This Week’s Events: Bar Boulud Pop-up, Titantic Dinner, Classes

| Posted in Events

Wednesday – there will be a wine tasting at Old Port Wine Merchants, Black Tie is teaching a cooking class and Andrew Volk from the Portland Hunt and Alpine Club is kicking off a 2-day pop-up at Bar Boulud in Boston.

Saturday – The Cumberland Club is hosting a “Last Dinner on the Titanic” dinner, there will be a wine tasting at LeRoux Kitchen, and the Winter Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Saturday – Foley’s/Scattoloni is teaching a baking class.

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.

Maine Foodie Tours Wins Award

| Posted in People

Maine Foodie Tours owner, Pamela Laskey won the 2018 Award for Innovation & Creativity at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism.

”With Maine Foodie Tours, Pamela Laskey has created an exceptional visitor experience that promotes Maine’s culinary scene to a niche travel audience, and helps to strengthen an industry sector that is one of Maine primary tourism pillars,” said Steve Lyons, director of the Maine Office of Tourism.

Reviews: Black Cow, 555, Green Elephant, Otto

| Posted in Reviews

The Golden Dish has reviewed Black Cow,

All said and done, the Black Cow and its menu are brilliantly located in the heartbeat of the Old Port vibe where you can have burgers, fries, soda, sandwiches and casual salads all washed down by a great menu of craft cocktails and bar drinks of all stripe.

the Press Herald has reviewed Otto Pizza,

Happy hour at Otto isn’t what it used to be, but the on-the-house slice means it’s still worth a look.

The Bollard has reviewed Green Elephant, and

We also had the local mushroom rice bowl ($15). Mushrooms are a fantastic way to bring a meaty flavor and texture to vegetarian dishes. This bowl had shiitakes, oyster mushrooms, and some oddly chewy, fried enoki mushrooms. Like the curry, it also had plenty of vegetables and a bed of brown jasmine rice. It was satisfying in a comfort-food sort of way, but hardly exciting. It tasted like an easy weeknight dinner at home, when you realize you have a bunch of mushrooms in the fridge that are on their way out, so you whip up an impromptu stir-fry.

Peter Peter Portland Eater has reviewed Easter brunch at Five Fifty-Five.

We finished our food and paid the $44 tab. The meal was fine, but either the wait lowered my enthusiasm or I’m just too used to their dinner which I really love, because it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. However, the prices were relatively standard for the city, so to be fair, I did get what I paid for. The biggest issue was definitely the delay in receiving our food. That needs some work, especially considering the modest crowd when I was there. Maybe I’ll stick to dinner when I go back.

Uncle Billy’s Leasing Abilene

| Posted in Under Construction

Uncle Billy’s Bar-B-Que (website, facebook, instagram, twitter) has leased the former Abilene space at 539 Deering Ave in Woodford’s Corner where they plan to operate a pop-up restaurant while their permanent location on Cumberland Ave is under construction.

The Uncle Billy’s pop-up will open as soon as some light renovations and inspections are complete and run through the end of the summer. It will serve a scaled back version of the menu that will eventually served on Cumberland Ave.

Maine Food for Thought

| Posted in Under Construction

Portland’s new food tour company, Maine Food for Thought (website, instagram, facebook) will start selling tickets on their website on April 27th. Their first season of tours will run June through November.

Founders Sarah and Bryce Hach are working with a real strong line-up restaurants: East Ender, Evo, Piccolo, Scales, Solo Italiano and Union. They’ll also be partnering with a number of other nonprofit, education and research organizations providing the information that will inform the back stories shared on the tours.

Maine Food for Thought tour goers will get to experience a ” series of locally sourced and harvested dishes” and “will learn how Maine’s people, ecology, and economy interact to shape a celebrated food destination”.

Under Construction: Locally Sauced

| Posted in Under Construction

The Portland Phoenix has interviewed Charlie and Aimee Ely, owners of Locally Sauced, who are trading in their food truck for a brick and mortar location on Thompson’s Point.

The Phoenix: What was it about Thompson’s Point that made it an appealing choice as a spot to finally put down roots?
Aimee Ely: There were a lot of factors. Our initial decision to seek out a brick and mortar space was the fact that catering is super seasonal. We were hoping to find something of a routine for the sake of our kids. What we were doing was awesome and a lot of fun, but very unpredictable and sporadic. When the opportunity for this space opened up it felt like a perfect situation given the relationship we had with Bissell and the Point already.

Definitive Brewing Co.

| Posted in Under Construction, Beer

The Press Herald checked in with Definitive Brewing on the upcoming launch of their Industrial Way brewery and how they hope to succeed in an increasingly competitive market.

[Michael] Rankin, the CEO of Definitive, rounded up a group of 11 investors and bought a building on Industrial Way, across the street from Allagash and next door to Foundation, Austin Street and Battery Steele breweries. Definitive hired Dylan Webber – a former top brewer at Maine Beer Co. and Mast Landing – to be the director of brewing operations. And Definitive is diving into the market with a 15-barrel brewhouse and four 40-barrel fermenters, which is enough to make more than 1,000 gallons a week.

Definitive Brewing is slated to open around Memorial Day.

Under Construction: Chocolats Passion

| Posted in Uncategorized

Chocolats Passion (website, facebook, instagram) has leased the former Farm Truck Juice space at 189 Brackett Street. Owner Catherine Wiersema hopes to open her French chocolaterie shop sometime in September.

Wiersema founded Chocolats Passion in Massachusetts and moved the business to Portland in 2017.

According to the CP website Wiersema is,

an honors graduate of the Professional Chocolatier program at the renowned Ecole Chocolat, and also went through their rigorous Quality Assurance course, which is specifically designed for chocolate confections. More recently, I studied in Montreal with world-renowned chocolatier Ramon Morato. Study breaks help hone my creative edge and broaden chocolate horizons!