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 fun to take a look back each month at what the hot topics were from 5, 10 and 15 years ago.
Here’s are highlights from September 2009, 2014 and 2019:
- Geo’s Patisserie on Forest Ave closed in 2009, as did Barava on Congress St.
- Julia Moskin penned an article for the New York Times about the Portland food scene, “In the last decade, Portland has undergone a controlled fermentation for culinary ideas combining young chefs in a hard climate with few rules, no European tradition to answer to, and relatively low economic pressure and has become one of the best places to eat in the Northeast.”
- A company called Ocean Approved received a lease to farm kelp in Casco Bay.
- As a result of the NYT article Rabelais started getting calls for reservations from people who had mistaken the bookstore for a restaurant.
- Gourmet magazine included Fore Street in a national list of 125 restaurants “you can trust to provide exceptional food and a memorable experience every single time”.
- Peace Food Market opened for business.
- The popular Congress Street bar The White Heart closed in 2014. The space eventually would become the home of Nosh.
- Arcadia opened for business at their original location on Preble Street, Dean’s Sweets on Fore Street and Golden Lotus opened, Sur Lie opened on Free Street, and so did Huong’s Vietnamese Restaurant on Saint John Street. The email newsletter Eat Drink Lucky launched in 2014.
- The owners of Piccolo celebrated the first anniversary of the restaurant with a 20-course feast.
- The Pepperclub closed in September 2014 and Sangillo’s filed an appeal of in the denial of their liquor license renewal.
- Nathaniel Meiklejohn opened his Arts District cocktail bar The Jewel Box.
- Sticky Sweet opened their plant-based ice cream shop on Cumberland Ave in 2019.
- Word broke that Maria’s Ristorante was planning move into the Espo’s space at 1335 Congress Street.
- Mast Landing expanded into a 20,000 square foot space in Westbrook.
- Word broke that Randy and Ally Forrester were moving to Portland to open what would become Radici.
- JP’s Bistro owner John Paul Gagnon made the decision to move his restaurant from Woodford Street in Portland to Falmouth.