Milagro Coffee Bar in Southwest Harbor
When Jacquith Porter bought Milagro Coffee Bar in Southwest Harbor, it wasn’t a move he had planned. “My sister was looking for office space and came across the listing,” he recalls. “She joked, wouldn’t it be funny if you bought Milagro? A year later, here we are.”
Jacquith grew up on Mount Desert Island, but his path back home included years immersed in coffee culture far from Maine. After a six-year stint with Starbucks, he helped launch shops in Boston, worked with Café Nero, and later moved to New York City to open cafés in the East Village. He stayed through the pandemic before returning to Maine in 2022. Soon after, he stepped into Milagro, a café he had known since high school when the original owners were behind the counter.
“I wanted to keep the same Milagro, just in a different font,” he says. The values remain the same: community, good food, good coffee, and a loyal base of regulars. His twist has been to refresh the space, expand the gardens, update the menu, and introduce playful seasonal specials that keep things interesting.
One of those creations, the Silly Goose Bucket, has become a sensation. The 32-ounce handled cup of cold brew or flavored latte started as an experiment and is now one of the café’s most popular items. “People love it. We sell 10 to 15 a day,” Jacquith says. He also experiments with seasonal scones, rotating drinks inspired by TikTok trends, and themed pastry menus that change month to month.
Still, Milagro is rooted in the classics. Bagels are made by hand every morning, following a recipe handed down from the café’s earliest days. Jacquith’s blueberry lemon scone has been perfected over 20 years. And for those who want to taste the quality of the espresso itself, he recommends a flat white made with beans from Methodical Coffee Roasters in South Carolina.
“I set out to make this a coffee shop for the locals that happens to be in a tourist town,” he explains. That philosophy shapes everything from the selection of roasters, which must be brands he has a personal connection to and not available within 50 miles, to the scratch-made pastry case.
The result is a shop that feels both familiar and new. “Southwest Harbor today is the Bar Harbor I grew up with in the nineties,” Jacquith says. “Everyone knows everyone. I wanted Milagro to fit into that rhythm.”
FAMOUS FOR:
A locals-first coffee shop in a tourist town, serving scratch-made bagels, rotating drinks inspired by New York trends, and carefully sourced roasters you won’t find within 50 miles.
ADDRESS:
204 Main St in Southwest Harbor, ME
WEBSITE:
milagrocoffeeswh.com
photos by Peter Logue
