The Portland Phoenix has published an interview with Rachels L’Osteria about their move in 2003 out of the Old Port and to Woodford Street.
“People thought we were crazy,” says Bob Butler, co-owner and front-of-the-house manager at Rachels L’Osteria. But moving out of the Old Port and into their current space at 496 Woodford Street was more of a dream come true for the couple. “This is what we’ve always thought of as our restaurant,” says Laura Butler. “It’s more personal for us and for our customers.”
The owners of Uffa made a similar move when they left Longfellow Square and moved to Westbrook and became The Frog and Turtle. Are there other examples out of restaurants that moved away from the peninsula?
It is funny how both Bandol and Evangeline occupied the vacated spaces, both owned and run by Erik D. In my humble opinion, that is the “out with the old, in with the new” thing happening. Cheers to the new and improved generation of restaurants in Portland!
Mark
Best move they ever made. We hope they’re around forever.
Our move was a little different. We never owned Uffa! till the last 14 months of it when we bought out the investment company. At that time, we were living in Westbrook and was hoping we could add a nice restaurant to the revitalization out here. We finished our lease at Uffa! and open our concept of a gastro pub (Maine’s first). The rest is history(short history). I love drinking a cup of coffee at the river each morning. Many great times and people in Portland but this has been a dream come true.