Two new food trucks are set to launch this weekend:
The Pink Waffle (instagram) has its Portland debut at Bellefower Brewing on Sunday, 1-4 where they’ll be serving up a menu of waffle plates, waffle-based sandwiches and waffle snacks.
Snowology (instagram) will be launching on Saturday serving up bowls of flavored ice. The have a menu of 20 flavors and 5 house combos like Acadia Sunrise (cherry, mango, orange dreamsicle). Snowology will be in the Oakdale neighborhood starting around 3 pm.
RAS Wines (website, instagram) is just about to release their first vintage of Arkadia, a sparkling wine produced from organically raised wild Maine blueberries. RAS is a Maine-based winery that will be focusing on sparkling and aromatized wines produced from organically raised Maine fruit.
The winery was founded by Dan Roche, Joe Appel and Emily Smith. All three are former Rosemont Market staff, and Joe Appel was Rosemont’s wine buyer and a former Press Herald wine columnist.
Arkadia (product sheet) is a spontaneously fermented with native yeasts, produced without added sulfur and with no fining or filtering. A secondary in-bottle fermentation is used to bottle condition the wine. Appel describes Arkadia as “dry, snappy, super bright, with a lot of dark fruit and savory character” which “sits at a new nexus point where artisanal wine, cider and beer intersect.”
In addition to Arkadia RAS is currently developing a vermouth which should come to market later this year—other wild-blueberry-based wines are in the works with plans to also expand into grape-based wines as well.
The first bottles of Arkadia are getting delivered later this week and will begin appearing on the shelves and menus around April 28th.
Look for it on the shelves at Bow Street Beverage, Higgins Beach Market, Leroux Kitchen, Lorne Wine, Maine & Loire, Old Port Wine Merchants, Rosemont Market, Speckled Ax (Thames Street), The Cheese Shop, and Vessel and Vine in Brunswick.
It’s also set to be on the takeout bottle lists and menus at Central Provisions, Chaval, Hunt + Alpine, Magnus on Water and The Honey Paw.
Check in with your favorite bottle shops and restaurants to find out if they’ll also be stocking Arkadia.
Two new establishments opened over the weekend:
Onggi Ferments (website, instagram) opened their retail shop on Saturday. Located at 93 Washington Ave in the The Black Box shipping container building, Onggi is a market for fermented food, a retail shop for fermentation equipment and a resource through classes and workshops to learn the skills to produce fermented foods at home.
Ruby’s West End (website, instagram) opened Sunday morning serving takeout coffee and baked goods. Once they open for onsite dining Ruby’s will serve a full brunch menu.
D & G (instagram) is scheduled to open this coming Wednesday, April 7th, in Biddeford. D & G is an Italian deli, gelato shop and specialty goods store featuring imported foods from Italy. You can take a look at their sandwich menu on instagram.
D & G is being launched by Bryan Casale and Jackie Hardin, the owners of the Southern/Italian restaurant, Yeto’s.
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The highly anticipated opening of Jackrabbit Cafe (instagram) is slated to take place late next month—tentatively on April 21st May 5th. The bakery and cafe from Elda (instagram) chef/owner Bowman Brown will “focus on Scandinavian-inspired breads and pastries as well as seasonal vegetable dishes, sandwiches, and heartier small plates”.
Jackrabbit is located in the first floor of 14 Main Street in Biddeford. The second floor of the newly renovated building will be the future home of Elda when it re-opens.
Brown moved to Maine from Salt Lake City where he was the co-owner and chef of Forage. He was a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2011. Additionally, Brown was six time Beard semifinalists in the Best Chef: Southwest from 2011 to 2016. Elda was named one of the Best New Restaurants in America by Bill Addison at Eater in 2018, and was the feature of a New York Times article in that same year.
Here’s a look at the draft menu for opening day at Jackrabbit:
8 am and on…
10:30 and on…
Belleflower Brewing (website, facebook, instagram) is officially opening today. Belleflower has taken over the former Brewery Extrava space on Cove Street in East Bayside. The opening day menu includes:
The Maine Farm Table Cookbook is scheduled to be released in early June. Authored by Ragged Coast co-owner Kate Shaffer with photography by Derek Bissonnette, the book “collects the stories of farmers, fisherman, foragers, and cooks who raise and celebrate Maine’s homegrown culinary bounty”.
The Maine Farm Table Cookbook delivers more than 100 recipes, assembled in chapters that take readers from the pasture and sea to the forest, creamery, and everywhere in between. Discover Autumn Harvest Roast Pork, Haddock and Corn Chowder, Carrot Zucchini Fritters, Blackberry and Almond Torte, and more. With profiles to spotlight Maine’s favorite farms and restaurants, and gorgeous professional photography, this is the perfect way for readers to bring New England’s charm to their own kitchen.
A new food truck tracking app called Food Truckalico (instagram) has launched just in time for warmer weather and the start of food truck season. Visit the Apple app store to download Truckalico.
The Food Truckalico app for iPhone provides the most accurate day and location info for the largest number of food trucks in Portland by curating instagram posts from each truck and organizing them for quick and easy reference. You can jump directly to the original posts for details and can share all the trucks at a location with friends to plan a meet up.
Vy Banh Mi launched earlier this week, and another 14 mobile food operations are expected to follow suit later this year. Truckalico will be a handy resource to have when you’re hoping to check out one (or more) of Portland’s growing number of food truck and carts this year.
Truckalico is a free service for food trucks and their customers. It is the creation of Portland-based app designer Justin Velgos and iOS developer Emily Cheroske. You can find more info on Velgos’ other iPhone apps (Hop Hound, The Uprising, etc) on www.justinvelgos.com.
Truckalico joins a field already served by three other food truck tracking services all of which launched in Portland last year: Food Truck Movement, Truckster and Food Trux (which had combined forces with Maine Food Truck Tracker).
Portland’s newest food truck, Vy Banh Mi (facebook, instagram) launched Thursday, and is located today at the Western Prom (10 am – 6 pm). They plan to be at Back Cove on Saturday and Sunday.
Owners Minh Nguyen and Vy Phan are originally from Vietnam and moved to Maine 10 years ago. Vy Banh Mi will be a way they can share their passion for food and perhaps be a first step in opening their own restaurant.
Victoria Nam has officially launched her new business Siblings Bakery (instagram) which will specialize in naturally leavened breads and pastries. In developing the menu for Siblings, Nam “draws inspiration from her Russian-Korean heritage and her travels in California, DC, Japan, France, and Italy.”
Pre-ordering is now live for a Saturday pick-up. This week Nam is offering rye chocolate chip cookies, brown butter granola, and Strawberry & Cream Donuts which are described as “fluffy and tangy sourdough donuts, filled with brown butter cream cheese, lemon curd glaze, and strawberry milk crumbs.”
Nam was featured in a television report earlier this year. You can see pictures of her creations and stay in the loop on future Siblings news on Nam’s instagram account.