Category: General News

Today’s Press Herald includes an update on the Shipyard sewer bill snafu,

Contrary to what a city official said last week, Portland sewer and water officials did have experience dealing with brewery operations in 1996, when a metering mistake was made that cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue from Shipyard Brewing Co.

and a report on last night’s City Council decision to allow raw milk and alcoholic beverage sales at the Farmers Market.

After a long discussion, the City Council voted Monday night not to amend the city’s Farmers Market Ordinance to require vendors to display a placard and provide handouts to consumers detailing the risks of unpasteurized milk.

Councilors also authorized farmers market sales of malt liquor, hard cider and wine produced by Maine farms.

In a pair of articles the Press Herald has reported on the situation that lead to Shipyard being under-billed for its sewer charges. Here’s an excerpt from Friday’s article,

Maine’s largest brewery, the Shipyard Brewing Co., has been billed for only a fraction of its sewer usage since 1996, an apparent oversight that has cost the city of Portland hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in lost revenue.

and the follow-up piece that appeared on Saturday.

Shipyard, the largest brewery in Maine, has been paying the full sewer fees since March. The additional fees amount to roughly $300,000 a year, based on current production levels.

A retired Portland Water District employee said last month that Peterson told him in 1996 that all of the water was going into bottles and that no sewer account was needed.

National food blog Eater has a  report on Mario Batali’s accusation that Portland’s Otto is a copy of the Batali’s pizzeria in NYC.

And in a separate post, Eater has published Otto’s response to Batali’s statement.

Blackbird Baking has bought Two Fat Cats,

We are very happy and excited to announce that Blackbird Baking Company has bought and now owns Two Fat Cats Bakery at 47 India Street in Portland’s Old Port.   It’s been a long process, but everything has come together and ownership changed hands on January 31, 2012.  We’re very excited and pleased to have such a wonderful staff now working for us at Two Fat Cats.

Style blog Mainely Mara has published a guide to spicy hot cocktails at Grace, Zapoteca, Sonny’s and El Rayo Cantina.

The February issue of Down East includes a feature story on the Maine hot sauce industry.

Taco Escobarr has launched a pair of hot sauces which are on sale at the restaurant.

The Press Herald has published a report on East End Cupcakes and their appearance in the latest episode of Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. The show aired Sunday night and the theme for this week’s competition was to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the I Love Lucy show.

Zoidis, owner of East End Cupcakes in the Old Port, didn’t win the show’s $10,000 prize, but she did come away with some clever Lucy-inspired cupcake ideas.

A cupcake she created in the first round of the competition was an homage to the “Vitameatavegemin” episode, in which Lucy is hired to do a TV commercial for a health tonic that makes her tipsy.

East End Cupcakes appeared in tonight’s episode of Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. According to a press release,

Tasked to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of “I Love Lucy” through confection, Zoidis along with childhood best friend, Shana Treger, started Round 1 with a“Vitameatavegemin” cupcake, that captured the judges attention. Squeezing through to the finals despite running out of time in Round 2, they were tasked with baking and decorating 1,000 cupcakes with flavors from the previous rounds in under 2 hours. Even though viewers agree that their display and decorations were the sweetest, East End Cupcakes finished as the runner up. “We were so honored to be chosen for the show and really put our heart and soul into it. When the final judgement was made, I felt like screaming ‘Waaaahhhhh’ in homage of the fabulous Lucille Ball.” Said Zoidis jokingly.

The Portland Phoenix has kicked-off their 2012 Best of Portland readership poll.  The Phoenix readership poll is a 2 step process:

• Step 1 which just started, nominate candidates you think are an especially good fit in any or all of the categories
• Step 2, next month the Phoenix will publish a ballot summarizing the top nominees from each category for us to vote on

There are a plethora of food and drink categories (Bagels, Bars, Barbecue, Beer Selection, Brewpubs, Brunch, etc) to make nominations in there’s even one for food blogs. A list of the 2011 winners is available online as a reference.

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

MPBN aired a piece earlier this week on a report from the Muskie School about food insecurity in Maine.

One of the findings from the research that stands out is about food insecurity, which refers to households that don’t always know where their next meal is coming from. The report found that Maine is the most food-insecure state in New England, and the ninth most food insecure state in the nation.

In today’s Press Herald, food writer Meredith Goad reports on the process of cupping coffee. In celebration of Specialty Coffee Month CbD will be holding a pair of public cuppings in February.

“Then you roll it around on your tongue,” Spear said, somehow managing to maintain his dignity while talking like the kid in “A Christmas Story” whose tongue got stuck to a frozen flagpole.

Spear was demonstrating his coffee-cupping prowess for employees at Coffee By Design on a cold, rainy October afternoon. I was invited to participate, eager to perfect my schlurping technique and learn how the professionals use “cupping” to evaluate the aroma, flavor, acidity and balance of coffees from around the world.

And today’s Natural Foodie column is about Crazy Dick’s, a line or organic cajun spices made here in Maine. Crazy Dick’s products are on sale at Harbor Fish Market.

“A large part of what we’re trying to do is create Cajun food in a way that’s healthy,” Curole said.

He acknowledges that people don’t often use “Cajun” and “healthful” in the same sentence – and with good reason. A traditional family-sized pot of shrimp creole can contain up to a dozen sticks of butter, according to Curole.