Category: Openings

Bar Futo (website, facebook, instagram) will open for business on Friday—reservations are available via Resy. The Japanese-inspired bar and grill is located at 425 Fore Street in the space formerly occupied by Five Guys. It is being launched by chef Jordan Rubin and Marisa Lewiecki, co-owners of Mr. Tuna and partners in Crispy Gai.

The food menu (see below) offers a mix of yakitori skewers prepared over a binchotan grill and other small plates like the fluke crudo, kohlrabi salad and a koshikari rice bowl topped with duck sugo and pickled squash. For dessert there’s kakigori—Japanese shaved ice (apple pie and bananas foster on the opening night menu) and chocolate cake.

The bar program features an extended sake list (see below) curated by Advanced Sake Professional Alyssa Mikiko DiPasquale as well house-designed cocktails (see below), wine, beer, and non-alcoholic drinks and brewed loose-leaf tea options. Sommelier Courtney O’Neil will be Bar Futo’s GM and in charge of the wine program. Ian Driscoll is the head chef and Bryce Summers is the bar manager.

The restaurant seats approximately 60 people with a combination of booths, tables, bar, and kitchen counter seating. In season the patio on Fore Street will provide room for another 40 seats.

Rubin launched Mr. Tuna as a food cart in 2017. The Mr. Tuna sushi counter opened in the Public Market House in 2018. Rubin, Lewiccki Sasha Brouillard, and chef Cyle Reynolds launched Crispy Gai in the summer of 2021.

A new restaurant called Trudy Bird’s (website, facebook, instagram) opened Friday night in North Yarmouth.

Trudy Bird’s is a Scandinavian-inspired restaurant and bar. They’ve launched with their full bar program and initially with a limited food menu (see below) of apps and bar snacks. The full food menu is expected to be available in the next week or two. Take a look at the Trudy Bird’s instagram account for some food photos.

The kitchen is led by chef Michael McDonnell who was the sous chef at Natalie’s in Camden, and the executive chef at the Blair Hill Inn in Greenville and at Tempo Dulu in Portland.

The beer list includes options from Allagash, Oxbow, Norway, Sacred Profane and other breweries. There’s cider from Absolem, Eden and Fable Farm, and a by the glass and bottle wine list. Trudy Bird’s sets itself apart with its selection of on-market and house-made aquavits (see list below)

Brothers Alan and Jonathan Hines are the owners of Trudy Bird’s. As they’ve shared on their website, the initial impulse to launch the business began with a trip to Europe. The restaurant is named for their maternal grandmother.

Back in 2017 we made a trek to Norway, Sweden and Denmark. We finished our trip in Copenhagen and while there, we made a stop at the Torvehallerne KBH food market where we stumbled upon Hallernes Smorrebrod. The food stand was packed so we knew it was a “must try”. The open-faced sandwiches were not only visually appealing but were down-right delicious. Everywhere a Smorrebrod was spotted, it was almost always accompanied by either a beer or Aquavit or BOTH! It was during this trip that a lightbulb went off and Trudy Bird’s started to come to life.

Trudy Bird’s will be open Wednesday through Saturday, 4 – 9 pm. Hours will eventually expand to include a Sunday brunch service.

 

A restaurant called Riverton Station (facebook) opened this past Friday. As the name would suggest Riverton Station is located at 1569 Forest Ave in the Riverton neighborhood of Portland.

The menu includes sandwiches, salads, pizza, burgers, wings and more. Riverton Station will be open 7 days a week starting on Wednesday.

 

Full Turn (website, instagram) is opening today.  The new restaurant is located in the former Baharat space in East Bayside. The launch of Full Turn is being led by Chloe Kessell and Melissa Pappas in collaboration with the owners of Baharat. Josh Lemay will be running the bar program. Kessell, Pappas and Lemay were the former GM, kitchen manager and bartender at Baharat.

Full Turn will be serving seasonal menus that change-up frequently with restaurant concepts that shift with each ‘turn’ of the menu. For this initial version of Full Turn the concept is of a neighborhood pub. When you go be sure to check out the spicy version of the fried chicken sandwich.

Full Turn will initially be open 4 – 9 pm, Thursday through Saturday.

After an extensive renovation, Miyake (website, facebook, instagram) is set to reopen Thursday, December 1st. The new Miyake will seat 28 with a 10-seat beverage bar up front (shown above), an 8-seat sushi counter and table banquet seating.

Chef/owner Masa Miyake has prepared a menu that includes a variety of nigiri, sashimi and house-created rolls as well as sashimi and nigiri omakase options. The rice dish section of the menu includes a made to order kamameshi with king salmon and ikura fish roe. There are also a number of shareable plates which Miyake has adapted from traditional Japanese dishes such as a lobster chawanmushi. You can see a few photos of the dishes on the Miyake instagram account. The beverage program will includes sake, wine, house-designed cocktails, and a pair of draft beers.

