Category: General News

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:

• Black Point Inn, buffet served 11 – 4, $55 for adults, $25 for children
• Events on Broadway, $22.95 for adults, $16.95 for seniors, $12.95 for children
• Eves at the Garden noon – 6 pm, $38 for adults, $19 for children SOLD OUT
  
• Harraseeket Inn, 11 – 5:30, $60 for adults, $30 for children
• Saltwater Grille, buffet, noon – 4:30, $36.99 for adults, $12.99 for children
• Sea Glass Restaurant at the Inn by the Sea, 3-course, 11:30 – 9, $62 per person
• Season’s Grille, 11 – 4, $21.95 for adults, $18.95 for seniors, $10.95 for children
  
• The Inn on Peaks Island, buffet, noon – 5 pm, $16 for adults, $8 for children
• Zackery’s, 3-courses, 5 – 9, $24.99

For those of you hosting your own meal at home be sure to checkout:

• You can pre-order your free-range turkeys from Aurora Provisions or Rosemont Market (deadline to order is Saturday afternoon). Both markets are also selling pies, rolls, quick breads, side dishes and just about other item you might need for your Thanksgiving dinner. Aurora Provisions will be open 9-11 Thanksgiving morning for any last minute needs.
• Two Sisters Farm is selling their organic free-range birds in Woolwich. They are 10-20 lbs and are $4.75 a pound. Call (207) 443-5459 for more info.
• Standard Baking, Scratch Baking, The Cheese Iron, Foley’s Bakery, Bomb Diggity Bakery, and many of the other bakeries in the area are good sources for pies, breads, etc. They probably produce some holiday themed options in addition to their usual offerings.

Community Dinners:

• The Wake N’ Bakery Cafe in Westbrook is hosting a free Thanksgiving dinner for those in need.
• The Wayside Food Programs is serving a free Thanksgiving community dinner at the Portland Club, 11:30 – 1. They have enough volunteer for Thanksgiving day but are still in need of help to prep on the day before and with donations to help pay for the meal. Call (207) 775-4539 if you’d like to help out.

Wine and Beer Buying Advice:

• Mister Meatball has published a set of wine and beer selections provided by sommelier Scott Tyree and home brewer T.H Strenk.
• Wines; Tasted! has posted his take on how to select a good wine for Thanksgiving.
• Wine Wise has also weighed in with advice on what characteristics make for a good Thanksgiving wine.
• The Appel on Wine column has assembled Thanksgiving wine recommendations from Maine wine retailers.
• Aurora Provisions (Nov 17), Old Port Wine Merchants (Nov 16) and Rosemont (Nov 18) are all running wine tastings this week to help you select the right wine for the big day.

Turkey Buying and other Advice:

• Delicious Musings has posted a buying guide for putting together a locavore Thanksgiving dinner.
• Forecaster columnist Edgar Allen Beam offered personal observations on buying a $100 turkey.
• The Press Herald has published a buying guide for Maine grown turkeys.
• The Blueberry Files has assembled a list of the turkey options and prices at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Rosemont and Hannaford.
• Frank’s Finest has published a recipe for making stock from your leftover turkey.

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.

Portland Daily Sun columnist Natalie Ladd gives a behind the scenes look an aspect of restaurant life, rules around shift drinks.

The employee shift drink is a slippery slope because management sanctioned or not, it is going to happen. Many, but not all restaurant employees will drink alcohol after, during and upon rare occasion, before a scheduled shift. Recognizing this to be true and accepting the inevitable, many managers and owners have policies that read something like this, “Each employee may have one draft or well beverage after their shift. Each drink must be rung up on a house tab. Employees may not sit at the bar during hours of service. Employees may not pour their own shift drink. Employees may only have one drink per evening. Employees may not sit at the bar in uniform and drink. Employees must be punched out before having a shift drink.” And, so on and on as it’s the stuff lined birdcages are made of.

Appetite Portland has the scoop on the new yakitori menu at Pai Men Miyake.

On this first visit, our favorite was the chicken liver — which rivals the stunning preparation at Emilitsa in that “close your eyes and imagine yourself hand fed by a Persian prince” kinda way.  All three choices, however, were rich, oily and pungent. The way animal parts and innards should be.

A great addition to solid restaurant that keeps getting better and better. I’m looking forward to trying the beef tongue skewer next.

