The Bollard’s Sausage Showdown II

The Bollard has published the result from its 2nd Smokin’ Sausage Showdown in the new issue.

Fresh Approach won in the sweet Italian category, “…herby and flavorful Sweet Italian. Sporting plenty of fat content, this sausage was juicy and delicious.”

Moran’s Market won in the hot Italian category, “…instantly juicy, peppery burst, but without the blistering heat we expected from that first bite.”

and Pat’s Meat Market won in the wild card category for their Lithuanian sausage which has a “nice, unique flavor, with the herbs and mustard seed cutting through“.

New Issue of Port City Life

portcitylife200907The new issue of Port City Life is now available at newstands. It includes a special Maine Eats section filled with restaurant recommendations, cool kitchen gadgets and 10 must eat foods in Maine and more. The food articles also spill over in the rest of this issue including a feature article on young organic farmers in Maine entitled Living the Good Life 2.0.
This is the last issue of Port City Life. The magazine was bought earlier this year by the publishers of Maine Home + Design. They’ll be renaming and relaunching the magazine but hopefully the flood of good food coverage will continue.

Vegetarian El Rayo Review

Diet for a Small City has published a review of El Rayo from a vegetarian’s perspective.

The menu included a good number of vegetarian choices.  I was disappointed to see, however, that most vegetarian options lacked protein; by this, I mean that few to none of the vegetarian entrees featured beans and/or rice.  For example, the one vegetarian burrito is described as: “Grilled portabello mushrooms, caramelized onions & poblano peppers with salsa.”  This sounds delicious, but these ingredients force health-conscious vegetarians to order side dishes.

Grace & The Corner Room

Grace plans on opening tomorrow. According to the restaurant’s blog they were aiming for a soft opening but word spread fast.  The blog goes on to say that they’ll be opening with a limited menu “while we work some kinks out and get product in”.  Portland in a Snap has published a profile of the restaurant and wrote, “The menus will emphasize small plates and appetizers, but with plenty of entree-sized meals. The goal is to keep prices below $30, with the apps falling in the $8-$12 range.”
A call to The Corner Room confirms they also plan on opening tomorrow.
Both restaurants probably already have a full reservation book for Thursday evening. For reservations you can reach Grace at (207) 828-4422 and The Corner Room at (207) 879-4747.