Category: Openings

Navis Cafe (website, facebook, instagram) is opening today serving breakfast and a lunch menu of soups, salads and sandwiches.

Navis is located in the first floor of the WEX building at 56 Thames Street.

A new food truck called Halsted’s Chicago Style Eats (instagram, facebook) launched this past weekend. Founders Angela and Jeff Aspito and Joel Jeffrey are serving up a menu of Vienna hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches—food classics from their native home of Chicago.

You can find them Saturday from 12-6 at Cornerstone Tile (1438 Washington Ave) and on Sunday 12-6 on the Eastern prom. In the meantime check out their promo video.

Jefe Juan’s (instagram) has opened for business at 47 Wharf Street. The sister restaurant of Portland Mash Tun, Jefe Juan’s serves a menu of Mexican barbacoa, burritos, tostadas.

A new restaurant called Paella Seafood (facebook, instagram) has opened at 849 Forest Ave in the former Miller Brother’s Seafood location. Paella Seafood serves paella and a range of other seafood-centered dishes.

A new food truck called Little Easy Snoballs (website, instagram, facebook) launched yesterday at Back Cove.

Owner Lauren Gauthier offers up 30+ flavors of snoballs (classic snoball flavors and some house specials) you can also get yours topped with marshmallow fluff, condensed milk or “stuffed” with ice cream. I got a peach flavored snoball with ice cream.

Gauthier plans to locate Little Easy on Back Cove on weekdays and on the Eastern Prom on weekends.

NewYork Fried Chicken is now open. NFC is located at the corner of Cumberland and Washington in the former Bob’s Clam Hut space. The signage indicates they’ll be selling a menu of fried chicken, kebabs, gyro, seafood, subs and ice cream.

There are restaurants by the same name according to Wikipedia they are not a chain or a franchise despite operating a very similar concept.

Two of the food truck tracking platforms we wrote about in late June have joined forces. Food Trux which has just recently launched in Denver, Colorado has acquired Maine Food Truck Tracker, a Portland company that provided a web-based app/service for Maine food trucks.

FoodTrux CEO Matthew Noone is also excited about the possibilities presented by this deal: “Because Maine Food Truck Tracker was first in the local market with more than 50% of the state’s food trucks signed up, I couldn’t be more excited to merge with them. The fact that both companies are based here in Portland, our home market for FoodTrux.co, just makes this collaboration all the more beneficial for us and the food truck operators.

Two new food businesses have launched:

• Je’s Neighborhood Store opened last week on July 4th. The Veranda Street market and sandwich shop is located in the space formerly occupied by Union Bagel.
• Haole Ice (instagram, facebook) launched on Thursday. They’re serving Hawaiian-inspired shave ice from a food cart on the Eastern Prom.

Here are a few restaurant updates from elsewhere in Maine:

• Craft restaurant in Gray has passed their final inspections and opening for outdoor dining starting Wednesday July 15th. They’re located at  81 West Gray Road, Gray, Maine.
• Tulsi North in Wells, the 2nd location of the Kittery-based Indian restaurant Tulsi, has changed concepts and is now serving Latin American food under the name Mayan Cafe & Grill.
• Chef Ali Waks Adams is launching a weekly Saturday pop-up series call Willie & Chet’s (instagram) which will be held at Dog Bar Jim in Brunswick. The first pop-up is taking place this Saturday, July 11th with a menu that’s “an ode to Turkey & the Wolf“.
• Mu Noi Brunch (instagram) is opening for business today serving a menu of Lao-American comfort food. Mu Noi is located at 1056 Center Street, Auburn, Maine. This is the second restaurant from chef Sayvepen Sengsavang who also operates Le Mu Eats in Bethel.

The Mexican/Salvodoran restaurant Dos Naciones, and the Tacos La Poblanita food truck have joined forces to “bring you the best of authentic Mexican and Salvadorian food and drinks”.

Dos Naciones is located at 649 Congress Street in Longfellow Square. The name of the restaurant will change to Dos Naciones y La Poblanita. The partners will be collaborating on some changes to the restaurant  menu.