Today’s issue of the Portland Daily Sun reports on a visit to Independent Restaurant Supply.
“Ninety-five percent of the people who come through the doors are not restaurant people, but 95 percent of the money spent here is for restaurants,” said Dan Bornstein. “A lot of regular people come in because they want to buy stuff, restaurant people come in because they have to buy stuff,” he smiled.
PortlandTown has continued his photographic tour of Maine Restaurant Week with a visit to The Back Bay Grill.
Photo Credit: Michael Barriault
As part of his project to photographically document Maine Restaurant Week, PortlandTown has published a set of photos of El Rayo and The Front Room.
Photo Credit: Michael Barriault
PortlandTown has published a set of Maine Restaurant Week photos taken last night at David’s and Green Elephant.
Photo Credit: Michael Barriault
The Boston Globe has published a profile of Scratch Baking Co.
So they turned Scratch into a village bakery with Cheers-like camaraderie. Johnson’s got everyone’s name and morning brews down pat. Baskets of daily breads beckon in the front window, alongside a small spread of “things that go with bread,’’ including Silver Moon Creamery cheeses from Westbrook, Maine, salumi, Johnson’s well-chosen wine collection, and really good butter.
PortlandTown has continued with his project to photograph nominees from the Phoenix’s Best of Portland readership poll. This time around he’s photographed the coffee shops: Arabica, Bard, Coffee by Design, Hilltop and North Star.
Photo Credit: Michael Barriault
PortlandTown has published a set of photos of Bresca showing chef Krista Desjarlais and her staff in action.
For an additional view of Bresca see Stephen Quirk’s photos of the restaurant from 2007.
Photo Credit: Maichael Barriault
The new issue of Maine magazine includes an interview with Lee Farrington, the chef behind the highly anticipated new restaurant Figa. There’s no word yet on Figa’s opening date.
The magazine also includes a trio of Joe Ricchio articles: a selection of cup cakes from Maine bakers, a look at some of the restaurants participating in Restaurant Week next month and a report on David Chang’s visit to Portland.
The articles aren’t online yet but the magazine is starting to show up on newsstands. I picked up my copy at the Rosemont Market in the East End.
PortlandTown has published photos of the contenders in the Neighborhood Store category from the 2010 Phoenix’s Best of Portland readership poll: Colucci’s, Fresh Approach, Micucci’s, Rosemont, and the West End Deli.
Photo Credit: Michael Barriault
The recent launches of Boda and Sonny’s are reminders that a growing number of Portland area food business are tied together by some degree of common ownership. Some of the connections are readily apparent such as Harding Lee Smith’s three ‘Room’ restaurants which share a single website and others are little less visible.
Note: I’ve continued to keep this list up to date as the business landscape continue to evolve (March 2011).
Here are the budding food empires that I’m aware of:
There are probably others, what am I missing?