The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes:
Earlier this week the Press Herald published an article about restaurant staff tattoos.
Walk into any restaurant in Portland, and it’s likely that the cook preparing your entree or the server pouring your glass of wine will have some kind of body art – a chef’s knife tattooed on an arm, or some mythical Japanese creature peeking out from a sleeve or pant leg. The older they are, the more likely they are to be covered in tatts to the point where it’s difficult to tell where one ends and the next begins.
Long rumored to be in the works, the name of Crema Cafe on Commercial Street has been changed to Arabica Coffee, bringing the coffee shop into alignment with owners original other spot on Free Street.
Check out this report from the Urban Eye blog for more details.
For the new issue of Booze, Fish and Coffee co-hosts Bo Bigelow and Brian Ericson have lunch at Lolita and discuss Fuji, Oxbow, Lolita, Timber, Taj, Boda, Arcadia, Hugo’s, Central Provisions and Veranda Asian Market.
Awards season is here:
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.
Haven’s Candies has a new owner. According to reports from MaineBiz, the Bangor Daily News and the Press Herald, Freeport businesswoman Erin Collins has bought the company from Andy Charles who has run the company since 2001.
Haven’s was founded in 1915 by Herbert Haven. The first store was located at 500 Forest Ave.
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.