The Portland Food Map archive provides a chronicle of the past 17 years of the Portland restaurant scene. While a lot of the reporting here is about what’s happening now and coming next, we thought it would be interesting to take a look back each month at the news from 5, 10 and 15 years ago.
Here’s some notable news from January 2010, 2015 and 2020:
- 2010 – Dual Site, a “psychogeographic dinner theater” took place at Whitney Art Works.
- Anthony Bourdain was in town filming a Maine episode for No Reservations. He visited J’s Oyster Bar and Street & Co before heading up the coast to Primo and Conte’s and then inland for a meal at Spring Creek Bar-B-Q in Monson.
- Sonny’s opened for business on January 8th.
- The January/February issue of Imbibe magazine include Portland along with Reno, Austin, Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul as key cities in America’s emerging beer scene. Additionally, The Atlantic magazine published an article calling Portland a Craft Beer Heaven.
- Pie in the Sky, a new pizzeria opened on the second floor of the Public Market House by Big Sky Breads, opened for business.
- Several Portland restaurants raised funds for relief efforts in Haiti. The country had been hit by a magnitude 7 earthquake on January 12th.
- 2015 – Peter and Orenda Hale opened a new wine shop on Washington Ave called Maine & Loire.
- Draft magazine included Novare Res in their list of America’s 100 Best Beer Bars.
- Food writer Kate McCarty and Maine Beer Mavens founder Lora Burns started a women’s whiskey club called the Portland Spirit Society.
- Vinland chef/owner David Levi prepared a dinner at the James Beard House in NYC.
- New England Distilling began barrel-aging their first batch of bourbon. The spirit would be bottled in 2017 under the name Tidewalker.
- Eric and Julie Michaud made the decision to rename their business In’finiti to the Liquid Riot Bottling Company.
- Word broke that Steve and Michelle Corry were working on a bakery/cafe called Portland Patisserie at 46 Market Street.
- Full Belly Deli closed after 28 years in business.
- Tiqa opened for business on January 21st.
- MECA launched a Culinary Arts program with classes on topics like food blogging and whole pig butchering.
- Treehouse opened on January 23rd in the space formally occupied by the Cafe at Pat’s.
- 2020 – Noodle Love (now Mainely Noods) opened for business on January 3rd.
- Mission Chinese chef Danny Bowien was at Solo Italiano where he and Solo Italiano’s chef Paolo Laboa prepared an “Italian-Asian fusion menu never-before-seen inside Solo’s walls”.
- Ned Swain, the owner of Devenish Wines, addressed a hearing at the International Trade Commission to speak against the proposal to apply 100% tariffs to European wines imported into the United States.
- 207 Bar & Restaurant opened on January 10th at 337 Cumberland Ave in the building formerly occupied by Maria’s.
- Magnus on Water opened for business in Biddeford on Saturday January 18th.
- Six Maine food producers won Good Food Awards in the categories of beer, coffee, confections, grains, honey and pickles.
- The 5th Annual Chef Summit took place with sessions on publishing cookbooks, open fire cooking and whole animal butchering.
- The Knotted Apron opened January 30th.
- Woodford Food & Beverage’s Courtney Loreg was the first chef featured in our My Kitchen, Their Table interview series.