Small Axe and Congress Square Park

The Bangor Daily News looks at the impact Small Axe is having on Congress Square Park.

“There are not a lot of places in the city to get outside and have lunch,” said Deuben, a chef who’s worked for Masa Miyake and at Hugo’s. “This gives people the opportunity to see what the park can be with a little effort. Just as we put a lot of thought and effort into our food.”

Restaurant Impossible: Uncle Andy’s

Maine a la Carte has information on how to be part of the Restaurant Impossible remake of Uncle Andy’s.

“Restaurant Impossible” airs on Wednesday nights and the episode featuring Uncle Andy’s will air sometime this summer. We can’t report on the transformation because that would spoil the TV surprise, but YOU can participate.

There are two ways to be involved: As a member of the volunteer crew or as a customer for the grand re-opening on Wednesday, June 11 at 7 p.m.

WSJ: A New England Focus on Local Foods

Chefs at Vinland and Hugo’s/Eventide are featured in this Wall Street Journal article about the New England local food movement,

Griddled until golden but still tender at the center, it arrived nestled up against crescents of delicata squash, in a pool of sage-scented melted goat cheese that evoked the world’s most rarified Welsh rarebit. A tousle of tiny arugula stems and sunshiny tatsoi blossoms topped it all off. The dish was simultaneously surprising and comforting. It tasted of place and possibility. And like everything else on the menu at Vinland, chef David Levi’s fledgling experiment in Down East cuisine, not one morsel of it had started life more than a few dozen miles from my mouth.

Cupping Coffee in Portland

Follow along with Portland Phoenix food columnist Kate McCarty on her visits to four local shops to learn more about coffee processing and coffee tasting.

While sipping the four samples, my thoughts went like this: “Hmm, tastes like coffee… also tastes like coffee… yup, coffee again… Woah!” The fourth coffee tasted radically different due to the processing method. The Ethiopian coffee from Slate was naturally processed, meaning the fruits of the coffee plant, called “cherries” (inside of which you’ll find the “bean” or seed), are dried in the sun rather than mechanically pulped and then dried. The resulting coffee frequently is full of berry flavors; this one tasted like someone had infused it with blueberry syrup.

Restaurant Impossible: Uncle Andy’s (Updated)

The Portland Daily Sun, The Forecaster and the Press Herald have published reports on the upcoming visit of Restaurant: Impossible to film a show at Uncle Andy’s.

On June 9, “Restaurant: Impossible” host Robert Irvine and crew will take over the 60-year-old diner from owners Dennis and Tina Fogg for a 36-hour, $10,000 marathon restaurant rescue mission before a grand re-opening June 11.

The breakfast-and-lunch diner staff, menu and aesthetic will get an extreme makeover – as well as some tough love – for an episode to be aired later this year.

From Away on Portland Food Book

From Away has published an article about Kate McCarty’s new book, Portland Food: The Culinary Capital of Maine.

Portland, Maine is fortunate to have so much incredible food, and even more fortunate to have such gifted local writers to document it. Kate McCarty’s new book, “Portland Food: The Culinary Capital of Maine” is the kind of volume you thumb through again and again, admiring its thoughtfulness, research, and the care the author took in crafting it.

Malcolm and Jillian have just completed their own book about Maine food and I am eagerly awaiting my copy from Amazon.