Category: Under Construction

A new restaurant called Elda (instagram) is under construction in the space formerly occupied by Custom Deluxe in Biddeford. Chef/owner Bowman Brown has also leased the adjacent storefront and is in the process of renovating and connecting the two spaces. Overall Elda will seat 32 including an 8-seat bar in the addition, and four seats at chef’s counter looking into the open kitchen.

Brown has moved to Maine from Salt Lake City where he was the co-owner and chef of Forage (instagram). He and co-founding chef Viet Pham were recognized as part of the 2011 class of Best New Chefs by Food & Wine. Additionally, Brown has been a Beard semifinalists in the Best Chef: Southwest category for six years running from 2011 to 2016.

At Elda Brown plans to serve a menu “driven by seafood and vegetables with a focus on seasonality and New England ingredients”.  Diners will be able to choose from a 10-12 dishes or go with a set nightly 4-course menu. The bar program will include “a small selection of rotating seasonal cocktails based around house infusions, tinctures, bitters, and shrubs as well as a vibrant food-focused wine, beer, and cider” options.

The name Elda is a reference to the Icelandic word meaning ‘to cook’ as well as the name of Brown’s great grandmother. Chef Brown plans to open Elda by the end of October.

The Forecaster has published an article about the new Uncle Billy’s under construction at 166 Cumberland Ave.

Uncle Billy’s returns to a burgeoning food platescape with barbecue firmly entrenched in the city and South Portland. This time, he will serve more of a Texas style, headlined by beef brisket.

“I have also become fascinated with pork belly,” St. Laurent said. “I’m going to put pork belly on everything, baby.”

You can follow the progress of Uncle Billy’s Bar-B-Que on their website, and on facebook and twitter.

Here’s a look inside Belleville (instagram, website, facebook) the new bakery under construction at the intersection of Congress and North Streets on Munjoy Hill. Co-owner/baker Chris Deutsch hopes to open this fall in October serving French baked goods in the morning, and sandwiches and roman-style pizza at lunch time. Belleville is sourcing coffee from Tandem Coffee Roasters.

Deutsch learned to bake in Paris and prior to moving to Portland he operated a French bakery food cart in DC called Hot Hot Bakery.

The old newspapers below were found in the wall space during construction.

As reported last week, Rover Bagel (instagram, facebook) is moving their business from Salem, Massachusetts to Biddeford, Maine. Here’s some additional information shared by the Rover team about their plans:

• The new bagel bakery will be located at 111 Elm Street
• They are making good progress on building out the space and hope to be open in September
• They’ve outgrown their current digs and are moving to Biddeford for a number of reasons including co-owner Alec Rutter’s Maine roots. The growing community of food businesses in Biddeford have made that city an appealing place to locate.
• In addition to bagels, they’ll be selling bagel sandwiches and, on Friday and Saturday nights, wood-fired pizza.

Chef Jonny St. Laurent has leased the former Bayside Variety at 166 Cumberland where he plans to open Uncle Billy’s Bar-B-Que (website, facebook, twitter). According to the cover letter supplied with their liquor license application,

The restaurant will be a reincarnation of the famous Uncle Billy’s Bar-B-Que that originally opened in 1989 in South Portland…The new location will feature many of the same smoked meats along with some new ideas that will be in line with the original concept.

Here’s a look at the draft menu (page 46):

The 32-seat restaurant will be augmented in the summer time by an “outdoor dining area in the back, outfitted with Maine-made picnic tables” behind the restaurant. St. Laurent hopes to open Uncle Billy’s in October for lunch and dinner 7 days a week.

Here’s the floor plan:

Saint Laurent last operated a restaurant in Portland called Uncle Billy’s Resto-bar at 653 Congress Street in the space currently occupied by Kushiya Benkay. Uncle Billy’s closed in 2007. He also had run restaurants in South Portland, Portland and Yarmouth in the past.

Bite Into Maine (website, facebook, twitter, instagram) is making good progress on their new brick and mortar kitchen/cafe at 185 Route 1 in Scarborough.

The space will serve both and as a prep area to keep their two food trucks amply supplied throughout the summer months and a destination where Bite Into Maine fans can go all year round to get their lobster roll fix.

Owners Sarah and Karl Sutton hope to open in early fall.

The Press Herald reports that a new food truck called Nom Bai is under development.

The truck is owned by Matthew Glatz, owner of the Salt Box Café, a “tiny house food truck” that serves breakfast and brunch on the Eastern Promenade. Glatz recently built a new food truck for hibachi cooking and has hired Sovanna Neang, who is from Cambodia, to run it.

Nom Bai (instagram, facebook) is slated to serve “Cambodian and Vietnamese street food”.

The last few years has seen a significant increase in the number of new food industry business in Biddeford including a culinary bookstore, 2 breweries, a distilleries (and another one under construction), the renewed Palace Diner, an ice cream shop, 2 pizzerias, a coffeeshop/bookstore, a donut shop and a wine bar to name just a few.

They’re now being joined by:

• Rover Bagel (instagram, facebook)  a wood-fired bagel company from the Boston area that’s setting up their home base of operations in Biddeford. Owners Alec Rutter and Kim Chaurette have leased space on Elm Street next to Tran’s Market. They recently had a Le Panyol wood oven delivered and hope to open in September.
• Part & Parcel (website, instagram, facebook) is a gourmet foods store selling “artisanal cheeses and charcuterie items, chocolates and confections, small housewares, oils and spices, and gourmet gifts” as well as prepared foods. The owners have leased space at 17 Alfred Street and hope to open in October.

Here’s a look inside the new Maine Craft Distilling tasting room and distillery under construction at 123 Washington Ave. The 10,880 sq ft space includes a spacious tasting room, greatly expanded distillery space filled with new equipment, and a large barrel ageing room that will be available for special functions. Davidson will be launching a CSA-like program (community supported distillery?) to sell single barrels of spirits in advance.

The MCD crew are in the final stages of getting the tasting room ready and will be announcing an opening day shortly. MCD is co-located in the same building where the new Island Creek Oyster Bar is in development.

According to the Sentry, Omi’s Coffee Shop is hoping to move from its current location in the West End to Meeting House Hill in South Portland,

The change will allow the conversion of office space at 372 Cottage Road to retail food service. Cape Elizabeth resident Gail Bruzgo requested the change in hopes of relocating her business, Omi’s Coffee Shop, from Brackett Street in Portland. Bruzgo said she did not realize until after buying the building that a business like her coffee shop would not be allowed in the Residential Transition Zone, which was limited to residential housing and office space.

and the Press Herald reports that the Daily Grind coffee drive through in Westbrook is planning to expand into a traditional sit down coffee shop.

They knew it was time. The Daily Grind will open a sit-down shop next door to the drive-thru, which will stay open.

“When that building sold, we knew that Maine Med was going to be there for the long term, and we really needed to jump on this opportunity quickly,” Sue Salisbury said.