Cleonice Cafe, Ellsworth ME

Cleonice Café, Ellsworth ME
We started our visit in Ellsworth at the local toy/kitchen/crafty/t-shirt store on main street. The store was great just for looking at all the stuff. Ithink we could have hung out there for an hour or more but in one of those weird coincidences the Butlers were just around the corner and came to meet us so we only spent a brief time there. It was enough, however, to get a rock and roll puzzle, colored pencils for Rakesh and a postcard.
I asked the salesperson where we should eat, and she recommended Cleonice Café next door. Marci said that had also been recommended in her book. So, we waited patiently for about 15 minutes for a table (okay, Rakesh and Brian did not wait patiently). The restaurant is a long room with a bar as you enter and booths along the left wall and a few tables in the back. Wood is the dominant décor. Smartly, they sat our large party of 6 in the way back corner where we could wreck little havoc on the other diners.
The place is known for using local ingredients, having their own garden, and apparently started a fish coop for the locals (not really sure what that means . . .). We didn’t know this before we ate, however, so we didn’t order fish, which probably would have served us better than our orders. We were almost universally disappointed in the food we got. Rakesh got pasta with red sauce which he said was fine but it didn’t look remotely interesting. Brian got a hamburger which also looked pretty dry and neither of the boys finished their half. Lauren had the Caesar salad with chicken which she ate, but we didn’t ask her about it. Asha had the best dish, a salad with blue cheese, onion and hazelnuts. As usual, it was overdressed, but it was tasty and fresh. I ordered the flatbread with buffalo chicken and a blue cheese sauce. It was fine and the chicken was perfectly cooked, but it didn’t have much flavor. The flatbread was yummy and probably would have been good even on its own. Marci had a horrible beet and gorgonzola salad. The beets were way overcooked and she couldn’t even eat it.
Later we found out from the Blue Hill Wine shop that this is also the place they would recommend. So, we are wondering if we didn’t order the right things or if dinner is better?