The renovations over at 190 State Street, the future home of Petite Jacqueline, seem to be well underway. A new banquet wraps along the left wall and the front window. The bar has been left in the same location. As you can see from the floor plan submitted with the liquor license the overall layout is remaining largely the same. The owners are hoping to open this March.
Mainebiz reports that Siano’s Old Port location has closed and is making way for Zapoteca, a new Mexican restaurant that, according to the article, “will be competing with upper-level Portland restaurants such as Havana South, Fore Street and Street and Co.”
Shannon Bard trained at the Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio, Texas, which specializes in Latin American cooking, and will be the restaurant’s head chef. Possible entrees include Red Snapper Veracruz with a tomato, green olive, cilantro and lemon sauce; carne asada with an anchovy-chili sauce; and stuffed, baked jalapenos. The restaurant’s salsa and mole sauce will be homemade, and the bar will serve 70 to 80 tequilas and fresh-squeezed juices, Tom [Bard] says.
The former Maple’s Organics gelato shop on Middle Street and the tattoo studio that had been adjacent to it are being renovated. The combined space is slated as the future home of Dobra Tea. The company started out in Burlington, VT and they now tea houses in Madison, WI and Ashville, NC.
They plan on opening for business on March 31st. If you a tea drinker and looking for a job be sure to check out the job posting.
Today’s Press Herald includes a pair of front page stories on “food-service transitions”. The first article is on the closing of Terroni’s Market on Park Ave—today is its last day. Terroni’s was opened by Florence Terroni in 1949.
And as regulars dropped in for lunch and said their goodbyes, it was an emotional time.
“Don’t get me crying again,” [44-year employee Sheila] Cunningham said while reminiscing about her years at Terroni’s.
The second article is on the increased interest of chain restaurants in Portland and the plans two burger chains that have plans to open in the Old Port.
“They are looking for niche markets that they wouldn’t have touched a few years ago, (when) they had bigger fish to fry,” said Dick Grotton, president and CEO of the Maine Restaurant Association.
This spring, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, a nationwide chain based in Lorton, Va., will open in the Old Port, in a 2,900-square-foot space at 425 Fore St.
Another Virginia-based burger chain, Arlington’s Elevation Burger, plans to open three Maine locations, including one in the Portland area this year, said spokesman James Stewart.
According to a report in the American Journal, the French Press Eatery is temporarily closed while it changes from a breakfast and lunch coffee/sandwich shop to a BBQ and Cajun restaurant serving lunch and dinner. (via Westbrook Diarist)
On Tuesday, James Tranchemontagne admitted they have struggled to keep the French Press profitable, saying, “It never really clicked that it was breakfast and lunch.” He and his brother sat down to discuss its prospects recently and determined the best course was to transition to a lunch and dinner menu. He said the plan is different from last year’s attempted expansion.
“We probably should have done this in July. We are a young company and we learn a lot as we go,” he said.
James Tranchemontagne is the chef of the Frog & Turtle. He and his brother Andre are co-owners of both restaurants.
The signs and paper blocking the windows at 47 Middle Street are now down and pedestrians on Middle Street can now get a look in at the renovations underway for the EastEnder, the restaurant that’s taking the place of Norm’s East End Grill.
According to the liquor license application submitted by the Corry’s and their business partner Elizabeth Koenigsberg, the name of the French bistro the trio are opening in Longfellow Square will be Petite Jacqueline. You can see draft lunch and dinner menus for Petite Jacqueline on pages 31-35 pf the City Council agenda for January 3, 2011.
The Virginia-based franchise Five Guys Burgers and Fries is planning on opening a location in Portland. According to an article in the Portland Daily Sun, the burger shop will be located at 425 Fore Street.
Legendary franchise “Five Guys Burgers And Fries” is planning to open its first Maine location at 425 Fore St., site of the former “Moon” nightclub, and is getting a social media reaction similar to when Trader Joe’s announced the opening of a Marginal Way location.
“It’s kind of the Trader Joe’s of burgers,” said one fan.
For more information on the food at Five Guys, read the review published by The Blueberry Files on her recent visit to a Five Guys in Maryland.
Mainebiz has published a report on a pair of new restaurants that the owners and managers of El Rayo have in the works.
The owners of El Rayo Taqueria are expanding in two directions. Tod Dana and Alex Fisher are opening a cantina in the building next door to their popular Mexican restaurant on York Street. And in the other direction, a few blocks west, they are working on a new restaurant at 231 York St. called River House.
Gogi, an Asian fusion restaurant, is under construction at 653 Congress Street. The draft menu (see page 83) includes items like kim chee fries and bulgogi beef tacos. When it opens it will bring a fourth Asian restaurant to Longfellow Square which is already home to Boda, Pai Men Miyake, and King of the Roll.
While that location has changed hands a number of times in the last few years, it has a long history. Influential restaurateur James Ledue ran Zephyr Grill and then Bella Cucina at that spot 1996-2002, for 24 years (1962-1986) it was Soule’s Candy Kitchen and in 1885 Augustus Schlotterbeck ran an apothecary at that address. Schlotterbeck co-founded the flavor extract business Schlotterbeck-Foss that still operates today from a John Calvin Stevens building on Preble Street.