Category: Events

This Week’s Events: Fisheries Tourism Workshop, Farm to City Craft Fair, Caviar Tasting, New Year’s Eve

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Tuesday — Piccolo and Devenish Wines are collaborating on a dinner.

Friday — a Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Tourism  Workshop will teach aquaculture operators and fishermen how to diversify their operations by adding tourism.

Saturday — Piccolo and Dandelion Spring Farms are collaborating on a Farm to City craft fair; Piccolo will be serving pastries and hot chocolate. A champagne and caviar tasting is taking place at Browne Trading, and the Winter Farmers Market is taking place at the Urban Farm Fermenntory on Anderson Street.

New Year’s Eve
Restaurants are beginning to announce their plans for New Year’s Eve. Here’s a list of ones I have details for so far. I’ll be expanding the list as more information becomes public. For reference, here’s a link to the list from 2012. (Restaurant owners: please send details to anestes@portlandfoodmap.com or post a comment below.)

  • Back Bay Grill, 4-course dinner for $96 per person
  • Boone’s is throwing a party with a band, cocktail luges, ice sculptures and balloon drop. 5-course prixe fixe dinner is $85 per person  with optional pairings available. More info.
  • Eventide, will be throwing a party, a $25 ticket will get you “$1 oysters and a steady supply of your favorite menu items for snacking (lobster rolls and oyster buns included)”
  • Five Fifty-Five, 5-course dinner in the restaurant for $100 per person
  • Grace will be serving their regular dinner menu. A cover charge of $10 (which funds the Good Shepherd Food Bank) will get you into the late night party which comes with complementary champagne toast at midnight.
  • Hugo’s, 5-course dinner, $120 with optional wine pairings for $75
  • Miyake, will be serving a special 5-course omakase in addition to their usual menu
  • Oscar’s New American, 4-course dinner for $75 per person with optional wine pairings for $45
  • Outliers Eatery, 7-course dinner
  • Pai Men Miyake will be “tapping a couple of special kegs and have an extensive specials selection in addition to the regular menu”
  • Petite Jacqueline, 3-course dinner for $65 per person, there are also optional wine and champagne pairings
  • Piccolo, 5-course dinner with a glass of sparkling wine, $85 per person
  • Sea Glass at Inn by the Sea, 4-course menu, $85 per person with optional wine pairing for $30
  • Spread, will be open, details still TBD
  • The Good Table, will be serving a special New Year’s Eve menu
  • Vignola will be serving a speecial NYE menu, $55 per person
  • Vinland, details TBD
  • Zackery’s, room and dinner package starting at $119 plus tax
  • Zapoteca, 5-course preview of dinner the chef will serve at the James Beard House, $50 per person with optional wine/tequila pairings for $25.

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.

Coffee by Design’s East Bayside Cafe (Update)

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Coffee by Design recently moved their roasting operation to a spacious new facility in East Bayside. A new cafe will be opening in the neihborhood in early January. These photos were taken during a party held last night to celebrate the expansion of the business.

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Update: Maine a la Carte has published a report and photos from Sunday night’s CBD party.

Holiday Oyster Advice & the Winter Farmers Market

| Posted in General News, Events

This week’s Portland Phoenix provides advice on making oysters part of your holiday party,

To successfully shuck your own oysters, you’ll need an oyster knife ($10), available at the seafood market where you purchase your oysters. Above all, be careful. Shucking oysters is supposed to add to a holiday party, not interrupt it with an emergency-room visit. Wash your oysters well to remove the grit on the shells. Use the tip of the oyster knife to pry open the two shells of the oyster at the hinge using leverage, not brute strength. Watch a few videos online to get the basics, and practice your technique until you’re shucking with ease.

and an article about the new East Bayside location for the winter farmers market.

This winter, the Portland Farmers’ Market will be in a new location in a neighborhood known for its food and beverage businesses. It won’t be the first time the farmers’ market has moved to complement the growth of an area. In 1990, the Wednesday market moved from Federal Street to Monument Square to counteract the loss of the Porteous department store (where the Maine College of Art is now). It makes sense now that the winter farmers’ market is moving to East Bayside, Portland’s most up-and-coming neighborhood.

Both articles are by Blueberry Files author Kate McCarty.

Update: for additional reporting on the winter market see this article in the Bangor Daily News.

This Week’s Events: Winter Farmers Market, In’finiti Dinner, American Sommelier, 12 Beers of Xmas

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Thursday — the annual Twelve Beers of Christmas is taking place at the Great Lost Bear, and there will be a wine tasting at the Public Market House.

Friday — there will be a wine tasting at the West End Deli. It’s First Friday Art Walk, restaurants will be extra busy so make reservations in advance.

Saturday — the Winter Farmers Market is starting up. This year it’s taking place at the Urban Farm Fermentory on Anderson Street.

Sunday — In’finiti is holding cocktail and beer dinner, the American Sommelier foundation series will be featuring wines from the United States

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: Thanksgiving, Allagash Midnight Bret Release

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Wednesday — the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — it’s Thanksgiving, see the PFM Thanksgiving Resource Guide for a list of restaurants that will be open. The Wayside Food Programs will be serving a free dinner (11am – 1pm) at the Portland Club on State Street.

Friday — it’s the release day for Allagash Midnight Bret and for Rising Tide Hesperus.

Saturday — the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

Sunday — Petite Jacqueline is holding their next 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.

2013 Thanksgiving Resource Guide

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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 & Donations:

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: Farm to Table, Oxbowzakaya, Josh Christie, Jason Anthony, Tandem Tasting

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Monday —MPBN’s Jennifer Rooks will be interviewing Sam Hayward, Kathy Gunst and Amanda Beal about Maine’s farm-to-table movement.

Tuesday — the monthly local food networking breakfast is taking place at Local Sprouts, and an Oxbow tap takeover and izakaya menu, dubbed Oxbozakaya, is taking place at Pai Men.

Wednesday — Five Fifty-Five is serving a 4-course seafood dinner in collaboration with GMRI, there will be an open house in East Bayside for Bomb Diggity Bakery, Pure Pops, Maine Pie Line, and Swallowtail Farm and the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — Josh Christie, author of Maine Beer: Brewing in Vacationland will be delivering a lecture at the Maine Historical Society on the history of Maine’s post-Prohibition brewing industry, Rosemont and Tandem are collaborating on the 4th in their tasting series, MJ’s is having a Beaujolais Nouveau release party, and there will bee a wine and cheese tasting at the Public Market House.

Friday — Jason C. Anthony, author of Hoosh: Roast Penguin, Scurvy Day, and Other Stories of Antarctic Cuisine, will be giving a lecture at the Portland Public Library.

Saturday — the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

Sunday — the American Sommelier foundation series will be featuring wines from the southern hemisphere, and Petite Jacqueline will be holding a Beaujolais Nouveau wine dinner.

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.

Chef Bard at the Beard House

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Chef Shannon Bard is scheduled to serve a dinner at the James Beard House in January, according to a report from, Maine a la Carte.

“I’m planning on doing a Mexico meets Maine (theme),” she said. “I want to feature a lot of Maine products in it.”

Tom Bard will be in charge of the wine pairings. Tequila sommelier Sergio Ramos, who is the managing partner in the couple’s two restaurants, will create a tequila cocktail to start off the meal, and one of the courses will feature a tequila pairing as well.

“It’s a great honor to do it,” Bard said. “To even get invited is fantastic. I never thought that would ever happen. I’m very excited.”

For more information see this press release and this article by the Bangor Daily News.