Category: Under Construction

Quanto Basta (website, instagram) owner Betsy English has leased the original LB Kitchen location where she plans establish a permanent home for her Neapolitan pizzeria.

If you had told me two years ago that the world’s tiniest little food truck would become an actual pizza place, I’d say you were out of your mind. And perhaps I am..a little..but you kind of have to be to do this, right?! This was always the dream, but it really came down to finding the perfect space, & I couldn’t be happier to have landed in #lowermunjoy with Lee & Bryna of LB Kitchen as my neighbors. They have welcomed me with open arms, and I’m so excited for the opportunity to grow next to them in their new space.

English plans to serve a menu inspired by regional Italian cooking with a rotating selection of sourdough pizza along with natural wines from Southern Italy, beer and spritzes, plus some additional small plate “snackies”.  After some renovations (construction starts in February) she hopes to have the new brick and mortar QB open in June. The Quanto Basta food truck will be taking a vacation in 2023 while English puts her energy into launching the restaurant.

Quanto Basta launched as a food truck in August 2021, and has built a strong following for their mobile pizza operation. LB Kitchen is in the final stage of building out a larger restaurant for themselves at the corner of Smith and Congress Streets – just two doors down from their current location. LB Kitchen expect to open their new spot in January.

Owners Arvid Brown and Nick Coffin have applied for a liquor license for their new bar Room for Improvement (instagram) providing a first look at the draft menu and cocktail list, and floor plan (see below).

The cocktail menu (see first 3 pages below) is broken up into six categories: From the Freezer, Classics, Wildcards, Escapism, Large Format, and Shots. Additionally, the bar will serve beer and wine.

As previously reported, the concept for Room for Improvement is a 36-seat modern dive bar and will be located at 41 Wharf Street. Coffin and Brown hope to open in March.

Kerry Hanney the baker/owner of Night Moves, and Wade Ritchey have leased 695 Broadway in South Portland where they plan to launch two businesses.

Hanney will be building out the right (white) side of the building where she’ll relaunch the acclaimed Night Moves Bread (website, facebook, instagram). She focuses on bread and baked goods made with sustainably grown local grains which she mills in-house. In 2020 Food & Wine named Night Moves one of the 10 Most Essential bakeries in the nation.

Can a loaf of sourdough have terroir, just like wine? If yes, Kerry Hanney’s would be Maine in bread form. One of the region’s most forward-thinking bakers, she leans heavily on local grains and mills them herself. And her loaves, packed with fruit and nuts or subtly flavored with maple syrup, are essential breakfast slices—just add some local butter.

In addition to her breads and baked good, Hanney will sell coffee, tea, espresso-based drinks to go, and bottles of wine and cider. Home bakers will also be able to buy bags of fresh house-milled grains.

Ritchey will be renovating the left (blue) side of the building where he’ll be launching a bar called Lambs (instagram). Lambs will serve a full bar program of beer, wine and cocktails with a pop-up oyster bar in warmer months and food collaborations with Night Moves year round.

695 Broadway is located along the waterfront and is an easy walk/bike/drive from Portland and has ample parking. It sits adjacent to South Portland Greenbelt which is connected to the Eastern Trail. Hanney and Ritchey plan to have waterfront outdoor picnic table seating.

Construction has already begun and the hope is to open both businesses this spring. Leslie Benson is the architect for the project and Jim Rodney is the builder. Among other projects Benson was the architect for Oxbow Beer in Oxford Maine and Rodney recently completed the build-out of Bar Futo.

Stay tuned for more information on Ritchey’s and Hanney’s exciting plans as they get closer to an opening date.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram has an article about Papi and the growing Latin food scene in Portland.

Papi is the latest addition to the area’s growing and diversifying Latin food scene, a reflection of diners’ appetites for new culinary experiences that also provides the local Latino community the comforting tastes of their culture. While Mexican cuisine has long held significant space in the restaurant scene, here and nationally, representation of other Latin American countries on Maine menus is more recent.

The owners of Ruby’s West End, Matt and Corrinna Stum, have leased 65 Gardiner Street in Wiscasset where they plan to open Back River Bistro (website, instagram).

Back River Bistro will serve a menu of seasonally-driven bistro fare prepared with ingredients sourced from farms within a 30-mile radius of Wiscasset. The bar menu will offer both traditional and natural wines, and cocktails.

The Stums have moved to Morris Farm in Wiscasset where they plan to grow produce for the restaurant along with additional sourcing from Tarbox Farm, Heritage Home Farm, Broad Arrow Farm, Morning Dew Farm, and others.

Aaron and Alison Hansen have joined the Stums in launching the restaurant. Aaron Hansen will be the chef de cuisine for Back River Bistro and Alison Hansen will be leading the bar program. Aaron Hansen and Matt Strum formerly worked together at restaurants in Indianapolis before moving to Maine.

The Stums opened Ruby’s in April 2021, and hope to open the Back River Bistro for dinner by the end of November. They plan to add a lunch service this coming summer. Back River will be open Thursday through Sunday, 5 – 10 pm.

The Longfellow Hotel (website, facebook, instagram) is currently under construction at 754 Congress Street. It’s located next to Tandem and across the Street from The Francis. Both The Francis and Longfellow are operated by Uncommon Hospitality led by Tony and Nate DeLois.

The first floor of the hotel will feature the Twinflower Cafe and Five of Clubs bar. The cafe will be “a wellness focused café serving clean and wholesome breakfast and lunch offerings, as well as espresso drinks and fresh juices” and the bar menu will focus on “classic cocktails, local seafood and charcuterie”. Both establishments will be run by Siobhan & Mike Sindoni the co-owners of the Wayside Tavern.

The Longfellow Hotel is expected to open this summer.

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  Goodfire Brewing (website, facebook, instagram) will be opening their new tasting room and restaurant in Freeport on Saturday. The new location has seating for 75 (including the bar shown above) along with an additional 75 of outdoor seating. The 24-tap draft system will be set-up to serve 12 beer, 6 wines and 6 cocktails.

The kitchen is headed up by Ben Christie along with sous chef Colin Kennedy. The menu (see draft menu below) features “interesting & approachable takes on bar food classics” such as Smoked Ricotta Dip served with tomato confit, olive salad and focaccia,  a Napa Cabbage salad served with a roasted jalapeno and pepita viniagrette, cotija, pickled onions and herbs, and a Fried Pork Cutlet sandwich made with apple mostarda, basil and cabbage slaw. There will be four different styles of wings a kids menu and a selection of desserts that includes a soft pretzel bread pudding.

Christie along with Goodfire Freeport general manager Kevin Nelson are both Big Tree Hospitality alums where Nelson was the general manager of The Honey Paw and Christie was the chef de cuisine at Hugo’s. Kennedy’s resume includes time as the sous chef at Leeward.

Goodfire Freeport features a private dining room that can seat up to 14 and is decorated with a mural (see below) by artist Lydia Jane Brown from October Wilde. A few steps away at the end of the bar Goodfire has built in a pilot system brewing system which they’ll use to produce small batch and experimental one-off beers.

Goodfire Freeport is located at 180 South Freeport Rd, Freeport Maine 04032 which owners David and Julia Redding have been renovating since taking over the space in the summer of 2021. Hours will be Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday noon – 9 pm, Friday and Saturday noon – 10 pm, and open for retail sales only on Monday (1 – 6 pm).

Goodfire Brewing launched their original location on Anderson Street in East Bayside almost exactly five years ago in November 2017.