Category: General News

Awards season is here:

• Indie Biz Awards – Portland Buy Local has kicked off the voting for the 2014 Indie Biz Awards. Food businesses are contenders in nearly every category. Visit the Buy Local website to cast your vote.
• F & W Best New Bar – today is the last day to cast your vote in the F & W People’s Best New Bar competition in support of the hometown favorite, the Portland Hunt and Alpine Club.
• SEDCO – the Scarborough Economic Development Corporation has recognized El Rayo as their 2014 Outstanding Project of the Year and Broadturn Farm as their 2014 Outstanding Hidden Gem.

Blue Current Brewing (website, facebook, twitter) is Maine-based sake brewer under development in Kittery. Owner Dan Ford has made good progress (watch video for details) and is turning to Kickstarter for the additional funds needed to fully launch the business. So far the campaign has raised one third of the $33,000 goal.

For more information and to contribute to the campaign visit the Blue Current Kickstarter page.

Building off the foundation of their Stir monthly newsletter, the gBritt public relations firm is launching a daily email service called Eat Drink Lucky which will send “three tips a day about fun food things in Maine” each morning. gBritt is launching Eat Drink Lucky 10 cities nationwide including Austin, Seattle, NYC and San Francisco.

The Bangor Daily News reports that the Pepperclub/Good Egg will be going out of business this month,

After a slow, dwindling summer, Portland’s once-favored dining institution the Pepperclub and its breakfast outpost The Good Egg Cafe will serve its last meals this month.

The 25-year-old business was looking to relocate in the city, but owner Melissa Sawyer, reached by phone Tuesday, has called off the search.

In a separate article, the BDN reports that the state Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages will be holding a hearing in October to hear Sangillo’s liquor license appeal.

The hearing will be conducted by staff from the state Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages & Lottery Operations. Laurence Sanborn, who manages the agency’s Liquor Licensing and Enforcement Division, said in June that public comment will be accepted at the hearing, which will consider anew the evidence heard by city councilors on March 17.

Update: the Press Herald has now also published an article about the Pepperclub.

Today’s Press Herald includes an article on food and agriculture’s economic impact.

Food has an economic impact as well, he said. On the one hand, foodies contribute to Maine’s tourism industry by heading to Portland, which has become known as a place to find innovative restaurants. Many restaurant menus mention the farms where they buy their products, which Lapping applauds as contributing to the health of those farms. Even those who aren’t into the latest food trend come to the state at least in part for the food, because for many, no trip to the state is complete without a lobster dinner.

The Bangor Daily News has published an article on the new Bard Coffee/Wicked Joe roastery in Topsham.

In July, the 10-year-old company moved its headquarters from a cramped space in Brunswick to a commissary-turned-leading-edge coffee roasting facility across the Androscoggin River. Located near a defunct recruitment center and shuttered fire station in the former U.S. Navy Annex in Topsham, it is an unlikely location for a rising coffee bean business. But the blank slate — a 37,000-square-foot building — was ripe for renewal.

The Casual Travelist has posted a report on her recent experience on a Maine Foodie Tours guided tour. The tour visited Vervacious, Sweetgrass Distillery, Vena’s Fizz House, Harbor Fish, and Eve’s at the Garden.

Just in time for tonight’s 10pm airing of the Uncle Andy’s episode of Restaurant Impossible, the Press Herald has interviewed the family about the experience and checked out whats changed at the South Portland eatery.

Irvine’s team gave the diner new tables and chairs, a fresh coat of apple green paint, flat-screen televisions, a new alarm system, different light fixtures, and enlarged, framed photos showcasing scenes from the 60-year-old diner’s past. The restaurant kept its horseshoe-shaped counters, with updated stools. The menu had its own makeover as Irvine added dishes such as a lobster omelette and grilled Dijon chicken.

Otto Pizza put out a statement on Friday that shared details on a point-of-sale data breach that may have compromised credit/debit card numbers at up to 900 customers at 2 Portland locations.

For additional reporting see these articles in the Bangor Daily News and Press Herald.