Urban Eye has posted an update on Bao Bao Dumpling House.
The delay of Bao Bao Dumpling House on Spring Street has perplexed more than fans of Portland’s revolving food scene. Owner Cecile Stadler, touring her new building, formerly West End Deli, on Wednesday, was miffed that the process has taken so long.
There’s an article on the new Portland Co-op in the Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald.
Here’s the latest: All of the refrigeration, heating and cooling systems are in place. Floors have been polished. Soon interior painting will begin. Within the next two weeks, shelving, fixtures and checkout counters will begin arriving and workers will start building out the interior of the store at 290 Congress St. in Portland.
But Gadsby declines to reveal a target opening date, sticking to the script that it will be sometime in “mid-fall.”
Urban Eye has posted an update on Bramhall, the casual food and drink destination now under construction in the old Bramhall Pub in the West End.
“New places are super food-focused and the food scene is awesome,” he said, but amid all the James Beard nods, something was amiss.
“It can be a challenge to grab a meal for two, even lunch, for less than $80 in Portland,” said Fraser. “I want people to be able to come in and have a few drinks and have a good time.”…Meals at the new Bramhall gastropub will be priced from $8 to $10. In the kitchen is Chris [Beaulieu], former sou chef at Duck Fat and chef at Sebago Brewery in Portland.
Owner Mike Fraser hopes to open Bramhall next month.
Two new restaurants have submitted their liquor license applications with the city:
For information on all the restaurants under development see the Portland Food Map under construction list.
Eater Maine stopped by the future home of Ebb & Flow (facebook, twitter) on Commercial Street and has posted some new details on the restaurant. Chef and co-owner William D’Auvray hopes to have Ebb & Flow open by the end of October.
The C Salt Gourmet Market (facebook) is slated to open soon in the center of Cape Elizabeth. According to a Forecaster article published earlier this year, Co-owner Mike Concannon “compared the concept to Clayton’s Cafe in Yarmouth and Aurora Provisions in Portland’s West End.”
C Salt plans to sell “Coffee, muffins, cookies and bakery items, gourmet sandwiches and grab and go meals.” The newly constructed building is located at 349 Ocean House Rd.
The Jewel Box has posted an update on Kickstarter with a series of photos illustrating the last few months of construction at 644 Congress Street. The center piece of the new space is the curved bar made of white oak. If all goes according to plan the bar will hopefully open by the end of the month.
A new Chinese restaurant called Shangri-la is under construction on upper Exchange Street. Shangri-la is taking over the space at 90 Exchange Street that for the last 8 months has been occupied by Thai 9.
Shangri-la is being launched by Yarmouth resident Qi Shen. Shen plans on serving a menu of Sichuan style Chinese food. A draft menu (page 42) was supplied as part of the restaurant’s liquor license application. Here’s an excerpt,
It’s been nearly a year since Ted Arcand, owner of Dogfish Bar & Grille, sold the Dogfish Cafe on Congress Street to 2 of his longtime employees. Now the new cafe owners are getting ready change the name.
No big changes are planned, but the Cafe’s new name will be Union Station Publyk – a reference to the Union Train Station that once stood across the street.
A new eatery called Skillet (facebook) is under development on Walker Street in the West End.
Owner Natalie ‘Figgy’ DiBenedetto is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. Skillet will be her 3rd restaurant; the first two Mina and Another Fork in the Road were located in the Hudson Valley.
DiBenedetto plans to operate a take-out business along with a few outside tables serving,
…a nightly take home meal for 2 or 4 people as well as cast iron fried chicken, korean style chicken and all the fixins (slaw, potato, lots of seasonal vegetables etc..). Also trying to perfect a gluten free fried chicken. We’ll do some whacky ice cream sandwiches with homemade ice cream and homemade cookies and southern banana pudding (yes, with ‘nilla wafers)We’ll probably do a seasonal shrub soda and some other fun libations…
Her target customers are “working families, singles and couples in the area that want something comforting, nutritious, affordable and fun”. DiBenedetto will also use Skillet as the base of operations for a catering business that serves traditional comfort foods from her native state of Missouri: “BBQs, fried chicken picnics, fish fry, pig roasts etc”.
Skillet will be built off of the backside of the Yordprom Coffee building. She hopes to break ground for the building in the few couple months. You can see additional views of the building and a detailed floor plan in this submission to the Historic Preservation Board.
Skillet joins Tandem Bakery, Bramhall, Tawakal Halal and Salvage along with a few established businesses (Yordprom, Flores, and Bodega Latina, Hong Kong Market, etc) in expanding business develop past Longfellow through Bramhall Square and down to Saint John. This is a trend that’s likely to continue.