10 Years Ago in January

As a kid my favorite part of reading Scientific American was the 50 and 100 Years Ago section. Being able to look back and see what the hot topics in science with a century earlier was fascinating.

While I don’t (yet) have an accurate take on the food scene in Portland a century ago, Portland Food Map reached its 10-year anniversary last year. Daily chronicling the food scene has produced a lot of information to work with and this month I’m going to start a new monthly column looking back at what the key stories were a decade ago.

Here’s a look at the top stories from January 2008:

• StarEast opened in Woodfords Corner.
• News of Novare Res became public—this brought the Under Construction List up to a total of 12(!) businesses under development.
• Nancy English was the Maine Sunday Telegram restaurant critic, and blogs Type A Diversions and Portland Psst were very active in reviewing and reporting on what was going on.
• Otto Pizza co-owner Mike Keon changed the name of his Commercial Street restaurant from Crab Louie to One Eyed Jacks Pizza.
• Three years prior to the launch of Instagram, Portland food blogger From Way Away registered the word ‘Pastarazzi‘ into the Urban Dictionary. It was defined, “Foodie bloggers who insist on taking pictures of their meal at nice restaurants.”
• Rabelais and Slow Food Portland collaborated to hold the Slow Food Writers Night at SPACE Gallery.
• Both Bleachers and Wild Oats closed.