming here do not live here, they don’t summer here, or visit year after year. They are not working here for the summer, taking care of a parent, fixing up the family home. We have been talking a lot about the changes in our local society, and one of the things I miss is the sense of community that comes from familiarity, from repeat interactions. Maine is trending on Social Media, and folks want to visit. We’ve been so busy this summer, we’ve noticed that a lot of you don’t come, and that is sad. We have noticed that a lot of our regular customers, who can’t deal with this nonsense, have been hitting up Makers’ Market on the regular- This gives us hope, this shows us our plan to transition our focus up to the market is a solid idea, that you guys understand what we are trying to do.
As you know, the key to this business is the people who work with us, and they all have other responsibilities to attend to, and they have to go. Michele and I, and the team at MMS&S are ready to keep you fed and interested, and we’ll be open all winter long, to serve the people of our community!
For our last day in the Taqueria, we are making a Seared Shrimp Bowl, with greens and a lovely bean & corn salad Michele made up. It’ll be yummy.
Thanks for a great summer, we can’t wait to see you in the store!

08/28/2026

“Confidently striding”….
Well, one more day! It has been quite a season around here. Ask anyone working in “the business” in our region and you’ll likely get the same answer- we are exhausted, it’s been cray-cray this summer, we are realizing there just are not enough people in the labor pipeline to make this work. Most of the vast number of folks around here are happily in the customer group, and there are not so many in the worker group. This is a really nice place, and we’ve built a pretty weird little cultural phenomenon.
Increasingly, I think we are going to see that the type of small businesses that can flourish around here are able to be run by the principles- You got a guy that wants to make coffee, a family who wants to open an ice cream shop, a lady with a food trailer. If you can take care of all the labor yourself, you can follow your bliss. What this means to you, the consumer is more challenge ahead. Shorter hours, tighter availability, longer queues. When the little bakery is out of that thing they make, that’s it. When all the Chai is gone for the day, no mas. We have had this conversation dozens of times this summer, this is not because we are lazy, people just don’t want to work, there isn’t any drive or innovation around here. Small business depends on a lot of factors for success, and we have developed into a place where it is a real challenge to support these sorts of endeavors. There are plenty of customers, to be sure, but finding a way to serve them is the challenge. With this booming local economy, you’d expect growth, but now we have one fewer ice cream shop, our season is ending earlier than ever, many of our colleagues struggle to stay open normal hours. I don’t have answers, but I do think we should be talking about this, maybe planning for the future?
In any case, we are open today, and we have food! A tangy, tasty Barbecued Chicken Quesadilla! We have some Local Crab Quesadilla as well, but not a lot (The Crab syndicate doesn’t work Fridays), so come early if you want Crab. Tinder Hearth has had to switch-up the bake schedule, so bread today at MMS&S! We’ll be open 11-7 today.

08/27/2026

“Do more with less”…
I’ve long told y’all about our Wednesdays here at EL EL. About it’s always the busiest day, how cra-cra it gets during dinner service. I’ve told you about how the whole team, all 6 of us, have to be On Point and going 100% to make it work, and how great it is when it all goes well.
Turns out, doing it with 4 of us is different. Sure, maybe there are a bit fewer customers around this week, but it is still high season, and two of our primary, highly-trained, dedicated professional team members are gone. The youngsters are stepping up, but dang, it is a steep learning curve and there is no getting past the fact we are down 30% of our team. We are long paste time when Michele and I could do this by ourselves, that’s for sure.
We are running a special menu this week, which definitely helps. We are not doing any giant take-away orders, and we are really trying to limit the “special” requests that so plague our high-season ordering process. Who knew that sour cream was the defining disagreement point of our times? I thought we were hung up on this whole ANTIFA/Fascism, Good vs. Evil thing, but as it turns out we can’t agree on whether guacamole is a good thing? We’ve seen grown men returning food because it has house salsa on it, for chrissakes…
In any case, you know we strive for perfection, for accuracy, for speed and innovative cuisine options. We are still going for it, but we are a little bit on our hind legs these days. We’ll make it to Saturday, but it is going to be a wild ride.
Today though, we have the Local Crab Quesadilla- with its Nice Salad. We have more of those Local Collards, with smokey Ham and Caramelized Onions folded into a Quesadilla. And there is more Grilled Chimichurri Chicken Quesadilla, too! Up at Makers’ Market? Scones, and Bread, and Gazpacho, and Pickled Shrimps, Lobster Meat & Fresh Crab and our fresh Peaches!!! 11-7 today.

08/26/2026

“Thanks for the books!”…
Dolly personified what I understand as good Christian values. In a time where we are struggling against a fascist, Christian-Nationalist regime, and inundated with messages of hate and intolerance from our official channels, the clear, honest, bright and thoughtful presence of Ms. Parton was, and will continue to be, a grounding force. She was the model of positive humanity, showing us that tolerance, generosity, hard work and a positive attitude is really The Way. We received books to read with our child every year, as did millions of others. While she will be missed, I have a feeling her impact will not lessen, and she will continue to inspire the rest of us for a very long time. I understand she had been working on AI avatars and digital scans of her voice and image, so who knows what’s next? Certainly her message of love and tolerance is one that will always resonate with the good people of our planet.
Welcome to Wednesday! This is our last week of the season- we close-up the ol’ Taqueria on Saturday. And even though we’ll have Makers’ Market Shop & Studio open all fall and winter filled with food, drink and good cheer, this represents a major shift in our operations. This week too, is going to be very different around here.
We are committed to being open to serve our community, even though we have lost key members of our staff. To this end, we are offering a new, limited menu of Taqueria specialties this week. We’ll have our famous Burritos, and Quesadillas. We’ll have a few Salads, We’ll have our delicious Agua Fresca and the worlds’ best iced coffee. Today we will even have 2 specials on offer- A tasty Grilled Chimichurri Chicken Quesadilla, with a salad of mixed, local greens. Also, our Local Crab Quesadilla, with a nice salad. Take a look at our revised menu board posted outside the front door for details, and be ready to be a bit more flexible than usual! Remember, we are doing our best!

08/25/2026

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Address

41 Caterpillar Hill Rd
Sargentville, ME
04673

Telephone

+12073592486

Website

http://www.elelfrijoles.com/

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