Empire Dine and Dance received 4 stars from the Eat & Run column in today’s Press Herald.
We sampled the variety of pub fare at the Empire and discovered new Chef Todd “Bam” Bidwell makes cheap eats here pretty worthwhile.
Since Bidwell took over as chef in November and revamped the menu in January, he’s got the kitchen running as he likes it – and he’s fussy.
The Bollard has published an op-ed against bottled water.
This water is systematically and relentlessly pumped from land that belongs to Maine communities. Poland Spring, which began bottling water generations ago in the town of that name, is now an arm of the global conglomerate Nestlé. Poland Spring is trying to strong-arm Maine so Nestlé can continue to extract our water, for free, and sell it back to us.
The Portland Phoenix has reviewed Dean’s Sweets.
The bitter-richness of the dark chocolate shell is terrific, but it would not matter much if the ganache filling were not just as good. This is where most truffles go wrong, with a filling that is both too firm and too sweet, giving you flashbacks to the nougat in a 3 Musketeers bar. The Dean’s ganache is soft, velvety, and deeply rich.
The Maine Switch has published a profile of Jennifer Flock and her ongoing effort to become a Master Sommelier.
Today, with all of her culinary knowledge and her experience in the service industry, you can imagine that Flock might be a rather intimidating dinner guest. “I have a friend who always says, ‘I have wine, but I don’t know if you want to drink it,’” Flock says with a laugh, but truly her friends needn’t worry. “I usually bring my own wine,” Flock explains, and probably that bottle is the first one drained.
Portland Bar Guide has reviewed Espo’s Trattoria.
For the sake of research and bringing you, the reader, the most information possible, I tried the following martinis: Zooma (coffee, espresso vodka goodness), Espo’s Marteani (raspberry vodka, pinot grigio, green tea and lemon), Tiramisu, Chocolate, the Teresatini (grape vodka, riesling and white cranberry juice), and finally their Luck of the Irish (something minty and creamy. It was hard to take notes at that point!) While I may not recall all the ingredients – I do remember all of them being so good and the average price of each drink was $7.50.
The Portland Press Herald has published a profile of Norm Sprague. Sprague recently retired from a “30-year stint instructing culinary arts at Westbrook Regional Vocational Center.” He is now working as the daytime manager at the Miss Portland Diner.
Here’s a look in the window (above) at the building site for Wasabi, a new sushi bar under construction at 7 Exchange Street. Floor plans supplied to the city as part of the liquor license application, (below) show seating on the left of the door with sushi bars in back and on the right.
A Gorham sugar shack, The Lockman Place, is now producing kosher maple syrup certified by Hechsher of the Vaad of Portland. Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld from Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh administers the kosher certification process for the syrup.
Chow Maine‘s Bob Rossi has written an interesting article about Maine’s connection to two California wineries: Serenity Vineyards and Thunderstone.
Tuesday is St Patrick’s Day. The biweekly Winter Farmers’ Market is scheduled for Wednesday morning. Boys and Their Beers a 5-course prix fixe dinner with beer pairing, is taking place at Frog and Turtle Wednesday evening; five local chefs are collaborating on the meal. There are two cooking classes this week: Piatto per Tutti on Monday and Black Tie Bistro on Wednesday. The last class of Maine Food & Drink Institute’s cheese course is on Tueday night. Thursday night, The Great Lost Bear is showcasing beers from Brooklyn Brewing. Old Port Wine Merchants, Black Cherry Provisions and Rosemont on Brighton are all holding wine tastings this week. Maine Maple Sunday, a celebration of maple sugaring in the state, is this weekend. For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.