Category: General News

Today’s Press Herald includes a profile of Jake Castonia,

Castonia decided to say good-bye to the standard American diet and instead fill his dinner plate with plants. At the same time he made the switch to vegan foods, he began exercising regularly.

At first, he could barely make it through 10 minutes on an elliptical machine. But he stuck with it, and by the time he could exercise for a full hour straight, he had shed 50 pounds.

an article about this year’s crop of Maine semi-finalists in the JBF awards competition,

Maine had an especially strong showing in the Best Chef: Northeast category. Maine chefs, remarkably, make up a third of that category, which bodes well for at least one of them making the list of finalists next month.

and an overview of Maine Restaurant Week.

The Forecaster has published a report on Portland’s new Food Truck Task Force.

“You’ll see it happen,” said Steve DiMillo Sr., a restaurateur who is concerned about the way the city regulates food trucks on two fronts:

Loosely regulated food trucks could set up near his DiMillo’s restaurant on the waterfront, bringing direct competition.

And DiMillo is also considering moving into the new market. “We’re talking about … a Dimillo’s mobile operation,” he said.

“It makes sense for a lot of us operators to diversify and open up other arms of our operations, especially because we could do a lot of the prep work in our kitchens,” DiMillo said.

The James Beard Foundation announced the semi-finalists for this year’s JBF awards. Maine scored 8 semi-final nominations:

• Petite Jacqueline for Best New Restaurant
• Melissa Kelly at Primo in Rockland for Outstanding Chef
• Fore Street for Outstanding Restaurant
• and for Best Chef Northeast:
• Krista Kern Desjarlais at Bresca
• Demos Regas at Emilitsa
• Danai Sriprasert and Nattasak Wongsaichua at Boda
• Penelle, Megan, and Phoebe Chase and Ted LaFage at Chase’s Daily in Belfast
• Brian Hill at Francine Bistro in Camden

The final list of nominees is due out on March 19 and the awards ceremony takes place May 7.

For reference take a look at the semi-finalist lists in 2011 and 2010.

Lady Bar Fly is authored by “a woman of a certain age who likes few things better after a long and complex day than walking in to a restaurant or pub  and seeing a vacant welcoming seat at the bar.”

So far the Lady has published observations on a quiet Monday night  at The Salt Exchange and movie night at Petite Jacqueline.

Today’s Portland Daily Sun reports on the formation of a Food Truck Task Force in Portland.

Food trucks could be rolling into Portland as soon as this summer, if a rulemaking process goes as envisioned, officials say.

A city council subcommittee on Thursday unanimously approved the formation of a task force charged with discussing the pros and cons of allowing food trucks to operate in the city. The task force will lay the groundwork for a food truck discussion before the council, a discussion that officials want to have sometime this spring.

Natalie Ladd offers up some post-holiday observations on Valentine’s Day in today’s Portland Daily Sun.

By the time this column is rubbing newsprint onto your finger tips, the complete pomp, circumstance and exhaustion that is Valentine’s Day in the restaurant business will be over for another year.

The nominations process is complete and it’s now time to cast your ballot in the Portland Phoenix Best of Portland Readership Poll. There are a plethora of Food and Drink categories (Bagels, Bars, Barbecue, Beer Selection, Brewpubs, Brunch, etc) to vote on as well as sections for City Life, Arts and Entertainment, and Shopping.

Edible Obsessions, From Away, Mister Meatball, Portland Food Map and the Spiced Plate are all contenders in the Food Blog category.

If the 2012 polls follows the same schedule as past years then the final results will be made public in April at the Port City Music Hall.

Maine Mead Works appeared in a New York Times article on the mead industry.

While traditional meads can have more than 10 percent residual sugar, Mr. Alexander’s come in under 2 percent. Combined with a rock-bottom acidity, the result in nose and palate can be remarkably like drinking dry white wine, with a delicate overlay of fruit and floral aromas, depending on the mead.

Today’s Portland Daily Sun reports on a restaurant coupon deal at Samuel’s went awry.

“They were only supposed to sell one certificate per person per month, and not for three bucks. I hardly do any advertising, and this seemed like a good idea to get new people to try the place, but it was a mess. They sold them for like a dollar each or something on Christmas Eve, and I had one week where the same guy came in every night with a $25 certificate. My Restaurant.com sales rep guy, Jerry, is from Portsmouth, and he told me they weren’t monitoring who was buying them or how many they were selling. It was supposed to be, ‘We’re selling this amount of certificates for this certain price,’ but they went nuts and I can’t afford to do it.”