Love Kupcakes (website, facebook, twitter, instagram) has leased 469 Fore Street, the space immediately next to Dean’s Sweets and across from Miyake.
Owner Amy Alward tells me that while they renovate the space LK will continue to be for sale on the second floor of the Public Market House and at their food truck in Millcreek next to Bull Moose.
Love Kupcakes is also going through a process to rebrand their business to broaden the menu of products they sell.
Blake Orchard (website, instagram, facebook) has successfully completed a $18,250 kickstarter campaign to open a “locally sourced artisan juice shop” in Portland.
Owner Alexandra Blake Messenger started Blake Orchard about a year ago and sells 9 raw juices and nut milks at farmers’ markets in Worcester and Somerville. She has identified a retail space in Portland and is raised funds on Kickstarter to help with build-out and equipment costs.
Harding Lee Smith is adding two more establishments two his series of Room restaurants:
Smith shared that it has “always been my plan to have 5-6 places” and been on the lookout for locations that are a fit for the types of restaurants he’d like to open. His first restaurant, The Front Room, opened in December 2005. The Grill Room and The Corner Room opened in quick succession in 2008 and 2009. Finally Boone’s Fish House & Oyster Room opened in 2013.
Urban Eye has posted an update on One Eye Open Brewing.
A trio of University of Southern Maine grads are turning a vacant shed in East Bayside into Portland’s smallest brewery. How small? In 500 square feet the 20-somethings will brew a barrel and a half at a time: that’s about nine kegs a run at One Eye Open Brewing Company.
The Press Herald has posted a overview on a number of the restaurants under development in Portland which includes the first public mention of Gross Confection Bar.
This dessert-only restaurant concept is still in the early planning stages. Brant Dadaleares, the former pastry chef at Fore Street, hopes to open a restaurant in Portland that serves only plated desserts, cocktails, digestifs and dessert wines.
For a full list of restaurants in development in Portland see the Under Construction page.
The Press Herald reports that Krista Kern Desjarlais has decided to delay the opening of The Purple House in North Yarmouth until this Fall.
If you’ve been counting the days until you could sample the bread, baked goods and savory dishes made at The Purple House in North Yarmouth, you’ll just have to count a little longer.
MaineBiz has published an article about Fork Food Lab, which is under construction in West Bayside.
But Spillane sees it as ideal for the planned Fork Food Lab, a collaborative commercial kitchen serving new and existing food businesses. The idea is that, for affordable full-time and part-time membership fees, Fork provides cooking space and equipment, serves as a business mentor, and distributes product — allowing food entrepreneurs to focus on creating food.
Scratch Baking announced yesterday (instagram, facebook) that they’ll be opening a second location in the former Getty Gas station on Broadway.
The new bakery will provide Scratch with expanded production space for their highly sought after bagels as well as a Toast & Bagel Bar with seating. Scratch will continue to operate the bakery in Willard Square unchanged. They hope to open the new spot in mid-Summer.
The Press Herald caught up with [co-owner Sonja] Swandberg about the announcement to learn more about plans for the new location.
Swanberg said she couldn’t guarantee that the new location will make the bagel lines disappear, but having a bigger oven in the Getty space should at least shorten the waiting time for a fresh, hot Maine sea salt bagel. She estimated “very conservatively” that the bakery will be able to churn out 25 percent more bagels a day.
The Golden Dish has posted a report on the Izakaya Minato pop-up dinner that took place earlier this week at Bao Bao.
The cured sardines were beautifully presented: the body of the sardine was fried and towered over the slices of cured fish in a fan of neat slices. The deeply fried bones were like eating candy. This was a great dish that I would hope to see often at the forthcoming restaurant.
The Press Herald has published a report on a planned 9000 sq ft 172-seat restaurant to replace the Joe’s Boathouse building in South Portland which is slated to be a South Portland branch of the Old Port Sea Grill.
Elaine Alden and Thomas Takashi Cooke are working on opening an Japanese restaurant called Izakaya Minato (instagram). Minato is the Japanese word for “port”.
The couple moved to Portland late last year from San Francisco where Cooke had been the head chef at Tsunami, a sushi restaurant. They recently completed a 3-month stay in Japan where he staged at an Izakaya restaurant in Tokyo called Tsumamina.
They’re currently searching for a space for their restaurant in Portland to launch “a fun, casual place to go gather with friends for drinks and food” for dinner, and, depending on location, may serve lunch as well.
In the meantime we have the chance to try some of the Izakaya Minato menu at a pop-up dinner they’re holding next week at Bao Bao (March 29, 5:30 – 10pm).