Month: March 2014

Food Truck Improvements (Updated)

| Posted in Events

The City Council’s Public Safety, Health and Human Services committee will be meeting Tuesday night (5:30 pm, room 209) to consider some adjustments to the ordinance that regulate food trucks in Portland. The specific changes under consideration are:

  • Open a variety of city parks to use by a limited number of food trucks based on a RFP process.
  • Allow food trucks to operate in Monument Square on some specific days of the week
  • Create designated parking spaces for food trucks similar to the Uhaul rental spaces that already exist
  • Allow food trucks to park in metered spots anywhere in the city after 6pm

Update: the Press Herald published an article on Tuesday about the requests before the subcommittee.

This Week’s Events: Sangillo’s, Bar Night, JBF Awards, Jolly Woodsman, Food for Change, Maine Maple Sunday

| Posted in Events

Monday — the City Council will be deciding whether to renew Sangillo’s liquor license, they’ll also be considering liquor license applications from Slab and The Jewel Box.

Tuesday — the Local Foods Networking Breakfast is taking place at Local Sprouts, Tandem and Rosemont are holding another Bar Night event, the James Beard Foundation will be announcing the final nominees for the 2014 JBF awards, and Novare Res will be pouring Jolly Woodsman, a collaboration between Speckled Ax and Banded Horn Brewing.

Wednesday — there will be a screening of Food for Change at Space Gallery.

Thursday — The Great Lost Bear will be featuring beer from Sebago Brewing.

Friday — Bibo’s is holding a wine dinner.

Saturday — there will be a wine tasting at Browne Trading and the Winter Farmers Market is taking place at the Urban Farm Fermentory on Anderson Street. Tickets go on sale this Thursday.

Sunday — it’s Maine Maple Sunday, and Pete Sultenfuss from Grace will be the featured chef at this month’s dinner at Flanagan’s Table.

American Sommelier Classes – the Maine chapter of American Sommelier is offering several wine education programs this year: monthly seminars on a wide range of topics, a 6-week foundation series on major grape varietals, and a 10-week series on viticulture.

Outstanding Winterpoint — Hugo’s/Eventide will be collaborating with Winterpoint Oysters on an Outstanding in the Field event August 24th. Tickets go on sale this Thursday.

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.

Review of Gather

| Posted in Reviews

The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed Gather.

For a unique, thoroughly charming dining experience, Gather offers gracious dining in a country village type of setting in a historic circa 1860 former Masonic hall. The vast dining room and its dramatic space are the scene for stylish farm-to-table fare. Standout dishes include their house-made Neapolitan-style pizza, rosemary-spiked French fries, wonderfully prepared appetizers and a good selection of hearty entrees like grilled meat loaf, braised chicken leg, local pork using a rotating selection of cuts that changes periodically, grilled and poached fish, soups, hamburgers and such delicious specials as their poutine of rosemary french fries with duck. Desserts are homemade.

Under Construction: Slab Sicilian Streetfood & The Jewel Box

| Posted in Under Construction

Two new restaurants have submitted their liquor license applications for review at Monday’s City Council meeting:

  • Slab Sicilian Streetfood is collaboration by baker Stephen Lanzalotta, the owners of Nosh and other business partners.  Slab will be located in the section of the original Portland Public Market that had housed Scales. The menu “will exemplify the centuries old street-food culture of Sicily”. The 75 seat restaurant (see construction photos on Instagram) will be able to accommodate as many as 100 additional customers when the outdoor patio is in use. They plan to be open 7 days a week, 11 am to 1 am. You can see a draft menu (page 60)  in the meeting materials.

slab_blueprints2

  • The Jewel Box is a new craft cocktail bar being launched by Nathaniel Meiklejohn. The bar will be located at 644 Congress Street about equidistant between the State Theater and Longfellow Square. The first floor will seat 18 and there’s semi-private mezzanine space with room for up to 8. In addition cocktail and other drinks, Nan’l will be serving a small mostly vegetarian food menu. You can sign-up for TJB’s mailing list on their website: thebeardedladysjewelbox.com.

thejewelbox_blueprint

PDS on Sangillo’s

| Posted in General News

The Portland Daily Sun has posted an article by lobsterman Chris Shorr entitled “Why is Sangillo’s in the crosshairs?”

So my question is, why would the police single out Sangillo’s? If they are so concerned with putting a stop to late night hooliganism and violence, why wouldn’t they focus on the bars in the Old Port first?

