Month: June 2013

Professionals Eating Out

| Posted in General News

Portland Daily Sun columnist Natalie Ladd explains the calculus of eating out for professional restaurant staff.

If we have a rare night off and aren’t doing a week’s worth of laundry, playing poker with our co-workers, or working anyway by covering someone else’s shift, that dining out thing could just happen. More often than not, it takes planning to have a quality “Go Out and Be Waited On” experience where we’re the one who’s being pampered, tended to and made to feel as if our business/money matters. The problem is, it’s damn near impossible to do so, especially in our own backyard. There are several professional and personal reasons why this is the case.

Maine Beer: Brewing in Vacationland

| Posted in Beer

Today’s Press Herald includes an article about Josh Christie’s new book Maine Beer: Brewing in Vacationland.

In addition to stories about the founders and the start of each brewery, Christie writes about many of the beers from each brewery, usually tells readers his favorites, and often describes how the beers were named.

He ends with a description of some of the best beer bars in the state.

Christie writes the blog Brews & Books.

Interview with Mark Gatti

| Posted in People

The June issue of The Bollard includes an interview with Mark Gatti, owner of Mark’s Hot Dog’s, in recognition of the 30th anniversary of his food cart.

June 13 marks the 30th anniversary of Mark’s Hot Dogs. Mark Gatti is still in the same spot — Tommy’s Park, in Portland’s Old Port — slinging franks out of the same red wooden cart he and his father built. In 1983, one of Gatti’s dogs set you back 60 cents. Today, it’s $2.50, and credit cards are accepted. In addition to the traditional brown and red hot dogs with ketchup, mustard, onions, chili or kraut, you can pick up an Italian sausage for $5. The Old Porker, a recent special, has bacon, sour cream and sautéed onions ($3). And the bomb dogs ($3.50) are so loaded with toppings and condiments that Gatti gives you a paper plate to catch the mess.

 

For additional reporting on Mark’s 30th anniversary see this article in the Portland Daily Sun.

Portland Dishcrawl

| Posted in Profiles

Sweeter Salt has published a piece on last month’s edition of Portland Dishcrawl.

A few months ago I was contacted by Mary from Dishcrawl Portland. Dishcrawl is much like a pub crawl, but with restaurants. At each event, ticket holders visit four restaurants in one night, sampling each restaurant’s specialties and meeting the chefs or owners. They aim to create a community by bringing Portlanders together with chefs and restaurants. Since I love Portland and I love food, I was pretty excited at the opportunity to give it a try. In May I joined the group and had a great time.

Interview with Joel Beauchamp on Pocket Brunch

| Posted in Events, People

Knack Factory has published a podcast interview with Joel Beauchamp about the success Pocket Brunch has enjoyed, the people involved and plans for the future.

Alex Steed: On what, if anything, Pocket Brunch says about Maine?
Joel: Maine is not just what’s happening in a certain little subset of people who frequent certain restaurants and summer up the coast… That’s great; good for them. But there are a bunch of wildly creative people taking risks every day, trying crazy things and some of it doesn’t work while some of it does. But there are people doing super creative things. Pocket Brunch is proof that if you give all these guys who are working at great restaurants, but they’re doing the same thing or same kind of food over and over… [It’s proof that these] are guys who want to be trying new things or crazy stuff.

Under Construction: Mi Sen, Portland & Rochester, MJ’s, etc

| Posted in Under Construction

Liquor licenses for several new business were on the agenda for last night’s meeting of the Portland City Council:

  • Mi Sen is the name of the a new Thai “small portion noodle soup” bar under construction in the former Korea House space. The restaurant is the creation of Darit Chandpen whose family runs Sala Thai. A draft menu is on page 75 of the meeting materials.
  • You can see the floor plan for MJ’s, the wine bar slated for One City Center, on page 90 and a draft menu on page 95.
  • Portland & Rochester Public House is under construction in the old G&R DiMillo’s space in Bayside. The draft menu can be found on pages 115-117.

There’s also info on the Portland Hunt & Alpine Club, an Oxbow event being run by Nosh, as well as incremental adjustments to other licenses in the meeting materials.

This Week’s Events: Local Sprouts, Rogue, Flea Bites, Smuttynose, Old Port Festival

| Posted in Events

Tuesday — Local Sprouts will be hosting a “Community Dinner with music, a community forum, and a buffet dinner” to celebrate their 3rd anniversary.

Wednesday — the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — The Great Lost Bear will be showcasing beers from Rogue.

Friday — wine tastings will take place at Rosemont and the West End Deli, and it’s First Friday Art Walk so be sure to make your restaurant reservations soon.

Saturday —  Novare Res will have 25 Smuttynose beers on tap, Rosemont is holding an event featuring wines from the Piedmont region of Italy, and the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

Sunday — the 40th Annual Old Port Festival is taking place.

National Iced Tea Day — Oakhurst Dairy is pairing up with 5 local food trucks to celebrate National Ice Tea Day on June 10th. Bite into Maine, Love Cupcakes, Mainely Burgers, Gusto’s and Portside Picnic will be handing out free Oakhurst ice tea all day on the 10th.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

Beekeeping & Farming

| Posted in Farming

Today’s Press Herald includes articles on the state of beekeeping in Maine,

A recent federal report has pinpointed some of the causes of rapid die-off of bee populations from colony collapse disorder, but Maine beekeepers say hives here are flourishing.

and the increasing number of young farmers in the state.

“We were looking for a purpose. I wanted to feel good about what I did at the end of the day and wanted to feel like I’ve made some kind of a difference,” Ann Mefferd said.

“I wanted to feel like my whole lifestyle was in line with my thinking about the world, like ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.'”