Category: Pocket Brunch

After nearly a year and a half hiatus, Pocket Brunch came back into action Sunday with one of their signature multi-course brunches. The Dirigo brunch took place at Novare Res and featured beers from Marshall Wharf and In’finiti Fermentation. As a special treat the meal ended with a taste of an Amaro that In’finiti has under development.

The May edition of Pocket Brunch took place Sunday afternoon at Caswell Farm in Gray. Oaxacan guest chef Max Mejia and the Pocket Brunch crew put together an 8-course Cinco de Mayo backyard fair. As usual, the Bearded Lady and Tandem Coffee were providing cocktails and coffee for the event.

Here’s the menu:

• Shrimp – pickled shrimp with Mexican cocktail sauce and crispy ramps
• Ceviche – weakfish, tomato, jalepeno, cilantro and onion.
• Sopes – sopes, pork belly, quesa seco and peanuts
• Gazpacho – pineapple, mango, orange, jicama and habenero ice
• Esquite – corn, lime mayo, cheese, fried corn silk
• Chilaquiles – tortilla, chorizo, potato, sour cream, chile sauce and fried egg (shown below)
• Carmes – a choice of chicken confit and mole sauce or pork country ribs and pumpkin seed sauce
• Dessert – arroz con leche with blood orange sorbet and saffron salt

David Zwickerhill has published a set of photos from the event.

The March edition of Pocket Brunch took place today at Novare Res. Tandem Coffee and the Bearded Lady provided libations to go with a meal of German food prepared by guest chefs Brad Messier and Nolan Stewart.

• Premeal – apple and pear strudel with bauchspeck and Han’s End blue cheese
• Soup – 2010 Rodenbach smoky meat broth, Orval chive pancake, calf’s liver and foie gras dumpling
• Salad – white asparagus, beef tongue, fried onions with a pairing of Freigeist Abraxas
• Egg – boar sausage, egg yolk, “tea” egg, rye toast paired with a pairing of Oxbow Freestyle 30
• Meat – Caldwell Farm beef saurbraten, potato, celeriac, bacon with a pairing of Oxbow Oxtoberfest
• Dessert – Black Forest chocolate sausage, chocolate kirsch cherry terrine, Riesling gelee, cherry glazed bacon

 

The February edition of Pocket Brunch took place today. The event kicked off at a private home for cocktails, coffee and apps before a jazz band led the assembled guest for a New Orleans style parade down the street to Bubba’s Sulky Lounge for the main portion of the meal was served.

Eric Simeon (who you may remember was the original chef at Grace) and Rhonda Crosson were the guest chefs alongside Josh Potocki and Joel Beauchamp. This was one of my favorite of the Pocket Brunch series so far.

• Premeal – praline pig, bruleed grapefruit, banana foster bostock, suzette scones
• Soup – Gumbo Z’herbes with greens and black-eyed peas
• Salad – endive, chared okra, marinated oysters, blood orange and broiled oysters on half shell
• Egg – artichoke hearts, white asparagus, stock-poached egg, creamed cress, parmesan hollandaise and country ham
• Meat – local beef debris, grits 2 ways, crispy sweetbreads, green tomato pickle
• Dessert – king cake

The meal was accompanied by cocktails by Nan’l Meiklejohn and coffee from Tandem Coffee Roasters.

Check out this big set of images from Zwickerhill Photography for more images from the event, as well as this post from Delicious Musings.

On a related note, yesterday Food Coma published a write-up of last month’s Pocket Brunch with Rob Evans.

The January Pocket Brunch took place at Broadturn Farm in Scarborough on Sunday. James Beard award winner Rob Evans was the guest chef for the meal:

• Soup – Maine sunchoke, fried egg yolk, black truffle and beef tongue grabiche
• Salad – spicy gravlax, trout roe, Maine potato, creme fraiche, and pistachio marmalade
• Meat – gold encrusted fois gras, smoked apple butter, apple chips, quince, pickled apple and black bread
• Egg – sunnyside duck yolk, mortadella, brussel sprout hash, saffron-tobasco hollandaise
• Dessert – Broadturn yogurt parfait with almond milk tapioca, blood orange and couscous granola

Premeal bites were accompanied by coffee from Tandem Coffee Roasters and menu of custom cocktails from the Bearded Lady.

The Golden Dish has published a review of Sunday’s Pocket Brunch.