Miyake will be open Tuesday through Saturday, 5 – 9 pm. The front bar will be held for walk-in customers and the remaining seats will be available for reservations. During their first week Miyake will be for walk-ins only—the Tock reservation calendar starts on December 6th and will go live on November 29th. Miyake is located at 468 Fore Street.

Chef Masa Miyake opened his first Portland restaurant Food Factory Miyake at 129 Spring Street in 2007. Pai Men Miyake followed suit in the fall of 2010, and Miyake on Fore Street opened its doors on July 13, 2011. Masa Miyake was a James Beard Awards Best Chef: Northeast nominee in 2015, and a semifinalist nominee in 2014.

Cong Tu Bot is  set to reopen this Friday for indoor dining and with a new concept as a quán nhậu. The concept of a quán nhậu approximately aligns with the idea of a Vietnamese pub or tavern and more directly translates to a shop/diner for drinking and feasting.

The menu (see below) features many new dishes with a few classic carry overs—CTB dessert fans will be happy to know that the chè and the flan made the cut. Some new options include a Rare Denver Steak Salad w/shrimp paste & pineapple sauce, grapefruit, shiso, watercress, birds eye chili, Chicken Liver Pâté w/ fried mantou, whipped condensed milk, chinese mustard, pink peppercorn, and a Caramel Braised Monkfish w/ caramel-cured egg, cilantro, black pepper, and steamed rice.

Also new on the menu is an expanded beverage program designed by Matthew Im, Ashley Ogando, and Hannah Hermes. The bar menu is centered around wine with both by the glass options and bottle list as well as cocktails, beer and no ABV drinks. Cong Tu Bot will also be a BYOB restaurant (see corkage details below).

Co-owner Vien Dobui shared that the popular noodle dishes from their previous dinner service like the phở and bún will eventually make a return.

Cong Tu Bot will be open Friday through Monday, 5 – 9 pm and for the first time is taking reservations.

The new Thai restaurant Dok Mali (website, instagram) is scheduled to open Tuesday for lunch and dinner 11:30 – 8:30. Dok Mali is located in the former Lois’ Market space at 47 India Street which chef/owner Nonglack Thanephonesy has completely renovated into a 32-seat restaurant.

The menu includes the option of a flight of all seven types of dumplings, grilled okra, corn fritters, six different types of noodle soup,  and main courses like Crying Tiger (marinated ribeye, served with sticky rice, veggie skewers and roasted tomato dip) and La La Pork (braised pork belly, bok choi + egg served with ginger rice).

In addition to Dok Mali, Thanephonesy is also the owner of Capital Thai Kitchen and Bar in Exeter, NH. She grew up in Portland and is excited to bring to life a new Thai restaurant in her home town.

Dok Mali will be open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner opening at 11:30 am.

A new distribution company called Fruit Bat Distribution (instagram) has launched. Fruit Bat will exclusively focus on the distribution of hard cider. Owners Jessie Robb and Josh Lemay have a strong passion for cider as well as deep ties in the restaurant industry. Their goal is to create a bridge that helps the growing cider industry thrive.

The first two producers that Fruit Bat are representing in Maine are Sundstrom Cider and Metal House Cider, both located in the Hudson Valley. Lemay and Robb expect to be expanding their portfolio as they build demand for quality ciders and build relationships with restaurants.

Fruit Bat is collaborating with local restaurants on some cider-centric meals. Here are the first two on the schedule:

• November 16th – Broken Arrow will be serving a 4-course dinner with cider pairings.
• December 11th – Nosh will be holding a cider-centric brunch.

The Twin Swirls (instagram) ice cream shop is slated to open this Saturday. They’ll be serving a limited menu on Saturday but will eventually have on offer hard serve and soft serve cones and dishes, milkshakes, sundaes and coffee.

The name Twin Swirls is inspired by owner Sarah Palmer’s twin six year old girls, Alex and Sage.

The shop is located at 865 Brighton Ave in the Nason’s Corner neighborhood, and their regular hours will be Thursday through Sunday, noon to 8 pm.

Zu Bakery (website, instagram) owner Barak Olins is aiming to launch his new West End location in early November.

In the coming two weeks he’ll be holding a series of pop-ups from his bakery at 81 Clark Street on Wednesdays and Fridays, 3 – 5 pm. Stop by to try some of the the breads and baked goods he’ll be featuring in his shop.

When Zu Bakery is fully open Olins and his team will be serving pastries and coffee at the start of the day and with baguettes and other breads going on sale as they come out of the oven and offering two types of pizza alla Romana at the end of the day.

Olins plans to make most of his bakery products with Maine grown grains he mills in-house. In addition to morning pastries and breads, Zu Bakery will also sell biscotti, granola, seasonal pastries and a small selection of bottled wine.

Olins originally launched Zu Bakery in 2000. Previously he was a co-founder/chef of the highly regarded Cafe Uffa, which was located in Longfellow Square and opened in 1995.