The Portland Phoenix has published a profile of BiBo’s Madd Apple Cafe.
When they took over, they wanted it to be more than a “theater restaurant,” but now says, “after being here for few years, we finally accepted that we’re a theater restaurant and excel at getting people in and upstairs on time,” he says. It means, of course, that a large number of customers all come in at the same time and need to leave before show time — handling the flow is an art form in and of itself.
The new issue of Down East is out. It includes a review of Grace,
Grace is an ambitious restaurant that successfully bestows on its guests the multiple meanings of its name. “The original intention of grace,” says Anne Verrill, “is everything from beauty down to the actual saying of grace at the table.” After a feast or a bite, a cocktail or a bottle, guests will certainly have plenty to be grateful for.
and a survey of Maine chocolatiers which included Portland area favorites Haven’s, Dean’s Sweets, Sweet Marguerites and Len Libby’s.
Ocean Approved’s kelp farming venture in Casco Bay is the subject of a feature article on the front page of today’s Maine Sunday Telegram. The online article also includes a video segment of co-owner Paul Dobbins demonstrating how OA plants and grows their sugar kelp crop.
This week, Olson and Dobbins plan to install a submerged kelp-growing raft near Little Chebeague Island, where they say it will be out of the way of boat traffic and lobstermen. The state granted the company an experimental three-year lease for nearly an acre of the bay there, and Maine Technology Institute provided a $12,000 grant to help develop the technology.
The Press Herald has kicked off a new series, Maine at Work,with a look at the work life of Mark Boissonneault, a senior brewer at Shipyard.
And, to my horror, there was math.
Boissonneault showed me his recipe sheet for the day’s batch of Shipyard Export Ale, and I instantly had a flashback to high school algebra. There were numbers with six or seven numerals after the decimal point, and equations where “bitterness values” are assigned to various kinds of hops. (The bitterness value is calculated by multiplying the alpha acids by the weight of the hops, by the way.)
This is way too much math, I thought. I need a drink.
A Blog About Beer has published a profile of Maine Beer Co.
I really see great things in the future for the Maine Beer Co. They are providing Maine-made beer unlike every other beer made here. In Portland, it’s either all English-style ales or the Belgians of Allagash, but there wasn’t anything like the great beers being made in the Midwest and West Coast of the U.S., something Maine was severely lacking. Until now. If they can keep pumping out beers equal in quality and taste to the Spring Peeper and their first experimental (and Brown IPA which was on tap at Novare and the GLB a week or two ago) beer, they have nowhere to go but up.
Today’s Portland Daily Sun has published an update on the closing of the White Heart: the bar is for sale but it hasn’t changed hands yet. The paper quotes owner Tony Hodge saying, “We have two or three interested parties”.
Today’s Sun also has a brief profile on Blue Mango Foods. Blue Mango produces a very popular veggie burger that’s available at Hannaford, Whole Foods and is on the menu at several area restaurants. According to the article, they have “a couple of new products in development, including a gluten-free burger”.
The Natural Foodie column in today’s Press Herald examines the regulatory challenges encountered by two farmers in setting up a prepared food cart at the Farmers’ Market. The collaborative venture is called Farmer’s Cart and appears at the weekly Wednesday markets.
When life gives you bruised potatoes, make homefries. Or potato salad.
This is what Simon Frost of Thirty Acre Farm in Whitefield and Daniel Price of Freedom Farm in Freedom are doing with their unsold and B-grade potatoes. The two farmers sell vegetables, meats and fermented foods each week at the Portland Farmers’ Market. A month ago, they launched the city’s first local food street vendor venture, aptly named the Farmer’s Cart.
This week’s edition of the Portland Phoenix includes an interview with Steve Corry, chef/owner of Five Fifty-Five.
As a chef in Portland, one of the challenges has been striking a balance between the local and tourist communities. “In trying to please those from afar, it’s hard to anticipate when and how to adjust the menu and still keep the savvy Portland community happy,” he said. A spike in culinary awareness in the city, thanks largely to national and local media attention as well as a thriving culinary-focused blogosphere, has increased expectations among patrons — local and visitor.
The Boston Globe has published a profile of Cinque Terre with a focus on the restaurant’s farm-to-table approach.
If local farmers can’t supply a vegetable he needs for his Northern Italian kitchen, Skawinski will likely grow it from Italian seed at the restaurant’s Grand View Farm in Greene. “If we could only raise citrus in Maine, we’d be set,’’ he says. “All the other produce, there’s a way.’’
The Portland Phoenix has published an interview with Rachels L’Osteria about their move in 2003 out of the Old Port and to Woodford Street.
“People thought we were crazy,” says Bob Butler, co-owner and front-of-the-house manager at Rachels L’Osteria. But moving out of the Old Port and into their current space at 496 Woodford Street was more of a dream come true for the couple. “This is what we’ve always thought of as our restaurant,” says Laura Butler. “It’s more personal for us and for our customers.”
The owners of Uffa made a similar move when they left Longfellow Square and moved to Westbrook and became The Frog and Turtle. Are there other examples out of restaurants that moved away from the peninsula?