Fore Street in Gourmet Magazine

“Eating out has become more of a luxury than ever” declares Gourmet magazine and so they’ve put together a list of restaurants that “you can trust to provide exceptional food and a memorable experience every single time”. Fore Street made it on to the list along with 125 restaurants from across the nation. Gourmet writes that the dishes at Fore Street are “…simple but never boring, and often astonishing.”

This Week's Events

There are several events taking place tonight: Local Sprouts Cafe is organizing a public walk through of their new space followed by a meal and a collaborative design session to get the community’s ideas for their cafe, Master Preserver Beth Richardson is teaching a class on canning at Wolf Neck Farm, Stephen Lanzalotta’s weekly Piatto per Tutti cooking class, and the weekly  Food and Drink Trivia Contest at Bull Feeney’s. On Tuesday, the next Wine Flight 5k Training Run is taking place, the destination is Silly’s. There are wine tastings scheduled on Thursday at Old Port Wine Merchants, on Friday at the Munjoy Rosemont and on Saturday at Kitchen and Cork. The Salt Exchange is running their weekly wine and canapes event on Wednesday. Portland’s weekly Farmers’ Markets are being held in Monument Square on Wednesday and at Deering Oaks Park on Saturday. Friday through Sunday MOFGA’s annual celebration of all things sustainable/local/organic, the Common Ground Fair, is taking place in Unity. For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

I'd Like a Reservation for 4 Please

People who saw Rabelais included in the list of restaurants in the recent New York Times article about Portland have been calling the bookstore for dinner reservations.

One of the unforeseen results of the New York Times piece has been the repeated calls we have been getting for reservations. We are included in the listing of “Where to eat in a city of abundance”, in the context of all those restaurants. So folks eager to eat at some of Portland’s finest have been calling our number to reserve a table. The desperation in some of their voices has led us to believe that our good friends also mentioned in the story have been booked solid.

Under Construction: Linda Bean's Perfect Maine Lobster Roll

Today’s Portland Daily Sun is reporting that Linda Bean will be opening a restaurant in the space currently occupied by JavaNet at 37 Exchange Street.

Now, with a fresh lease in hand, Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine Lobster Roll & Dock Lobster will open at 37 Exchange St., the current home of Java Net Cafe. Bean has purchased a long-term lease at the location and will convert the space from a coffeeshop to a takeout and sitdown restaurant that features Maine lobster, Schneider said Thursday.

“This will be our flagship location, and we may go into franchising,” Schneider said.

Impact

The Press Herald has followed up with some of those mentioned in this week’s New York Times article on Portland food  to see what the impact of the “second course of food glory” has had on their businesses.

Potocki made three dozen extra bagels Thursday in anticipation of a rush. He still sold out of some items on his menu by 2 p.m., which is unprecedented for him. He said he was seeing a lot of new customers from other suburbs, such as Falmouth and Cumberland.

“It’s been pretty major,” Potocki said. “I didn’t really know what to expect, to tell you the truth.”