The list of nominees for this year’s James Beard Foundation awards has been released:
The winners will be announced at a ceremony on May 4 in Avery Fisher Hall in New York.
The James Beard Foundation is scheduled to announce the final list of 2009 nominees today; several Portland restaurants are semi-finalists. Bar Lola and the Foreside Tavern are both hosting wine dinners this week. Rosemont, Leavitt and Sons, Browne Trading, Kitchen and Cork and Scarborough Wine Outlet are all holding wine tastings. On Thursday, The Great Lost Bear is showcasing beers from Rogue Brewing. Friday night, ILAP is holding the 5th Annual Celesoiree. For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.
Today’s Press Herald has a wrap up on Maine Maple Sunday. Reportedly, some sugar houses even ran out of syrup to sell. There’s a photo slide show on the Press Herald site for those of you who didn’t make it out this year to see the action in person.
Tivi Design is producing a circular bar for Grace, the restaurant that’s being built in the Chestnut Street Church. The bar’s wood and glass canopy echos the design of Grace’s three pointed logo. You can see artist drawings and a series of construction photos that Tivi has published on Flickr.
Portland Magazine has reviewed Paciarino.
As backgrounds for our sauce selections, we picked lasagna and ravioli. Not the usual piled-up-high pasta upon pasta, our lasagna with bolognese ($8.50) was instead a thinner version powerfully packed with layers of intense flavor.
Blog About Beer has a report on the new IPA from Peak Organic. “Portland’s own Peak Organic Brewing has released their own IPA and I have to say, it’s the single best Peak beer yet! After trying a pint myself at $3 Dewey’s a few days ago”.
In a post earlier this month, Beer Locavore drew attention to the recent spate of IPA launches. IPAs from Gritty’s Sebago and Peak are now all available.
According to an article from The Bollard, “The Freaky Bean Coffee Company is closing its two remaining locations, in South Portland and Scarborough, today, and has opted not to fight an involuntary bankruptcy action a group of creditors initiated in late February.”
The First Lady and students from the Bancroft Elementary School in DC will break ground for a vegetable garden at the White House. The garden has been the goal of the Eat the View campaign, organized by Scarborough resident Roger Doiron. According to a press release, Doiron and Eat the View now hope to reach “out to other people and identifying other high-profile pieces of land that could be transformed into edible landscapes. Sprawling lawns around governors’ residences, schoolyards, vacant urban lots: those are all views that should be eaten.”
Empire Dine and Dance received 4 stars from the Eat & Run column in today’s Press Herald.
We sampled the variety of pub fare at the Empire and discovered new Chef Todd “Bam” Bidwell makes cheap eats here pretty worthwhile.
Since Bidwell took over as chef in November and revamped the menu in January, he’s got the kitchen running as he likes it – and he’s fussy.
The Bollard has published an op-ed against bottled water.
This water is systematically and relentlessly pumped from land that belongs to Maine communities. Poland Spring, which began bottling water generations ago in the town of that name, is now an arm of the global conglomerate Nestlé. Poland Spring is trying to strong-arm Maine so Nestlé can continue to extract our water, for free, and sell it back to us.