Two members of the Maine food community have received recognition for their work:

• Sam Hayward, chef and co-owner of Fore Street is the recipient of Sustainer award from the Chef’s Collaborative for “his commitment to promoting local, sustainable foods in the culinary world.”
• The Utne Reader has named Maine organic farmer Jim Gerritsen to their 2011 list of Visionaries for his efforts to “spearhead a lawsuit against corporate agriculture giant Monsanto, filed last spring on behalf of 270,000 family farmers, gardeners, and consumers who are suing to keep some food crops free of genetic modification.”

There are a couple changes to the Portland food blogging landscape to announce:

• BeerBloggers.com has decided to call it quits and has put out a Last Call post where he explains that “My own enthusiasm for beer has not waned, but my time to blog about it has been near non-existant for over a year now. I’ve been thinking about what to do with this domain, as having it sit idle for months at a time seems pointless. I was approached about an opportunity to donate the domain name to a worthy cause, and I’ve decided to take it.”
• A video food blog called Parsley, Sage Rosemary and Tim has recently launched. In the initial episode, the blogger uses an innovative mix of interviews, cooking demos,  and real life situations to explain how to put together a meal featuring Brown Butter Sage Sauce, Goat Cheese, and Beet Pizza.

Chubby Werewolf has posted a detailed and critical commentary on Anthony Bourdain and the No Reservations episode filmed in Maine.

…What I do have a problem with is people who say shitty things about others under the veil of criticism and then can’t even be bothered to qualify their remarks. Take, for instance, the monkfish dish that Mr. Bourdain “didn’t love so much.” What did he dislike about it? Was it not fresh? Was it the taste of one of the components? Was it the pairing of the leeks and red pepper with the monkfish liver? A little bit of information would go a long way here. Ditto on the comment about Mr. Street’s “watery-looking sauce.” Did you taste it, Anthony? Or did you just decide that because you saw something that looked “watery” that it was bad?…

The Blueberry Files and Delicious Musings were at El Rayo yesterday for an appearance by the Cabin Cove Oysters shuck truck and have both posted some photos from the event.

Oysters were briny, served with a salt-cutting red wine migonette.  Sold out fast, but the Shuck Truck will be back.  And hopefully we’ll be seeing all manner of food trucks all over Portland soon anyway.

Edible Obsessions has published an editorial in favor of food trucks.

Now, because of the combined efforts of Creative Portland Corporation, along with the input from those in the community who support or wish to operate a food truck in the city, we are no longer asking if food trucks will finally come to Portland but, rather, when.

Across the board, the recommendations from CPC are more than agreeable and address everything from location to sanitation…

Who I Met published an interview with Sarah Sutton, co-owner of the food truck Bite into Maine which is located in Cape Elizabeth.

Sarah and her husband have become “the reference point” for a local issue that is gaining attention. A town that closely guards local food and business, food carts are denied business permits in the metro Portland area- mostly for fear of competition. Despite that, their cart, “Bite Into Maine” is thriving- it even placed highly in the Food Network’s “America’s Favorite Food Truck” contest after being open for only three months.

Portland Daily Sun columnist Bob Higgins recalls some recent exceptions to the current prohibition.

Just about six years back, I worked down at Tartan Textiles down in West Bayside. Every day, a food truck arrived to dispense wares of hot coffee, pre-made wrapped sandwiches, fruits, donuts, and all other manner of tasty snackery.

Organizers of the campaign to allow food trucks in Portland have set up a Facebook page. There’s a growing collection of links to news articles on the issue and a survey to gauge public opinion on whether food trucks should be allowed to use street parking.

If you’re a fan of food trucks and want to see them come to Portland “like” the Bring Food Trucks to Portland profile to show your support.

Friday’s Press Herald has published an editorial encouraging the City Council to legalize food trucks.

The Creative Portland Corp. did the right thing Wednesday and recommended lifting the city’s ban on food trucks. The City Council should follow that recommendation and open the door to a new kind of small business.

The effort to allow food trucks to operate in Portland took another step forward yesterday. According to an article in the Press Herald a proposed set of policy recommendations were approved by the Creative Portland Corporation board by a vote of 6-1. The recommendations will now be forwarded to the City Council Health and Recreation Subcommittee for review.

If the committee likes what it sees, it will place the recommendations into an ordinance, which it will send to the City Council for final approval.

“A lot of good work has been done in a very short period of time,” said Christopher Campbell, a Creative Portland board member, before voting yes on the recommendations.

For additional reporting read the food trucks in Thursday’s Portland Daily Sun.