Category: General News

According to the Press Herald the city’s restaurant inspector has been holding a series of sessions to educate people in the industry about the FDA rules in use in Portland.

On July 13, Sturgeon sent a letter to all city-licensed food establishments, inviting their operators to information sessions because she was finding “a lack of education” about the food code during inspections.

Sturgeon and her boss, Michael Russell of the city’s Health and Human Services Department, hosted their third session Tuesday night. About 20 people, most of them restaurant owners, attended the session at City Hall.

For additional reporting read the Munjoy Hill News.

The Press Herald is reporting that Don’s Lunch in Westbrook has been bought by the son of the original owner,

The food truck was bought recently by Jim Richards, the only son of the original owners, Don and Yvonne Richards, who ran the business for 25 years.

and that Smaha’s Market in South Portland has also changed hands.

Smaha’s Legion Square Market has been sold to Alan Cardinal of Scarborough, a former Hannaford Supermarkets executive who will run the grocery store and butcher shop with his wife, Sylvia Most.

Chalk this one up in the outside Portland but too interesting to pass up category. From Away has published an interview with Brian Smith from Oyster River Farm in Rockland about the horse-drawn grocery delivery service he’s trying to get going in Rockland.

While he waits for his vines to mature, proprietor Brian Smith has another creative idea for this coming winter. Smith intends to roll out the “Oyster River Farm Express” in Rockland, a door-to-door horse-drawn delivery service of Oyster River farm goods, including locally grown produce, freshly baked bread, homemade sausage, and their own well-regarded wine.

Smith is raising $10,000 on Kickstarter to pay for a vintage delivery cart and other essentials for the service. His Belgian draft horse, Don, will be doing all the hard work of pulling the wagon around downtown Rockland for the Oyster River Farm Express.

It makes me wonder if some sort of farmers market delivery service, albeit using pedal power or standard transportation, could work in Portland.

Bon Appetit columnist Andrew Knowlton has gone public with his “chip tryst” with Fox Family Potato Chips which are made here in Maine.

My latest crush is Fox Farms, the hand-sliced chips made in Mapleton, Maine. The Fox family have been potato farmers since the 1800s, but only recently put these beauties on the market. They’re not too thick but not too thin, they’re cooked to a nice amber brown, and they come in longish strips. During the summer I go to Maine as much as the bosses will allow and each time I return with a few bags.

I even introduced them to my parents. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to chip commitment.

I know I’ve seen the chips for sale but haven’t found a bag at some of the likely spots. Does anyone know where an aspiring tryster can pick up a bag here in the Portland?

According to an article in today’s Portland Daily Sun, Three Sons lost the appeal on their eviction.

Despite an emergency appeal to a federal bankruptcy judge, Three Sons Fishing can no longer stay at its Commercial Street location.
Stuart Norton, owner of Three Sons Fishing, hoped that an appeal to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court would stave off his business’s eviction from the Maine Wharf, though Judge James Haines ruled that Great Maine Wharf, LLC., had the legal backing to take possession of the building and require the seafood market to remove its belongings. Haines said it was “crystal clear” that the lease was with a limited liability company and not Norton.

The Opinion section in today’s Press Herald includes a defense of the Acadian Redfish,

Words can lend a person a presence they don’t have by themselves. The same goes for how we describe our food. Broccoli is just broccoli, until we describe it as organic, sustainable or local. Then it becomes superior, and more desirable.

Or, in this example of redfish being described as bait fish, it becomes less desirable.

and A Slanted View column on Portland’s coffee shops.

I decided to investigate. At every downtown coffee shop, I would order, drink, and rate one (1) small cup of black coffee. I would measure each establishment’s VSOP (Vibe, Sincerity, Organic Purity).

I would note which Famous Maine Personage (FMP) each shop most personifies, as well as Other Outstanding Oddities (OOO).

I did it all yesterday morning between 8 and 10.

An article in the new issue of Food Network Magazine lists Duckfat’s Duck Confit Pannini as one of the 50  best sandwiches in the nation. Press Herald food writer Meredith Goad nominated the sandwich for consideration.

Saveur has published an article about their recent visit to Portland and their stay at the Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth. (via Meredith Goad)

Considering the location, it didn’t shock me that the seafood dishes were first-rate—the appetizer of butter-poached lobster and gnocchi was simultaneously creamy and pillowy light, and the crab cake–avocado Benedict has now become one of those Platonic breakfast dishes against which I will judge others—but it was the chef’s way with meat that was a pleasant surprise.

According to a report from Maine a la Carte, Coffee by Designs is up for a $5,000 People & Planet Award from Green America for their solar panels.

This is where Coffee by Design had Revision Solar install 44 solar panels. These panels generate roughly half of the roastery’s electricity needs and offset 18,000 pounds of carbon dioxide that would have been produced if the electricity came over the grid from plants that burn fossil fuels.

For additional reporting see MaineBiz.

The Forecaster has published an article about Portland’s restaurant health inspector and the level of rigor she’s bringing to the job.

Sturgeon’s position was created to strengthen the public safety aspect of restaurant inspections, the city said. At the same time, the city also changed its inspection system from a numbered scale going up to 100, to a pass/fail system.

Now, to pass inspection, a restaurant can incur up to 13 code violations, no more than three of which can be deemed critical. Some violations may be resolved on the spot; for critical violations, Sturgeon returns within a week or two to check if they’ve been fixed.

This article is part of the paper’s ongoing coverage of restaurant health inspections.