Chef/owner Harding Smith reopened The Grill Room on Saturday night. This comes after a 4-month repair and renovation of the Exchange Street restaurant following a fire in June.
The Grill Room will be open Tuesday and Wednesday 4 – 9 pm and Thursday though Saturday 4 – 10 pm.
Renovations are ongoing in the former Swiss Time space which is slated to become part of The Grill Room when completed.
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South Portland-based Cafe Louis (website, facebook, instagram) has purchased the former Wolf Peach building in Camden where owner Evan Richardson plan to open a second location.
The new restaurant will be nicknamed Costa Media and will be offering a very similar menu to what Richardson and team serve in South Portland. He hopes to have Costa Media (instagram) open by the end of December.
Richardson shared he’s always enjoyed his time visiting the Midcoast and so has been watching for opportunities to open a restaurant there for sometime. He sees parallels between the communities in South Portland and Camden, and hopes diners there will also find the Cafe Louis menu and hospitality a good fit for what they have an appetite for.
Several of the the kitchen and front of house staff from Wolf Peach will be joining the Costa Media staff including the bar manager Austin Boyle. The South Portland Cafe Louis sous chef Orchard White is from Camden will also be lending a hand. As part of the growth of the team, Khristian Martinez will be taking over as chef de cuisine at the South Portland location.
Richardson launched a food truck (in 2017) and then restaurant (in 2018) on Exchange Street called Eaux. Eaux is currently on sabbatical while Richardson locates a new location for it. The South Portland Cafe Louis opened on July 1, 2021.
Coffee By Design owner Mary Allen Lindemann has announced she’ll be permanently closing the coffee shop on Congress Street. The Congress Street location was the original CBD that opened in 1994.
It is with deep sadness that I share that we will be permanently closing the Coffee By Design Congress Street coffeehouse. This is a difficult announcement to make. I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for the support this community has always given this special place in Portland.
You can read the full announcement on instagram. It also indicates that the decision is unrelated to the recent steps by the CBD staff to form a union and concludes with,
I am immensely grateful for the support of our customers, our dedicated employees, and our partners throughout the years. To our true believers – you know who you are – you have been patrons and also dear friends. We are honored to have you in our lives. While Coffee By Design Congress Street is closing its doors, the memories we have created together will live on. We hope to see you at Diamond Street, India Street and online.
Monday – Ore Nell’s North in Biddeford is holding a 5-course beer dinner.
Tuesday – The new Ten Mothers (instagram) food truck is launching. They’ll be stationed on Washington Ave out in front of the new (and newly launched) Oxbow Brewing tasting room.
Halloween – check with your favorite restaurants and bars for details on what Halloween events they may have planned.
Saturday – The 18th Annual Veg Fest is taking place.
Sunday – Chaval is holding a late harvest dinner at Wolfe’s Neck Center in Freeport.
November 9 – Judy Gibson is serving a 4-course wine dinner featuring wines from Lauren Bonnois. Mrs. Gee Free Living and Gather are collaborating on a gluten-free dinner which will benefit the Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund.
November 10-12 – The 6th Annual Downeast Cider + Cheese Festival is taking place in Ellsworth.
November 11 – Dandelion Spring Farm in Bowdoin is teaching a Pies & Sides cooking class for people who want to tune up their cooking skills in time for Thanksgiving.
November 15 – A whiskey and chocolate tasting featuring Liquid Riot and Dean’s Sweets is taking place at Ballast.
November 16 – A 4-course Ukrainian dinner is taking place in Lewiston.
November 18 – Roma Cafe is holding a launch party (12:30 at 767 Congress Street) for Roma Sauce, their new line of fresh pasta, sauces, Italian delicacies and pasta kits.
Thanksgiving Resource List – Restaurants, market and other food purveyors are sharing details on the Thanksgiving options. We will be adding them to this list as the information is made public.
Visit THIS LINK for the 2024 edition of the Thanksgiving List.
November 30 – deadline for the public and industry professionals to submit recommendations to the James Beard Foundation to consideration for the 2024 Awards program.
December 7 – Secret Supper is holding a (sold out) holiday dinner in the Portland area.
June 26 – Secret Supper (instagram) is holding a dinner in the Portland area.
Brickyard Hollow Brewing (website, facebook, instagram) is expanding their Portland location. They’ve leased the adjacent space formerly occupied by Maker’s Galley which closed in September.
Brickyard plans to use the additional room for an event space and overflow seating for their restaurant. They’ll be making some renovations including adding a bar and hope to have the expansion ready for use in the spring.
Owners Peter and Jessica Sueltenfuss have announced that they’ve closed the Other Side Deli on Veranda Street. They plan to expand the hours at the Other Side Diner (website, instagram) where they’ll offer more breakfast to go options as well as some of their customer’s favorite sandwiches from Other Side Deli.
