Category: Profiles

20 Delicious Years of Standard Baking

| Posted in Profiles

The Press Herald has published an article about Standard Baking. The bakery is celebrating their 20th anniversary.

On April 25, 1995, when the bakery was in its original location on Wharf Street in the Old Port, it had no sign outside and no cash register inside. There were no business hours and no locks on the door. Alison Pray and Matt James, the owners and partners in work and life, didn’t even know on that first day that they would end up with a retail business.

Standard is holding a 20th anniversary celebration this Saturday, 11 – 2.

WSJ: Tandem Coffee

| Posted in Profiles

An article from the Wall Street Journal highlights Tandem Coffee as one of Coffee’s Next Generation of Roasters.

Populated by veterans of those first pioneering brands, this new guard isn’t reinventing coffee so much as continuing a transformation already underway. Small, creative and hyperlocal, they’re sourcing even more adventurously and sustainably, importing the best beans from the farthest corners of the earth. And they’re opening in ever-smaller cities, turning America’s long-brewing revolution into a full-blown indie coffee diaspora.

MK Kitchen

| Posted in Profiles

Urban Eye has posted a report on MK Kitchen in Gorham.

Finally a key corner space in this sleepy downtown became available and Kaldrovich and his wife Lisa, a Gorham native, pounced. “I have wanted to do this my whole life,” said Kaldrovich, an Argentinean with a pan-European background who grew up grilling meats and learning handmade gnocchi from his Italian grandmother. He made good on that dream last weekend when MK Kitchen opened on School and South streets.

Opus Ten

| Posted in Profiles

Urban Eye has posted a report on a recent visit to Opus Ten.

With its brick walls, diaphanous curtains and bistro-style seating, Opus Ten is a food lab for chef Bo Bryne. The bearded Bryne works quietly in a small, open kitchen all night, toiling like a scientist mixing new formulas for your gastro pleasure. Dish by dish, a parade of butter-poached lobster on a risotto cake with citrus truffle micro greens, arrive as if parachuting down from heaven.

Portland Bar Lore

| Posted in People, Profiles

Chris Busby’s article in the April issue of The Bollard shares some interesting stories from Portland’s past.

Since it was late in the war, with the outcome in Europe already decided, our government had no use for the services of the sub’s crew. They were given the option of being returned to Italy or remaining in this country…one of them was a man with the surname Ricci.

With the money allotted to him, Mr. Ricci opened an eatery on Portland Street and named it Ricci’s Tavern. Ownership passed from one individual to another over the years, and the name was eventually Americanized to Rickey’s Tavern — the addition of “Rockin’” being the latest twist.

Vinland

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The March issue of Down East includes an article about Vinland.

As an intellectual exercise — is it possible to build a fine-dining restaurant in northern New England on local ingredients only? — Vinland succeeds wildly. But it remains to be seen whether Levi’s experiment can attract large numbers of diners in Portland, where options for a $200 dinner for two with a local emphasis (if not a manifesto) isn’t hard to come by. “I stand by it 100 percent,” Levi says confidently. “Some people love it; some people don’t. But I know it comes from a good place, and that’s what matters.”

Lolita

| Posted in Profiles

The March issue of Maine magazine includes an article about Lolita.

It is impossible to deny the sensory delight that one experiences upon first stepping through the doors of Lolita Vinoteca and Asador on Munjoy Hill. Warm, pungent aromas of clams and garlic roasting in the wood oven, which is constantly tended to by diligent cooks, are prevalent even amidst the din of patrons stationed up and down the long zinc bar on a busy night. Much of the menu is inspired by the ancient spice routes of Venice, successfully marrying flavors from the Mediterranean, Africa, and the Middle East, resulting in dishes like burrata with lemon zest and Aleppo chili oil on toast,or cured Spanish sardines augmented with harissa.

Food & Wine: The Lost Kitchen

| Posted in Profiles

lost-kitchenThe March issue of Food & Wine includes an article about chef Erin French and her restaurant The Lost Kitchen(facebook, instagram) in Freedom, Maine. It also includes recipes for several of chef Erin French’s dishes.

The restaurant has only been open since last July, but news of it has spread, and customers now come from many miles away. Chef Erin French, who is entirely self-taught, creates unfussy, astonishingly delicious food using as few ingredients as possible in combinations that are both exciting and viscerally satisfying…

The article isn’t online yet but you can pick-up a copy of the March issue at your local newsstand.

Source: North Spore & Wicked Sharp

| Posted in Profiles, Farming

This week’s edition of Source includes profiles of Wicked Sharp,

A sharp knife helps you work quickly, with precision, says David Oberton, cabinetmaker turned knife sharpener, who runs his business, Wicked Sharp, out of the South Portland home he shares with his wife, Sara (www.wickedsharpknives.com). He learned to sharpen knives while working in restaurants in Germany in the 1970s, continued the practice for friends and family, honed his skills under the tutelage of a master sharpener, and eventually hung his own shingle.

and the mushroom CSA North Spore.

Meet Eliah Thanhauser, a Maine native who, along with his friends and fellow College of the Atlantic graduates Jon Carver and Matt McInnis, started Maine’s first winter CSA (community supported agriculture) for mushrooms. Their Portland-based North Spore mushroom company also sells on the wholesale market and offers teas and tinctures made from foraged wild, medicinal mushrooms. We called Thanhauser up to talk about the company’s origins, its unique relationship with Amato’s and how often he eats mushrooms.