The Food & Dining section in today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes an article about hybrid restaurant markets, and
Restaurants featuring retail space – or vice-versa – isn’t a new concept. Department stores and clothiers like Macy’s and Tommy Bahama have hosted restaurants for decades in an effort to attract more customers. Eataly, the Italian foods shopping and dining megastores with locations from Boston to Silicon Valley, has become a phenomenon all its own.
But the mashup of restaurant and retail is becoming more common here in Portland, too. From Terlingua and Onggi on Washington Avenue to Friends & Family on Congress Street, Coveside Coffee on Vannah Avenue and The Maker’s Galley on Commercial Street, the combo concept has been gaining traction around town in the last couple of years.
an article about Maine companies sustainably producing sea salt.
China is the world’s leading salt producer, but luckily for us here in Maine we have an increasingly rich local supply of the good stuff. There are three saltern operations based in Maine that produce food-grade salt using nothing but sea water and solar (and a bit of human) energy. Maine-based spice companies blend Maine sea salt with everything from allspice to sea vegetables (a newish term to take the stigma away from seaweed). And grocery stores and specialty retailers are making Maine sea salt in various forms more readily available to shoppers.
