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 November 2009, 2014 and 2019:
- James and Andre Tranchemontagne launched their new multi-roaster coffee shop, The French Press Eatery, in Westbrook and construction got under way for Yordprom Coffee in the West End.
- The 3rd Annual Portland Beer Week took place in November 1-7, 2014.
- James Schwartz became the new Maine Sunday Telegram restaurant critic and for his first article reviewed the dinner service at Artemisia Cafe.
- Dutch’s opened for business on November 11, 2014.
- Frank Anderson and Rebecca Ambrosi launched a dinner series called The Hunter’s Bend.
- Northspore launched as a mushroom CSA.
- Oxbow Brewing opened their tasting room on Washington Ave. Word also broke in November of 2014 that a new wine shop called Maine & Loire was slated to open just a few doors down. The opening of Oxbow, Maine & Loire and also Terlingua in 2014 and 2015 were early milestones in the development of the inner Washington Ave we enjoy today.
- Angello Ciocca and chef William D’Auvray launched Ebb & Flow at 100 Commercial Street in the space that’s been the home of Solo Italiano since 2016.
- Maine Shrimp season was cancelled for a second year.
- The Salt Exchange closed.
- The organizers of the excellent Pocket Brunch series in collaboration with the Maine Brewers Guild and Down East held a game dinner called Pocket Feast.
- The Portland Food Co-op opened on November 19, 2014.
- Bartender Paul Russell took steps to establish a Portland chapter of the US Bartenders Guild.
- In November 2019, Food & Wine magazine recognized Little Woodfords as one of the Best Coffee Shops in America.
- Cocktail Mary, Uncharted Tea, Anoche and Nura all opened for business in November 2019.
- Chef Ryan Hickman took over the former JP’s Bistro space with plans to open a new restaurant called The Knotted Apron.