Category: Events

This Week’s Events: Portland Beer Week, Cooking Classes, Movie Night, Pie Tasting

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Portland Beer Week — more than 50 events are taking place now through Sunday. See the Portland Beer Week calendar for  all the details.

Wednesday — the Maine Cooperative Extension is teaching a food safety class for people helping to cook meals for crowds, and the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — Grace will be donating $5 per person that has dinner to the Red Cross for victims of Sandy, they’ll be gathering coats and blankets which Sharon Kitchens from Delicious Musings will be driving down to NY/NJ next week. The Great Lost Bear is showcasing beer from D.L. Geary’s, a Thanksgiving wine tasting is taking place at Aurora Provisions, and Bartlett Winery, Sweetgrass Distillery, Bar Lola and El Camino will be at Seawall for an event featuring Drinking in Maine by Russell French and Michael Saunders.

Friday — there will be a wine tasting at Rosemont Market on Brighton.

Saturday — Rosemont is holding a pie tasting at their Brighton store and a natural wine tasting at their Munjoy Hill store, Sea Change Cooking is teaching a cooking class, and the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

Sunday — Pocket Brunch (sold out) is taking place, Babbette’s Feast is the featured film at Petite Jacqueline’s movie night.

Great American Bake Sale — Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale is taking place during the month of November. Proceeds are being donated to the Good Shepherd Food Bank and other organizations that fight hunger in Maine.

Emilitsa — Emiltsa has begun serving lunch on Thursdays and Fridays with a menu of soups, salads, sandwiches and traditional greek comfort food.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

The Food Coma Show Premiere

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Bourbon. Portland. Beer. Politics. has published an interview with Joe Ricchio about his new venture The Food Coma Show,

What can people expect from the episode?
The episode is the pilot of The Food Coma Show. It focuses on a meal at Bresca and it looks great. It’s about 24 minutes long and the guests are Olympic skier Julie Parisien, Spose, Joel Beauchamp, [Ricchio’s roommate] Jon Dietz and myself and basically you watch me have dinner. That may be good, or you may hate me afterward. It is kind of an experiment under the Food Coma umbrella. You might hate it and think “This is the most self-indulgent piece of s**t I have ever seen,” but you never know.

and so has the Press Herald,

What makes a good “Food Coma” guest?
Someone who has stories, appreciates food and loves to get drunk. Someone who you’d like to have dinner with in real life. For the first episode, we’ve got Spose, whom I’ve hung out with a few times. Julie I met just once and I heard she was a fan of the old show. Entertainment, athletics, the wine biz the unifying factor is food and drink. That’s where everyone comes together.

and so has the Portsmouth Herald.

“I always felt that when we go to these places we couldn’t carry the experience to the audience. We couldn’t really show what the place was about . Now it’s all one restaurant experience. For the pilot, the chef Krista Desjarlais (Bresca) introduces the menu and we just eat. I really want people to think, ‘I want to go eat there.'”

The premiere episode of The Food Coma Show is being shown this Sunday at SPACE Gallery. Tickets are now on sale.

Poket Brunch & Review of Figa

| Posted in Reviews, Events

The November issue of Portland Magazine includes a review of Figa,

The charcuterie ($18) is irresistible, house-made. The foot-and-a-half-long wondrous wooden platter displays a dreamy assortment of meats (duck pastrami, pork-and-pistachio terrine, beef bresaola, apricot-cased pork lomo, pork terrine), pickled fennel and red onion, cornichons, and a delectable house-made mustard. We go after each tempting, savory substance with gusto.

a feature article about Pocket Brunch,

In between snacking on tasty pre-meal bites, which includes hand-pressed cider, fresh doughnuts, beet-red velvet muffins topped with goat cheese frosting and walnuts, and fire-smoked bacon, diners pick bouquets from the farm’s flower fields. On the lawn, teams of guests face off at kubb, a Swedish game in which players attempt to knock down wooden blocks by tossing thick dowels across the field.

and named Portland restaurant health inspector Michele Sturgeon to their list of the 10 Most Intriguing Mainers.

Laurent Bonnois @ LFK

| Posted in Events, Wine

Wine 24/7 has posted a report on the Laurent Bonnois wine event held last week at LFK.

Laurent hails from the Loire Region of France and thanks to Devenish Wines (Ned Swain & Brendon Pringle – local afficionados), we are now able to experience his wines directly.  He is truly at the forefront of the Natural wine movement, representing natural, organic, sustainably farmed and biodynamic wines.

