Portland Bar Guide has published a bar review of The Front Room.
Defying the melee, bartender Eva notices me right away, and I’m asked what I’d like to drink within 48 seconds of entering, with the drink specials offered in a crisp list. On Saturday and Sunday, I’m happy to learn, this masterful happy hour allows the booze-artist some autonomy with the Bartender’s Choice special, a seasonal, creative cocktail. Eva has made a delicious-sounding Cinnamon Manhattan in past weeks, for example.
Samantha Hoyt Lindgren, co-owner of Rabelais Books, is the author of an interview with Rob Evans appearing in the new issue of Gastronomica.
Samantha’s interview gives us the back story on Rob, who’s risen from yeoman’s cooking on cruise ships to the top of the heap with his recent James Beard Award. Fortunately, she didn’t mention his amazing new charcuterie platter, so there will still be some for us.
Margo Mallar is the author of a new food essay on Portland Food Heads. Margo is the founder of the Maine Ambassadors of Food and Drink, and is the food writer for the Portland Daily Sun. Her essay consists of a set of brief observations about city life made over a three day period.
Day 3 of PortlandTown’s photographic tour of this week’s food events took him to Cinque Terre for the Slow Food Dinner.
The whole concept of “Slow Food’s” could be another post, but let’s say it’s a cousin to the 30 Mile Meal idea to eat local, eat fresh, know your food. Much of the food tonight was grown local and prepared on the premise. The meal was part of a national promotion of “Slow Food” farm to table movement at 6 to 8 premier restaurants around the country.
The French Press Eatery, a new coffee shop and cafe in Westbrook run by James Tranchemontagne from the Frog and Turtle and his brother Andre, is now open for business. In addition to soup, sandwiches and coffee, the menu includes a line-up of fresh donuts. If there anything like the ones at the Frog and Turtle then I’m going to be a regular customer. The French Press Eatery is located in the former Freaky Bean space at 855 Main Street.
A new coffee shop and Internet cafe, Yordprom Coffee Co, is now under construction at 722 Congress Street in the building that used to serve as the offices for Portland Magazine.
Lindsey Sterling has published another ethnic cooking adventures on her blog Inside Immigrant Kitchens. This time she’s cooking with Bill Dilios to make Albanian Kotopita (recipe, family history).
My husband’s co-worker’s father, Bill Dilios, taught me how to make his favorite dish from Albania: kotopita. It’s like chicken pot pie, but with filo crust and an epic story inside
PortlandTown has continued his photographic walking tour through this week’s calendar of food events with a stop at the Simply Divine Brownies grand opening followed by a visit to Bar Lola for their Portuguese wine dinner.
An article in Wednesday’s Portland Daily Sun reports on the upcoming arrival of the season’s Beaujolais Nouveau and the release of a new cranberry mead from Maine Mead Works.
Pine State Beverage Company has scheduled its first delivery of the 2009 Nouveau for 6 a.m. on Thursday (Nov. 19).
It will arrive at Rosemont Market & Bakery on Brighton Avenue in Portland where owner John Naylor and his staff will greet the new vintage of Georges Duboeuf Nouveau Beaujolais. They’ll be joined by the newest release from the boys from Maine Mead Works, a cranberry mead that comes on the eve of their one-year anniversary. It’s an old meets new meets older meets newer kind of thing.
Allagash is in the #2 slot in Paste magazine’s list of The 25 Best American Breweries of the Decade (via a post from A Blog About Beer).
Allagash is like a little slice of Belgium without those pesky language barriers. Using Belgian yeasts and coloring brilliantly inside the style lines as with their flagships White, Dubbel and Triple, what really makes this Maine brewery special is their series of barrel-aged beers, led by Curiuex, Interlude and Fluxus—the latter of which includes sweet potatoes and black pepper in its recipe. We’re also impressed with tweaks to standards like the quad Allagash Four that blends four malts, hops and sugars.
The new issue of Down East is out. It includes a review of Grace,
Grace is an ambitious restaurant that successfully bestows on its guests the multiple meanings of its name. “The original intention of grace,” says Anne Verrill, “is everything from beauty down to the actual saying of grace at the table.” After a feast or a bite, a cocktail or a bottle, guests will certainly have plenty to be grateful for.
and a survey of Maine chocolatiers which included Portland area favorites Haven’s, Dean’s Sweets, Sweet Marguerites and Len Libby’s.