The Bangor Daily News has profiled Coastal Root Bitters.
With a classic aromatic on the market since May, he is gearing up for a few more varieties. Coffee bitters made with Tandem Coffee Roasters coffee, star anise, oak and chocolate is in progress, as is an Indian spice, garam masala, and possibly a pine.
“I’m working on giving it a Maine identity,” [Nolan] Stewart said. “The possibilities are endless.”
Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes an article about Crown O’Maine.
Crown O’ Maine helps farmers and food producers get their product in supermarkets, company cafeterias and hospitals.
The Maine Sunday Telegram features a check-in with chef/owner David Levi as his restaurant Vinland(website, facebook) approaches its 1-year anniversary.
It started slowly. Other restaurateurs had told him not to expect business to pick up until after the Fourth of July, but still, June dragged on. He shook up the menu with a new small plate theme – letting customers build a meal of any five plates for $60. He’d had good press in the Wall Street Journal in May. The cruise ships came in, but those passengers never seemed to make it up the hill. He decided to stay open on the 4th itself; other restaurants were closing, but if there were customers to be had, he resolved to take advantage. “It turned out to be a really big night for us,” he said. For the next couple of weeks, there would be sporadic bursts of business, huge nights on a Monday or Tuesday and then relative calm again. Then around the middle of the month, high season started in a big way. “Every night was a huge night until Labor Day,” Levi said.
The American Journal has published an article about Casco Bay Organics, a Portland area produce delivery service.
Two years ago, when Jillian Hilton was in the midst of moving back to Maine from California, where there is an abundance of affordable organic produce that is easily accessible, she had what she called a “light-bulb moment.”
“I was at a farmers market every single day, and I loved it,” said Hilton, 33. “I saw the opportunity and the necessity, really, to bring back to Maine the option of flexible and organic produce delivered right to your doorstep.”
Visit the Casco Bay Organics website to learn more and to sign-up for the service.
The Angela Adams blog Sea Fantasy has posted a photo essay of El Rayo.
Maine Today has posted a very nice multimedia interview with Alison Pray, co-founder of Standard Baking.
This connection to tradition is a huge part of it and that informs our work every day.
John Myers has written a profile on the Bar of Chocolate Cafe for Eater Maine.
Somewhere along the way, Martin developed a flair for chocolates; she’d bring them to work to hand out to her favorite guests. Sam Beringer was one of those guests. A longtime bartender at Brian Boru’s sister bar, Una, Beringer encouraged Martin to enter her desserts in the Chocolate Lover’s Fling, an annual competition and fundraiser. If she could win there, he argued, they could leverage that momentum to open a dessert and cocktail lounge.
Holy Donut owner Leigh Kellis has an evolving set of rules that help her determine just how many doughnuts to make on any given day so there are just enough without having any left unsold at closing time.
Check out this article in today’s Press Herald to read more about it.
So Kellis took careful notes on the constellation of factors that seemed to impact doughnut demand…In some cases, demand varied, inexplicably from week to week. Sales dropped by 20 percent the week after Labor Day, for instance. The next week, they jumped by 10 percent.
But other, unique buying patterns also started to emerge.
The USM Free Press has published an article about Arcadia National Bar.
On a Monday night the place was packed with people all of whom said that they grew up playing with games Arcadia offered. According to Matt Grassi, a 24 year old Portland local, Arcadia is unlike any bar in Portland and it was inevitable for a place like it to spring up in town. For Grassi, the unique atmosphere lends itself to two things: a good variety of games and a bar free from awkward social expectations.