Category: Under Construction

Saigon Restaurant has its signage up, the interior looks finished and, while it’s not easily visible in this photo, there are “Coming Soon” signs in the window so an opening day doesn’t seem all that far off. An early draft menu showed a mix of Vietnamese and Chinese dishes on the menu.

According to the agenda for the upcoming Portland City Council meeting:

• JP’s Bistro (sample menu)  is moving in to take over the space formerly occupied by Rachels at 496 Woodford Street.
• Nosh Bar (sample menu) is the name of the  “upscale delicatessen and lounge” moving into old The White Heart location at 551 Congress Street. The re-opening of this location help mitigate the contraction in the number of Portland bars as pointed out by PortlandTaps.com.

James Tranchemontagne, owner of The Frog and Turtle, is opening a new restaurant in Westbrook with his wife and brother. The new business is taking over the space formerly occupied by Freaky Bean on Main Street and will be called The French Press Eatery. They plan on having it open in a few weeks and will be serving “12 different breakfast sandwiches, our donuts, soups, salads, sandwiches and a lot of different coffees”.

Portland Psst! has published a round-up on changes of ownership at The White Heart, Thanh Thanh Bida and Awful Annie’s, as well as news that Po’Boy’s & Pickles (see sample menu) is replacing the D’Angelo’s on Forest Ave and G’Vanni’s Bistro (see sample menu) is going to occupy the spot on Exchange Street vacated by Walter’s.
The agenda from next week’s City Council meeting also provides a first look at the menu for Boda. For a more complete list of all the upcoming venues take a look at the Under Construction List.

According to an article in today’s Portland Daily Sun, the owners of Bangkok Thai are planning on turning it into an Asian fusion restaurant to be called Boda.

The restaurateurs are closing Bangkok Thai, their popular lunch and dinner restaurant at 671 Congress St., and converting it into a new Asian fusion eatery similar in some respects to their other Congress Street restaurant, the Green Elephant Vegetarian Bistro. Boda should be open in December.

“The food will change every two weeks, and we’ll have five to 10 items every night, that’s all. We’ll make it simple but good quality,” said Wongsaichua.

There’s an article about Local Sprouts Cafe in today’s Press Herald. The LSC staff held a community design event earlier this week to go over their plans and gather fresh ideas for the cafe.

The Local Sprouts Cooperative is lined up as the first retail tenant at 645 Congress St., the former site of a University of Southern Maine dormitory.

The cooperative expects to open its Local Sprouts Cafe on the first floor of the building in February or March, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner with an emphasis on local and organic foods.

According to a post from Avery Yale Kamila on twitter, the Peace Food Market is now open for business.

There’s a sign in the window of the store front at 349 Cumberland Avenue announcing “Three Monkeys World Cafe Coming Soon!”. If that address sounds familiar, it’s because Huong Vietnamese used to be located there. With the addition of Three Monkeys there are now 16 entries on the Under Construction list.

Caiola’s is putting an addition to their building at 58 Pine St. The plan is to add a 26-seat function room on to the back of the building.