Botanically Curious Now Open

| Posted in Openings

Botanically Curious (website, facebook, instagram) held their grand opening on Friday. The herbal apothecary and mocktail bar is located at 419 Congress Street in the first floor of the Masonic building.

The mocktail menu (see below) includes a drink called the Hibiscus Rose shown above. It’s made with cranberry infused chia seeds, sparkling hibiscus tea, dandelion tincture and a raspberry garnish served on the rocks. The multi-use space is set-up to host workshops, has a selection of herbal products for sale, and a library seating area.

Botanically Curious will initially be open Thursday through Sunday, 11 am – 7 pm.

Maine Food & Dining News: Thomaston, Houlton, Veazie, Waterford, Biddeford, Ogunquit

| Posted in Maine

New food and dining developments are taking place all across Maine. Here are some recent updates to keep you in the know:

  • Malcolm Bedell launched his new restaurant Honey’s (website, instagram) this week. The menu features a variety of fried chicken sandwiches (shown above is the Classic) as well as fries, chicken tenders, snacks and sides. Honey’s is located in Bird Plaza in Thomaston. It will be open Monday through Saturday,  11 am – 7 pm.
  • A new restaurant called Katahdin Kitchen (instagram) is scheduled to open next week in Veazie. The team at Katahdin Kitchen are taking “a fresh approach to Indigenous and American comfort foods with local ingredients.” The menu includes dishes like a wild rice bowl and a Sisters Salad made with roasted corn, beans, squash, beets, herbs and scallions served over greens. Katahdin Kitchen is located at 1492 State Street.
  • Chef Brandon Montes has joined the team at The Waterford Inne. Innkeeper Kember Vanderblue shared that she and Montes “will continue to focus the spotlight we shine on our homegrown produce and that of hyper-local farms, but Brandon brings with him knowledge of sustainable wild foods, and invasive species coming from both the oceans and deep woods of Maine” that will further develop the culinary program. Montes most recently worked with chef Bowman Brown at Elda and Jackrabbit. The inn’s restaurant Tallulah’s (website, instagram) is open seasonally serving pre fixe dinners on Fridays/Saturdays. Vandeblue expect to expand the days open and range of events and menus in the coming year.
  • The Bangor Daily News reports that a new restaurant called A Different Point of Brew Bistro is under construction in downtown Houlton. Owners Shyann Miller and Shelby Fitzpatrick plan to offer coffees, teas and energy teas as well as soup, salads and sandwiches.
  • A team from The Dunn Bar in Biddeford are launching a new Italian restaurant called Vin Santo in the space adjacent on Washington Street.
  • Coastal Wine in Ogunquit is relaunching today as Coastal Alchemist adding cocktails, draft beer, and a new food menu to their existing wine program.

Pizza Joint to Close

| Posted in Closings

Pizza Joint (website, facebook, instagram) has announced plans to close both their Portland and South Portland locations this month.

Hello pizza friends,
It is with great sadness that we have made the tough decision to close Pizza Joint.
Our last day of operation will be Sunday, April 14th. This date is subject to change depending on how much crew we have in the last few days.
Get it while you can, folks.
Thank you all for your loyalty and kindness over 47 great years. We couldn’t have done it without you. ♥
-The Pizza Joint

2024 Beard Awards Nominees from Maine

| Posted in Reviews, Maine

UPDATE: you can watch the awards presentation via this Youtube Livestream.

The list of final nominees for the 2024 James Beard Foundation Awards season has been released. 4 of the 10 chef and restaurant semifinalist announced in January are 2024 nominees. Congratulations to:

  • Outstanding Bakery – ZU Bakery, Portland (Barak Olins, bottom right photo)
  • Outstanding Hospitality – Woodford Food & Beverage, Portland (upper left photo)
  • Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker – Atsuko Fujimoto, Norimoto Bakery in Portland (bottom left photo)
  • Best Chef: Northeast – Jake Stevens, Leeward (upper right photo)

The 2024 award winners will be announced on Monday June 10th in Chicago.

