Tandem, Bunker Brewing, Urban Farm Fermentory, Allagash, Standard, Bard, Speckled Ax, Otto, Pocket Brunch, Cloak & Dagger, Petite Jacqueline, Boda, and Local 188 are all called out in the Down East cover story, “50 Reasons We Love Portland”.
The article isn’t online yet but you should be able to find a copy of the November issue at your local newsstand.
Grace’s Whole Beast Feast is cited as an example of high-end “bundled” meals in Baum+Whiteman’s predictions for food trends in 2013.
Grace Restaurant in Portland, Maine, has a “whole beast” lamb dinner for six to eight people at $65 a head, including harissa-spiked lamb tartare, cured lamb “bresaola,” rigatoni with smoked lamb shoulder, and leg of lamb stuffed with pine nuts and corn. Like many such feasts, it requires 72 hours’ notice.
Natalie Ladd’s column in the Portland Daily Sun list the factors that help restaurants build a loyal customer base.
We all know it’s about food freshness and quality (the place in question is just so-so), the atmosphere (by most standards, the place in question needs to be sandblasted and rebuilt from the ground up), the price points (nothing noticeable one way or the other here), service (no fine dining experience for sure) and relationships built.
It is here, in this last element, where they excel and I have created a short checklist for restaurants and bars to follow, based upon proven success in such a generally mediocre establishment.
The Portland Phoenix has announced that they plan on providing ongoing coverage of the UFF’s expansion in Bayside.
In the former ABC Taxi headquarters (the company moved to Bishop Street recently, out off Warren Avenue), Cayer has gotten contracts and city permits for the kernel of something he hopes will be much bigger.
In the coming weeks, the Portland Phoenix will be exploring different aspects of this new endeavor, including talking with the businesses that will be moving there and setting up operations.
Chefs Mike Wiley of Hugo’s and David Levi from Vinland (still under construction) were interviewed by the Boston Globe for an article on “The New New England Cuisine”.
If chefs like Wiley have their way, fine dining menus, with their unlimited year-round fresh produce and expensive cuts of meat, will soon be replaced by a cuisine that is a more specific expression of New England’s seasons, landscape, and culture. Chefs are elevating humble ingredients that have always grown here. When our short growing season is over, we may have cold temperatures but we have plenty of light. Cooks find hearty greenhouse greens or stored root vegetables, or they ferment carrots, beets, cabbages, radishes, and other firm produce. In the North Atlantic, fishermen head out for some prized fish that are at their best in the cold months: sea urchins and their roe, Jonah crabs, smelts, monkfish, wolffish.
Bomb Diggity Bakery is raising $5,000 to expand their bakery and social service organization. The funds are being raised on Indiegogo, an alternative crowdfunding platform that’s similar to Kickstarter.
We are hoping to raise $5,000 to help set up our new kitchen location. For the past two years, we have been baking in a commercial kitchen with another local cafe/restaurant. With the growth of both businesses, the bakery needs a new, larger kitchen space. Setting up a kitchen is a lot of hard work and EXPENSIVE! Money raised will help go towards the build-out of our new kitchen as well as towards our ovens, mixers, etc. There are many people ready to put in as much hard work as necessary to get our new space ready, but we need to raise extra funds to help get us there.
From what I’ve heard Bomb Diggity is moving to East Bayside.
According to a report in today’s Press Herald, 5 Portland business have been cited for liquor law violations.
Portland Police said college students under the age of 21 volunteered to go into 40 stores and restaurants in the city to attempt to buy alcohol. Five of the businesses – Bonobo on Pine Street; the Express Mart on Congress Street; The Front Room on Congress Street; Bayside Variety on Cumberland Avenue; and Parker’s restaurant on Washington Avenue – sold liquor to the underage buyers, police said.
The 2012 Indie Biz Awards winners were announced last night. Congratulations are due to:
The Press Herald has published a Eat & Run review of Teriyaki Exchange in South Portland,
There was nothing left for me to do but dive in. While I’ve dabbled in chop-stickery, it’s never pretty, so I went with the conventional fork. Read: I can shove more food in my face that way. It took all my calming powers to slow down enough to truly savor the flavor, and I’m sure glad I did.
and a bar review of Dock Fore. Dock Fore opened for business in 1980 in the former Zeitman’s Grocery Store space.
Dock Fore is your run-of-the-mill place, which is unusual for the Old Port. The neighborhood bar sits amidst a bar scene littered with nightclubs, sports pubs and dance floors.
It’s a place to chill, sip a drink and chat with friends. It’s not a place to go shake your booty, drink the latest trendy cocktail or play some bar games.
Also, today’s paper reports that TAO in Brunswick has been sued by a restaurant with locations in New York and Las Vegas for infringing on their trademark name. This actually isn’t the first time a Maine food business has been challenged in this regard. The Great Lost Bear originally opened as The Grizzly Bear but was forced to change its name when sued by a west coast pizza shop. Alsoo if memory serves, Borealis Breads was originally called Bodacious Breads but had to change their name for similar reasons.
A new food blog called New Vegan in Maine launched on the last day of September. The author will be posting daily updates as she goes through a 30-day vegan eating experiment to help manage her insulin levels. (via Avery Yale Kamila)
As day 1 of veganism draws to a close, I’m feeing somewhat proud of how pure I was today. I started the day off with a cup of coffee, starting out with a small cup instead of my usual 16 oz. mug, better to test the soy creamer. Well, half and half it is not…