Category: Openings

Botanically Curious (website, facebook, instagram) held their grand opening on Friday. The herbal apothecary and mocktail bar is located at 419 Congress Street in the first floor of the Masonic building.

The mocktail menu (see below) includes a drink called the Hibiscus Rose shown above. It’s made with cranberry infused chia seeds, sparkling hibiscus tea, dandelion tincture and a raspberry garnish served on the rocks. The multi-use space is set-up to host workshops, has a selection of herbal products for sale, and a library seating area.

Botanically Curious will initially be open Thursday through Sunday, 11 am – 7 pm.

Freedom’s Edge Cider (website, facebook, instagram) will be holding the grand opening of their new tasting room at 31 Diamond Street in East Bayside on Thursday, April 4th, noon to 8 pm.

The tasting room will serve eleven Freedom’s Edge ciders (see above) on draft as well as can and bottle pours. Also available will be cider cocktails, non-alcoholic drinks, and a draft beer.

The Freedom’s Edge food menu is expected to grow this spring to include cheese plates, charcuterie, olive bowls, mixed nuts and other light snacks. In a collaboration with their 31 Diamond building neighbors, customers will also be able to electronically order from the full Bite Into Maine menu to enjoy at the tasting room.

For the grand opening they will have a fondue option served with bread, apple slices, and brussels sprouts, and other items for dipping into a melted blend of Pineland Farms cheeses including an aged cheddar and a gruyere prepared with Freedom’s Edge cider.

Owners Andrew Kaplan and Ned Ervin have built out a 55-seat tasting room with space for barrel aging and bottle conditioning of their limited release ciders. An additional 35 seats of outdoor seating will be available as warmer weather arrives.

The regular hours for Freedom’s Edge will be Tuesday/Wednesday 2 – 8 pm, Thursday through Saturday noon – 8 pm, and Sunday noon – 6 pm.

31 Diamond Street is also home to Orange Bike Brewing and Bite Into Maine, and is next door to the Three of Strong distillery and tasting room, and Coffee by Design’s roastery and coffee shop.

The wall mural was painted by artists Pat Corrigan.

Don’s Lunch (facebook) opened today in Westbrook. They’re located at 616 Main Street in the space that had been the home of River’s Edge Deli.

Don’s will be open Monday through Friday 6 am – 3 pm and Saturday 7 am – 3 pm. The menu (see above) includes breakfast sandwiches, omelettes, pancakes, French toast, burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs and more. Shown here is the Full Breakfast with scrambled eggs, bacon, home fries, and wheat toast with strawberry jelly.

Bom Dia Cafe (website, instagram) plans to open on Thursday. They’re located at 47 India Street in a space immediately adjacent to Dok Mali.

Owner Fletch Moffett and his team are serving a menu (see below) of acai bowls, coffee, smoothies, and bagels. Their signature Bom Dia Bowl will contain an acai blend with gluten free granola, topped with banana, strawberries, blueberries, peanut butter, and cacao nibs. Their coffee is being sourced from Frontside Coffee Roasters from North Conway in New Hampshire and the bagels from Union Bagel Company in Portland.

The 26-seat cafe has a short bar near the entrance and a long banquette of seating along the wall and a large booth in the back corner. Floral arrangements and plants by Lemon and Tullips decorate the shop. Their hours will initially be Thursday through Monday, 7 am – 2 pm.

The Good Table (website, facebook, instagram) in Cape Elizabeth is set to reopen on Thursday, March 28. They’ll initially be open Wednesday through Sunday, 5 – 9 pm.

Executive chef Matt Ginn and chef de cuisine Jim Stein are serving a menu (see below) that includes appetizers like brown bread, fish chowder and crab cakes. Entrees range from a halibut served over a white bean salsa verde, to roast chicken with farro and broccolini, and to a Pineland Farms strip steak. Cookies, a pudding pie and an ice cream sundae round out the menu with dessert. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free options are available.

The beverage program (see drinks list below) includes house takes on classic cocktails, draft and packaged beer, and wines by the glass and by the bottle.

Tony and Lisa Kostopoulos opened The Good Table in 1986 and their niece Jessica Kostopoulos became a partner and the Good Table’s chef in 2018. They sold the restaurant to the Prentice Hospitality Group in October. Prentice also operates  Evo Kitchen + Bar, the Chebeague Island Inn, and Twelve.

The restaurant seats 100 across the bar area, a sunny enclosed porch and the main dining room. Reservations are available online and there will be seating available for walk-in customers as well. Lunch and weekend brunch hours will be added in the future.

 

A new food truck called Vintage Dogs (instagram) is set to launch later this month. Owners Zac and Emily Eklund will be serving a menu (see below) of specialty hot dogs popular in different regions of the US along with a variety of styles of fries and some dessert options too.

The debut of Vintage Dogs will take place at Argenta Brewing in Bayside on Friday/Saturday March 29th and 30th.

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.