Related information:

Model T Coffee on Congress Street

| Posted in Under Construction

The owners of the Bru-Thru Coffee Shack (facebook, instagram), a drive through coffee shop in Cumberland, are taking over the former Coffee by Design location on Congress Street where they plan to open a new coffee shop called the Model T Coffee Company (facebook, instagram).

Matthew and Stephanie Morgan and their family will be serving Coffee by Design coffee, donuts from Tony’s Donuts as well as baked goods from some other local producers. The full food menu is still under development. Renovations are underway with plans to give Model T a vintage vibe. The Morgans hope to launch the cafe sometime in April.

Food & Wine: Best Food City, Best Restaurants, Best Bakeries

| Posted in Reviews

Food & Wine has released the winners of their Global Tastemakers Awards. Maine is recognized in three of the award categories:

Portland is on the list of the 10 Top US Cities for Food and Drinks.

Aragosta on Deer Isle is on the list of the Top 20 Restaurants in the US.

Portland is on the list of the 10 Top US Cities for Bakeries.

How the award winners are selected:

This year, we asked more than 180 food and travel journalists from across the globe to nominate their favorite restaurants, bars, bakeries, markets, cities, hotels, airports, airlines, and cruises around the world. We then entrusted that feedback to an expert panel of judges to rank each category’s winners. In many categories, we’ve included a Plus One, hand-selected by our expert panel, to shout out more culinary destinations we don’t want our readers to miss.

Upcoming Food & Dining Events

| Posted in Events

Wednesday – The Beard Foundation will release the 2024 list of restaurant and chef awards nominees. There are 10 semifinalists from Maine this year.

Friday – It’s the grand opening of Botanically Curious.

April 9 – The Maine Center for Entrepreneurs is holding a FoodTech Maine Showcase at USM. Jean Christophe Rusatira, founder of Umuko Coffee Importers, will be speaking at Coffee by Design on Diamond Street.

April 16 – Award-winning chef and restaurant owner Marilou Ranta from The Quarry in Monson will be taking part in a Maine Voices Live interview at One Longfellow Square. Tickets are now on sale.

April 17 – Wayside Tavern is holding an Alpine Food & Wine Dinner.

April 19-28 – The 6th annual Maine Seaweed Week is taking place.

April 20 – It’s the first day of the summer session of the Portland Farmers’ Market. The market will be in Deering Oaks Park on Wednesdays and Saturdays (7 am – 1 pm).

April 27 – Portland Chowderfest is taking place.

April 28 – The Casco Bay Chef’s Association is holding their 2024 annual dinner.

April 29 – The Good Food Awards winners will be announced. Eight Maine food producers are finalists in the 2024 Good Food awards program.

May 11 – CiderFeast, an “all-inclusive tasting event celebrates craft ciders from some of the top cider makers in New England and beyond” is taking place.

May 18 – The Maine Wild Wine Fest is taking place in Freeport.

May 19 – Fork Food Lab and Mayo Street Arts are collaborating to hold the Taste of Nations Food Festival.

June 10-16 – Portland Wine Week is taking place.

June 17 – The 3rd Annual ChopTails Competition will be taking place at Batson River.

June 22 – The Great Falls Brewfest is taking place in Lewiston.

June 26 – Secret Supper (instagram) is holding a dinner in the Portland area.

June 29 – The 3rd Annual Mast Landing Wavy Days Festival is taking place.

July 25/26 – The Kneading Conference is taking place in Skowhegan.

August 30 – September 1 – Maine Apple Camp is taking place.

September 20-22 – The Common Ground Fair will be taking place.

Vin Santo in Biddeford

| Posted in Under Construction

Mainebiz reports that the owners of The Dunn Bar in Biddeford have leased the space adjacent to their Washington Street restaurant. In the new space at 12 Washington Street Doug Darby, Ciel Caldwell and Angela Napolitano will be opening an Italian restaurant called Vin Santo.

