The Lost Kitchen has released details of their 2019 reservation process. It follows the same pattern as last year, so dust off your stack of 3×5 cards, find an envelope and a stamp and get your letter ready to mail on April 1st.
Reviews: Piccolo, LB Kitchen
The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed the Piccolo, and
The new Piccolo still holds a maximum of 20 diners at a time, but it feels (and is) brighter, more colorful and best of all: more accessible. With the addition of half-portions of pasta to the menu, it is easy to imagine stopping in for a weekday meal of phenomenal Funghi (a stealth salad with a runny egg that creates its own carbonara-like dressing), a plate of pork-sugo-dressed strascinati pasta, and a half-dessert, half-digestif fior di latte gelato slowly melting into a fruity, herbal shot of Pasubio amaro. No special occasion required.
The Bollard has reviewed the LB Kitchen.
It’s definitely possible to make healthier choices than we made — the menu includes several whole-grain bowls, vegetable-heavy sandwiches and the like — but to me, LB Kitchen shines brightest when they put a healthyish spin on traditional breakfast fare. The prices aren’t the lowest in town, but the quality of both the ingredients and their preparation made the cost seem totally reasonable. I can declare without shame that I’ll be back soon.
Bird & Co Opens Tuesday
Bird & Co. (instagram), the new Mexican restaurant that’s been under construction in Woodfords Corner, has announced plans to open on Tuesday, with the Grand Opening for the restaurant scheduled for Tuesday March 19th.
Bird & Co. is located at 539 Deering Ave in the space formerly occupied by Abilene.
Speed Rack
Five bartenders from Portland are competing in the Northeast regional Speed Rack competition:
- Liz Smith from Lio
- LyAnna Sanabria from Chaval
- Sylvi Roy from Hunt & Alpine
- Kristen Mixter from Hunt & Alpine
- Charlotte Stanton from Little Giant
Speed Rack is a charity female bartending competition that raises money for breast cancer research. The winner in the Northeast will go on to keep in the national competition in NYC this May.
Tickets for the Northest regional competition taking place March 11 are available online.
Elise Miller, Chopped Champion
Rosemont Butcher Elise Miller beat out the competition to become a Chopped Champion this week, reports the Press Herald.
Maine Beer Co. Tasting Room
Both The Blueberry Files and Mainebiz have published reports on the new Maine Beer Company tasting room in Freeport.
Fortunately, the tasting room expansion is complete, with a 6,000 sq. ft. light-filled space with a wood-fired pizza oven and a water fountain. The new space is open to the public now, but the official grand opening is Saturday, March 9th.
Rabelais Books
Life & Thyme has published a profile of Rabelais Books and its owner Don Lindgren.
For Don Lindgren of Rabelais, an antiquarian bookshop in Biddeford, Maine, these culinary texts serve a purpose even more expansive than the preservation of recipes. Widely considered a leading buyer and seller of antiquarian cookbooks and culinary ephemera, his work consists not just in seeking out rare material, but in helping others understand the role those books played in the lives of both their individual owners and society at large.
Relocations: North Bayou & Ripka
A pair of food businesses originally founded elsewhere in New England have relocated to the Portland area:
- North Bayou Cold Brew has moved from Burlington, Vermont and is now setting up at a location in the Pepperell Mill Campus in Biddeford. North Bayou’s bottled cold brew is for sale at the Little Woodfords coffee shop.
- Ripka has relocated to Portland from Providence, Rhode Island. Owner Rebecca Volynsky hopes to eventually open her own hybrid Eastern European & Jewish eatery and gallery. In the meantime she’s hosting pop-ups with participating bakeries and restaurants including an upcoming pierogi pop-up at Rose Foods on March 31st.
Source Awards
The Press Herald is seeking nominees for this year’s Source Sustainability Awards. Past year’s winners have included butchers, grocers, aqua-cultivators. If you know of a person or organization (or are one yourself) that are “contributing to the state’s environmental well-being” then take a moment to nominate them for consideration.
Under Construction: Dean’s Sweets
Dean’s Sweets (website, facebook, instagram, twitter) is planning to open a second location at 54 Cove Street in East Bayside. The new location will provide additional production space and a retail shop. They hope to open the new location in late Spring.
54 Cove Street is adjacent to the building that will house Extrava and just around the corner from little Tandem.
Dean’s was founded 15 years ago by co-owners Dean and Kristin Bingham. Dean’s will continue to produce and sell their nut-free chocolates at 475 Fore Street as well.