Good morning Portland and our East Deering community. We have made the very difficult decision to close the deli (effective immediately)
Our intent was not be be this abrupt, but there are factors that are just out of our control.
It has been a great journey for us and making this decision was extremely difficult. Being a part of the East Deering community for the past 9 years has been an incredible experience and we could never thank you enough for all of the love you have shown us❤️
We have had many struggles this year and in order to continue to put our best foot forward we have decided to channel all of our energy into the Diner.
The Other Side Deli opened in 2015, and the Sueltenfusses opened the Other Side Diner in 2019. They had also had operated a second location of the deli on Vaughan Street in the West End that launched in 2017.
Rebel Munchies and Libations (instagram) owner Peter Murphy has launched a $45k crowdfunding campaign to support the launch of his new restaurant on Congress Street. Eighteen people have already contributed $2,600 towards the campaign.
We’re growing up, opening a new restaurant, and it turns out that growth is really really hard. Like a teenager desperate to get their braces off we come to you, the community, desperate and riddled with acne. Bills and rent have eaten away at our cash while we dwindled away all summer hoping, waiting, and wishing for a building permit. Now that we finally have the permit, we realize that more bills and costs are heading our way like B.O. after gym class.
Murphy leased the former Dos Naciones space in March. He has been operating his mobile food business Rebel Cheesesteaks for the last four years.
Fans of the former Rick’s Lobby Cafe will be happy to hear that The Proper Cup is starting to serve chef Rick Wood’s breakfast sandwiches starting October 24th.
Rick’s Lobby Cafe closed on September 1st. The Proper Cup was launched in 2018 and is located at 500 Forest Ave. They’re open 7 am – 1 pm.
Punch has published an article featuring the Room for Improvement Cosmopolitan created.
The intention was to appeal not only to the customer who orders Cosmos at every bar, but also to “nerdy cocktail friends who might never ordinarily call for a Cosmo,” says [Arvid] Brown. That meant rethinking each ingredient. “We looked at what it is that people like about it: It’s pink, it’s served up, it’s citrusy, it’s refreshing and it’s got a little tartness,” Brown says. “We tried to reengineer those flavors with more craft ingredients.”
Wednesday – South Portland restaurants Judy Gibson and Lambs will be collaborating on a Burger Night.
Wednesday-Saturday – Harvest on the Harbor is taking place. See their website for tickets to events that celebrate Maine’s distilleries, cheese makers, chocolate makers and oyster farms and for tickets to the Maine Lobster Chef of the Year event.
Thursday – Bar Futo is hosting Roundtable, an event and dinner that “brings together chefs, organizers and neighbors for actionable discussion about social justice, mutual aid and sustainability.” Hardshore Distilling is holding a launch party for their Shorebird bourbon. Apres in East Bayside is holding an heirloom apple tasting.
Saturday – Chefs Tracy Chang from Pagu, Ilma Lopez from the Ugly Duckling and Matt Ginn from Evo are collaboration on a dinner at the Ugly Ducking–sign-up for a Farmers’ Market Tour with the chefs and return in the evening for the dinner. The 18th Annual Veg Fest is taking place. The Maine Tasting Center in Wiscasset is holding an insect dinner with ants, mealworms and crickets on the menu. Liu Bian Tan is holding a lunch pop-up at Norimoto Baking. Roma Cafe is holding a launch party (12:30 at 767 Congress Street) for Roma Sauce, their new line of fresh pasta, sauces, Italian delicacies and pasta kits.
Sunday – The Cheese Shop is kicking off their cheese classroom series with a Cheese 101 class.
October 30 – Ore Nell’s North in Biddeford is holding a 5-course beer dinner.
Halloween – check with your favorite websites and bars for details on what Halloween events they may have on Halloween or the prior weekend.
November 5 – Chaval is holding a late harvest dinner at Wolfe’s Neck Center in Freeport.
November 9 – Judy Gibson is serving a 4-course wine dinner featuring wines from Lauren Bonnois.
November 15 – A whiskey and chocolate tasting featuring Liquid Riot and Dean’s Sweets is taking place at Ballast.
Thanksgiving – Restaurants, market and other food purveyors are just starting to share details on the Thanksgiving options. We will be adding them to this list as the information is made public. Drop us a line if you know of a Thanksgiving-themed offering not yet on the list.
November 30 – deadline for the public and industry professionals to submit recommendations to the James Beard Foundation to consideration for the 2024 Awards program.
December 7 – Secret Supper is holding a (sold out) holiday dinner in the Portland area.
June 26 – Secret Supper (instagram) is holding a dinner in the Portland area.
