Category: Openings

The Salt Cellar is now open for business. The Salt Cellar sells a variety of finishing salts, salt-based cosmetics and other products made of salt. The shop is located on the corner of Middle and Market Streets.

According to a tweet from Meredith Goad, Frosty’s Donuts will open their South Portland location Saturday at 9 am. Frosty’s co-owner, Nels Omdal, was recently interviewed for the business page of the Press Herald about his purchase and expansion of the 47 year-old business.

Q: How did you come to own Frosty’s?
A: I was a regular customer who loved their doughnuts. When I saw the for-sale sign, I met with the Realtor to express interest in buying the business, and Bob [Frost] happened to drop by. I got to have a one-on-one with him for about an hour and we made a connection as we talked about life and doughnuts.

The Portland Daily Sun checked in with Love Cupcake after the food truck’s first day of operation.

A year after building their food trailer, the owners of Love Cupcakes finally opened on Commercial Street in Portland this week. On Thursday, early customer response seemed to vindicate the owners’ efforts to navigate city government and gain permission to operate a mobile food trailer.

“It’s been a mix, a lot of tourists, but a lot of local and business people, too,” said Anna Turcotte on Thursday.

The article also reports that there’s a second food truck in operation on Riverside.

“The only other application we are working on is for Teresa Esposito’s On the Go, on private property at the Home Depot parking lot at 245 Riverside Street,” Gardner said.

Esposito has operated a food truck at the location under a “unique agreement” with the city, with a temporary food service license, Gardner said. Now, she has filed an official food truck application.

City spokeswoman Nicole Clegg said, “The task force developed the policies, we put some rules in place, and now we’re in a wait and see mode to see how it goes.”

Love Cupcakes has rented a space in the parking lot on the corner of Center & Commercial Street and will begin operating their bakery food truck there starting today.

They plan on being there “through the cold winter months” Wednesday – Sunday starting at noon.

According to Avery Yale Kamila, Kamasouptra’s new location at The Maine Mall will be opening on Friday.

Kushiya Benkay is now open for business. The Yakatori grill and sushi bar is located at 653 Congress Street in the former home of Gogi.

Kushiya joins the growing collection of restaurants that have sprung up in Longfellow Square in the past 2 years. As the name might suggest, Kushiya Benkay and Benkay on India Street are sister restaurants.

Roost, a  vegan juice and biodynamic wine bar, is opening for business at 11 Free Street this morning at 8 am. Roost’s owners Kathleen Flanagan and Jeanette Richelson partially funded their new venture with a successful fund raising effort on Kickstarter.

For more information on Roost, read the Natural Foodie column in today’s Press Herald.

Kathleen Flanagan and Jeanette Richelson, yoga teachers with experience in the restaurant industry, have been planning this eatery for a year and a half. They worked with a large community of vendors, farmers, business consultants, family members, friends and artists to fine tune the restaurant into a space unique for this foodie town.

Tandem Coffee Roasters on Anderson Street in East Bayside is will open for business late Wednesday morning at 7 am.

Tandem is co-owned by Will and Kathleen Pratt. The Pratts and staff member Vien Dobui are all former employees at Blue Bottle Coffee, one of San Francisco’s leading coffee roasters.

For more on Tandem view their Tumblr, visit them on Facebook or read this article in Sprudge.

Zen Chinese Bistro is opening today. Zen is in the location that was formerly occupied by District on Danforth Street.

A new company, Maine Beer Tours, is offering tours of Maine breweries on Friday and Saturday each week. MBT is run by Mark and Nichole Stevens.

Mark and Nichole have been dreaming of getting into the beer scene for years, and finally decided there was no time like the present.  They love craft beer, and know there are many people just like them.  Mark started homebrewing back in 1998, as a freshman in college, with his first batch brewed through his Mr. Coffee.  While it may have been pretty horrible, the love affair with all things beer was born…

The Friday tours visit Shipyard, Sebago, Maine Beer Company and Bull Jager. The Saturday tours go to Allagash, Urban Farm Fermentory, Rising Tide and a 4th stop which is TBD. Tickets are available online.