“Doug is Irish, and his dream was to open an Irish pub,” said ” said Napolitano. “Ciel is Italian, and I am Italian. We just started talking and thought this space would be perfect for branching out and doing Italian. This has been in the works for the past two months. We wanted to expand into the space to have one team and one entity. I can share my staff. We have a joint kitchen, and now it’s just pulling the pieces together to make it all work as one.

12 Washington Street in Biddeford was formerly occupied by Sublime Taco. The taco restaurant recently announced they’re taking over operation of the kitchen at Mick’s Sports Bar in Biddeford.

According to the Mainebiz article, Vin Santo is slated to open in mid to late April.

Maine Food & Dining News: Springvale, Brunswick, Windham, Limerick, New Gloucester, Machias, Biddeford, Westbrook, Damariscotta

| Posted in Maine

New food and dining developments are taking place all across Maine. Here are some recent updates to keep you in the know:

  • Downhill Bagel Company (instagram) opened for business yesterday in Springvale. They’re located at 446 Main Street. Owner Billy Nichols and his team are serving a menu (see below) of breakfast and lunch bagel sandwiches as well as weekend options like pastrami on rye. Downhill reopens this week on Saturday; they’ll initially be open Thursday/Friday 8 am – 2 pm, and Saturday/Sunday 9 am – 2 pm.
  • Lil Jam Cookies (website, instagram) recently opened their new bakery in Brunswick. They’re open Wednesday through Saturday 8 am – 4 pm and Sunday 8 am – 2 pm. Lil Jam is located at 146 Maine Street next to Maine Street Bistro.
  • The owners of Ann’s Book Bistro have opened a second restaurant in Damariscotta. Koko’s Sandwich Bar (website, instagram) is located at 603 Main Street. They serve a menu of pressed sandwiches, soups and salads. You can learn more about Koko’s from this recent article in the The Lincoln County News. Koko’s is open daily 11 am – 3 pm.
  • A new restaurant called Cormier’s Dog House (facebook) is under construction in Windham. They’ll be serving “Chicago style hotdogs and more”.
  • Black Tie has published the schedule for their 2024 Graze dinner series which takes place at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester.
  • Gneiss Brewing has announced plans to shut down their brewery. Their last day in business is still to be determined, in the meantime their tasting room in Limerick will be open on Saturdays, noon – 6 pm.
  • Mason’s Brewing will be opening a new location in Machias in the former Bluebird Ranch Family Restaurant space at 78 Main St.
  • Sublime Taco announced that they’ll be taking over the kitchen and menu at Mick’s in Biddeford. Sublime closed their taco shop in downtown Biddeford late last year.
  • Baker/owner Lesa Beck has announced plans to launch Pine Tree Bakery (website, instagram) on April 10th. The bakery is located at 1557 Bridgton Road in Windham.
  • The new Don’s Lunch (facebook) cafe in Westbrook opened on Monday.

An Organic Etrog Orchard

| Posted in Farming

Goronson Farm (website, facebook, instagram) in Scarborough has kicked off a project to farm etrog, a type of citrus which play an important part in celebration of the Jewish festival of Sukkot.

Citrus trees might not seem a natural fit for Maine weather but owner Maureen Goronson has a lot of experience growing rare fruit. She currently grow a variety of fruit trees that include Chinese Honey Peaches (Shui Mi Tao), French apricots (Paviot), apricots from Iran (Shakarpara), and persimmons.

Goronson plans to build out a new greenhouse and to plant an orchard of 30 etrog trees. The fruit will be a certified-organic and certified-kosher crop. She was prompted to take on this project by a customer who knew of her passion for raising rare fruits. If all goes according to schedule the first crop will be available in 2027. When they reach maturity each of the thirty trees will be able to produce 150-250 fruit. Goronson hopes her orchard will address the lack of a source of kosher organic etrogs.

For more information visit the page on the Goronson website about the project, and support the initiative visit the Go Fund Me page for the project.