Bresca Day

According to a report from The Forecaster, chef/owner Krista Kern Desjarlais will be adding lunch service at Bresca starting later in October.

Bresca Day will be European in style, open from late morning to mid-afternoon with fresh pastries, salads and local seasonal fare, she said Monday. Customers will be able to take the food to go or sit in with their children and friends. Coffee and espresso drinks will be provided by Matt’s Coffee of Pownal.

Fake Harding

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram reports on the recent social media impersonation of Harding Lee Smith on Facebook and Twitter.

When Portland chef Harding Lee Smith appeared to send a Twitter message to Zapoteca restaurant calling the eatery “disgusting,” “gross” and other things that can’t be printed here, the restaurant’s owners had reason to be puzzled.

And so did Smith.

Turns out, Smith wasn’t the one tweeting from the @HardingLeeSmith account or posting on a similar Facebook page set up under his name.

Maine Mag: Zapoteca, Coffee Roasters & Eating Guide to SoPo, Cape and Scarborough

The October issue of Maine magazine includes:

  • an article about Zapoteca, “Although there are as many opinions as there are styles when it comes to outstanding Mexican cuisine, anyone would agree that Zapoteca’s creative menu and superlative tequila selection are a long overdue addition to Portland’s ever-growing dining scene.””
  • profiles of three Maine coffee roasters: 44 North, Rooster Brother, and Matt’s
  • an eating guide to South Portland, Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough: The Cheese Iron, Aroma, 158, etc.

The articles aren’t online yet so you’ll need to find a paper copy at your local newsstand.

Alcohol at the Market

City government is considering a change that would allow alcohol to be sold at the Farms Market.

Small-scale vintners, brewers and cider-makers would be allowed to sell their products at the Portland Farmer’s Market under a proposal before the city council’s Health and Recreation subcommittee today.

As drafted, the plan would amend the city’s Farmer’s Market rules to allow sale of fermented beverages such as beer, wine and hard ciders as long as the seller held a state license and met conditions to sell at the city’s farmer’s market.

Indie Biz Award Nominees

Buy Local has published the list of nominees for the 2011 Indie Biz Awards. The nominees include: Local Sprouts, El Rayo, Local 188, Silly’s, Rosemont, Dobra Tea, the Portland Farmers Market, Sebago Brewing, Dean’s Sweets, Y-Lime Cupcakes, Coffee by Design, Allagash, The Honey Exchange, and Micucci’s.

Voting is now open, and the awards presentation is scheduled to take place October 18.

Expectations and Enjoyment

Columnist Natalie Ladd at the Portland Daily Sun muses on the impact our own prior expectations have on our enjoyment when eating out.

This is certainly not the case in business as we expect things to meet or exceed our standards based upon experiences tucked away in our “frame of reference” file. In a restaurant for example, we may be disappointed in a perfectly delicious, beautifully prepared, half-pound, medium-rare burger served with a mountain of hand-cut fries for $17, as this price point may seem offensive and unwarranted. Even if the food meets or exceed the standards of quality tastiness, the overall end result becomes null and void by the number of zeros on the meal ticket. I witnessed this very incident while sitting at a bar of a well known, carnivorously-oriented hot spot just last week.

Food Trucks on the Agenda

Food Trucks were on the agenda at yesterday’s meeting of the Creative Portland Corporation and made it on to the front page of today’s Press Herald.

The organization’s directors unanimously endorsed food trucks at their monthly meeting, and will propose an ordinance to the City Council’s Health and Recreation Committee later this year. If the committee endorses the ordinance, it will go to the City Council.

“It seems odd that we would make rules that limit people’s choices,” said Andy Graham, president of Creative Portland. “We just need to come up with policy suggestions that balance everyone’s interests.”

I was at the meeting, as were Andre Polhill and Helen Andreoli who are interested in starting a “food truck in the city with barbecue and Southern comfort food”.

The Host Position

Portland Daily Sun columnist Natalie Ladd wrote today about the important role the host plays at a restaurant.

To the unindoctrinated, it’s hard to explain why the host position is so difficult to execute and so vitally important to the operational flow of a busy restaurant. There’s the reservation book or list that’s been building, with the names and times often incorrect due to hasty human error that can set off a domino effect of disaster.