Owner Krista Kern Desjarlais is temporarily closing The Purple House after this Sunday so she can devote her and her time to running Bresca and the Honey Bee during the remainder of the summer.
She plans to reopen The Purple House in October and to also start her monthly TPH dinner series in September.
Staff shortage have driven the change in plans.
Full Plate Full Potential, the Maine organization fight childhood hunger in the state, is expanding to the Midcoast with an event at 250 Main in Rockland. Chef Kerry Altiero from Cafe Miranda, Michael Mastronardi from Yardbird Canteen, Maine Street Meats, and Chartrand Imports are participating in the event.
The Press Herald has published a “field guide to a half-dozen of the city’s finest burgers”.
Eat enough hamburgers, and you start to see how varied, how individual they can be. Every time I sampled a new one, I thought about its unique identity. Then during one meal, it hit me mid-bite, juice dripping onto a sheet of wax paper: Burgers are like people. Each has a unique character, inherited from those who created it. Some you like, some you don’t, and that’s okay.
The good folks at Knack Factory has produced a wonderful video about Rabelais Books and its owner, resident bibliomaniac and culinary historian, Don Lindgren.
The businesses along the in-town stretch of Washington Ave are having a block party this Saturday.
Participating food vendors include: Oxbow, Maine Mead Works, Hardshore Distilling, Terlingua, Izikaya Minato, Silly’s, Cong Tu Bot, Coffee by Design , Flying Fox, A&C Grocery, Portland Pottery.
Speckled Ax is working on launching a coffee truck.
So, there’s a Speckled Ax Truck in the works. Phases one and two–drive train and outside cosmetics–took a lot longer than expected, but are pretty much done. On to phase three. Here’s the “before” of the inside, after we pulled out lots of horrible vinyl and fake wood. More details to come.
Tuesday – influential Boston bartender Brother Cleve will be guest mixing tiki cocktails at the Hunt and Alpine Club, 5-7 pm.
Wednesday – Hugo’s is holding a dinner featuring food and wine from southern France, there will be wine tastings at Browne Trading and the Old Port Wine Merchants, and the Monument Square Farmers’ Market is taking place.
Thursday – there will be a Champagne wine dinner at Petite Jacqueline.
Friday – Yes Brewing is scheduled to open at 3:30. They’re located at 609 Main Street behind Mister Bagel.
Saturday –the 2017 Craft Brew Race and Festival and the Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market are 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.
Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal published an article by Nancy Harmon Jenkins about Long Grain in Camden,
If I told you that one of the most captivating Asian restaurants in the country is a hole-in-the-wall in a pretty little town on the coast of Maine, would you believe me? Forget lobster rolls, I tell skeptics; you’re going to love the kao klug kapi. And the always come away from Long Grain, in Camden, with a one-word reaction: “Wow.”
and the Lewiston Sun Journal has published an interview with A-list food writer and editor, and Maine native Scott DeSimon. He will be a judge at the Down East lobster roll competition in early July.
It’s your first time judging a lobster roll competition. What will make the winner stand out? For me, the ideal roll is all about the perfect mix of mayo to perfectly cooked meat, with very little in the way of other ingredients or seasonings. And the bun needs to be hot and buttery, with a touch of crispness from the flat top. Simple, but so many people screw it up. Of course, if someone does some brilliant take on a lobster banh mi, I could be swayed.
Liquid Riot is participating in this year’s edition of the James Beard Foundation’s Blended Burger Project. The program challenges restaurants to develop burgers that include at least 25% fresh mushrooms, and to have it on the menu through July 31. During that time diners can participate by trying it out and voting for their favorite online. The program an effort by the Foundation to encourage sustainability and healthier food options.
Liquid Riot’s blended burger is called the Spore Uproar. It uses a mix of “Hen of the Wood, Pink Oyster and Lion’s Main mushrooms and beef on a buttered and grilled brioche bun, topped with Vermont Creamery fresh goat cheese, a green tomato and poblano relish, and Liquid Riot Bierschnaps mushroom pate, red-veined sorrel and pickled red onion.”
Painter Tessa Greene O’Brien hard at work on the signage for the new Island Creek Oyster market and bar at Washington Ave. Island Creek will be located at 123 Washington Ave in the same building that Maine Craft Distilling.
I had the chance to talk with ICO founder Skip Bennett back in February. His plans for the space are three-fold: as a retail market for the Maine oyster brands they sell, cold storage for their distribution network and there will be a casual oyster and beer bar.
Bennett plans to hold events at the bar that connect oyster lovers with producers. All told the space is around 2,000 sq ft, in addition they’ve added a deck to the front of the building.