Portland Bar Guide has reviewed Burrito! in Westbrook.
A small deck in front of the restaurant beckons but you better get there early, or else that seat will be taken by someone unwilling to give it up. Margaritas on a deck, can you blame them?
Author: PFM
PeRx-U-Up Cafe
PeRx-U-Up Cafe received 4 stars from the Eat & Run column in today’s Portland Press Herald.
The cafe is not a big place – just a couple of small tables, some counter seating and, now that the weather has improved, some outdoor tables. The bottom line: The food is fresh, good and reasonably priced.
Sunday Brunch
This week’s Portland Phoenix provides guidance for cooking up your own Eggs Benedict at home for those times when “it might have been better for your constitution (and reputation) to stay home in your bathrobe.” If you still want to venture out check the Sunday Brunch List for your options.
There are several terrific places where this brunch might go down in Greater Portland, but they are all likely to share one ingredient: a line stretching out the door. Your arrival in last night’s party clothes and disheveled hair barely elicits a nod from your equally hung-over companions, already there staking out a place on the waiting list.
Port City Life
The new print issue of Port City Life includes a profile of Paciarino along with co-owner Fabiana DeSavino’s tiramasu recipe, a look at local food distribution networks, and an article about Local Sprouts, Portland’s community supported kitchen.
Kelp Noodles
The Boston Globe has a report on kelp noodles, “seaweed in long, green strips cut to the rough dimensions of linguine” produced here in Portland by Ocean Approved. The noodles are available at Browne Trading, Harbor Fish Market and Whole Foods.
Like pasta noodles, kelp is a submissive plate-mate, wrapping neatly around the tender mussels on a fork and bending nicely to their sweet, meaty flavor. Hot, simple food has a tendency to make you smile after a few hours on a cold ocean, and we slip into port a happy crew. The ocean provides – noodles and all.
North Star Music Cafe Review
The Maine Switch has reviewed North Star.
Once in a while when a restaurant opens, the stars and the moon align and the crowds descend. Such was the case when Kim Anderson and Anna Maria Tocci opened North Star Music Café two years ago at the base of Munjoy Hill. A packed entertainment schedule, the simply prepared food and the free wi-fi quickly solidified its status as one of the city’s most popular gathering spots and eateries.
Maine Cheese
The Portland Daily Sun ran an article this weekend about Maine-based cheese production and the Maine Cheese Guild.
The group provides education around cheesemaking and is trying to encourage new cheesemakers. “We aren’t making enough cheese to meet demand,” noted current guild president Eric Rector, “we still need more cheesemakers making high quality cheese to meet demand before we start marketing outside the state.”
This Week's Events
Bar Lola is holding a wine dinner Tuesday evening contrasting wines of the same varietal from the Old World and the New. The Slow Food Book Group is meeting Wednesday, they’ll be discussing Down and Out in Paris by George Orwell. There are four classes scheduled this week: cooking clases at Piatto per Tutti on Monday and Black Tie Bistro on Wednesday; as well as Maine Ambassadors of Food and Drink classes on Tuesday and Thursday. There are two wine tasting: at the West End Grocery on Friday and Leroux Kitchen on Saturday. Sunday evening the next movie in the Food Film Series, Tampopo, will be screened at One Longfellow Square with dinner sourced from Miyake. Farmers’ Markets are being held in Monument Square on Wednesday and at Deering Oaks Park on Saturday. If you’re up for a road trip, Ruth Reichl, the Editor in Chief of Gourmet magazine, will be speaking in Portsmouth on Friday night. For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.
Asmara Review
Asmara, the Eritrean restaurant on Oak Street, has received 3½ stars from the Taste & Tell column in today’s Maine Sunday Telegram.
Asmara, an established culinary outpost of Eritrea in Portland, serves dinners with the scents and tastes of eastern Africa. Spicy cayenne, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, thyme and cloves imbue meats, greens, dried peas and lentils with an exotic allure. Red cayenne in a paste called berbere livens up lamb, chicken and beef with a trickle of fire.
Under Construction Updates
Old Port Wine Merchants is building a new retail space at 221 Commercial street and will be moving out of their space on Fore street relatively soon.
According to a report from Justin Henry’s Green Galoshes, Viet Bangkok Cuisine is up for sale and plans to close if no buyer is found within the next month.
Good News Portland has a news brief about the re-opening of the renovated Porthole.
A new liquor license for Binga’s Wingas is on the agenda for Monday’s City Council meeting. Binga’s location at the corner of Deering and Congress was the site of a fire back in November of last year. Binga’s plans on opening their new Portland restaurant at 50 Wharf street in the space formerly occupied by Cake.
Grace will also be at the City Council meeting Monday for their liquor license application. A sample menu for the restaurant (located on page 163 of the agenda) provides a first look at what Chef Eric Simeon has planned.