Category: General News

Business Insider has posted a travel guide to Portland.

The article mentions Allagash, Central Provisions, Fore Street, Liquid Riot, The Blue Rooster, The Holy Donut, The Porthole.

The ballot is now online for this year’s Indie Biz Awards. This is the 9th year that Buy Local has run the awards program which celebrates outstanding independent Portland businesses.

Many restaurants and food businesses are nominees: Local Sprouts, Vinland, Casco Bay Organics, Woodford F&B, Aurora Provisions, Asmara, Thanh Thanh 2, Treehouse, Lincolns, Rhum, Sister’s Gourmet Deli, The Holy Donut, Gritty’s, Bayside Bowl, Portland Food Coop, and the Farmers’ Market.

Visit the Buy Local website to vote for your favorites.

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a feature article about Certine, a new ceramic flatware launched by former Opus Ten server David Muse with Bill Todd and Rachel Rodrigues in June.

“At this point,” he said, “this product is for the type of people who make dinner reservations before they make hotel reservations, because if you don’t get the dinner reservations you’re probably not going to that town. It’s for people who go to buy foodstuffs three or four times a week as opposed to one time a week. It’s for the kind of people who take more pictures of their food than they do their children or their pets. It’s ultimately for the kind of people who are thinking about genuine interaction with their food.”

Today’s Press Herald includes articles on Fork Food Lab,

The $1.5 million food lab is the creation of Neil Spillane and Eric Holstein, two young entrepreneurs who hope their project will help propel both Maine’s food economy and the dreams of local entrepreneurs who want to scale up their businesses and see their pies, sauces, sports drinks and puddings on every table.

and the Feeding the 5,000 event.

On Oct. 7, the coalition of groups plans to serve thousands of bowls of free hearty stew to the general public in an event called Feeding the 5,000. Some 2,500 bowls will be dished up in Monument Square in Portland, with the remainder going to schools, local companies and hunger prevention programs that serve people who rely on donated food for their meals.

The Maine Food Strategy Framework report has been released, according to a report from the Press Herald.

“What is being presented in this document is a set of goals, and in those goals there are a set of underlying ‘how do we get theres,’ ” [Joshua Stoll, founder of LocalCatch.org] said. “That’s the piece that’s really exciting. This creates a blueprint for moving these ideas forward that people from all over Maine have been thinking about.”

Interested to learn more? Read the full report.

The new issue of Down East magazine features an extensive “Oral History of the Lobster Roll”. The article talks with “dozens of chefs, food stand owners, magazine editors, historians, and big-city entrepreneurs who witnessed (and helped fuel) one of our favorite morsels”.

the path from its “relative obscurity” in the early 20th century to current stature makes for an interesting read.

The article isn’t online yet but the magazine should be appearing on newsstands shortly.

The new issue of Portland Magazine includes an article on some of the newer food trucks in town,

The mobile food craze that has spread like wildfire through every major city in the world hit Portland in 2012, or maybe we just finally ran out of building space for more restaurants. We meet the people behind the wheel of Portland’s most dynamic and diverse food scene.

and an article on rebirth of the Deering Oaks castle as Tiqa Cafe.

The fanciful stone Castle in Deering Oaks Park is being invaded by hungry marauding hordes this summer, after many years in the wilderness. Standing sentry by the pond in Portland’s crown jewel public park, TIQA Café houses seating for 20 indoors, with outdoor seating for over 80. Distractions such as bocce ball, horse shoes, bean-bag toss, chess tables, and live music adorn The Castle’s new reign.

Today’s Press Herald includes a report on big changes to the Culinary Arts program at SMCC to address falling enrollment and other issues.

Culinary students entering Southern Maine Community College this fall will choose from a different menu of coursework and lecturers as the school’s culinary arts and hospitality management departments undergo major restructuring. Those changes include a new and unusual arrangement in which the college will share resources with the University of Southern Maine’s tourism and hospitality program.

The Urban Eye met with Damian Sansonetti and Ilma Lopez to learn more about their recent purchase of Caiola’s and plans for the West End restaurant.

The couple has ideas for wine dinners, to work in more local produce and feng shui the space, but that is all down the road. For now the biggest change is an Italian ice cream maker in the back and new energy coursing through the sage and terra cotta building, which they now own.