Category: Under Construction

Eater Maine and Maine a la Carte posted reports today about two Damian Sansonetti projects:

• Taco Escobarr – Sansonneti is working with owner Tom Barr to revamp the menu “trying to bring in more bold flavor to (Taco Escobarr), almost a little more street food…We’re trying to give it a little bit more of a deeper soul”.
• Blue Rooster Food Co. is the official name (or not depending which article you read) of the restaurant Sansonetti and partners (including Barr) have under construction at 5 Dana Street.

The Insurance Guy Beer Blog has put together an interesting list of all the breweries he knows of that are under development in Maine—20 in all.

In the Portland area, in addition to In’finiti, he also lists Austin Street Brewery, Bissel Brothers Brewery and Brasserie Ici.

Bob and Laura Butler, former owners of Rachel’s, plan on opening a new restaurant called Enio’s at 347 Cottage Rd in South Portland. The restaurant will serve Mediterranean cuisine. The Butlers are aiming to open in March.

Rachel’s was originally located on Exhange Street. In 2003 the Butler’s moved the restaurant to Woodford Street to the space currently occupied by  JP’s Bistro.

Update: The Forecaster has published an article about the closing of the Buttered Biscuit and the plans for Enio’s.

The Chinese Laundry has announced that they’re targeting February 20 for an opening date. You can see a draft menu on their Facebook page.

Zapoteca owners Tom and Shannon Bard are opening a second restaurant in Durham, NH. The new restaurant will be called Mixteca Taqueria Y Cantina is slated to open in early March.

The Bards are also tell me that they’re searching for the right property in the Portland area to open a third restaurant with a different concept sometime this fall.

This week’s edition of the Portland Phoenix features a behind the scenes look at the new 5,000 square foot space being developed in East Bayside by Eli Cayer, owner of Urban Farm Fermentory.

Exploding out of the mind of Portland idea-man Eli Cayer, 39, and with financial backing from his Urban Farm Fermentory, is the conversion of a former East Bayside taxi garage into a home for food processors and preparers right on the Portland peninsula.

With his eye ever fixed on the Next Big Thing for the Forest City (he’s had his hand in everything from public transit to community engagement to booze), Cayer is not only projecting the February 1 opening of the yet-to-be-named new space, which will house an expanded space for Bomb Diggity Bakery and an all-natural fruit-popsicle maker — he has also offered the Portland Phoenix a behind-the-scenes look at how ideas like this one arise, develop, change, adapt, get wrecked, get salvaged, and ultimately, if the stars align, actually happen.

Allagash Brewing has leased 70,000 square feet of space to expand the brewery’s warehouse and distribution space.

According to a report in today’s Press Herald, the zoning variance sought for a restaurant on York Street was denied.

Potential investors vowed Thursday to keep pursuing their dream of opening a small upscale restaurant in the West End after the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals denied a request to waive off-street parking requirements.

Neighbors are opposing plans for a second restaurant development on York Street. The new restaurant would be adjacent to Outliers.

Residents are concerned that another restaurant/bar will be too much, too soon, for the neighborhood, which was once disturbed by unruly, late-night crowds at the former Popeye’s Ice House bar. That notorious tavern, which had the tail of an airplane sticking out of its roof, closed in 2008 after repeated clashes with neighbors.

A new magazine called Edible Coastal Maine is preparing to launch mid-year in 2013. Editor Heather Carroll tells me she’ll be pursuing stories all along coastal Maine from the New Hampshire border to Hancock County.

ECM is part of a family of  60+ regional food magazines from Edible Communities which works to “connect consumers with family farmers, growers, chefs, and food artisans of all kinds.”