Chad Conley, co-owner of Palace Diner, has leased the former Brea Lu Cafe space at 428 Forest Ave where he plans to open a new restaurant serving breakfast and lunch. This new venture will serve a different menu from Palace Diner.
The building was the scene of a fire a year ago that displaced Brea Lu and other residents. It’s in the early stages of construction right now, and Conley hopes to open the restaurant this summer.
Urban Eye has posted an update on the A & C Grocery under construction on Washington Ave.
After nine years in the grocery business — he worked at Rosemont Market and was a founding partner at The Farm Stand in South Portland — he is ready to go out on his own with A & C Grocery. “I’ve been thinking about this concept for years,” said Fournier, who plans to open in two and a half weeks.
A & C Grocery (website, facebook), a “neighborhood one-stop grocery shop” is under construction at 131 Washington Ave.
A new Korean restaurant called YOBO is under construction at 23 Forest Ave in the space formerly occupied by BiBo’s Madd Apple Cafe. Yobo will serve “refined Asian comfort food with a rustic appeal” and feature wonderful boutique wines from small vineyards.” Owners Sunny Chung and Kim Lully plan to create an atmosphere that is “intimate and casual, with all the comforts of dining with good friends.”
Chung and Lully formerly operated a farm to table restaurant in Concord, New Hampshire called Sunny’s Table. They hope to open Yobo in the April/May time frame.
Redevelopment of the old Margarita’s on Brown Street into the Portland outpost of BRGR Bar continues with a recent proposal to add an outdoor deck and make renovations to the street signage and entrance.
Falmouth deli Leavitt & Sons is opening a second location in Bayside, according to a report from the Press Herald, at 200 Kennebec Street.
David Levi is working on a new restaurant called Trattoria Fanny in the former Rossobianco space in Bramhall Square. Levi’s plan is for the new restaurant to be “Simpler, more rustic, and more affordable than its last incarnation,” serving food from Northern Italy with a few Roman classics in the mix. He has hired Roman native Siddharta Rumma as the chef.
The new restaurant is named Levi’s grandmother, Fanny Levi, who was born and raised in Milan and immigrated to New York City in 1939.
Levi plans to open the restaurant in February, serving lunch weekdays and dinner Tuesday through Saturday, and will eventually add a brunch service.
Update: Urban Eye has posted some additional info on Trattoria Fanny.
A new brewery called Good Fire Brewing (website, facebook, instagram, twitter) is under construction in East Bayside, reports the Press Herald.
Cardente Real Estate announced Wednesday that it’s leased a nearly 4,000-square-foot space at 219 Anderson St. to Goodfire Brewing LLC for a brewery and 39-seat tasting room. The brewery, located just behind U-Haul on Marginal Way, is expected to open in June.
The Bangor Daily News has published a report on the growing number of mobile food operators that have expanded to include a brick and mortar establishment or traded in their truck as they grew into a traditional restaurant.
As more and more of Maine’s food trucks morph into bricks-and-mortar eateries, their owners offer a variety of reasons that shifting from four wheels to four walls suddenly makes sense: The “right space” became available, tight quarters came to feel too stifling, the initial venture was successful enough to bankroll a bigger, more traditional restaurant.
The most recent development was Bite Into Maine’s decision to open a location on in Scarborough. Bite Into Maine will join fellow mobile food vendors Mami, Small Axe/East Ender, Love Kupcakes/Baristas+Bites, Hella Good Tacos, Mainely Burgers, Urban Sugar and CN Shawarma/Baharat in converting to or adding a brick and mortar capacity.
Urban Eye has posted an update on Coffee Me Up, a new coffee shop and cafe under construction at 221 Cumberland Ave.
It’s not an art show, but the images streaming from Coffee ME Up pack a graphic punch. When Portland’s newest coffee shop opens Jan. 29 on Cumberland Avenue, unicorns, bears and kittens will magically appear in your lattes.
The Press Herald reports that Island Creek Oysters has leased space at 123 Washington Ave—in the same building as the new Maine Craft Distilling—where they plan to operate a retail shop and restaurant.
Island Creek Oysters, based in Duxbury, Massachusetts, plans to open a retail shop and restaurant at 123 Washington Ave., just a couple of doors away from Roustabout and Oxbow Brewing, the company announced Monday. The new business is expected to open sometime between April and June.