Category: Under Construction

Mainer News has published an update on Vena’s Fizz House’s project to move their shop and bar into a former Portland church.

The Cormans hope to have the doors open next spring; they and Marquis are already planning several themed events for next year. And the old church will still be available for weddings — Steve Corman is a notary who’s already performed ceremonies as “The Marrying Bartender,” a much better nickname for such occasions than The Bitterest Man in the World.  

For more details, see this earlier announcement.

The American Journal reports that Big Fin Poke is moving to Rock Row, and that a new restaurant tentatively named Paper City Barbecue is taking its place.

Siblings Tom and Meg Minervino plan to open a barbecue restaurant, tentatively named “Paper City Barbecue,” at 855 Main St., this spring or summer.

The new restaurant’s vibe will be very different from the taproom’s, Tom Minervino said. It will have a family-friendly atmosphere, complete with some arcade games and things for young kids to do.

The Minervinos are also partners in Legends Rest in Westbrook, and Rathskeller on Wharf in Portland.

Bite Into Maine (website, facebook, twitter, instagram) has leased 3,400 sq ft of space in this building at 31 Diamond Street in East Bayside. Owners Sarah and Karl Sutton plan to use this new location as a commissary kitchen and takeout restaurant serving their lobster rolls, soups and sandwiches.

East Bayside is located centrally between where their two food trucks in Fort Williams Park and Allagash Brewing are located. The Suttons are hoping to open the new takeout service in late spring or early summer.

Sarah Martin, the owner of the Bar of Chocolate Cafe on Wharf Street, is renovating the space formerly occupied by The 5 Spot at 935 Congress Street where she plans to open Bread & Olive (facebook) sometime this winter.

Bread & Olive will be a neighborhood martini and wine bar. In addition to the drinks Martin plans to serve a menu of snacks and small and medium sized specials plus espressso and a few dessert options. Bread & Olive will seat approximately 40 customers with a 9-seat bar and a collection of 4-top tables as well.

Follow their account on instagram to check out some of the dishes and follow along with the renovations.

Scratch Baking is planning extensive renovations to their bakery and shop in Willard Square. As you can see from the floor plan below, the final layout will create a better flow through the store with a central island and additional counter space around the exterior of the retail space.

Many things can change over the course of a buildings life and over the last almost 18 years the bakery by necessity has expanded into just about every nook and cranny. As many folks know the flow inside has never been ideal (in fact it’s always been a big mess) crowded, counter intuitive and frankly kind of a pain to navigate, especially on the busiest days. There have been small changes over the years but this winter with @barrett_made at the helm we are so excited to share we are embarking on the most ambitious project to date.

Christmas Eve will be their last day open for a 3 to 5 week time period during which time baking will cease and renovations will take place on the back part of the bakery on Willard Square. All Scratch Baking locations will be closed during that time.

When Scratch reopens (tentatively in early February), they will be temporarily selling out of the former Toast Bar location on Broadway for another 6-8 weeks while renovations in Willard Square continue. They hope to reopen and unveil the new Willard Square shop in the spring.

They may someday reopen the Toast Bar but there aren’t any immediate plans to do so.

Zu Bakery (website, instagram) owner Barak Olins has leased space at 81 Clark Street where he plans to open a bakery and retail shop. Olins envisions it as a takeout “traditional neighborhood boulangerie” with baking taking place onsite. He hopes to open the new bakery in the spring.

Zu Bakery will be serving pastries and coffee at the start of the day and with baguettes and other breads going on sale as they get baked during the day. Olins plans to make most of his bakery products with Maine grown grains he mills in-house. In addition to morning pastries and breads Zu Bakery will also sell biscotti, granola, seasonal pastries and a small selection of bottled wine. He plans to evolve the offerings of the shop as he learns the needs of the neighborhood.

Olins launched Zu Baker in 2000. Previously he was a co-founder/chef of the highly regarded Cafe Uffa, which was located in Longfellow Square and opened in 1995. Olins used funds from the sale of Uffa to build the bread oven when launching Zu Baker.

The USM Free Press has a report on a new University of Southern Maine food truck.

Parked outside of Luther Bonney lies USM’s newest dining service on wheels. The newly acquired food truck currently offers hot meals Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tadd Stone, General Manager of Sodexo at USM, said that Sodexo was “looking for a dining option that would be available to use even after the new student center/café were complete.” 

Union Bagel had a significant equipment failure earlier this month that damaged their shop and bakery on Cumberland Ave. They’re making use of the need to recover from that damage to execute some additional planned construction.

So, we will be down for a few weeks as we replace the kettle, oven, and floor and follow through with other parts of the renovation plan. I don’t as yet have an exact timeline but as I know more, I will send updates. We recognize that this is an inconvenience and thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. We are excited to take this time to give our amazing space the love and makeover it needs, and to reopen with our menu and added retail days.

Tandem Coffee has kicked-off renovations to their building on Anderson Street—the site of their original roastery and small cafe in East Bayside. The renovated tasting room for their roastery will feature additional counter and table seating including a spot that the architect has labeled “Kathleen’s Cozy Corner”. The coffee bar will be moved from the left side of the building to the center right (see the floor plan below).

Will and Kathleen Pratt launched Tandem Coffee on Anderson Street in 2012, and opened their location on Congress Street in 2014. They hope to open the renovated East Bayside location this coming spring.