This Week’s Events: Cloak & Dagger Tapas, Slow Food Potluck, Lobster Symposium, Winter Farmers Market

MondayCloak & Dagger is serving a tapas dinner, to welcome a group of Italian students visiting Maine, Slow Food Portland is holding a potluck lunch and a dinner at The Farmer’s Table.

WednesdayThe American Lobster in a Changing Ecosystem, a 2-day science symposium is taking place.

Thursday — the author of Hoosh: Roast Penguins, Scurvy Day, and Other Stories of Antarctic Cuisine will be at Longfellow for a book signing, Vignola/Cinque Terre is holding an Italian Beer Dinner, The Great Lost Bear will be showcasing Christmas Beers, and it’s the 2nd day of the lobster symposium.

Fridaythere will be wine tasting at Rosemont on Brighton.

Saturday —the first Winter Farmers Market of the season is taking place, Novare Res will be one of only 17 bars in North America to be selling Cantillon Zwanze this year, and there will be wine tastings at Browne Trading and LeRoux Kitchen.

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.

This Week’s Events: Mobile Farmstand, Thanksgiving, Movie Night, Local Foodds Networking

Tuesday — Local Sprouts is hosting a local foods networking breakfast, and the Jordan’s Farm Mobile Farmstand will be at the East End School.

Wednesday — Rob Tod will be at The Great Lost Bear for a showcase of Allagash brews, the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — it’s Thanksgiving. Check the 2012 Thanksgiving Resource Guide for details on which restaurants are serving Thanksgiving dinner and where to get all the fixinings for your own meal.

Saturday — Wine Wise is leading a Pinot Noir Wine Walk.

SundayThe Triplets of Belleville 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.

2012 Thanksgiving Resource Guide

As usual a number of Portland area restaurants plan on serving a Thanksgiving dinner. Here are the ones I know about so far. I’ll update the list as more info comes in:

 

For those of you hosting your own meal at home:

 

Community Dinners:

  • The Wayside Food Programs is serving a free Thanksgiving community dinner to an estimated 400+ people. They have enough volunteer for Thanksgiving day but are still in need of help to prep on the day before, and with donations of food. Call (207) 775-4939 for more information.

 

Wine and Beer Buying Advice:

Inspiration:

Is there a local restaurant, market, bakery, or Thanksgiving event that’s missing? Post a comment with the info and I’ll add them to the list.

This Week’s Events: González Byass, Merriam & Beaujolais Nouveau Wine Dinners

Tuesday — the González Byass wine dinner is taking place at Bar Lola.

Wednesday — Wine Wise is teaching a class on Thanksgiving wine pairing, The Salt Exchange is holding a Merriam Vineyards wine dinner, and the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — Petite Jacqueline is holding a Beaujolais Nouveau wine dinner, The Great Lost Bear is featuring a set of Sam Adams Rarities, and a wine and cheese tasting is taking place at the Public Market House.

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

Saturday — there will be wine tastings at Browne Trading and at Rosemont, and the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

SundayBig Night 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.

Pocket Brunch: Bienvenue

The November edition of Pocket Brunch took place this afternoon at a industrial building in South Portland near the oil tank yards.

The theme was French Canadian cuisine:

  • Soup – yellow split pea, heritage pork, and spiced hog cracklin
  • Salad – a poutine of country fries, goose gravy, cheese curds and cranberry ketchup
  • Egg – cretons, hen egg, juniper matsutake salt, super sexe bagel and sausage full of secrets
  • Meat – arctic char pie with puff pastry and a seaweed salad
  • Dessert – maple/black velvet sugar pie and Allen’s coffee brandy ployes cake
  • Entertainment – the backside of the drink menus were bingo cards and the crowd joined in rounds of bingo between courses

Josh Potocki and Joel Beauchamp were joined in the kitchen by Rocco Salvatore Talarico and guest chef Nate Nadeau. Tandem served the coffee and Nan’l Meikeljohn created a set of custom cocktails for the event.

For more photos check out the extensive set of image posted by David Zwickerhill.

Planning is already underway for the December Pocket Brunch. Sign-up on the PB site for their mailing list to be alerted when tickets go on sale.

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

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.

SundayPocket 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

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

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

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

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.

ThursdayTandem 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.