A pair of new businesses have announced their opening plans:
Portland Mash Tun opened their doors last night. The bar and brewpub operates a ½ barrel brewery onsite at 29 Wharf Street. Owner Rick Binet is also a co-owner of the King’s Head Pub.
Mash Tun serves a small menu that includes: a grass fed burger, veggie burger, Parmesan salad, sauteed Brussels sprouts, and a cheese plate.
The Drifter’s Wife (website, facebook, instagram) is scheduled to open on Tuesday at 4pm. The natural wine bar has been built into the front half of Maine & Loire at 63 Washington Ave.
Owners Orenda and Peter Hale are working with their former Wythe hotel colleague, chef Ben Jackson to launch the wine bar. The opening night menu is still in the works but you see a draft on the Drifter’s Wife website.
Ilma Lopez, pastry chef and co-owner of Piccolo, is a finalist for a Golden Bowl award from the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs Organization. The award recognizes “excellence in baking and pastry arts and honoring a woman whose skill in the baking and pastry arts inspires others”.
Annemarie Ahearn, owner of Saltwater Farm in Rockport is a finalist in the Golden Pencil category. The award recognizes “dedication to teaching that is making a difference to the culinary world and honoring a woman who inspires her students to achieve both technically and creatively”.
The Golden Dish has posted a first look report on Rhum.
Rhum is seriously fun. The food is creatively conceived, with highly sophisticated flavors that are lavishly delicious. As a lounge, it’s the tops of tikidom!
Petite Jacqueline is slated to re-open in May. The bistro will be merged with Portland Patisserie and the new business will occupy 46 Market Street. The reconfigured space will include a bar and seat 48 overall. The plan is to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner at the new Petite Jacqueline 7 days a week.
The Beard Foundation will release the list of semi-finalists for this year’s awards program next week. While we wait to find out what Maine chefs and restaurants made the cut, I thought it would be good time to research how the Foundation selects nominees and pick the winners.
Here’s what the process looks like:
October – The Beard Foundation put out an open call for the public to submit their suggestions. In 2014 35,000 entries were received.
End of Year – 250 regional panelists (25 for each of the 10 regions) submit their recommendations.
januaury – the Restaurant and Chefs Awards Committee review submissions from panelists and the public to select the strongest contenders in each category.
Mid-February – The “long list” of semi-final nominees is released.
February/March – regional panelists, former award winners and committee members—about 600 people in all—vote. The top 5 entries in each category are become nominees. Ballots are sent out and votes are tabulated by the independent accounting firm Lutz & Carr.
Mid-March – the “short list” of nominees is released.
March/April – A final ballot is conducted with the same group (panelists, winners, and committee members) to determine the winner in each of the categories.
Early May – the winners are announced at the Beard Awards Gala in Chicago.
There are a total of 21 restaurant and chef awards in 12 categories. Maine chefs and restaurants have been in the running every year for at least the past decade.
For more information visit the Policies and Procedures page on the JBF website.
Today’s Press Herald examined how people’s first date food choices sometimes signal the fate of a relationship,
Carolyn is the sort of person with several small mason jars of excellent and varied loose leaves in her cupboard at any time. She knows how to brew a cup. The prospect of a lifetime of meals and hot beverages with a man who would serve Lipton’s tea (and on a first date, yet, the time one is most striving to impress) – well, suffice it to say, there was no second date.
and an article on the Graziano restaurant exhibit and Roux & Cyr Gallery.
Over Thanksgiving, Graziano and Poland photographer Michael McAllister spent two days in a half-dozen Portland restaurants, taking photos in the kitchen and on the floor. They capped their research with a meal at the Grill Room. Using the photos as source material, Graziano made two dozen oil paintings from his experience. They hang this month at Roux & Cyr International Fine Art Gallery on Free Street in Portland. In March, the gallery will show McAllister’s photos.
MaineBiz has published a feature on three brewers and the steps they take to be part of the communities and neighborhoods in which they’re located.
And while both men like the popular IPA ales, when they did taste-testings in their neighborhood, they discovered they were not popular. “So we listened to our customers,” Dingman adds. The brewery is making Double C.R.E.A.M., Old Smokey pale ale, plus a hoppy season ale and rye brown ale.
The plan is to get people in the door to both taste their beers and then buy and take them home in growlers. And the men welcome other breweries in the area.
“This street is vivacious,” says Dingman, referring to the three restaurants and other businesses on the block. “Hopefully we’ll get more brewers here. The more we build up the community, the better.”
MaineBiz has also published an interview with Pamela Laskey, owner of Maine Foodie Tours.
MB: What’s the reaction to the tour?
PL: When we take people into K. Horton Specialty Foods [Portland], we serve some of the American Cheese Society’s gold award-winning cheeses and people are shocked. I remember my very first customers were from Wisconsin. I took them to K. Horton, and Kris Horton blew them away. They were ordering wheels of cheese like there was no tomorrow. I did like impressing a family of cheddarheads. I tell people the cheese in Maine is like the wine in Napa. The best stuff never makes it out of the state.
The Blueberry Files has published a report on the opening of Rhum.
It’s what Portland has been missing – a lounge full of escapism with an air of mystery. It’s the perfect place to sip on some rum until beach weather returns.