Category: Openings

The West End’s newest restaurant, Cantina Calafia (instagram), is scheduled to open on Wednesday. Calafia located at the corner of Pine and Brackett Streets.

Owners Dominique Gonzalez and Justin Grey along with chefs Quinn Williams and Melody Medina are serving Alta and Baja California Mexican cuisine along with a beverage program house designed cocktails (like the Mango #5, bottom left), wines by the glass/bottle, packaged and draft beer, and mocktails. The menu (see below) include dishes like Aguachile Amarillo prepared with mackerel (middle right) and Ensalada Nopal. When you go don’t leave without having the wonderful flan made with Sunset Acres Farm goat cheese (top left).

The former Bonobo Pizza space has been completely renovated into a 49-seat restaurant with semicircular booths along the right side, a 12-seat bar and 2-seat tables all under a vaulted ceiling. Just inside the front door is elevated lounge area suitable for larger groups. The bathrooms have been decorated with vintage 1970s wallpaper (middle left).

Gonzalez grew up in San Diego with family on both sides of the border—her father was from Guadalajara and her mother lived in Santa Barbara and was the daughter of Mexican immigrants. The restaurant’s menu is a reflection of her personal culinary and cultural roots. Chefs Medina and Williams recently moved to Portland from Brooklyn. The met when both were working at Frenchette. Medina, who is Dominique Gonzalez’s cousin, previously cooked at Oxomoco. Williams most recently worked at Lords.

Cantina Calafia will initially be open Wednesday/Thursday, 4 – 9 pm, and Friday/Saturday, 4 – 10 pm.

Grey and Gonzalez had owned Bonobo since 2018, and closed the restaurant to realize their vision of launching their new restaurant.

Sacred Profane Brewing (website, instagram) has opened their new tasting room on Thompson’s Point. They’re located in the former Stroudwater Distilling space next to Bissell Brothers.

The menu (see below) includes the full range of pour styles for their light and dark lagers as well as draft pours from other brewers, wines by the bottle and spirits. The food menu offers a small selection of sandwiches and snacks: soft pretzels with lager mustard, warm and cold lobster roll options, kraut dogs, a meat and cheese board and a hummus plate with warm naan, zatar and olive oil.

The space has a long high top tables in the center of the room with booths along the right wall and group seating (see above) on the left side of the room. The Thompson’s Point location will initially be open Friday through Sunday, 11 am – 11 pm.

The Sacred Profane brewery and tankpub in Biddeford opened in September 2022.

Tina Cromwell relaunched her gluten-free business Bam Bam Bakery (website, facebook, intagram) this past Friday. The new Bam Bam is located at 125 Bucknam Road in Falmouth just off of the exit from 295.

Cromwell is selling a wide range of gluten-free baked goods including the chocolate-dipped almond horn and cinnamon roll shown above as well as bagels, breads, needhams, brownies, muffins, macaroons, whoopie pies, cookies and coffee. She expects to add savory options to the menu in the future.

Cromwell hopes to initially be open Fridays and Saturdays 9 am – 3 pm and will be expanding hours as she hires more staff. Stay tuned to the Bam Bam on social media for updates.

Rebel Munchies & Libations (website, instagram) opened for business Friday night. The 46-seat bar and restaurant is located at 649 Congress Street near Longfellow Square in the former Dos Naciones/Local Sprouts space.

Owner Peter Murphy and his team are serving a menu of cheesesteaks (shaved steak or smoked mushrooms), house-made chicken nuggets, salad, slaw, chips and a “dirt cup” dessert. Shown above is the 5″ Rebel OG with pickled jalapenos with a Peached Iced Tea cocktail. Rebel has a selection of draft beer, a house cocktail program and beer/amaro spigots. The Cherry Cola (shown above) cocktail is a mix of bourbon, brandy and Luxardo Amaro Abano.

Murphy originally launched Rebel as a food cart on May 23, 2019. The new Rebel Munchies & Libations will be open Thursday through Monday, 5 pm – 1 am.

Catface Cafe (website, instagram) is scheduled to open this Friday. The new daytime cafe is located in Biddeford in the space that was formerly occupied by Part and Parcel.

Sur Lie owner Krista Cole and business partner Tyler VanScoy plan to initially be open Tuesday through Friday, 8 am – 4 pm and on the weekends 9 am – 2 pm for brunch.

Chef Mimi Weissenborn has put together a menu (see below) of toasts, salads, and sandwiches. The cafe also has a full coffee program, beer, wine and cocktails to pair with the food.

Cole and VanScoy want Catface to be a community gathering place. The location includes a back patio which can host warm weather events or be a spot to hang out solo or with friends. They plan to hosts monthly special events at Catface for the people of Biddeford to gather and socialize.

Cole is a founder of Sur Lie which opened for business in 2014. In 2023 she was a James Beard Awards semifinalist in the Outstanding Restaurateur category and Sur Lie was a semifinalist in the Outstanding Hospitality category. In 2022 Cole took over ownership of Gather in Yarmouth from the restaurant’s founder, Matt Chappell. VanScoy has worked in the hospitality industry in a variety of front and back of house roles for over 10 years.

Part & Parcel owners Danielle O’Neill and Ali Preble closed their market/cafe in late December.

Cherished Pub opened for business on Sunday. The all-day restaurant begins to address the scarcity of food service establishments in the North Deering.

Located at 64 Auburn Street adjacent to Cherished Possessions, they’re is almost two restaurants in one. During breakfast and lunch hours (7:30 am – 1 pm) they serve a Bayou Kitchen 2 menu—having licensed the Bayou Kitchen menu and recipes from the Woodfords Corner restaurant. The Bayou Kitchen 2 menu includes a wide range of breakfast dishes (omelets, pancakes, hash, French toast, huevos rancheros, etc) and ‘Cajun Classics’ lunch dishes like gumbo, jambalya and chicken piquant. In the afternoon/evening (2 – 10 pm) the Cherished Pub menu (see below) includes options like fish and chips, a muffuletta, a reuben and steak tips with mushroom and onions. A few carryovers from the Bayou lunch menu are available as well.

The 1,805 sq ft space includes table seating for 66 and a 9-seat bar. They plan on having outdoor seating as the weather warms up.

Cherished Pub/Bayou Kitchen 2 is closed on Monday. They’ll be reopening Tuesday 7:30 am – 1 pm and 2 – 10 pm. They hope to eventually be open 7 days a week.

Jerome’s (instagram) opened for business on Friday at 223 Congress Street near the intersection with Washington Ave. It’s a self described “local community New England sports bar that has a love for skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing.”

Owners Sasha Salzberg, Evan Carroll, and Ian Daly are serving wine, draft and package beer, cocktails (their margarita shown above), nonalcoholic beverages, and beer and shot combos like the Jerome’s Shifter which pairs Budwiser with a shot of Maker’s Mark. The food menu includes some snack plates and four sandwiches: turkey club, ham and cheese, chopped Italian, and PB&J.

Jerome’s is open Thursday through Monday, 4 – 11 pm.

Brea Lu Cafe (website, facebook, instagram) reopened at their new Westbrook location this morning. The new 109 seat cafe—more than doubles the capacity of their former cafe on Cumberland Street— is located at 511 Main Street.

Brea Lu is open daily 7am to 3pm serving a menu of breakfast standards, a range of omlette variations and lunch dishes like the Cuban pork sandwich shown above.