Category: Profiles

Eat Maine has published an article about Vignola/Cinque Terre.

This fall will mark Skawinski’s twentieth journey to Italy to visit Vignola’s purveyors. On each visit, he is accompanied by a small contingent of his cooks and servers. Skawinski started the trip to show his staff a good time, but also so they could be armed with knowledge of the region and could maintain relationships with the family-run operations they work with year round. Maintaining a strong connection to regional origins is a very important element of Italian cookery.

The Huffington Post has published an article about The Hop Yard in Gorham.

Enter three young men in their thirties with farming in their blood and a passion for great beer — hop farmers Ryan Houghton, Geoff Keating, and Peter Busque. The founders of The Hop Yard, these guys grew up in Maine and are committed to seeing the state become a major producer of high quality hops.

Vinland, and chef David Levi’s dedication to locally sourcing ingredients, is the topic this week’s front page article in the Source section in the Maine Sunday Telegram.

But if you’re trying, as Levi is at Vinland, his 100-percent Maine-sourced restaurant just down Congress Street, to build entire meals around what is freshly available in the state at this minute, it is undeniably limited. Fine dining can’t be built on salad. What Levi is looking for are vegetables with more caloric content, nutritional value and oomph on the plate. If he were the kind of person one could use the phrase “he’d just about kill for” about, which he is not, it would be fair to say he’d just about kill for the miracle of a Maine-grown onion right now.

Instant Portland has published a profile of Vervacious.

Vervacious doesn’t sell food, exactly. They sell flavor. Whether you are looking for high quality pantry basics a unique rub for grilling or just a taste of something to inspire your kitchen experiments, you can find what you are looking for.

Instant Portland has posted a profile of Vena’s Fizz Hoise.

Tucked away over on the edge of the Old Port is one of the most interesting and inventive shops in Portland – Vena’s Fizz House. Part antique store, part foodie supply, and part new-fashioned soda fountain, it’s a place no other in the city — and perhaps in the entire country.

The Portland Daily Sun has published an article about the Public Market House,

When the organizers of the Public Market House were ever faced with a big decision, they asked themselves, “What would Betty do?”

Betty Noyes, founder of the old public market, died before that market opened, but her spirit lives on at Monument Square, where the market house and the Wednesday Portland Farmer’s Market have enjoyed a healthy co-resurgence.

Kris Horton has been at the Public Market House for the past 16 years. Along with her K. Horton Specialty Foods, Maine Beer and Beverage and Big Sky Bakery comprise the “remnants of the old public market,” she said. “We felt that the notions of public market needed to continue. We wanted alcohol, flowers, bread and cheese.”

The latest issue of the Sun also includes this week’s column from Natalie Ladd.

Eat Maine has profiled the Portland & Rochester.

All in all the Portland Rochester has become an indispensable staple in West Bayside, offering a variety of different experiences to loyal patrons. The recent update with the menu only furthers the eclectic nature of a pub that should be on everyone’s radar this summer.

USA Today has published an article about the Portland Lobster Company.

The restaurant sits at the foot of a pier in the heart of the harbor that in turn is the heart of Portland and the center of its downtown – in short, it could not have a better location for visitors. Facing the street it looks like a fairly simple shack-like building, which it is, but behind the main structure it continues down the pier with ample seating at traditional red wooden picnic tables, both covered and open-air, and an outdoor bar featuring an array of local Maine microbrews. Inside you order at the counter and wait for your name to be called, picking your food up at a window on plastic trays.