Squire Tarbox Inn & Restaurant on Westport Island is one of those places you hear about, with its unusual, and fabulous, food, but you put off going because it's a bit off the beaten path. If that's the case, you're depriving yourself of a memorable dining experience.

The restaurant/inn, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is really only around a 10-minute drive from Route One in Wiscasset, and it's well worth those 10 minutes.

Owners Roni and Mario De Pietro have been running the inn and restaurant for 15 years, when they bought it and moved to Maine from Long Island, New York. “We had been looking for an inn in Vermont because we used to go skiing there,” Mario said. “One Sunday I saw an ad in the New York Times for the Squire Tarbox Inn, and it just hit me.”

Mario was born and grew up in Switzerland, where his parents owned small hotels, and the young Mario spent a lot of time on his grandmother's farm. He said Maine and the inn appealed to him because of the combination of having a barn, gardens, land and facilities for animals.

Mario worked as a chef in Switzerland before moving to Italy and Germany, where he continued his career. In 1969, he and Roni, who was born in New York but raised in London, England, moved back to her birthplace.

In New York, Mario worked as a pastry chef at one of the city's highest-regarded restaurants, the Four Seasons. From there, he went on to become the corporate chef for a corporation called Restaurant Associates, which oversaw 50 restaurants, including Tavern on the Green, The Four Seasons and The Brasserie.

Later, he was appointed general manager of the Rockefeller Center's restaurants and the outdoor café of its skating rink.

Since then, Mario has owned or partnered in several high-end restaurants in New York before packing up and moving to Midcoast Maine.

Roni worked in England, Germany and Switzerland in hotels and catering businesses before becoming a flight attendant, first for Pan American, then for Delta. She now works alongside her husband running their inn and restaurant.

The inn came with 30 goats. “The previous owners raised goats and milked them for cheese,” Roni said. “Over the years some died, and we got more, until last winter, when we lost our last goat.” The De Pietros didn’t use the goats for milk. They were pets.

Now they have around 40 chickens. The eggs are used in the kitchen of their restaurant.

The restaurant, where reservations are strongly suggested, serves some regular meals and two or three specials each night it’s open.

A few of the most popular dishes are rack of lamb, Swiss veal, cut in strips, with a mushroom sauce, potato crusted haddock with a lobster vodka sauce and shrimp risotto, also with a vodka sauce.

Monday is pizza night. Guests gather outside around the brick earthen oven, and it has become something of a social event, according to Mario. “People come and order pizzas, and while they're waiting they meet and talk to the other people here.”

Come fall, and in the spring, the restaurant hosts a 'Swiss Night' that features Raclette, a creamy cheese, similar in taste to fontina, that is served in the traditional Swiss manner — heated and served with potatoes and cornichones (European gherkins), onions, tomatoes and sometimes broccoli.

The dish is prepared by guests on a small paddle that the cheese is placed on and heated over a small grill on the table until it melts, then is scraped onto the plate. “You can heat it for as long as you want to,” Roni said. “I like it to get crispy on the bottom.”

German dishes like bratwurst and sauerbraten are often on the menu. “I try to do things that aren't available in other places,” Mario said. “And braised lamb shanks are a big seller.”

Another popular menu item, not common to other local restaurants, is spaetzle, a traditional German noodle, often served as a side dish. “A lot of people ask for it, whether it's meant to be served with that dish or not, because they love spaetzle,” Roni said. “Mario makes a big tub of it, freezes it, then sautées it in some butter before serving it.”

The inn, with 11 rooms and eight fireplaces, was once a farm owned by two Tarbox brothers in the 1800s.

The De Pietros recently put the inn and restaurant on the market.

The Squire Tarbox Inn & Restaurant is located at 1181 Main Road. Call 207-822-7693 for reservations.