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.
Yobo owners Sunny Chung and Kim Lully are planning to open their 35-seat Korean restaurant on June 1. Yobo is located at 23 Forest Ave in the space formerly occupied by BiBo’s Madd Apple Cafe.
Ian Driscoll, a former chef de cuisine at Central Provisions, has joined the team launching the restaurant.
If you’ve been to Tandem Bakery the last few months you’ve no doubt noticed the construction going on across the street where The Francis, a boutique hotel, is under development. The Francis will include a 1500 sq ft, 40-seat restaurant called Bolster Snow & Company (instagram).
Nicholas Verdisco is joining the team as the chef for the restaurant. Verdisco plans to serve a menu of contemporary American cuisine with possibly some influence from his family’s Italian heritage. He’s moving to Maine from New York State where he’s worked as the executive sous chef at The Inn at Pound Ridge, a Jean-George Vongerichten restaurant. He came to his culinary career later in life after working in investment banking.
Bolster Snow & Co. is named after the company founded by the original owner of the building and his business partner Lucien Snow. The Francis along with Bolster Snow & Co. is expected to open sometime this Fall.
The building at 747 Congress Street is the Mellen E. Bolster House designed by Francis Fassett and John Calvin Stevens.
Anders Tallberg, Mike Fraser, and Guy Streitburger have leased 769 Congress Street where they plan to reopen the Roma Cafe (facebook, website) as a “full boat, Italian American restaurant” with a “mostly Italian wine list and classic cocktails” in August.
The original Roma Cafe was founded by Dominic Marino at 489 Congress Street in 1924 and moved to 769 Congress in 1935. The restaurant remained in the Marino family until 1985 when it was bought by Peter Landrigan. The restaurant closed sometime in the early 2000’s.
Sebago Brewing is planning to move into a new larger “destination brewery” in January. They’ve decided to put their current brewery up for sale as a turn key facility,
We could sell our brewery to the highest bidder at the drop of a hat and have it shipped out to some location across the nation. Instead, we would like to present the opportunity to a local brewer. Our thought is to sell our brewery installed and in place to a Maine brewer who is growing and needs the capacity or a new start-up looking to find a home. We know what it takes to start up a brewery and the costs and planning it takes to install all the equipment. This would provide a huge advantage for someone.
Urban Eye has posted an article about Eighteen Twenty Wines which is producing rhubarb wine and cider in East Bayside and set to launch early this summer.
“We are over excited to have a good Maine-based wine. We’ve had wine professionals try it and they don’t think it tastes like a fruit wine, they think it tastes like a good white table wine. That is a major opportunity,” said O’Brien, who grew up on Peaks Island and is the director of business development at flyte new media in Portland. She calls their rhubarb vino “crushable porch wine.”
https://www.facebook.com/KnackFactory/videos/1356520494385183/
Knack Factory has produced a video shot at the Gross Confection Bar dessert pop-up event that recently took place at The Honey Paw.
Gorgeous Gelato will be launching a second food cart this summer. In addition to the cart located in Fort Williams Park, they’ll have one on Commercial street located on Widgery Wharf.
