New food and dining developments are taking place all across Maine. Here are some recent updates to keep you in the know:
- Marcy Taubes and Marjory Sweet, owners of Midcoast bakery Double Grazie (website, instagram) are launching a bakery, cafe and market in Rockland. Cafe Grazie will be located at 148 Main Street in the building that was formerly occupied by the Wiggins’ Meat Market. The ~1,500 sq ft space has been under renovation since the fall (the photo above is from November) and they hope to open Cafe Grazie in late spring. When they do they’ll be offering, breakfast, lunch, a full coffee program (with beans from Tandem), pasta, cake as well as “a lot of ricotta and seasonal fruits and good groceries and other sweet, sweet fantasies, baby.”
Sweet and Taubes launched their bakery with a series of pop-up in the summer of 2022. Their prior work experience in farming and baking as well as both having lived and worked in Italy informed their creation of Double Grazie. They shared that, “At its core, Double Grazie is an intersection of these experiences: merging locally sourced ingredients with an Italian influence. The vision has always been to open a space, not only to expand our food offerings, but create a space for gathering, community, and creative opportunities.” - Owner Chris Franklin has announced the closure of his North Yarmouth business Badger Bagels. “As a new small business owner I started with a single product. Frustrated by the quality and relative cost of many gluten free offerings I set out to make a better GF bagel using honest ingredients. Over the past two years I have personally made and sold over 55,000 bagels with the help of dozens of markets, cafes and individual buyers. While the market remains strong I will be stepping aside to pursue an opportunity to return to my land conservation work full time at the end of February.”
Dizzy Bird will reopening on February 27th. Tom and Barb Peacock first opened the 50-seat counter service restaurant in early 2019 to serve, ”honest to goodness” elevated scratch comfort foods. They closed Dizzy Bird at the end of 2024 to consider how they might restructure the business and space with hopes relaunching. This new edition of Dizzy Bird will be open Thursday and Friday, 3 – 7 pm, and Saturdays, 11 am – 5 pm for take out and delivery with online ordering. Stay tuned for full menu details…it will include shepherds pies, thanksgiving pot pies and chicken pot pies in medium, large and single serving sizes.- The Lewiston Sun Journal has published a report on Two Mom’s Diner (facebook) which is under construction in Lisbon. Owners Desaray Hayes and Jess Hoyt hope to open the 37-seat restaurant by the end of February. The menu is expected to include some gluten-free items as well as gluten-free baked goods prepared by Mary Graziano of Grazi to Go.
- The Bangor Daily News has a published a report on a new bakery in Fort Fairfield. Heather Prouty and Janice Walsh opened the Rolling Pin Bakery (facebook) in December. The bakery is located at 256 Main Street and sells muffins, cookies, pastries, bagels, cinnamon buns, cakes, donuts, and other baked goods. They just launched the bakery in December but the BDN reports they already have plans to move into a larger space and start serving breakfast and lunch.
- The Lincoln County News has published a report about Hen’s Meat Market (facebook) which opened in late December. The market is located at 306 Bath Road in Wiscasset. The Lincoln County News reports that owners Matt Cressey and Miranda Rumery are selling “beef raised in Albion, poultry from Warren, pork raised at Cressey and Rumery’s farm in Wiscasset, eggs from Waldoboro, duck eggs from Phippsburg, and lamb and goat from Nobleboro, customers have a plethora of items to choose from when they walk through the door.” Hen’s is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 am – 6 pm.
- The Lewiston Sun Journal reports that Fish Bones Grill is being sold to chef Floyd Goding and his wife Megan Cyr, and Ryan Costello and his wife Brittany. Current owners Paul and Kate Landry will retire from Fish Bones but will continue to operate their Scarborough restaurant Pine Point Grill.
- As reported earlier this week, the new Sicilian-inspired restaurant called Pomelia opened earlier this week in Brunswick.
- Lastly if you didn’t catch the post earlier this week, here’s a look at the Rooted Heart Cafe which opened earlier this month in Buxton.
For a statewide guide to eating and drinking see the Maine Food Map—a growing list of coffee shops, bars, restaurants, bakeries, cafes, plus other food and dining businesses in all of Maine’s 16 counties.