Category: General News

Today’s Press Herald includes a report on the new Preble Street Food Security Hub in South Portland.

In the past three weeks, the agency has shifted kitchen work to its new Food Security Hub, the first facility of its kind in Maine focused on food insecurity. Preble Street leaders say that moving into the 30,000-square-foot building on Darling Avenue in South Portland will allow them to increase the number of meals prepared, improve nutrition and reduce waste by preserving more donated produce, and connect with anti-hunger and social justice organizations to address hunger in a more holistic and collaborative way.

You can learn more about Preble Street on their website www.preblestreet.org.

Thrillist has recognized the Hunt & Alpine Club in their list 25 Food & Drink Innovators That Inspire Us. Hunt & Alpine is specifically highlighted for its personnel policies, initiatives and Covid rules to support their staff.

They wanted the Scandinavian-style bar to be a place where talented professionals feel taken care of while building a career, so they became the first bar in Maine to require proof of vaccination. Amid the pandemic, the Volks also raised the minimum wage, hosted trainings on combatting sexual harassment and assault, and offered benefits like health insurance and discounted CSA memberships, all in an effort to support staff as much as possible.

A small but growing number of eateries and bars in the Portland area that have put in place vaccination requirements for indoor dining and drinking.

You can see the full list here.

We’ll be adding to this list as restaurants, bars and other eateries announce policies—send us a message if you see some place missing from the list.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram reports on work by the Wayside Food Programs to better understand the food ways of the immigrant communities they help.

Last spring, Wayside held seven focus groups to begin that process. According to Wayside, they included 33 leaders speaking for the area’s Somali, Arab, Central African, Angolan, Asian, Hispanic/Latino and Serb/Croatian/Russian/Albanian people.

The participants shared information about general habits – how many meals they eat per day, for example, and where they shop for food. They also talked about foods typically available at pantries – which ones they would not use and which foods they wished were available.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram takes a look at the range of pizza styles and options available in Portland today.

Talk to restaurateurs about the bounty of pizza options in the Portland area today, and they use words like “blessed” and “spoiled.” Yes, the pandemic fueled the demand for inexpensive take-out food and launched a nationwide pizza boom that helped keep Portland’s pizza restaurants open, but the city’s pizza scene was on the rise even before the coronavirus came to town. And it’s not just pizza places that serve it.

The Waterville Sentinel has written about the growing Maine cider industry,

“Maine is actually really fortunate in that we have a ton of apples, they’re everywhere — that’s why a lot of people do wild foraging,” Rochon said. “So I think that Maine, more than a lot of other places, is set up to expand. I think that a lot of places are starting to hit their ceiling on how many people can go and forage and get them from the area.”

There are 20+ cidermakers in Maine, for more information see our Guide to Maine Cider.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a rundown  of some outdoor dining options in Portland, and

Many Portlanders, especially those of us with vulnerable friends and family, are still holding off on dining indoors. For the past ten weeks or so, that’s been easy, but as the leaves begin to fall, our options seem to dwindle by the day. Don’t despair just yet – Greater Portland still offers plenty of local al fresco dining and drinking opportunities. Here are a dozen of my favorites.

a report on how Covid has impacted the sense of taste and smell in the food community.

The same day Diane Hudson’s doctor expressed concern about her cough – a cough Hudson assumed was just a symptom of hay fever – and had her tested for COVID-19, Hudson stopped by the store and bought feta cheese.

That night, she made a beautiful Greek salad and poured a glass of her favorite Greek wine to go with it.

“I sat down to eat it,” the Portland photographer recalled, “and everything tasted like cardboard.” The wine, she added, smelled and tasted “like motor oil.”

Ruby’s West End is featured in a New York Times article about changing pay practices in the restaurant industry.

So last spring, when the couple opened Ruby’s West End, a cafe in Portland, Maine, they decided that every aspect of their restaurant would diverge from business as usual. Ms. [Corrinna] Stum, 30, spurned pricey subscriptions for reservation and scheduling software, and instead used that money to help pay every member of her small team $12.15 per hour, Maine’s full minimum wage. She also added a 20 percent service charge to every check, to be shared with the kitchen staff, which traditionally doesn’t benefit from tips.

Today’s Press Herald includes an article about the challenges facing restaurants and an effort to refund the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.

At first glance, Maine’s restaurant industry is healthy – a strong tourism season has led to packed patios and dining rooms, long lines for takeout and crowded beer gardens.

But just under the surface, industry insiders worry that a resurgent pandemic fueled by the delta variant, crippling staffing shortages and soaring business costs will hobble a fragile recovery. Lobbyists and restaurant owners are pushing Congress to pump more money into a relief fund that ran dry this summer after grants were awarded to just one-third of applicants nationwide.