Category: General News

Erik Neilson with the Portland Phoenix has highlighted 5 restaurants due out in 2019 that he’s most looking forward to.

Even discounting Bon Appétit magazine’s “Restaurant City of the Year” honors and the aftermath, 2018 was yet another stellar time for the Portland dining scene. It was also a good year for openings, with Lio, Drifters Wife (in its new space) and Crown Jewel leading the pack in terms of new and worthwhile experiences. And while the list of establishments set to open in 2019 is sparser than recent years, there are still a handful of interesting developments to keep an eye on in the coming months. 

Forbes magazine talked with Andrew and Briana Volk for some New Year’s Eve entertaining advice.

1. Pre-batch your cocktails
“Not every drink needs to be made one at a time,” says Volk, “just multiply the numbers and make a big batch. People will get excited pouring their own Old Fashioned directly from a pitcher. Overall, stick to about three cocktails — too much choice can be its own problem, and it also encourages people to overserve themselves. Better to have two great things than five ok things, and save the 12-ingredient cocktails for another time.” See Briana’s recipes for batching a Slow Gin Fizz and Mexican Trike below.

The Press Herald has published their alphabetical take on the past year’s food trends and events.

No doubt, the new year will bring plenty of fresh food news. But before we ring in 2019, let’s hit the pause button and review the biggest Maine food news, events and trends of 2018. What restaurants opened this year? Which closed? Which foods captured our hearts, minds and taste buds? Here’s a recap, from A to Z…

The big news from MaineToday Media (the parent company of the newspaper) is their decision to discontinue the Source section of the Sunday Telegram, and to fold the Wednesday Food & Dining section and food coverage from Source into a single weekly Food & Dining section which will be published on Sundays.

The Press Herald has published a round-up of Maine ciders, beers, wines and meads for pairing with your Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

Choosing a Maine-made beverage celebrates more than Thanksgiving. It shows just how far Maine has come in 30 years. In the late 1980s, Maine had just one winery that made fruit wine. The state had no other wineries, meaderies, no craft brewery scene, or distilleries of its own. Today there’s a wealth of options. So when you serve a Maine-made beverage with your turkey, you’re celebrating Maine along with the holiday.

At my holiday table I’ll be serving Armenian sparkling wine, pinot noir from Saint Innocent Winery in Oregon, German beer, some excellent Maine cider from Bent Bough, Tandem Coffee and Q Tonic. What beverages are you having with your Thanksgiving meal?

WGME has aired a piece on the Portland’s Arts and Technology High School culinary class which gives students some of the skills they need on their way to their first kitchen job or to enter culinary school.

“I want them to be able to come in and know how to handle a knife, how to set up a work station, how to show up on time and dress appropriately. All those skills that you didn’t see in a cookbook,” Hannibal said.

That also includes business math, sanitation, marketing, nutrition and one of the most popular parts of the curriculum, how to make some delicious desserts.

Today’s Press Herald reports on the expanded use of canning in favor of bottles, including for beverages like kombucha and cocktails.

“Cans are undoubtedly a more sustainable packaging vehicle,” Emmerich said. “They cost less to make. They cost less to ship. They’re more easily recyclable.” Canning is also faster than bottling. Madden said Lone Pine initially hand-bottled its product at a rate of 10 cases per hour. A canning line can produce 40 cans per minute, he said. “All the beer styles we do right now lend themselves to cans,” Madden said. “They’re made to be consumed soon. Fresher is better, and cans promote that idea.”

Maine’s first craft brewery to go all in with cans was Baxter Brewing back in 2010.

The long awaited lobster emoji has been released. For an Apple phone, the emoji requires upgrading to version 12.1 of the operating system.

For more information, read this article from Mainebiz.

A number of food businesses were honored at this year’s Indie Biz Awards:

• Flavor of Portland – Boda
• Made in Portland – Holy Donut
• Best New Business – Rose Foods
• Portland Icon – Harbor Fish Market
• Local Love – Silly’s
• Hall of Fame – Coffee by Design, Micucci’s, Rosemont

Mainebiz has published a report on the challenges the new owners of Fork Food Lab have to overcome in making the business a success.

Portland magazine makes the case for not forgetting the “old stalwarts” of the city’s restaurant culture while we celebrate the newer establishments in town,

I could, and will, go on: Lolita, the Blue Spoon, and Union have never let me down. When I’m feeling raw and blue, I can always count on the chicken tacos with a side of bacon at the Front Room to cheer me up. The Parisian-feeling outdoor café at the Regency is a nice place for a lunch date on a balmy day. And whenever you get a hankering for top-notch homey German food (and who doesn’t?) there’s nowhere like Schulte & Herr for bratwurst and sauerkraut. As for sushi, no one does it better than Masa Miyake. But Benkay and Yosaku are damned good, too. As for Vietnamese, whether you’re Team Thanh Thanh or Team Saigon, it’s okay—they’re both great.