Bartender and cocktail historian, John Myers, was interviewed by Esquire magazine’s the Eat Like a Man blog.
My family owned a saloon outside of Chicago, like, the day after Prohibition, and they held it until about 1986. I just fell in love with watching the bartenders work. Even at ten years old, I said, “You know, that could not be a bad way to get through life.”
From Away has posted an interview with Marcia Wiggins, founder of Whoopsies! Gourmet Whoopie Pies.
Where/when did you first encounter a Whoopie pie?
I’ve always enjoyed baking whoopie pies as long as I can remember. When we moved to Maine, we discovered DiMillo’s Restaurant in Portland and I used to bring 2-3 dozen whoopie pies with us when we would go out to eat. The staff at DiMillo’s always raved about them. My daughter, Berkeley, who has an entrepreneurial spirit, urged me to start a whoopie pie company with her.
Michael Barriault passed away this weekend after a fight with cancer. Barriault was well known in the Portland food community for the photos he published on PortlandTown of special events and the every day happenings of the Portland food scene. He will be missed.
Services are taking place at Congregation Bet Ha’am in South Portland on Sunday.
The Forecaster, where he worked as a photographer, has posted an article today about Michael,
But it was all part of what made Michael who he was: dedicated, reliable, creative, passionate and one of a kind. It was what made having him around so entertaining and rewarding for those who worked with him. He only turned assignments down when he and Toby were traveling, or doing a large local show. We relied on him and always expected the unexpected from him.
Several customers of The Salt Exchange have posted their memories of Michael on the TSE Facebook wall and there is an online guestbook on Legacy.com.
An obituary for Michael appeared in the Press Herald and in The Forecaster,
Michael’s photos enlivened the pages of such publications as The Forecaster, Maine Magazine and Downeast as well as many restaurant websites. One of Portland’s most active food bloggers, his luscious images became an exciting addition to the local food scene through his blog: www.PortlandTown.blogspot.com.
Mainebiz has published a profile of Ned Wight and his new company New England Distilling.
Ned Wight comes from a long line of distillers. His forebears made whiskey for about 100 years in Maryland until the 1950s, when the Wight family distillery was finally sold. Now, more than half a century later, he’s returning to the family trade and opening a small craft distillery in Portland, hoping to profit from a reawakened thirst for artisanal spirits, or what is sometimes referred to as boutique booze.
The Food & Wine section in today’s Press Herald includes several articles about the Fall apple season: a report on the 2011 harvest, a list of apple events across the state, a guide to finding 40+ different varieties, and an article about John Bunker and his quest for rare Maine apples,
For years, John Bunker has been traveling around Maine on “fruit explorations,” hunting down old trees in out-of-the-way orchards and abandoned farms that may have been bearing fruit for 100 years or more. He lectures around the state, always encouraging his audiences to bring in apples they’ve found in their old orchards so he can try to identify them and solve the mystery of where they originated.
Those lucky enough to have secured a share in Bunker’s rare apple CSA this year will be picking up 7 different apple varieties today: Charette, Garden Royal, Milton, September Ruby, St. Lawrence, Wealthy and Whitney Crab.
Also in today’s Food & Wine section is an article about wine service and wine lists at Portland restaurants,
Today, I’ll use reader comments in order to explore some challenges to the health of our little wine culture here in southern Maine.
My hope is that you’ll come away from the following remarks feeling that you’re not alone, and that your own curiosity and investment in wine will be most highly rewarded if you actively push your friends, restaurant servers and retailers to treat wine less as a passively traded commodity and more as a pathway to rich experience.
and an interview with a vegan who is running in the Maine Marathon.
Because she follows a vegan diet and is training to run the Oct. 2 Maine Marathon, Angela May Bell of Portland occasionally gets questions from concerned friends who worry she’s not getting enough protein. It turns out her whole foods, plant-based diet gives her plenty of protein, but comes up a bit short on the extra carbs long-distance runners need.
James Beard award-winning author, Jon Reiner, was interviewed on WCSH yesterday. Reiner is the author of The Man Who Couldn’t Eat.
Reiner will be at Rabelais today at 1 pm for a book signing.
For Episode 4 the Maine Culinary Podcast visited the Urban Farm Fermentory for a very interesting tour of the facility with permaculturist Dave Homa.
Well known Maine food blogger Joe Ricchio is launching Food Coma TV, a video extension of his popular blog Portland Food Coma. Funding for the venture is being crowdsourced and so far has gathered pledges totaling $5,397 which is just $1,100 shy of the goal. You can see a brief video of Joe talking about the project and make a pledge for Food Coma TV page on Kickstarter.com.
For more information listen to the interview by Joe and his producer Alex Steed on the Maine Culinary Podcast, read about FC TV in the Bangor Daily News, or watch an interview with the pair on the Fox morning show.
For the latest episode of the Maine Culinary Podcast, host Dan Bodoff interviewed Joe Ricchio and business partner Alex Steed about their new project, Food Coma TV.
For the 2nd year in a row Coffee by Design’s head coffee roaster, Dylan Hardman, took first place at the national Roasters Guild Retreat. According to the press release,
The Tri-Style Roast Challenge, which placed nearly 100 roasters from across the country on teams, tested roasters on their coffee capabilities through three tests: roast for a pour-over filter preparation; roast for a press-pot preparation; and roast to match a sample score.
Hardman’s team, which included members from Seattle, Texas, and Oregon, received the highest score for the pour-over filter preparation and the highest overall score.