Author: PFM

Pocket Brunch @ Broadturn Farm

| Posted in Events, Pocket Brunch

The October edition of Pocket Brunch took place earlier today at Broadturn Farm. Coffee by Tandem, creative cocktails by Nathaniel Meikleljohn (imagine ginger-infused Hendrick’s with cucumber-wasabi puree, lime juice, ginger beer and siracha ice cubes) and fresh pressed cider accompanied premeal bites: cider donut holes, mini-muffins with goat cheese frosting and walnuts, and small buckets of fresh cooked bacon.

With preliminaries completed everyone headed into the barn where two long communal tables were set for the main meal:

  • Salad: a communal pile of fresh and pickled Broadturn vegetables paired with anchovy dust and a smoked onion dip
  • Soup: a broth of ham and toasted hay enriched with acorns, roasted garlic and parsley
  • Egg: a miniature omlet resting on a birds nest of potato sticks with breakfast mayo tamago, local mushroom, house ketchup and nasturtium leaves
  • Meat: a pork sausage corndog with a sweet potato and local berry dipping sauces
  • Dessert: gingerbread with rum caramel pear buttermilk ice cream which as a suprise were served up in clay pots filled with “potting soil” that had served as table decorations

The menu was a collaboration of Joel Beauchamp, Josh Potocki, and guest chef Karl Deuben. This was an astoundingly good meal and the room showed its appreciation with a standing ovation for the chefs and event organizer Katie Schier-Potocki during the gap between the last two courses.

A photographer from Portland Magazine was there as was Zwickerhill Photography and nearly everyone seemed to grabbing shots on their iPhones. I’ll add links here to other photo sets as they get put online.

UPDATE: David Zwickerhill has posted a large set of photos from the event online, and so has Shel Doyle.

 

4½ Stars for Eventide

| Posted in Reviews

Eventide Oyster Company received 4½ stars from a review in today’s Maine Sunday Telegram.

Eventide Oyster Co. is impressive for its variety of oysters and clever oyster accoutrements, as well as the carefully prepared non-oyster menu items. The Eventide oyster bar concept is as cool as the team of owners, and I recommend this restaurant for any oyster lover seeking a step left of ordinary. The price point skews a little high, but so does the quality.

UPDATE: The Boston Globe has also published a review of Eventide.

Liquor Law Violations

| Posted in General News

According to a report in today’s Press Herald, 5 Portland business have been cited for liquor law violations.

Portland Police said college students under the age of 21 volunteered to go into 40 stores and restaurants in the city to attempt to buy alcohol. Five of the businesses – Bonobo on Pine Street; the Express Mart on Congress Street; The Front Room on Congress Street; Bayside Variety on Cumberland Avenue; and Parker’s restaurant on Washington Avenue – sold liquor to the underage buyers, police said.

 

Flea Bites: Mobile Food Fun in Bayside

| Posted in Events

A set of food trucks and food carts were at the Portland Flea-for-All for Flea Bites Friday night. Bite into Maine, Gorgeous Gelato, Top Hat Coffee, Pretty Awesome Street Food, and Pizza by Fire participated in the event.

Shown above is Andy Graham, Chairman of the Creative Portland Corporation, buying a lobster roll from Sarah Sutton at Bite into Maine. You may recall that it was an interview with Sarah in the Portland Phoenix and Andy’s focus and energy on the topic that initially put the issue on the city agenda.

Bakery Tours at Standard Baking

| Posted in Events

Standard Baking Company will be offering tours behind the scenes tours, baking demonstrations and tasting on noon to 3 pm on October 20th at their shop on Commercial Street. Tours will start every 15 minutes, and are free and open to the public.

Standard is one of 55 bakeries in the country participating in Bread Bakers Guild of America Bakery Open House. Beach Pea Baking Company in Kittery and The Bread Shack in Auburn are also taking part in the Guild’s nationwide open house event.

Frosty’s Opening on Saturday

| Posted in Openings

According to a tweet from Meredith Goad, Frosty’s Donuts will open their South Portland location Saturday at 9 am. Frosty’s co-owner, Nels Omdal, was recently interviewed for the business page of the Press Herald about his purchase and expansion of the 47 year-old business.

Q: How did you come to own Frosty’s?
A: I was a regular customer who loved their doughnuts. When I saw the for-sale sign, I met with the Realtor to express interest in buying the business, and Bob [Frost] happened to drop by. I got to have a one-on-one with him for about an hour and we made a connection as we talked about life and doughnuts.

Interview with Chef Cheryl Lewis

| Posted in People

Sabroso, El Rayo’s in-house blog, has posted an interview with chef Cheryl Lewis.

What drew you to Mexican cuisine? Just before we opened El Rayo, my mother handed me a Mexican cookbook I had written for my 5th grade class. I had made each kid their own copy to accompany my Mexican fiesta of tacos, beans, and buñuelos for dessert. I might have even made a piñata. Mom and I laughed and said something like “we should have known then!” Later, I paid my way through college in California by working in restaurants. In California, Mexican is a powerful undercurrent and when I moved back East I constantly missed that cuisine, always full of piquant flavor and freshness.

Review of Spread

| Posted in Reviews

The Portland Phoenix has published a review of Spread.

While dinner at Spread is not bad at all, the experience doesn’t quite dispel the space’s strange aura. Spread does not transform the space, but rather seems to have joined in the oddness. It’s a place made for fall and winter (at the moment, at least) on a block famous for its summer rush. It’s a new venture with an old-fashioned feel, from the long entranceway to the dark-suited maître-d’ checking in on things. The Scottish have a phrase for accepting the quirks of your fate and flourishing within them: “dree your weird,” they say. Spread is a weird name for a slightly odd place, but it could flourish nonetheless.

Reviews of Teriyaki Exchange & Dock Fore, TAO Name Challenged

| Posted in General News, Reviews

The Press Herald has published a Eat & Run review of Teriyaki Exchange in South Portland,

There was nothing left for me to do but dive in. While I’ve dabbled in chop-stickery, it’s never pretty, so I went with the conventional fork. Read: I can shove more food in my face that way. It took all my calming powers to slow down enough to truly savor the flavor, and I’m sure glad I did.

and a bar review of Dock Fore. Dock Fore opened for business in 1980 in the former Zeitman’s Grocery Store space.

Dock Fore is your run-of-the-mill place, which is unusual for the Old Port. The neighborhood bar sits amidst a bar scene littered with nightclubs, sports pubs and dance floors.

It’s a place to chill, sip a drink and chat with friends. It’s not a place to go shake your booty, drink the latest trendy cocktail or play some bar games.

Also, today’s paper reports that TAO in Brunswick has been sued by a restaurant  with locations in New York and Las Vegas for infringing on their trademark name. This actually isn’t the first time a Maine food business has been challenged in this regard. The Great Lost Bear originally opened as The Grizzly Bear but was forced to change its name when sued by a west coast pizza shop. Alsoo if memory serves, Borealis Breads was originally called Bodacious Breads but had to change their name for similar reasons.