Category: General News

MaineToday.com has assembled a tour of Portland food tours: Maine Beer Tours, Wine Wise, Maine Foodie Tours, The Brew Bus and Portland Taste Tours,

A food and drink tour of Portland may seem like something designed just for visitors, but if you want to learn about this city’s new restaurants, food producers, breweries and distilleries — or want a distinctive experience you might not get on your own — don’t turn your nose up at letting a guide lead the way.

and The 207 Foodie has shared her experience on the Halloween tour run by Portland Taste Tours.

I recommend anybody who A. Loves food, B. Wants to try new food, C. Enjoys a good tour and D. Wants to explore the Portland food scene to check out a Portland Taste Tour. Trust me, this is something you will not regret.

The Maine Sunday Telegram has drafted John Golden to serves as the newspaper’s weekly restaurant critic spot.

Many years later my perusal of Maine dining – which I will now bring to you in this space, every Sunday – is altogether a different kettle of fish. It’s more about the food – the quality of what you’re eating and where it came from, important factors that make such an otherwise pompous social pecking order seem all the more superficial.

The thrill of it all still excites me today. Of course I have my favorite dining spots, and others that I avoid. As a critic I won’t sugar-coat the experience just to play nice. I will tell it like it is – to report on the good, bad or indifferent experience.

Portland Daily Sun columnist Natalie Ladd provides a behind the scenes look at the practice of tip pooling at restaurants.

3) One upside to pooling (which conversely is the downside as well) is you never know who’s going to be in your audience. Rotating tables and even reservations are always the luck of the draw. I can have a great night where my section is full of drinkers and overeaters, while my colleagues have the water (with lemon, please) and appetizer people. My experience is that it all comes out as a wash. In other words, the next shift it’ll be my turn to randomly wait on the entree-splitters and decaf drinkers.

Maine a la Carte has published a report on the new food menu at Gingko Blue.

The Portland Food Co-op has launched a campaign to recruit  1,000 new members. Recruiting new members is seen by the Co-op as an essential first step to eventually launching a retail store front. The Co-op has received a $330,000 loan from the Cooperative Fund of New England to help launch the new store.

Kate McCarty, author of The Blueberry Files, is working on a book about the Portland food scene entitled Portland Food: The Culinary Capital of Maine.

The book is published by The History Press and due out June of 2014. In 40,000 words, I’ll tell the history of the Portland food scene and highlight some of its interesting players. I’ve been interviewing farmers, fisherman, chefs… all of whom bring something different and interesting to our vibrant food scene.

Mike Roylos, owner of the Spartan Grill, was in today’s Press Herald in connection with his invention of the Buttler, a device to collect cigarette butts outside his restaurant in Monument Square.

Roylos’ invention, which he calls the Sidewalk Buttler, is a tubular container, painted to look like a mustachioed butler in a bow tie and bowler hat. It’s capped on both ends, strapped by metal to a utility pole, and has a circular hole where the butler’s mouth would be. Smokers deposit their spent cigarette butts there.

The Portland Daily Sun, Bangor Daily News, The Forecaster and Press Herald report that, at last night’s meeting, the City Council unanimously voted to revise the city’s food truck ordinance.

The amendments to the ordinances related to food trucks — which were passed unanimously — will allow trucks to be parked with 65 feet of each other but not an open restaurant; restructure the permitting process and fee; increase the size limits on trucks; and ease the time restrictions for trucks set up in metered parking spaces, giving them an extra two hours. [PDS]

Beer Babe has posted a piece explaining the impact the government shutdown will have on Maine brewers.

It’s not prohibition all over again, but there are some significant impacts to craft brewers ahead if the government shutdown that started today carries on for any length of time. Specifically, getting new breweries online and the release of new and seasonal beers are in jeopardy.

The impact will also extend to the small but growing craft distilling industry in Maine. New England Distilling commented on twitter that their whiskey label approval has just made it through but not all the distillers will probably have such good timing.