Category: Under Construction

Skordo (website, facebook, instagram), a Freeport-based culinary store, has a new retail shop under construction st 372 Fore Street.

A new food vendor called Maiz Colombian Street Food (facebook) is under construction in the Public Market House. Maiz will serve “modern twists on the traditional Colombian” arepas. In the morning they will also have on the menu a “pan-de-bono, a savory cheese bread made with yucca flour”. Maiz will also serve Colombian coffee and lemonades in fruit and coconut flavors.

Owners Martha Leonard and Niky Walter met in Colombia where Walter was born and raised. They plan to launch Maiz on July 1st.

Veranda Thai owner Hai Pham has purchased the building at 672 Main Street in Westbrook where a new Veranda Thai restaurant is under construction.

Veranda Thai joins a growing list of restaurants and other food businesses in Westbrook: Big Fin Poke, Bamboo Bistro, Black Dinah Chocolates, Mast Landing Brewing, and Brea Lu Cafe. Both Fishermen’s Grill and Yes Brewing Company are also under construction.

Frog and Turtle made the first notable leap into the Westbrook market when they left behind a spot in Longfellow Square for Main Street in Westbrook in 2007.

Little Giant (facebook, instagram) owners Andrew and Briana Volk have released information on the management team that will be running their 60-seat West End restaurant which is slated to open in mid-June.

• Rian Wyllie (instagram) will lead the kitchen at Little Giant. Wyllie was the Executive Chef of Deep Ellum and Lone Star Taco Bar in Boston for the past ten years.
• Darcy Brennan Poor will be leading the bakery/pastry program. A Portland resident, she studied at the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan. In NYC she worked at Runner and Stone in Brooklyn, a retail bakery and restaurant that specializes in naturally leavened breads, viennoiserie pastries, and desserts.
• Max Overstrom-Coleman (instagram) will be the bar manager at Little Giant. He has more than twenty years in the hospitality industry.

The restaurant is located at the intersection of Danforth and Clark Streets.  Back in December it was named to Imbibe Magazine’s 2017 class of ‘Imbibe 75′.

The menu for Little Giant “will focus on Continental European cuisine with a New England influence” and the bar program “will bring together the influences of European cafe culture and well-made cocktails to Portland’s West End.”

 

SaltBox Cafe owners are renovating a Grumman stepvan into a second food truck.

Benkay has announced plans to move from their current location  on Commercial Street to a new building under construction at 16 Middle Street. They expect to be open at the new restaurant this summer.

 

A new seafood shack called Miller Brothers Seafood is under construction at 849 Forest Ave in the space formerly occupied by Fishermen’s Grill.

Fishermen’s Grill itself is in the process of renovating 650 Main Street in Westbrook, the space formerly occupied by Rosen’s Deli, and hope to reopen soon.

A mini ice cream shop called Casco Bay Creamery (instagram) is slated to open in the information booth along the walking trail opposite 17 Commercial Street. The freezer equipment is installed and there’s a Help Wanted sign in the window.

The bio line for CBC’s instagram account indicates they’ll be serving organic ice cream.

Mainebiz reports that Lewiston’s Forage Market is looking for space to expand into Portland.

“We’re trying to find another location now,” Smith, owner of the five-year-old market at 180 Lisbon St., told Mainebiz. “We’d like a spot on the peninsula, ideally with a good neighborhood feel. We are looking for 3,000 to 4,000 square feet.”

Smith expects the Portland location, once it is built out with a wood-fired oven, will triple current revenues. He declined to discuss numbers except to say that revenue grew 30% last year and 20% this year.