Category: Openings

Andy Gerry, Baxter Key, and Peter Bissell—the owners of The Highroller Lobster Company—plan to open their new restaurant Low Stakes Lodge (instagram) later this month.

The new steakhouse is located at 106 Exchange Street in the space adjacent to Highroller that was most recently occupied by Timber.  The dining room includes a 13-seat bar, booth seating along the wall and upper seating area with a capacity of about 70 overall.

The menu will include prime Rib Eye, Filet Mignon, New York Strip and other steak cuts as well as some other entrees. A Bloomin’ Onion, Wedge Salad and French Onion Soup are among the appetizers. The beverage program will include classic and house cocktails, draft beer and wines by the glass and bottle.

Low Stakes draws inspiration from traditional steakhouse design and blends it with Maine history and some twists from the owners’ memories of the Bugaboo Creek chain. An animatronic moose head (named Moosifer) is mounted in the dining room. It has glowing red eyes, looks from side to side while twitching its ears and occasionally blows steam out its nose.

The mural that stretches the full length of the bar was painted by Spenser MacLeod (aka Leonardo Devinci) and the large format Maine historical photos were sourced by Timothy Goldkin from Ramble More Design. David Johansen (aka Neon Dave) has produced a piece for the restaurant as well.

Low Stakes Lodge will be open Thursday through Sunday, 5– 10 pm.

For a information on all the new businesses under development in Portland see our Under Construction list.

Salvage BBQ (website, facebook, instagram) is set to reopen on Tuesday with a renovated dining room and new menu.

The new menu (see below) features a wider range of sandwiches as well as a rice and bean bowl and a salad bowl. There are vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options on the menu. The overall layout of the dining room remains the same, but vintage dining sets have replaced the green painted picnic table.

The hours for Salvage will be Tuesday through Thursday 11:30 am – 10 pm, Friday/Saturday 11:30 am – 11 pm, and Sundays 11:30 am – 9 pm. The kitchen service will wrap-up an hour prior to close each evening.

Salvage launched in 2013. It had temporarily closed in late 2023.

Angoor Wine Bar (website, instagram) is set to open today at 3 pm. They’re located 100 Fore Street in a newly designed space in the same building as WEX and the Roux Institute. Angoor is being launched by Sangeeta Nasiff and Rafael Dones.

Angoor is a self pour wine bar. The wine list (see below) includes a wide range of options for customers to choose from. Once you’ve made a selection you can just walk up to one of the machines, and have it dispense a 2, 4 or 6 ounce pour. A personal ID card is issued to customers when they arrive which is used to digitally keep track and to assemble the final bill.

Angoor also has some food options. Shown above is a cheese and meat board which can customized by selecting from 7 cheeses, 4 meats and a few other items like gluten-free crackers, mixed nuts and marinated olives. The menu also offers empanadas, samosas, and desserts from Sugarcane and Two Fat Cats.

The stylish modern space offers bar, table and counter seating as well as a lounge area with upholstered chairs and sofas for a larger group to sit together.

Angoor’s hours are Wednesday/Thursday 3 – 9 pm, Friday 3 – 10 pm, Saturday noon – 10 pm, and Sunday noon – 7 pm.

 

Magissa (instagram), the new Greek restaurant in East Bayside, is set to open on Thursday. It’s located in the former Baharat space at the corner of Fox and Anderson Streets.

Owners Nancy Klosteridis and Emily Otero have held a series of preopening dinner services to tune up the restaurant and are now ready to open to the public. The restaurant will be open Thursday through Monday, 5 – 9 pm.

The menu (see below) includes modern renditions of Greek dishes with mezze, small plates, entrees and flexible gyro and salad options. Many of the dishes are gluten-free. Across the board the menu taps into the Klosteridis’ family recipes and taste memories as a guide. The bar program will include cocktails, draft wines by the glass/carafe, and draft beer. Low ABV and nonalcoholic drinks are also available.

Shown above are Tomato Martini (Ford’s gin, reyka, vermouth, tomato water), Mezze Plate with skordalia, briami, halloumi, taramosalata), Paros Chicken served with brussels sprouts, lemon rice and mustard veloute. The last two photos are of the Pavlova (rosemary, lemon, pistachio) and of the Baklava (pistachios, walnuts, almonds, orange, honey) on the dessert menu.

The Five of Clubs (instagram) cocktail bar opened on Friday. It’s located on the ground floor of the 48-room Longfellow Hotel at 754 Congress Street in the West End.

