Category: Under Construction

Thai Esaan (facebook, instagram) has leased the former Back Bay Grill at 65 Portland Street where they plan to re-open their restaurant. The original Thai Esaan on Forest Ave location closed in late 2021 when a fire damaged the building they were located in.

Owners Ben Boonseng and Siwaporn Roberts plan to launch with their classic menu and then expand it over time with new dishes and specials. Additionally, beer and wine will also now be available. They’ll continue to offer takeout as well as dining on-site with counter service and seating for approximately 60 customers.

Some light renovations are underway, but the layout of the restaurant will remain generally the same. Roberts and Boonseng hope to launch Thai Esaan later this month. Their hours will be Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am – 9 pm.

Prairie Baking Company (website, instagram) owner Elizabeth Rzoska has leased space on Romasco Lane where she plans to open a retail bakery/cafe. Rzoska currently operates her online business out of the former Drifters Wife prep kitchen. The new location is located on the far side of the former Nissen Bakery Building where Hardshore, Maine & Loire, Oxbow and Cong Tu Bot are located.

The menu at the new Prairie Baking cafe will include breakfast and a light lunch with coffee,  pastries, quiche, granola and yogurt as well as toasts. Rzoska hopes to open the cafe this summer.

In the meantime you can order a Prairie Baking cake via their website.

Bonobo Pizza has been closed since the start of last summer. In the intervening months owners Dominique Gonzalez and Justin Grey have been quietly working on plans to open a new restaurant in its place called Cantina Calafia (instagram).

A complete renovation is underway and when completed (see floorplan below) it will result in a 49-seat restaurant with booths along the Pine Street side, a side and back bar and a raised seating area near the front of the storefront all under a vaulted ceiling.

Gonzalez grew up in San Diego with family on both sides of the border—her father was from Guadalajara and her mother lived in Santa Barbara and was the daughter of Mexican immigrants—and crossed the border often. The restaurant and menu will be a reflection of her personal culinary and cultural roots. The menus is still under development but will include dishes like ceviches, aguachiles, smoked fish, and tacos, sopes, etc produced with house-made corn masa. Chef Natalie DiBenedetto (aka Figgy from Figgy’s Takeout) has joined the team as a chef consultant to assist Gonzalez and Grey in bringing the menu to life.

Gonzalez and Grey have owned Bonobo since 2018 and it’s been a longstanding ambition of theirs to convert the pizzeria to restaurant serving Alta and Baja California Mexican cuisine. They hope to open Catina Calafia as early as May.

Here’s a look at the new floor plan:

Since Bonobo closed, artist Lauren Berg from Botanic Magic (website, instagram) has been decorating the building with her trademark style window murals (see above). The latest design includes the message “The more you look the more you see magic in nature”.

A new coffee shop is under construction in the former Hilltop Coffee location on Munjoy Hill. Double Great Coffee (website, instagram) is being launched by Carolyn and Michael Force, the co-owners of Portland Dry Goods with Amanda Foreman from Abura Skincare. They hope to open before Memorial Day.

They will be offering a full coffee program and plan to be a multi-roaster shop featuring a rotating selection of coffees from American and European coffee roasteries. The overall aim is to be a comfortable neighborhood spot for the community.

Renovations are just getting underway. When completed the new coffee shop will seat approximately 25 with a dedicated children’s area and plans for outdoor seating in the warmer months.

The adjacent space in the building is being taken over by Abura Skincare which is moving to the hill from Deering Center. As part of a collaboration between the two businesses the Double Great menu will include some Abura-designed wellness drinks.

Soul Food Paradise (website, instagram) owner Martin Beavers has leased 2,835 sq ft of space at 24 Preble Street where he plans to open a second location for his business. The new spot is adjacent to Dutch’s and was the original location for Arcadia.

Beavers plans to add more soul food classic to the menu and provide a more elevated experience. He hopes to open the in-town location by the start of the summer.

Beavers launched Soul Food Paradise in May 2021 as a takeout business at Fork Food Lab. His current restaurant located in the Maine Mall food court launched in October 2021.

A new restaurant called Thistle & Grouse (instagram) is under construction at 10 Cotton Street in the space formerly occupied by Rivalries. According to a report from the Press Herald, the business is being launched by Bobby Will, the chef/owner of Salt & Steel in Bar Harbor.

Will said he hopes to open his “hyper locally sourced gastropub,” which he plans to call Thistle & Grouse, in late June or July but knows that delays are likely. He said he plans “mostly cosmetic” renovations, including replacing the tile floor with wood and installing leather booths. The menu, he said, will include a raw bar, curry pot pie and an extensive cocktail program and Maine craft beer list.

Rivalries owners Amy and Lance Meader announced the sale of the Cotton Street property last week. They will continue to operate the Rivalries in Falmouth.

Tacos La Poblanita (facebook, instagram) is opening a new restaurant in Westbrook at 57 Bridge Street across from the Dana Warp Mill. Owners Karina Contreras and Jaime Rodriguez hope to open sometime in March, and will be serving a menu that includes tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas and burritos.

Tacos La Poblanita launched as a food truck in the summer of 2019 and in the Maine Mall in summer of 2022.

Joseph Rank recently took over ownership of Big Sky Bread Company (website, facebook, instagram). Co-founder and owner Martha Elkus posted a statement that in part reads,

After 29 wonderful years at the bakery, the time has come for me to move on. In January 2023, after searching for the right person, I sold the bakery to a great guy named Joe Rank. He is a neighbor and long-time customer who is committed to our signature products and all the things that make Big Sky a very special place. At the same time, he has the energy, skills, and vision to make sure Big Sky stays strong for the next 30 years. Joe and his wife Jean live in Deering Center and have 3 sons who attend Portland schools. They have been customers of Big Sky for many years, their kids have played at our dough table, and they understand why Big Sky is so important to this community. I feel confident that the bakery is in good hands.

Martha Elkus and and her late husband Bill Harris founded the Portland Big Sky Bread in 1994. It’s located in the former Engine 8 Firehouse in Woodfords Corner at 536 Deering Ave.

Co-owners Caleb Landry, Adam Sousa, and Matt Brown are launching a new distillery called the Portland Distilling Company (instagram). The distillery is under construction at 135 Walton Street on back side of the same building as the Speckled Ax roastery and coffee shop.

They aim to eventually have a full portfolio of spirits including whisky, bourbon, rum, vodka and various styles of gin. Their first product—which they hope to launch this fall—will be Goldie’s Cocktail Gin produced in a London dry style. PDC’s production still has a 300-gallon capacity which will enable the distillery to produce 10,000 gallons of spirits a year.

Landry and Sousa are the creative directors at Blyth and Burrows and Brown work at Ameriprise Financial. From their bartending background Sousa and Landry have developed an understanding of where there’s opportunity to bring new products to life that meet industry needs and wants which will guide the new product development process at PDC.