David Zwickerhill was at the brunch with his camera and has posted an extensive set of photos online.

The lucky few who managed to snag  ticket (they sold out in less than 2 hours) for the December edition of Pocket Brunch assembled this afternoon for a Games of Thrones-themed meal prepared by Josh Potocki, Joel Beauchamp and guest chefs Joe Ricchio and Nolan Stewart.

• Soup – Dothraki Wedding Stew with a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo
• Salad – Dove and Parsnip Pie with Oxbow Saison Noel Ale
• Egg – Roast Quail and Quail Eggs with R. Nicoll Dry Mead
• Meat – Boar Leg  and Belly with Bunker Scotch Ale
• Dessert – Fig Tart with mulled wine

Premeal eats were accompanied by coffee from Tandem Coffee Roasters and drinks by Nanl Meiklejohn.

For more photos from Kings & Commoners visit Zwickerhill Photography.

The November edition of Pocket Brunch took place this afternoon at a industrial building in South Portland near the oil tank yards.

The theme was French Canadian cuisine:

• Soup – yellow split pea, heritage pork, and spiced hog cracklin
• Salad – a poutine of country fries, goose gravy, cheese curds and cranberry ketchup
• Egg – cretons, hen egg, juniper matsutake salt, super sexe bagel and sausage full of secrets
• Meat – arctic char pie with puff pastry and a seaweed salad
• Dessert – maple/black velvet sugar pie and Allen’s coffee brandy ployes cake
• Entertainment – the backside of the drink menus were bingo cards and the crowd joined in rounds of bingo between courses

Josh Potocki and Joel Beauchamp were joined in the kitchen by Rocco Salvatore Talarico and guest chef Nate Nadeau. Tandem served the coffee and Nan’l Meikeljohn created a set of custom cocktails for the event.

For more photos check out the extensive set of image posted by David Zwickerhill.

Planning is already underway for the December Pocket Brunch. Sign-up on the PB site for their mailing list to be alerted when tickets go on sale.

The October edition of Pocket Brunch took place earlier today at Broadturn Farm. Coffee by Tandem, creative cocktails by Nathaniel Meikleljohn (imagine ginger-infused Hendrick’s with cucumber-wasabi puree, lime juice, ginger beer and siracha ice cubes) and fresh pressed cider accompanied premeal bites: cider donut holes, mini-muffins with goat cheese frosting and walnuts, and small buckets of fresh cooked bacon.

With preliminaries completed everyone headed into the barn where two long communal tables were set for the main meal:

• Salad: a communal pile of fresh and pickled Broadturn vegetables paired with anchovy dust and a smoked onion dip
• Soup: a broth of ham and toasted hay enriched with acorns, roasted garlic and parsley
• Egg: a miniature omlet resting on a birds nest of potato sticks with breakfast mayo tamago, local mushroom, house ketchup and nasturtium leaves
• Meat: a pork sausage corndog with a sweet potato and local berry dipping sauces
• Dessert: gingerbread with rum caramel pear buttermilk ice cream which as a suprise were served up in clay pots filled with “potting soil” that had served as table decorations

The menu was a collaboration of Joel Beauchamp, Josh Potocki, and guest chef Karl Deuben. This was an astoundingly good meal and the room showed its appreciation with a standing ovation for the chefs and event organizer Katie Schier-Potocki during the gap between the last two courses.

A photographer from Portland Magazine was there as was Zwickerhill Photography and nearly everyone seemed to grabbing shots on their iPhones. I’ll add links here to other photo sets as they get put online.

UPDATE: David Zwickerhill has posted a large set of photos from the event online, and so has Shel Doyle.

 

The 2nd edition of Pocket Brunch took place this afternoon. Chefs Josh Potocki and Joel Beauchamp were joined by Jay Loring from Nosh. Here’s the menu:

• Edible Ocean – striped bass, periwinkle, mussel sea bean, crispy seaweed
• Nightshade Elixer – tomato water, juniper extraction (shown right)
• Duckhole – duck fat brioche, pickled peppers, duck egg, bogarones, tasso ham, chorizo dust
• Jackalope – antelope and rabbit rillette, cracker, pickle
• Summer S’Mores – cinamon sugar graham cracker, lime marshmallow, blackberry granache, white chocolate

The meal was accompanied by coffee from Tandem Coffee Roasters and cocktails by Nathaniel Mikeljohn.