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.”
In’finiti Fermentation and Distillation is the official name for Novare Res’ restaurant, brewery, distillery and retail shop that’s been under development for several months at 250 Commercial Street.
According to materials provided to the city with their liquor license application, they plan on serving lunch and dinner 7 days a week. The onsite brewery and distillery are primarily for on-premise consumption with some sales through their retail shop.
Based on floor plan (see below) it looks like there are plans for outdoor deck seating on the back side of the building. A draft food menu for In’finiti is online (page 57).
A new eatery and bar called the Little Tap House is under construction at 106 High Street in the space recently vacated by Plush West End. The owners are billing it as “a boutique craftbeer gastro-pub with local farm to table dining”. A draft menu is available online (page 70).
Lee Goyette is the owner/general manager of the Little Tap House, and Andrew Kadish will be serving as the executive chef. According to information from a regular PFM reader, Goyette and Kadish were both formerly at J.P. Thorntons in South Portland.