The bar menu (see below) features a selection of cocktails, beer, cider, wine by the glass and bottle and a list of nonalcoholic drinks (see the functional cocktails section). Shown above is the Mas Vida (mezcal, aperol, coconut, lime) cocktail. Five of Clubs opens daily at 3 pm.

The food menu at Five of Clubs and the daytime Twinflower Cafe at the Longfellow Hotel will launch Thursday, May 23rd. You can see menus for the bar and for the cafe created by chef Wilson Suliveras on the Longfellow Hotel website. The Twinflower Cafe will be open 7 am – 2 pm.

The new Mr. Tuna (website, facebook, instagram) at 83 Middle Street opened on Saturday. It’s open Friday/Saturday, 11 am – 9 pm and Sunday through Tuesday and Thursday, 11 am – 8 pm.

Owners Jordan Rubin and Marisa Lewiecki leased space in the new building at the corner of Middle and Franklin Streets in late 2022 and have built out a full services restaurant with an expanded menu. The space features a 15-seat sushi counter and banquet table seating in the front windows. Outdoor seating will be available shortly for takeout customers.

The new restaurant serve an updated Mr. Tuna menu (see below) with the addition of a full bar program of cocktails, sake, beer, wine. Shown above are scallop sashimi, blackbird’s delight maki roll, and avocado salad. This restaurant brings to life the vision for Mr. Tuna that Rubin has had since he launched the business as a food cart in 2017.

The Mr. Tuna sushi counter opened in the Public Market House in 2018. Rubin, Lewiecki, Sasha Brouillard, and Cyle Reynolds launched Crispy Gai in the summer of 2021. Rubin and Lewiecki launched Bar Futo on Fore Street in 2023.

Off Track Pizza (instagram) opened for business on Friday. It’s located at 15 Exchange Street in the former Lupita’s/B Good location. Longtime Portland residents will remember it as the original location of Walter’s.

Off Track is initially serving pizza by the slice, salads, bottled cocktails and soft drinks. Shown above are slices of sausage and pepper pizza and the pepperoni pizza along with a low ABV Santa Anita cocktail made with Aperol and Tang. They’ll be expanding to full menu (see below) and offering full pizzas as they ramp up kitchen production capacity. The counter service restaurant has some window bar seating (see above) on the first floor and dining  rooms on the second floor with a great view of Exchange Street. Overall Off Track seats 46 people.

Off Track has been launched by Mark Hibbard and Mitchell Ryan along with business partner Josh Miranda. Ryan and Hibbard are the executive chef and the beverage director at Via Vecchia.

Hours this weekend are noon – 8 pm (or sellout). Next week the hours will be Wednesday through Sunday 11 am – 10 pm (2 am on Friday and Saturdays).

 

A new restaurant called Luna Bangladeshi Cuisine (facebook, instagram) held their grand opening on Wednesday. Luna is located on the second floor of the Public Market House.

Owners Syeda Washima and Abid Azad are serving a menu that includes lamb rogan josh, chicken tikka masala, gyro sandwiches, burgers, salads, sides and desserts like baklava. You can see some photos of their dishes on the Luna instagram account.

Azad and Washima took over the space previously occupied by the similarly named restaurant Luna Falafel and Shwarma. Luna will be open Monday through Saturday, 11 am – 7 pm.

The new Cambodian-Chinese restaurant Oun Lido’s (website, instagram, online ordering) is opening for business on Thursday, May 9th. The restaurant is being launched by Vien Dobui and chef Bounahcree Kim from Cong Tu Bot. Oun Lido’s is located at 30 Market Street in the space that was formerly home to Pat’s Pizza.

Kim and Dobui are initially launching the restaurant for take-out (Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am – 8 pm) while they continue to renovate the 2nd floor dining room. Seating, table service and a bar program will launch this fall.

The draft menu (see below) generally reflects the opening day offerings. There are a number of vegetarian, gluten-free and vegan dishes on the menu. A boba-based drinks menu will also be available. Over the coming weeks watch for the menu to expand to include more savory dishes as well as desserts.

Bon Appétit included Oun Lido’s in their short list of the Most Anticipated Restaurant Openings of 2024.

The opening of Oun Lidos, the second restaurant from the team behind popular Portland Vietnamese mainstay Cong Tu Bot, is a good enough reason to book a trip to Maine this spring. Oun Lidos will be a multi-level restaurant in Old Port, with an all-day takeout counter offering Chinatown-style baked goods, rice plates, and boba to-go.

Cong Tu Bot was founded in 2017. Dobui was a James Beard Awards nominee in the Best Chef: Northeast category in 2020 and 2022. The New York Times included it in their 2021 list of the 50 restaurants they were “most excited about right now”.