Category: General News

The Press Herald has tapped Vince Maniaci, co-owner of The Cheese Iron, and Shannon Tallman from Whole Foods, for their expert holiday cheese buying advice.

Cheese has become a much more popular addition to the holiday table, but standing in front of a cheese counter these days is like standing in the cereal aisle at the grocery store – so many choices, the head starts to spin.

Chef/owner Jay Villani is back running the kitchen at his first restaurant, Local 188.

With the return to Local 188’s kitchen, Jay’s introduced a new menu. It’s a great menu of hot and cold tapas, raciones, salads and entrees. For longtime customers, you’ll feel like you’re reading a menu from back in Local’s old space, across the street.

There was a fire at Boone’s early Wednesday morning that resulted in some damage, but the restaurant expects to re-open on Saturday.

“Firefighters on the scene eventually discovered the source of the smoke in the facade surrounding the chimney and fireplace.” he said.

“Unfortunately, we had to completely remove the facade to the fireplace to extinguish the fire,” he said. “The good news is this fire could have been much worse had it not been for the functioning fire alarm system. It worked exactly as it should have.”

The Press Herald has opened a new position for a Food Editor to “direct its coverage of food – and specifically of the farm-to-table movement, which is becoming a major part of Maine’s culture”.

According to the help wanted ad on JournalismJobs.com,

Our newspaper is preparing to launch a major initiative in 2014 centered on the farm-to-table movement, and we need a dynamite editor to lead it all. This is a fantastic, unique opportunity for the right candidate. You will oversee the weekly Food section as well as a brand-new Sunday section.

This week’s Farm-to-Table episode of Maine Calling with Jennifer Rooks is now online at MPBN. Chef Sam Hayward, author Kathy Gunst and food policy expert Amanda Beal joined Rooks for the show.

The Portland Daily Sun has published a profile of Mi Sen,

Mi Sen, one might say, serves food fit for a king. The Thai restaurant opened last July at 630 Congress St. Benjaporn “Ben” Chandpen is from Bangkok, Thailand, and has cooked for the royal family there. She moved to Maine in 1997 with her husband, Chu Chandpen, and their sons, Darit and David.

and the Sun has published part 2 of their series on restaurant comment cards.

Portland-based Finest Kind Tea (website, facebook, twitter) is one of 15 new food companies from across the country that have been selected to participate in the 2013 Next Big Food Thing competition.

The winner will receive $10,000 and their products will be sold through the online grocer Fresh Direct. Competitors are being judged on the their product idea as well as the amount of crowdfunding they raise in the next 28 days and how they interact with public throughout the competition.

Finest Kind is trying to raise $20,000 to

expand our business and develop a new organic, 100% GMO-free & ethically sourced flavor as part of our commitment to natural products and sourcing the best ingredients from around the world. The money we raise will help us fund the process for tracing our tea from field to bottle using established, internationally accredited certifiers.

Owner Jay Lombard launched the company earlier this year with two tea concentrate flavors (blueberry white tea, black tea and lemonade) and is developing new flavors for launch in 2014. You can find Finest Kind Tea on the shelves at Whole Foods.

You can learn more about Finest Kind Tea and make a pledge to help them reach their goal on the RocketHub crowdfunding site.

MPBN and the Press Herald report that four companies have submitted bids for the state’s liquor contract.

When the 2 p.m. deadline arrived and the bidder’s identities were revealed, four contenders emerged: All Maine Spirits LLC and Pine State Trading, both out of Augusta, CD&M Communications of Portland and Dirigo Spirit Company LLC of Cumberland.

In today’s Portland Daily Sun, columnist Natalie Ladd confesses to her short criminal career and shares her perspective on restaurant comment cards.

There are many things fundamentally wrong with the concept of comment cards in a restaurant. They arrive with your tab, neatly tucked into a black book we call a “check minder,” which is hand delivered (and most likely collected) by the server you’re supposed to be evaluating.