The new bar and restaurant area for Otto Pizza has now opened – just in time for First Friday Art Walk. Otto expanded into the adjacent space formerly occupied by Good Earth Furniture.
Author: PFM
Review of the Downtown Lounge
Portland Bar Guide has published a review of the Downtown Lounge, one of a trio of establishments owned by Norm Jabar (Norm’s Bar & Brill, Norm’s East End Grill, Downtown Lounge).
For such a small space, the skinny Lounge can generate a large experience. Unlike other neighborhood nooks, where folks of questionable odor can cramp easy, the ornate alley funnels its energy and celebrates its cozy confines with loud speakers.
Return of the Cookie Jar
According to the Forecaster, the Cookie Jar bakery “a fixture on Shore Road [in Cape Elizabeth] for decades, is being renovated and is expected to reopen in a couple of months.”
More Press for Backyard Farms
Backyard Farms has been profiled in the new issue of Maine Ahead magazine.
What’s not to like about a tomato? It’s red-ripe and round, delicious and nutritious. You can’t make a BLT without the “T”. It’s the blood in a bloody Mary, the sauce on a pizza, the garnish on a backyard burger in the summertime. Cult movie history would be much different had a group of young filmmakers in the 1970s decided instead to make Attack of the Killer Cauliflowers.
This comes just a couple days after a feature article on Backyard Farms appeared in the New York Times.
March 2010 Stats
The 10 eateries looked up most often in March were:
- Boda (2)
- Bresca (4)
- Evangeline (14)
- Five Fifty-Five (9)
- Miyake (11)
- Bar Lola (10)
- Sonny’s (3)
- Skinny Cart BBQ (-)
- The Salt Exchange (8)
- El Rayo (40)
The numbers in parentheses indicates their rank last month.
Review of Pie in the Sky Pizza
The Press Herald has published a review of Pie in the Sky Pizza, the pocket sized pizzeria located on the second floor of the Public Market House.
I sampled the Margherita. I saw it being made, and sat by a window gazing onto Monument Square while it cooked. The crust was more like a bread than your average pizza crust. There were big dabs of fresh mozzarella melted onto the sauce, with tomato slices and a generous portion of basil leaves.
Overall it was a very nice, and filling, lunch for $5.50. I didn’t need one, but I also had a Big Sky oatmeal raisin cookie, which was the size of a small dinner plate.
Review of Silly's
The Examiner has published a review of Silly’s.
We were impressed with the prices and the portions… both very reasonable. We will be returning for another round of food and fun. But for now, as Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. You have the knowledge, so now take yourself down to Silly’s to let your imagination run wild.
Review of Silly’s
The Examiner has published a review of Silly’s.
We were impressed with the prices and the portions… both very reasonable. We will be returning for another round of food and fun. But for now, as Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”. You have the knowledge, so now take yourself down to Silly’s to let your imagination run wild.
20/20 Charity Wine
The Portland Phoenix has published an article about the 20/20 Charity Wine event, a collaborative venture run by five Maine wine distributors.
While the charity component is central to this event, organizers also see this as an opportunity to educate Portlanders about wines from different regions of the world. Many of the wine producers emerging from both Portugal and Spain have moved away from mass production and into specialty, high-quality “terroir” wines, from specific regions with distinct characteristics, says Jon Dietz of Belfast-based Easterly Wines. These specialized wines are what Easterly and the other four small wine distributors who participated in this event hope to bring to the attention of Portlanders.
The first 20/20 (taste 20 wines for $20 dollars) was held March 21 at The Salt Exchange. The next 20/20 will be co-hosted by Cinque Terre and Aurora Provisions and is taking place May 16
Under Construction: Figa
Today’s Portland Daily Sun has a report on what’s delaying the launch of chef Lee Farrington’s new restaurant Figa.
At issue is this: although Farrington owns her space at 249 Congress, her water is piped through an adjacent building owned by Alice Dunn. For the previous owner of 249 Congress, a hair salon, Dunn installed a “sub-meter” in the basement that kept track of how much water the salon consumed…Dunn says she’s unwilling to allow Farrington access to water line because she’s worried that higher water usage from the restaurant could create water-pressure issues for her other tenants, who share the water line.