This Week’s Events: Halloween, 122 Coffee IPA, Flea Bites, Brewers Festival, Portland Beer Week

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Tuesday — Bier Cellar is holding a tasting that will match beers with Halloween candy, and Allagash founder Rob Tod will be giving a lecture at the Falmouth Memorial Library.

Wednesday — Wine Wise is leading a wines and chocolate tasting tour in the Old Port, Hugo’s is serving a 7-course Halloween Dinner, Grace is holding a Halloween party, and the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — Tandem and Bunker will be at Eventide to launch their new collaboration, 122 Coffee IPA.

Friday — a brewers dinner is taking place at The Thirsty Pig, a collection of food trucks and food carts will be gathering at Flea for All for the November edition of Flea Bites, both Rosemont and West End Deli are holding wine tastings, Novare Res is offering a range of wild fermented beers at their Where the Wild Biers Are event, authors of Portland, Maine Chef’s Table and Standard Baking Co. Pastries will be at Longfellow for a book signing, and restaurants are likely to be extra busy due to First Friday Art Walk so be sure to make Friday night reservations in advance.

Saturday — the Maine Brewers Festival is taking place, there will be  wine tastings at Browne Trading and Leroux Kitchen, Vignola/Cinque Terre is hosting an Italian cooking class, and the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

Sunday — it’s the start of Portland Beer Week, the premiere of The Food Coma Show is being screened at SPACE Gallery,  and The Artist is the featured film at Petite Jacqueline’s movie night.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

NYT’s Lobster Tour & HotH’s Lobster Chefs of the Year

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The New York Times Travel section stopped off at The Salt Exchange and Harraseeket Lunch & Lobster as part of a multi-day lobster eating tour of Massachusetts and Maine.

That night, after strolling about Portland, our new lobster base camp, we visited the Salt Exchange and fell hard for the intense lobster risotto, highlighted by flavorful claw and body bits.

According to an article in today’s Press Herald, the Maine Lobster Chefs of the Year were chosen last night at Harvest on the Harbor. Mackenzie Arrington, a native Mainer who now works in New York City, was selected as the people’s choice Lobster chef of the Year, and Kerry Altiero from Cafe Miranda in Rockland was selected as the judge’s choice Lobster Chef of the Year.

In the past, a panel of judges chose the recipes for the contest, but tasting and judging were left solely to the audience.

This year, the judges tried the food as well, scoring it on a 100-point scale for originality, creativity, flavor and use of lobster. The judges were Steve Corry, chef/owner of Five Fifty Five and Petite Jacqueline in Portland; Kathleen Fleury, managing editor of Downeast magazine; and Sharon Rose of WCSH-TV.

Harvest on the Harbor

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Today’s Portland Daily Sun includes an overview of some of the key activities taking place at Harvest on the Harbor this week.

I am happily anticipating Harvest on the Harbor this week, Oct. 24-27, a celebration of food with sweeping views of Casco Bay and an array of food and wine events and tasting opportunities. I am especially eager for Top of the Crop on Thursday, Oct. 25, when four outstanding Maine chefs will vie for Maine’s Best Farm-to-Table Restaurant. The fab four were selected based on their farm-to-table philosophy, relationship with local farms, and how well their restaurant menus reflect the farm-to-table movement year-round — not an easy task. The event will host a diverse international crowd with attendees from 48 states and the Netherlands, UK and Canada.

This Week’s Events: Taste Memory Launch, Harvest on the Harbor, Latte Art Competition, Milbrandt Vineyards Dinner

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Tuesday — Bar Lola is holding a wine dinner featuring Milbrandt Vineyards, and Devenish Wines is holding an wine tasting at LFK focused on organic wines from France.

Wednesday — a launch party for David Buchanan’s book Taste, Memory is taking place at SPACE, it’s the first day of Harvest on the Harbor, both Rosemont and Old Port Wine Merchants are having wine tastings, and the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — the monthly Latte Art Competition is taking place at Bard Coffee and both the Public Market House and Aurora Provisions are holding wine tastings.

Friday — the annual Caviar Dinner is taking place at the Portland Harbor Hotel, Coffee by Design is running tours of their roastery on Washington Ave, there will be a wine tasting at Rosemont on Brighton, and both BiBo’s Madd Apple Cafe and Vignola/Cinque Terre are holding wine dinners.

Saturday — the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

Food Swap

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Maine a la Carte has a piece about the food swap taking place this weekend at the Portland Food Co-op.

One of the latest trends in the local food movement is food swaps, and this Sunday the public is invited to take part in one in Portland. You don’t need any cash, all you need is some food ripe for the swapping. This could be your homemade pickles or canned tomatoes, the squash or cabbage from your garden or the wild mushrooms or seaweed you foraged.