Category: General News

The Portland police have made a recommendation to the City Council not to renew Sangillo’s liquor license, according to a report from the Press Herald. The Council will consider the recommendation on March 17.

On March 17, the City Council will consider the department’s recommendation to deny a renewed liquor license for Sangillo’s Tavern on Hampshire Street. “We feel public safety is jeopardized by the continuing operation of this establishment,” says the department’s recommendation.

The reporter checked in with owners of Dean’s Sweets and Hugo’s as well as a local resident, none of whom expressed any concern about Sangillo’s.

Carmela Difazio of Hampshire Street has never been inside Sangillo’s but has lived two doors down from the bar her whole life.

“There’s hardly any problems, only every once in a while,” she said. “I don’t see any reason why it should have to close.”

The owners of Little Bigs have recently been contacted by the NYC creators of the trademark Cronuts with a cease and desist order, according to a report from Maine a la Carte.

The NYC baker who created the Cronut had the name trademarked, and according to James and Pamela Plunkett’s Little Bigs Facebook page, he’s sent the bakers a cease-and-desist order. It seems the name crauxnut is, legally speaking, just a smidge too similar to the trademarked name.

Wannawaf has sent out an appeal asking for help to recapitalize their business. According to the message, the effort to launch 2nd store in Portland impacted the financially viability of the enterprise.

So here it is, Wannawaf in Boothbay harbor is going to go out of business because of my mistakes in Portland. I bled our consistently profitable Boothbay store in order keep Portland going a little bit longer, and as a result I do not have the capital to reopen this year.

If you want to help Wannawaf out go to their page on Go Fund Me.

The USM Free Press has published a report on the challenges of launching and running a successful restaurant.

According to Professor Charles Colgan of public policy and management and the Muskie School of Public Service and long-time former chair of the State of Maine Consensus Economic Forecasting Commission, there’s nothing unusual about that. “Restaurants are the same pretty much everywhere. They are the business most frequently started and most frequently closed.”

The Golden Dish has put together a “short list of Portland shops and their specialty foods.”

The Portside Picnic food truck is for sale on eBay. The asking price is $49,900 or best offer.

The Maine Legislature is exploring how to expand the number of state restaurant inspectors, according to a report from the Press Herald.

According to the state Office of Policy and Legal Analysis, 96 establishments have no inspection recorded in the state database and another 1,414 establishments have gone more than two years without being inspected.

[Representative Peter] Stuckey called that backlog “unacceptable.”

The Portland Phoenix has published a pair of tequila related articles. The first is a tequila pub crawl,

To prove it, I gathered a crew together on a cold, unremarkable Tuesday in February and went on a Tequila Odyssey. I’d never been on an official bar crawl before, but I imagine this was just like that, except with two rules: 1) that the evening’s destinations correspond as closely as possible to the thirteen primary episodes of Odysseus’ journey in the sequel to Homer’s Iliad, and 2) that one full tequila drink must be consumed at each of those thirteen locations.

and the second is about how tequila and about tequila flights at Zapoteca.

To decide which style you like best, head to Zapoteca for a flight of tequila. Zapoteca boasts the largest collection of tequila and mezcals in Maine (close to 80), which are managed by Sergio Ramos, who has completed the “Award T” certification course from the Tequila Regulatory Council of Mexico. A flight of tequila offers the three styles of tequila from one brand, giving you a chance to see how the flavors of the tequila change as it’s aged. The flights range in price from $15 to $80 and come with a palate-cleansing side of sangrita, a spicy slurry of fire-roasted tomatillos traditionally served alongside tequila to complement its acidity.

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes an article about the cronut tribute pastries (known as crauxnuts) being sold at Little Bigs.

Denise Rowden drove all the way from Brunswick on a recent Sunday to buy some at Little Bigs, a small bakery on Main Street in South Portland. Pamela Fitzpatrick Plunkett, who owns the bakery with her husband, James, has been making her own version of the New York Cronut since the beginning of January. She sells them only on Sundays, starting at 11 a.m, and they sell out so quickly that, unless customers pre-order, they are all gone in a half hour or so.