Perhaps it’s because as a police force, they recognize that they will never be able to effectively corral the after hours trouble makers in the Old Port. So they might as well feign diligence by blaming a single blue collar establishment for a struggling neighborhood’s problems.

The Save Sangillo’s campaign has set up a facebook page at facebook.com/SaveSangillos.

Reviews: Empire, Oscar’s, Casa Fiesta

| Posted in Reviews

Down East has reviewed Empire Chinese Kitchen,

Wok-fried dumplings arrive with dipping sauce on a rectangular pottery platter; batter-fried honey walnut shrimp with citrusy yuzu mayo soon follow. There may be a brief scramble to see who can liberate their chopsticks from their paper liner first, and then the frenzy begins. What next? Perhaps one of the Cantonese classics: wonton soup or delicate steamed char sui (pork buns). An order of the heavenly baby bok choi simply tossed in the wok with a little garlic, ginger, and oyster sauce will make you never look at a green vegetable the same way again.

the Portland Phoenix has reviewed Oscar’s New American,

Just about every dish had great little touches, like the sharp and crunchy little fried capers on the deviled eggs, perched next to garlic chips that had been soaked in milk and fried. And even the one unrelentingly rich and creamy dish we tried, braised pork cheeks over those same manchego grits, was balanced and layered. A rioja reduction brought just a touch of sweet to the appealingly funky grits and tender meat.

and both The Golden Dish has reviewed Casa Fiesta.

When you don’t want to have a more rarefied Mexican meal at places like Zapoteca, or good tacos at Taco Trio in South Portland, then go to Casa Fiesta where the complexities of this sort of sensory pleasure won’t clutter your better food sense.

The Campaign to Save Sangillo’s

| Posted in General News

The Save Sangillo’s campaign has launched a Facebook page to bolster support for the popular neighborhood bar. Go “like” the page to show your support for the bar.

The campaign got a boost today when Eater Maine published an impassioned pro-Sangillo’s editorial from Snug owner Margaret Lyons,

Every neighborhood needs a Sangillo’s. There is a contingent that requires a certain type of bar. Whether that continent be Donald Sussman or Timmy Noname, they need a place where they can just have a gee dee drink … for cheap. Sangillo’s is not a charity endeavor for hipsters or an outreach project. They don’t need salvation. They need the opportunists to shut the f*** up and for their neighbors to circle the wagons. For what it’s worth, The Snug has Sangillo’s back.

and an essay on the from preeminent Portland bartender John Myers on “why Sangillo’s is a great neighborhood saloon“,

Those kinds of places, with that kind of vibe, I fear, are not long for this world. Sangillo’s is one of them, though.

A great neighborhood saloon like Sangillo’s reminds me of a geologist plunging his tap into the earth and pulling up a striated sample of rocks and dirt and compacted debris. He can read history in a 2-foot plug of dirt. I’ve watched the neighborhood change over the decade or so I’ve been in Portland just by watching the people change in that bar.

Portland Hunt + Alpine Club

| Posted in Profiles

Star Chefs has published a profile of the Hunt + Alpine Club.

When he opened Portland Hunt + Alpine Club, he didn’t want to recreate that Portland. Instead, he wanted to help Maine develop its own cocktail and spirit culture. “In smaller markets in particular, it’s important that owners pay very close attention to what their guests are looking for,” he says—facilitating but never foisting, forcing, or otherwise (sometimes literally) funneling cocktail culture down local gullets. But with his nurturing and finesse, Portland Hunt + Alpine Club has received “an overwhelming positive response.”

Vena’s Fizz House

| Posted in Profiles

Maine Today has posted a profile and set of photos of Vena’s Fizz House.

Owned and operated by Johanna and Steve Corman, longtime Portlanders who also own the seasonal Pearl Seaside Market & Cafe on Cliff Island, Vena’s is named for Johanna’s great-grandmother, a staunch proponent of Maine’s temperance movement in the 1900s. She would approve of the drinks mixed and served at her namesake shop: housemade sodas, shrubs, mocktails and slushes — all made from high quality ingredients and without a drop of demon rum (or gin, whiskey or vodka).

Culture Trip: Food in Portland

| Posted in Reviews

Culture Trip has posted an eating guide to Portland.

With local fresh seafood on its doorstep, a popular farm-to-table movement and a smattering of creative restaurants spicing up traditional recipes with contemporary flair, Portland, Maine, is quickly become a foodie’s paradise. Whether you choose from freshly dug Maine clams in a floating restaurant, New American cuisine in a former church or French fare in a cosy bistro, Portland’s eclectic dining scene – and these ten great cultural restaurants – will leave an impression.