The District, a restaurant in Sanford, is small, has a limited and fairly mundane menu, and is enjoying the kind of popularity that apparently allows the staff to be slightly arrogant with newcomers.

There is a small dining room and a bar area next to it. If the dining room is booked, as it was when I visited recently, the hostess may wave toward the bar and tell you it’s open seating “in there.” I selected a seat at the end of a bar-height communal table “in there” and a bartender came around to hand me a menu.