This Week’s Events: Restaurant Week, Reopening and Pop-ups

| Posted in Events

Maine Restaurant Week kicked off this week and runs through March 12.

Thursday – Fore Street, Street & Co, and Scales are re-opening after a long winter break, and Sugar High Donuts will be at Urban Farm Fermentory for a 2-day pop-up.

Saturday – Crispy Gai is participating the guest chef series at Ramona’s (continues on Sunday), Briana Holt from Tandem will be participating in the Small Axe guest chef series (menu) at East Ender (continues on Sunday), Ada’s is holding the first of a series of pop-ups (menu will go live today) in anticipation of fully re-opening later this year, and the Winter Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Outdoor Dining & Retail Program

| Posted in General News

The City of Portland has published details on the 2021 Outdoor Dining & Retail Program. The program details street closure, how restaurants can make use of public spaces such as parks and on how to make use of adjacent on street parking space to expand their outdoor dining areas.

In order to continue helping local businesses through the pandemic, the City is updating its outdoor dining and retail permitting program, which will be in effect from April 2021 to April 2022. The program allows retailers and restaurants to apply to expand into public spaces, including closed streets, parklets, the public right-of-way, and parks. In addition, they may apply to extend their use of private space into the winter season.

How Restaurants Have Adapted

| Posted in People

Yesterday’s episode of Maine Calling talked to members of the restaurant community about how restaurants have adapted during the pandemic.

Winter is traditionally the toughest season for Maine restaurants — but this year, because of the pandemic, it’s even more challenging. Local restaurant owners say revenue this winter so far has been about half of what it usually is. Several Maine restaurants have closed during the pandemic, others have changed the way they operate, setting up to-go windows, outdoor seating options and food trucks. A few new restaurants have even opened. Maine Restaurant Week is different this year, too, hoping to underscore how creative solutions might keep the restaurant industry afloat.

Lokahi Foods

| Posted in Under Construction

A new business called Lokahi Foods (instagram) is under development. Lokahi will be a takeout business selling vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free desserts with flavors that will include: triple berry, strawberry chocolate, raspberry lemon, and chocolate hazelnut.

Owner Jelena Cesljarac plans to launch Lokahi in April. In the meantime follow Lokahi on instagram to stay in the loop on their development and get a look at their desserts.

Joey Ramona’s Pop-up

| Posted in Events

Ramona’s and A&C Grocery on Washington Ave are teaming up for a one day pop-up on March 13th.

The menu will include:

  • Fried Chicken Hoagie – prosciutto and provolone stuffed peppers, artichoke mayo, arugula & hoagie dressing
  • Broccoli Rabe Reuben – broccoli rabe, swiss, kraut, Ramona’s Very Special Sauce, rye bread (vegetarian)
  • Hoagie Dip & Utz Chips – It’s chips & dip
  • Macaroni Caesar Salad – romaine, radicchio, elbow noodles, pepperoncini, Caesar dressing, bread crumbs
  • Bissell Brothers Beer

Joey Ramona’s will be taking place at A&C Grocery. A portion of the sales will benefit the Maine Music Alliance.

S+P Plant-Based Foods

| Posted in Openings

Online ordering for S+P (website, instagram) is now live. The new plant-based foods takeout business operating out of the Fork Food Lab by co-owners Shelby Faux and Payson Cunningham.

Their first pick-up day is March 5th and the menu includes pantry staples, desserts, weekly specials and frozen dishes.

Faux and Cunningham moved to Portland from the Midcoast where they ran a pop-up event series serving multi-course vegan dinners. In addition to vegan takeout meals they hope to continue creating pop-up events here in the Portland area.

Binga’s Stadium on Forest Ave

| Posted in Under Construction

Binga’s Stadium (website, facebook, instagram, twitter) has leased 949 Forest Ave and will be converting the former Maelily & Ryleigh’s into an off-peninsula outpost of their location on Free Street, and will be closing their location on Free Street.

The furniture, equipment and fixtures at the Free Street location are for sale for $85,000 and the 17,000 sq ft space is for lease at $4/sq ft (NNN).

According to a report in the Press Herald, “The new Portland location of the Binga’s Wingas restaurant chain, which specializes in wings, will be more like its other neighborhood locations in Yarmouth, Windham and Old Orchard Beach, a press release said.”

Beautiful Swimmer Pop-up

| Posted in General

Ordering is now live for the Beautiful Swimmer (instagram) pop-up takeout dinner by chef Ben Jackson.

Visit beautifulswimmer.com to place your order.

The menu for the 3-course takeout dinner for two will feature:

  • Steamed greens and clams agrodolce
  • Chicken meatballs over sprouted lentils
  • Fishcake and scallops, turnip and laminaria, swimming in broth

Pick-up for the dinner will be on March 5th with time slots available from 5 – 7:30 pm. Tandem Coffee is lending out Little Tandem in East Bayside (122 Anderson Street) for Beautiful Swimmer to use as pick-up location for the night.

Beautiful Swimmer is being launched by Ben and Alexis Jackson. Ben is a Beard-award nominated chef. In Brooklyn he worked at Marlow and Sons and Diner before becoming the executive sous chef for Reynard at the Wythe Hotel. He moved to Maine in 2016 to become the chef de cuisine at the now closed Drifters Wife. He received a James Beard award Best Chef nomination in 2020 for his work at Drifters.

Beautiful Swimmer is a new and evolving concept. Follow Beautiful Swimmer on instagram to stay in the loop on future events and milestones in its development.

Mitr Ping Yang Thai Kitchen

| Posted in Under Construction

Earlier this week when Cheevitdee announced they would be permanently closing their Old Port restaurant the message ended on a hopeful note with, “The spirit of Cheevitdee lives on. Details in the near future.”

That “near future” has arrived and it’s a pleasure to share the news that some of the same team involved in Cheevitdee and its sister restaurant Mi Sen are launching a new Portland restaurant named Mitr (facebook, instagram).

When it opens later this year Mitr will serve a menu of Ping Yang style Thai food. According to Mitr, “Ping Yang style typically means grilled or charbroiled. In Thailand, these techniques are very popular for street food and you can find them just about any corner of the street of every part of Thailand. Sometimes on skewers, sometime it’s a grill meat as a whole. Marinaded and grilled to perfection presenting you with rich aromas. Oftentimes, the meals will be enjoy with various sauces you can choose.”

Follow Mitr on instagram to learn about the restaurant’s future location and on an upcoming pop-up.