UnaRes Technologies

| Posted in Openings

A local Maine company called UnaRes Technologies (website, instagram) launched their first product earlier this month. UnaBrew is

…a comprehensive brewery management solution developed in close collaboration with industry experts. We’ve designed a powerful software platform to overcome the challenges of operating a brewery; from consistently brewing top quality beer to scheduling tasting room staff, and everything in between.

The company was founded by Ivan Novikov and Andrew Camarata. The two are longtime friends and avid beer lovers with backgrounds in software development. They’ve developed UnaBrew over the last 10 months, and are now focusing their energies on identifying and adding new features to the program.

Breweries interested in learning more about UnaBrew can reach them via their website or DM on instagram.

This Week’s Events: Portland Wine Week, Great Lost Bear 40th, Raise The Dough

| Posted in Events

All Week Long – today is the opening day of 2nd Annual Portland Wine Week (website, facebook, instagram, twitter). Over the next 7 days nearly 80 events will be taking place across the city. Wine dinners, panel discussions, special events with winemakers, wine tastings, a wine passpourt program, and even a wine barre class. This is a huge collaborative effort by restaurants, bars, wine shops with leadership and overall organization by Erica Archer from Wine Wise. See the PWW event calendar for all the details.

Wednesday – the Monument Square Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Thursday – The Great Lost Bear is holding a 40th Anniversary Bash.

Saturday – nearly a dozen bakeries are collaborating on a bake sale to raise funds for Portland’s Community Fund to benefit the new wave of asylum seekers arriving in the city. The Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market is taking place.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

Great Lost Bear, Sidewalk Dining

| Posted in General News

This week’s Food & Dining section includes an article on the 40-year anniversary of The Great Lost Bear,

Dave Evans, who founded The Great Lost Bear with his wife, Weslie, is now 72, but still comes into the restaurant every day and has no plans to retire. Many Portlanders have their own fond recollections of spending time at the Bear – such as sipping craft brews from one of its 80 taps, or mugging for the Bear Cam at the bar. Evans, naturally, has his own, and recently shared some of his favorite memories of the place that has become his second home.

and an article on sidewalk dining in Portland.

As the number of restaurants in Portland continues to rise, so does the demand for outdoor seating, where locals and tourists alike can bask in the sun while slurping Maine oysters or sipping craft beer. Setting up tables on the sidewalk allows restaurants without private outdoor space to compete for customers who won’t dine out any other way when it’s warm enough or have their dog in tow — and more and more of them are taking advantage of that option.

Yardie Ting Opened Saturday

| Posted in Openings

Yadie Ting (facebook, instagram), a Jamaican eatery, opened yesterday. They’re located on the 2nd floor of the Public Market House.

Yardie Ting serves “authentic Jamaican dishes with a modern twist , using fresh local ingredients and homemade rubs and spices.” The menu posted on Saturday included jerk chicken, tofu, or pork, and curry stew as a plate or bowl, as well as Jamaican tacos.

They’ll be open on Sunday, 12 – 5.

Reviews: Eaux, Blue Spoon Cafe, Luke’s

| Posted in Reviews

Portland Magazine has reviewed Eaux,

Tonight’s special is the Étouffée ($22), a lovely presentation with the fiddleheads curled in a fragrant base. But it’s the gorgeous golden-fried soft-shell crab resting atop the bowl that takes center stage. There’s no lobster analogy for the soft-shell crab, and it’s a brilliant pairing with the fiddleheads, whose season also is fleeting—almost a bump of the supernatural.

the Press Herald has reviewed Blue Spoon Cafe, and

Of course, I did, partially because this became the day I fell in love with dill. I finally understood what’s been missing from every chicken salad I’ve ever eaten (and there have been quite a few), not to mention the magnitude of putting it on some of the best sourdough bread on the planet.

The Golden Dish has reviewed the Luke’s Lobster.

Under Construction: Candy’s

| Posted in Under Construction

Candy’s (website, instagram), the queer community hub under construction at 34 Portland Street has included a draft menu (below) for their cafe along with their liquor license.

Milo Degoosh will be joining the Candy’s team as the Director of Coffee where he plans to serve coffee from Onyx Coffee Lab, a roaster from Arkansas.

Candy’s hopes to open sometime in late summer.

Under Construction: Anoche

| Posted in Under Construction

If you’ve walked down Washington Ave in the last couple of months you’re sure to have noticed the papered windows of the former Coffee by Design location 43 Washington Ave. Construction has been underway for a while and I’m happy to now to be able to share it’s slated to be the future home of Anoche (website, instagram) a  cider and spirits bar being opened by longtime Novare Res manager Erika Colby.

In addition to cider and spirits, Colby is also planning to serve a menu of Basque-inspired food centered on pinxtos, tapas-style snacks that are traditionally served on bread with the topping spiked to the base with a small skewer.

Colby shared with me that she started this project with “a simple love for ciders” and it grew from there to encompass the full vision of a cider, spirits bar serving food from the Basque region of Spain. She’s found it a very rewarding process to start with a blank canvas and work to envision the final product of space, service, food and drinks, putting to use what she’s learned from years in the industry.

Colby is “excited to offer Portland something a little different” and hopes to open Anoche in late August.

Drifter’s Makes the Top 100

| Posted in Reviews

Wine Enthusiast has included Drifters Wife in their 2019 list of the America’s 100 Best Wine Restaurants.

Each year, the editors of Wine Enthusiast sip and sup their way around the country, seeking eateries that incorporate wine in thoughtful and exciting ways. This list isn’t a ranking, nor is there a matrix of number of bottles, prices or types of food. Instead, it is a selection of restaurants where wine is shared and celebrated, and where, in our experiences, the selection, food, service and atmosphere are all exceptional. Cheers!

Portland Wine Week

| Posted in Events

Forbes has published an article about Portland Wine Week which is taking place next week, June 17 -23.

What sets Portland apart as a wine-lover’s destination? Portland restaurants lean towards small boutique wineries for their wine lists–wines that are not big volume production and that are really delicious and have a unique story to tell. [And] a healthy number of wine distributors who are very passionate about the wines in their portfolio. …. There’s also a lot of focus on increasing one’s own wine knowledge among restaurant hospitality professionals here, in order to help customers understand the wine lists and to understand it themselves.