Category: Profiles

Central Kitchen’s Focuses on Local Foods

| Posted in Profiles

The Forecaster has published an article about the new central kitchen that serves Portland’s public schools and increasing amount of local foods being used by the school district.

Increasingly, the food students eat is grown on farms throughout Maine. A small amount comes from students themselves.

Last year, the kitchen served 50,000 pounds of local produce and 15,000 pounds of local meats. This year, the kitchen is on track to double those amounts, according to Blair Currier, the School District’s local food specialist.

Reviews of Tandoor, Silly’s with a Twist and More

| Posted in Under Construction, Reviews, Profiles

Today’s Press Herald includes a review of Tandoor Bread Bakery (the name may have changed to Tenur Bread and Restaurant)

Tucked in a blink-and-you-miss-it locale on Forest Avenue in Portland is Tenur Bread and Restaurant, which has been open for a couple of years now. I had gone soon after it opened but somehow managed to forget just how incredible the bread is.

a bar review of Silly’s with a Twist,

Silly’s with a Twist, connected by a walkway to the original Silly’s, is lively and welcoming with a full bar and the same menu as Silly’s next door. The kitschy decor and festive drink and food options will make you chuckle, but you’ll feel right at home almost instantly, as the friendly service is unmatched. Silly’s with a Twist is good for smaller groups.

and articles about GrandyOats in Brownfield and Biscuits & Co. in Biddeford.

Boston Globe: Maine Pie Line

| Posted in People, Profiles

The Boston Globe has published a profile of Briana Warner and her Portland bakery the Maine Pie Line.

The Halverson’s Humble, which is a chocolate pie, started with a bet. Thirty-year-old Briana Warner, owner of Maine Pie Line in the East Bayside neighborhood here, had lost a wager to her then-colleague Adam Halverson while the two were serving as diplomats for the US Department of State in Guinea. As retribution, he challenged her to make him a “humble pie.”

Vena’s Fizz House

| Posted in Profiles

The Bangor Daily News has published an article about Vena’s Fizz House.

Inside this multilevel space on the corner — happy hour, drink specials and concoctions like Maine fire — ghost pepper-infused maple syrup, apple cider syrup, seltzer, maple bitters and fire and damnation bitters — are artistically executed. So much so that you don’t miss the hard stuff.

“It makes you feel like you are having a cocktail even though you are not,” said Johanna, who runs the fizz house with her husband Steve Corman. “You get the whole sensory experience.”

Profile of Zapoteca

| Posted in Profiles

The Latin Kitchen has published a profile of Zapoteca.

Almost immediately, the orange-spiced aroma grabbed me as I gazed into the steaming squash soup. It was topped by a slowly melting square of chocolate brittle that was filled with pumpkin pepitas. I put my spoon in, careful to fill it with both equal parts soup and chocolate. The taste: sublime, both with earthy squash and rich cacao flavors, and savory, with crunchy and smooth textures. 

I choked on my words, turned to my friend and said, “Have you ever tasted anything like this? It’s insanely wonderful.”

Vinland

| Posted in People, Profiles

Today’s Press Herald features an article about the new restaurant Vinland, and chef/owner David Levi’s dedication to local ingredients.

“For me, (this) is not coming from a puritanical mindset,” he said. “To me, it is about creating a beautiful and interesting form within which to work, which happens to also maximize our local support to farmers and fishermen and foragers, to cheese makers and artisans.”

Finest Kind Tea

| Posted in Profiles

The Bangor Daily News has published an article about Finest Kind Tea Concentrate and its founder Jay Lombard.

Moving to Portland in January, the environment was right to launch Finest Kind Tea Concentrate. He made his first batch in June and now offers two flavors — wild Maine blueberry white tea and half and half, which is black tea and lemonade concentrate, also known as the Arnold Palmer.

Sold in 16-ounce glass apothecary bottles for $6.99, the strong tea blends can be fizzed up, iced down, heated or blended with tap water. Lombard also recommends mixologists add rum or gin for an easy cocktail.

Finest Kind is a competitor in The Next Big Food Thing contest being run by online grocery service Fresh Direct.

Interview of Maine Pie Line

| Posted in People, Profiles

mpl_logoThe Press Herald has published an interview with Briana Warner about her new bakery/pie CSA, Maine Pie Line (website, facebook).

Warner, 30, grew up in Pennsylvania and studied international relations and economics at Yale and George Washington University. She first started baking pies when she was dating her husband, Matt, and found out how much he loves them. But she didn’t get really serious about them until the State Department posted her to Guinea, a tiny west African country south of Senegal and north of Sierra Leone, as an economic and political officer. There was a lot of political turmoil at the time – the embassy had to be evacuated while Warner was there – and she used pie as a cultural bridge.

Today”s paper also includes an article about a Maine sweet potato farm and a list of local bakeries where you can order pie for your Thanksgiving table.

A Locally Sourced Focus at Small Axe

| Posted in Profiles, Farming

Kate McCarty has written an interesting article for the Portland Phoenix about the Small Axe food truck and the chefs’ use of local farms and purveyors when sourcing ingredients for their menu.

The meat, fish, dairy, and produce Small Axe serves is all from local sources, drawing on Deuben’s and Leavy’s longstanding relationships with nearby purveyors. Small Axe’s vegetables come from two farms, one in particular that focuses on unusual varieties appealing to chefs: Green Spark Farm. Deuben first noticed the attractive display of Green Spark Farm’s produce at the Portland farmers’ market while shopping for Miyake’s tasting menu. He was further drawn to the farm for the varieties of produce growing there, in particular Asian greens and cabbages like totsoi and red choi.

McCarty is also the author of The Blueberry Files. This piece is the first of a monthly column she’ll be writing for the Portland Phoenix.