Mainebiz reports that a new bubble tea shop called Bubble Bliss has opened at 23 Temple Street. It’s located in the space formerly occupied by Old Port Nutrition.

Bubble Bliss offers 23 varieties of bubble tea, including strawberry, brown sugar, taro and vanilla chai. The teas are made with real milk, not milk powders, which gives the drink a richer and creamier taste.

The cafe will also offer refreshers, flavored iced Red Bull drinks and hot tea. 

Thames Landing (website, instagram) is set to open in early July. The restaurant is located in the space formerly occupied by Helm at 60 Thames Street in the first floor of the WEX building.

The dinner menu (see below) includes appetizers like salt cod croquettes, mussels and deviled eggs, a variety of salads and dinner entrees that range from lobster rolls and smashed burgers to lobster dinners and NY strip steaks. The lunch menu slots in some sandwiches in place of larger entrees, and the brunch menu offers some dishes like eggs benedict and French toast.

Thames Landing is being launched by owners Mark and Renae Roy who also operate Navis Cafe. Kristen Smedberg is joining the Thames Landing team as the head chef. She’s was most recently the sous chef at Isa Bistro. David Lacy will be the Thames Landing bartender. Lacy was previously a veteran member of the bar staff at Fore Street.

The Roys have made some changes to the layout of the dining room to open up the entrance area and replace the banquette with table seating. The bar area and private dining room remain in place and the Roys will be launching an expanded outdoor seating area.

Thames Landing will initially open on July 3rd and will hold a grand opening on July 10th. It will be open Monday and Wednesday through Friday 11 am – 9 pm and Saturday/Sunday 10 am – 9 pm.

The Roys are hiring to fill a few last positions at Thames Landing. Visit thames-landing.com for more information and to apply.

Low Stakes Lodge (instagram) will be opening for business on Thursday. The new steakhouse is located at 106 Exchange Street in the space adjacent to Highroller.  The restaurant includes a 13-seat bar, booth seating and upper dining area with a capacity of about 70 overall.

Owners Andy Gerry, Baxter Key, and Peter Bissell—the owners of The Highroller Lobster Company—drew inspiration from traditional steakhouse design and blended it with Maine history and some twists from the owners’ memories of the Bugaboo Creek chain.

The menu (see below) will include prime Rib Eye (shown above), Filet Mignon, New York Strip, and Bavette as well as pork chops, a burger and some other entrees. A Bloomin’ Onion, Wedge Salad and French Onion Soup are among the appetizers. Classic and house cocktails (see below), draft beer and wines by the glass and bottle are available to drink.

Low Stakes Lodge will be open this Thursday through Sunday starting at 5 pm. They’ll be closed the week of the Fourth of July and then hold their grand opening on July 11th. When you go check out the animatronic moose head in the dining room named Moosifer and the mounted Big Mouth Billy Bass in the bathroom that sings Don’t Worry Be Happy and Take Me to the River.

Owners Chris Gamble and Jason Kroot are opening the new Blue Lobster Urban Winery (website, facebook,  instagram) tasting room today. The tasting room serves Blue Lobster wines and cider as well as beer, cocktails, mocktails and other non-alcoholic drinks. See below for their full menu.

Blue Lobster will initially be open Monday through Thursday 2 – 7 pm, Friday 2 – 8 pm, Saturday noon – 8 pm and Sunday noon – 6 pm.

BLUW was founded in 2017 and for the last 7 years has been located in the Rockingham Electric building just down the road at 219 Anderson Street. Both the production facility and the tasting room are now relocated to 200 Anderson Street.