Category: Openings

Two new businesses have moved into the second floor of the Public Market House in Monument Square.

La Benedicion (facebook) opened just last week. They’re located in the space formerly occupied by the Frying Dutchman. The menu includes dishes like pollo con tajada, monjarra frito, burritos and tamales.  La Benedicion is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am – 8 pm.

Rathanin Chhloeum is just about to open Asia Eats (facebook) in the space formerly occupied by Pho Co. The menu includes buns, dumplings, soups, rice plates (katsudon, teriyaki, orange chicken, etc) and boba tea. Chhloeum hopes to open Asia Eats within the next week.

Cantina Calafia (instagram) opened their takeout window today. Owners Dominique Gonzalez and Justin Grey are serving: rolled tacos (chicken or beef), potato tacos, and a Caesar salad with an optional chicken add-on. The menu will continue to develop in the coming days.

The takeout window will be open this week Thursday through Saturday, 11 – 3. Next week they’ll be open Monday through Friday.

Grey and Gonzalez continue to work on the renovations to the former Bonobo Pizza location. They don’t have a firm date yet for the full launch of the restaurant. For more information on Cantina Calafia see this article from March.

Six new restaurants have recently opened or will soon do so:

• A new takeout restaurant called Asian Combo (facebook) is scheduled to open on October 9th in Biddeford. The restaurant is located at 169 Pool Street. Owner Phiangchay ‘Tui’ Dubois will be serving a menu of Thai, Laotian and Vietnamese food that will include banh mi and boba tea.
• A new banh mi shop called BiddoBanh (instagram) is scheduled to open on October 13th. They’re located at 299 Main Street (bottom right) in Biddeford in the same building as Fish & Whistle and Vickie’s Veggie Table. The menu includes a Banh Mi Lobster Roll (homemade lobster pate, sweet Maine lobster meat, a hint of tangy pickled ginger and topped with fresh chopped scallions).
• A new tea shop (upper left) recently opened in downtown Westbrook. HoneyBoba (instagram) serves a variety of tea-based drinks including matcha lattes and boba teas. HoneyBoba is located at 947 Main Street. The strawberry with black tea and muddled lime and crystal pearl boba was thoroughly enjoyable.
• Jodie’s Cafe and Bakery (facebook, instagram) held the grand opening for their cafe, bakery and restaurant on Friday (bottom left) in Wiscasset. Jodie’s is located at 45 Water Street in the space formerly occupied by Sarah’s. Owner Jodie Roquemore moved to Maine from Georgia and opened the first iteration of Jodie’s in 2022. The breakfast and lunch menus includes standards like pancakes, corned beef hash, burgers, BLT, club sandwich, as well as daily specials and house-made baked goods. Jodie’s is also adding a new dinner service.
• A new restaurant in Bethel called The Watershed (facebook, instagram) held a pre-opening pop-up on Saturday (upper right). They’re in the final stretch towards an opening day in the next couple weeks. The menu will feature house-made pasta, wood-fired pizza as well as kebabs, grain bowls, and salads.
• Yolked Farm to Table (website, instagram) opened on Tuesday in Windham. Nearly all the items on their menu are gluten-free or can be prepared gluten-free. Yolked began as a food truck in 2019 and has now moved into a building at 868 Roosevelt Trail. Reservations are available online.

Check back for updates on more openings. In the meantime see the Under Construction page for details on other businesses under development.

Barber Brothers Meat & Provisions (website, instagram) opened today. The new market is located at 101 Ocean Street in the Knightville neighborhood of South Portland. Customers were lining up on the sidewalk today in anticipation of the opening at noon.

Barber Brothers has an in-house butcher shop, a produce section, refrigerated and frozen products, wine and beer and stocks a wide range of national and local brands of packaged goods. Additional stock is still arriving to fill out the remaining shelf capacity.

The new market is being launched by Max and Jack Barber the co-owners of Mainely Burgers and the grandsons of Gus Barber who founded Barber Foods.

101 Ocean Street was the longtime home of Smaha’s Legion Square Market which was originally founded in 1939 by John Smaha. The Smaha family had sold the market to Alan Cardinal in 2012 and it closed in January 2023.

The market will initially be open Wednesday through Saturday , 11 am – 7 pm.

Peng’s Pizza Pies (website, instagram) opened for business in Biddeford Wednesday. It is located at 128 Main Street in the storefront adjacent to Sweetcream Dairy.  There was a strong interest in the new pizzeria and they sold out within 90 minutes of opening their doors.

Peng’s is serving crispy thin-crust pies made with naturally leavened dough which stylistically owner Chris Daniels describes as New York meets New Haven. The opening day menu (see below) included six signature pizzas along with a Caesar salad and Basque cheesecake.

Primarily a takeout business, Peng’s also has 8 seats for indoor dining. You can order online.

Daniels has been a professional baker since 2008—in Maine he’s worked at Tandem Bakery, at Belleville and at Rover Bagel. The restaurant is named for Daniels’ father Bill whose nickname was Peng.

Peng’s will be open Wednesday through Sunday, 4 – 9 pm.

Back Cove BBQ & Pizzeria reopened this spring. Owner Dan Rubinoff relaunched his one-man operation at 89 Ocean Avenue and is open Tuesday through Friday, 11 – 2, 5 – 7 or other times by chance. The menu is also available for delivery via 2DineIn.com.

The menu of comfort food dishes includes applewood slow smoked pulled pork sandwiches, gyros, sweet Italian sausages with sauteed onions and peppers (shown above), burgers, pizza and much more. See below for full menu.

Rubinoff has been in the food industry over four decades, starting with food cart called One Potato Two that launched in 1980. The cart was located next to the mushroom-shaped pay phone station in Monument Square.

A new cafe and retail shop called Matcha Mood (website, instagram) opened today. The 640 sq ft 3-seat shop is located at 654 Congress Street in the same building as Blue, The Jewel Box and Sagamore Hill.

Matcha Mood is being launched by sisters Sarochinee, Veya, and Phuntira Tiparos. Their menu (see below) includes a variety of matcha-based drinks made using ceremonial grade matcha (shown above is a matcha latte). Their line of house-made matcha-based baked goods are expected to be available at some point this week.

Matcha Mood will be open 9 am – 4 pm, seven days a week.