Portland Food Heads has published a review of The Corner Room.
I really wanted to like The Corner Room – really, I did. And because this experience was so terribly awful, I may have to give the place one more shot at some point, just so that I can rest easy in the possibility that this meal was a fluke rather than a representation of the restaurant in general.
The weekly Food and Drink Trivia Contest is at Bull Feeney’s tonight and on Tuesday the next Wine Flight 5k Training run is taking place. Both The Salt Exchange and Jones Landing are holding wine events on Wednesday, and there’s a wine tastings this week at RSVP on Wednesday. On Thursday Longfellow Books is holding a book signing with Julia User author of Cookie Swap. Portland Schooner Co is offering food themed sailing trips this week on Monday and Friday. This weekend the 85th Annual St Peter’s Italian Bazaar is taking place. Farmers’ Markets are being held in Monument Square on Wednesday and at Deering Oaks Park on Saturday. For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.
Evangeline was included in a list of the ten “best French restaurants to hear bon appétit” put together by Saveur Editor-in-Chief James Oseland for USA Today.
At Evangeline, nose-to-tail dining meets French technique: Think crispy roasted calf brains and roasted beef shins with warm marrow for spreading on crusty bread,” Oseland says. “Dishes are built from the ground up with the highest-quality ingredients and with an eye toward what’s local, seasonal and ripe for experimentation.”
Portland Bar Guide has reviewed the Dry Dock.
Bright and sunny, with two floors to choose from, the Dry Dock can accommodate you, your family and all of your friends with casual service and a reasonably priced food and drink menu.
Upon seating myself in the bar area, I was offered their famous shrimp Bloody Mary ($5.75) by our perky waitress Eileen. “No thanks and gross,” was my answer, but apparently folks absolutely love this drink.
The Portland Phoenix has published a review of The Salt Exchange.
And Salt Exchange is good enough if you are going to treat the little people who make your life meaningful to a nice dinner out. They even open early for dinner — at five — a family-friendly touch. For adult fare, Salt Exchange could do with a bit more seasoning. Children like to experiment, and the cuisine at Salt Exchange is experimental as well. Sometimes that method is slow to achieve its best results. The Salt Exchange clearly has, as Brooks would appreciate, grand designs and high ambitions. It may take a bit more time to get there.
The new issue of The Maine Switch includes a feature article on Portland’s favorite bartenders.
Here in booze-loving Portland, we’re lucky to have an abundance of excellent bartenders. Which explains why when Switch reached out to readers, friends, bar flies and the Twitterverse asking for the names of the city’s favorite drink mixers, we were flooded with responses. We took the top suggestions, stirred them with our own bar experiences and these nine individuals rose to the top. Here they share outlandish bar stories and hangover cures, plus pepper us with drinks both beloved and loathed.
As well as a restaurant review of The Frog and Turtle, a guide to Maine beer and an interesting piece on the Maine Local 20 Project. Maine Local 20 is an effort by MOFGA to determine how well matched Maine’s food production and consumption are.
In contrast, we don’t grow nearly enough carrots to supply our local needs, which explains why the vast majority of carrots on grocery store shelves are trucked in from California. Right now, carrots are grown on roughly 30 acres of Maine farmland, but this would need to jump to about 700 to 800 acres to support Maine’s carrot habit. Even though Maine has a short growing season, carrots are a root crop that stores well and could be stockpiled for the winter.
Maine Mead Works was the focus of a video profile put together by the Channel 6 news team. You can see the piece online at the Blog About Beer website.
Today’s Portland Daily Sun includes a profile of the Captain Mowatt’s line of hot sauces which are produced here in Portland.
Jolly Roger is one of the 20-odd sauces from the Captain Mowatt line that Stevens brews up in his East End munitions factory. A former Casco Bay Line ferry captain, Stevens was introduced to the wild world of hot peppers during a stint in the Gulf of Mexico some 15 years ago. Upon his return to Maine, he found slim pickings in the heat department: only Frank’s Hot Sauce and Tabasco so he began mixing up his own sauces.
Captain Mowatt’s sauces and its owner Dan Stevens were also written up in the latest issue of Portland magazine (not available online).
Diet for a Small City has published a review of Bonobo.
The Verde was just as good as other Bonobo pizzas I’ve sampled. The crust was crispy on the outside, just kissed by the smoked flavor of flames. The toppings were ample, with generous globs of ricotta cheese piled atop the pie. The roasted onion and leeks worked nicely with the cheeses. Though this could be considered a white pizza, it was still plenty moist, for the fresh pesto and roasted onions ensured that this was not a dry dish.
According to the Forecaster, the new restaurant taking over O’Naturals space on Exchange Street will be called Sonny’s. Jay Villani, Chef/Owner of Local 188, is heading up the new venture.