Month: June 2020

An article in the Press Herald highlights some of the ways local businesses including those in the hospitality business are showing their support for the protests. Included in the article’s coverage are Ada’s, Rising Tide and The Honey Paw.

Sid Rumma, a partner at Ada’s pasta restaurant on Congress Street in Portland, couldn’t participate in the Black Lives Matter protests, but he could offer bowls of spaghetti to those protesting.

“I’m just trying to be helpful,” he said as he prepared free midday meals on Wednesday, the second day he and his team at Ada’s have offered to feed and nourish hungry protesters in advance of the afternoon’s public demonstrations.

I’ve been getting a number of requests the last couple of days for a list of black-owned restaurants and bars. Here are the ones I know of in the Portland area—please let me know if you know of any that are missing and I’ll add them to the list.

• 207 Bar & Restaurant – an African/Caribbean restaurant on Cumberland Ave
• Actual Foods – a food truck
• Asmara – an Eritrean restaurant on Oak Street
• Black Betty Bistro – a catering business
• Burundi Star Coffee – a coffee shop on Saint John Street
• Knitting Nook – a cafe and knitting shop in South Portland
• Little Easy Snoballs – a new food truck serving Louisiana-style shaved ice
• Magnus on Water – a cocktail bar in Biddeford
• Mainely Hot Dogs – a hot dog food truck
• Niyat Catering – a catering business operating out of Fork Food Lab specializing in Ethiopian food
• Red Sea – an East African restaurant on Washington Ave
• Rwanda Bean Coffee – a coffee shop with locations in South Portland and on Stevens Ave
• Soul Food Paradise – a takeout restaurant operating out of Fork Food Lab
• Yardie Ting – a Jamaican restaurant located in the Public Market House

For a list of black-owned businesses in a range of industries across the state of Maine see blackownedmaine.com.