Fork Food Lab (website, facebook, instagram) has launched a $30,000 Kickstarter campaign. The funds will be used to pay for the Lab’s tasting room.
Education is at our core where we’ll develop a variety of programming from tastings to lectures to cooking classes. Our dream is to become a real destination within Portland, Maine. With the Tasting Room, we can support small farmers, drive awareness to our members’ businesses, and celebrate the local food movement.
The New York Times has published an article about The Honey Paw.
The original premise, of a global noodle-centric spot, has given way to a focus on Asian flavors, but with culinary techniques borrowed from across the world. The chef de cuisine, Thomas Pisha-Duffly, is of Chinese and Irish descent, with roots in Indonesia and Massachusetts. All of that is reflected in the changing menu at the Honey Paw, where shrimp toast, a dim sum standard, has morphed into a lobster-and-scallop mousse tartine. “That was one of the first dishes that we conceptualized for the space,” Mr. Pisha-Duffly said. “It kind of epitomizes the way we think of cuisine.”
The Bangor Daily News has published an article on the shortage of experienced chefs in Maine.
Owners of clam huts on the water and James Beard-winning spots in Maine’s foodiest city alike are straining to find cooks for the summer surge.
The May issue Dispatch asks whether it’s still possible to eat cheaply in Portland
But can it still be done? Sure, but you’ve got to dig deeper, pick your spots. We gathered 10 options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner where you can still get a delicious, super-filling meal on the cheap. (And tossed in five happy hours for good snacking measure.) Yeah, it’s always possible to grab a slice or cave for some goopy fast-food bomb, but there are better, more authentically Portland options out there. Dive in.
and pays a visit to the Cumberland County Jail.
I show up at the Cumberland County Jail at 4 a.m. on what is most certainly the darkest, coldest January morning of the year — registering at -8 degrees. I’m here to meet Richard St. Onge, manager of food services, as his shift begins.
Unlike the vast majority of correctional facilities in the US, the kitchen here hasn’t farmed out inmate meals to a large company like Aramark. It still maintains its own independent program, and I wanted to find out more about what that mammoth task must be like.
Bite Into Maine and Eventide are in the running in the USA Today readers’ choice competition for Best Lobster Roll.
The Portland Phoenix has selected the nominees and voting has begun for the 2016 Best of Portland readership poll.
There are 50+ Food and Drink categories ranging from bagels and barbecue to wine tastings and wings for you to vote in plus categories for City Life, Arts & Entertainment, Shopping and Services.
Portland Food Map is a nominee for Best Food Blog/Column (along with 207 Foodie and Eat & Run) and for Best Blog (along with Active Beer Geek, Black Girl in Maine, Eating Portland Alive and Hot Trash Portland).
The Press Herald has provided space on their op/ed page for both Five Fifty-Five co-owner, Michelle Corry, and a server at the restaurant, Heather McIntosh, to share their perspectives on the referendum to increase the state’s minimum wage.
The paper also followed up yesterday to interview them others about the opposing views on the issue,
The debate over the tipped minimum wage has restaurant workers and their employers – in some restaurants, anyway – talking about more than plating sauces and table turnover, especially when they are at odds with one another. The initiative would gradually increase the minimum wage paid to tip earners from $3.75 to $5 per hour in 2017, then add a dollar a year until tipped employees make the same minimum wage as other workers. That means by 2024, they would be earning $12 an hour.
An article in the Bangor Daily News explores why fewer restaurants outside the immediate area of Portland participate in Maine Restaurant Week.
With only two Bangor restaurants participating versus 40 in Portland, it begs the question: if this really is Maine Restaurant Week, why weren’t more restaurants north of Portland involved this year?
Dispatch magazine has published on What Not to Do When Opening a Restaurant,
The restaurant business is one of the riskiest ventures around, especially in a city like Portland that has reached the saturation point. I’ve worked in them my whole life, and have seen a lot of failures as well as success stories. But don’t rely on my advice alone — I’ve rounded up local food scene veterans to add their two cents.
The Portland Phoenix has kicked-off their 2016 Best of Portland readership poll. The Phoenix uses a 2 step process:
There are 50+ food and drink categories ranging from bagels and barbecue to wine tastings and wings—there’s even one for Best Food Blog/Column.