Category: Under Construction

There are a couple under construction updates in this week’s City Council agenda:

• A new sports bar called Mark’s Place is under construction at 416 Fore Street. A draft menu was supplied as part of their liquor license application (page 65).
• The owners of Hugo’s has applied for a revised liquor license in anticipation of the opening for Eventide Oyster Company. As you can see from the floor plan below, the kitchen will expand into 86 Middle Street and that will be the sole passage between Hugo’s and Eventide. You can see a draft menu for Eventide in the liquor license application (page 45).

Bier Cellar is under construction at 299 Forest Ave across the street from Glickman Library. As the name suggests the store will retail craft beer as well as a big selection of craft beer, as well as wine, cider and mead. Owners Greg and Katie Norton “are optimistically shooting for June 1” for an opening day.

Tandem Coffee Roasters is under construction at 122 Anderson Street in Bayside. Involved in the new venture is Kathleen Pratt who resume includes the highly regarded Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco.

You can follow their process of getting the operation up and running on their Tumblr and see some additional photos om the More & Co. blog.

A new ice cream shop is under construction on Commercial Street in the former home of Bubble Tea. I’ve heard the name of the business is Captain Sam’s Ice Cream.

Portland magazine has published an interview with Carmen Gonzalez, chef of new restaurant opening this Spring in the Danforth Inn.

If you dine with González at her new restaurant, opening May 15 at The Danforth bed and breakfast, you can go international, too, devouring sizzling snacks as  part of a culinary “journey through most of Latin America and the Caribbean,” where lobster will be served as few up here have seen it before.

“One of my signature dishes is a lobster and avocado terrine with key lime mayo and aranitas (grated green plantain and garlic fritters), which I plan to have on the menu, along with lobster fritters.”

The Forecaster has published an article about Tony’s Donut’s plans to open a location in South Portland.

Now, after operating out of its 9 Bolton St. location for more than 45 years, Tony’s Donuts is planning to pen a second bakery at 1059 Broadway in South Portland. Fournier expects the new shop to open in fall 2012.

A pair of updates for the Under Construction list:

• The new coffee shop under development on Congress Street by the owner of Matt’s Wood-Roasted Coffee is slated to be named Speckled Ax Espresso. A regular contributor to PFM wrote to inform me that Speckled Ax is a reference to a story from Ben Franklin autobiography. Speckled Ax is scheduled to open sometime in April.
• The new owners of Hugo’s have leased the space formally occupied by Rabelais and plan on remaking it into a companion restaurant called Eventide Oyster Company. In addition to oysters the owners plan on serving a more casual menu of other items. Eventide will have a separate entrance but the two restaurants will be connected by sharing a common kitchen. It’s scheduled to open this Spring.

Sebastian’s, the restaurant under construction on the corner of Fore and Silver Streets, has submitted a liquor license application which includes draft lunch and dinner menus (pages 76-77).