Perched at an elevation of 3,620 feet and tucked into a mini forest of dwarfed spruce trees at Saddleback Mountain, an architectural delight known as The Nest rises from the snow.

Turn the corner when exiting the Rangeley Quad chairlift and there it is — a dark, pine-tar-covered clapboard building standing in stark contrast to its snowy white surroundings.

On a recent Saturday morning, the restaurant buzzed as staff members — many essential J-1 visa students — prepared for the blizzard of skiers expected at lunch.

In some ways, the restaurant feels like it belongs on a European ski mountain. As Moira McCarthy, ski critic for the Boston Herald, wrote, “It’s totally where James Bond would head for a break.”

Saddleback reopened Dec. 1, 2020, after five years of closure. A new lift debuted that season, and three years later The Nest opened.

Of Saddleback’s 6,300 acres, only about 600 are developed. Skiers traveling from the Portland area (about 80% of Saddleback’s customers) pass the breathtaking Height of Land overlook, and the vista only improves from the slopes, with Saddleback Lake shimmering below.

Davies Toews Architecture designed the modern, utilitarian structure with environmental sensitivity in mind. Architects were aware of the rare Bicknell’s thrush, a small bird inhabiting dense alpine forests at high elevations, like at Saddleback. Bird-deflection screens protect the thrush from collisions with The Nest’s expansive sliding doors.

In 2024, Saddleback Mountain received an inaugural BirdSafe Maine award for it’s environmentally conscious design. According to Engineering News-Record East, which named The Nest at Saddleback its “Best Project, Small Project of 2024,” crews coordinated construction around the early spring breeding season of the Bicknell’s thrush, compressing an already short building season.

The 2,500-square-foot restaurant is set on posts to mitigate disruption to the natural watershed. In the spirit of Frank Lloyd Wright’s integration with nature, the view feels uninterrupted from inside, thanks to the sliders that open in summer to sweeping mountain vistas.

Bold colors define the interior. Mustard yellow warms the space, appearing overhead and on leather seating. The bathroom is cotton-candy pink.

Architects “took cues from Norwegian vernacular structures, deploying pine tar-covered clapboard siding” wrote Lila Allen in the Winter 2025 issue of AN Interior. Modern and utilitarian touches continue inside, where Maya Romanoff burlap lines the walls.

There was at least one misstep — the original marble floors were “polished like a mirror,” according to Saddleback General Manager Jim Quimby, which proved too slippery for ski boots and were replaced.

The building’s bold aesthetic sits on ground layered with history.

Quimby, who grew up on the mountain where his parents worked and his grandfather helped build the T-bar, remembers when the site was little more than a picnic table where “pot-smoking hippies” gathered, a narrow path winding through the trees to what was then an informal hangout.

That free-spirited past feels aligned with the creative vision that ultimately shaped The Nest.

Allen wrote that the architects drew inspiration from the children’s book “The Teletrips of Alala,” described as trippy, psychedelic, colorful, inventive and weird. The reference helps explain the restaurant’s playful palette and slightly otherworldly mood — a contemporary structure with a wink of counterculture energy.

Outside, a fire pit and picnic tables invite lingering. Front-of-house Manager Mike Miller envisions a ski-up window and “a spring beer garden with people dancing and jumping.”

According to the website of builder PC Construction, the living roof, “covered in hay-scented ferns and native Maine lowbush blueberries reduces runoff, insulates the building and mitigates the heat island effect.”

As distinctive as the architecture is the menu, created by Chef Brandon Mondiville. Miles from the coast? No problem. Love Point oysters from Harpswell, sushi and a fried haddock sammie share space with Nest Truffle Fries and a pork belly bao bun.

Visitors can arrive by chairlift, skins or snowcat in winter. In warmer months, hikers replace skiers, and The Nest hosts Sunday brunches, with the chairlift still an option. The snowy roof gives way to its native-plant covering. Ancient trees — their growth rings so tight they’re barely visible — still surround as the snow melt ushers in hues of brown and green.

“We say we’re different. We really want to be different,” Quimby said.

The Nest is, indeed, different.

Call ahead for The Nest’s hours at Saddleback Mountain: 207-864-5671.