The Drink Exchange(facebook) is scheduled to open today. It’s located at 43 Wharf Street in the space formerly occupied by The Merry Table. Owner Tanner Herget also runs 51 Wharf, Dusk and Bonfire—all on Wharf Street.
Maine’s Craft Beer Industry
The Business section in today’s Press Herald features a report titled “Maine’s craft beer boom shows no sign of going flat“.
When it opens, Fore River will be the newest player in Maine’s exploding and intensely local craft beer scene. As of 2014, the state had the sixth-most breweries per capita in the nation, according to the Brewers Association, a national group. In 2013 and 2014, nine new breweries and brewpubs opened in greater Portland alone. There are currently 52 breweries in the state, but that number is set to jump even higher in 2016, and existing breweries are expanding.
The article includes details on Fore River Brewing(twitter, facebook, instagram) which is opening later this year in South Portland.
Maine Malt House
The Bangor Daily News has published an article on the Maine Malt House, which supplies malted Maine grown grains to brewers in the state.
Aroostook County is not home to the bustling craft breweries that have sprouted up across Maine, New England and other parts of the country. A brewery and pub that opened in Presque Isle in 2004, Slopes Northern Maine Restaurant and Brewing Company, closed for lack of business not long afterward. But, 10 years later, the Buck brothers are not trying to sell beer locally; they want to produce and sell malts across the state through an integrated farm and malthouse business.
Review of Lincolns
Urban Eye has reviewed Lincolns.
Open on Market Street since the spring, the subteranean watering hole unites Portland’s service industry folks, international tech workers and post collegiates from Orono, who gather in close quarters to knock back five dollar drinks like it was 1989.
Chefs After Dark
Today’s Press Herald features an article about the Chefs After Dark monthly gatherings among chefs in Southern Maine and New Hampshire for social networking and good natured competition.
The format of the monthly get-togethers mimics The Food Network’s “Chopped,” where chefs, two in this case versus the reality show’s four, who are well-matched in experience and cooking styles, are pitted against each other and several mystery ingredients. Local suppliers donate the often exotic ingredients, such as chicken feet, curry leaves and bitter cucumber (December 2014 when Franke and Vargas squared off); or cod roe sack, sunflower buds and lamb sweetbreads (August 2015); or blue Hubbard squash, local apples and tripe (late last month).
Beard House Dinners: Piccolo and Hunt & Alpine
The menus are now up and ticket are on sale for two dinners at the Jame Beard House in New York being headlined by Portland talent:
- Piccolo’s Italian Ancestry dinner on November 21st is being prepared by chefs Damian Sansonetti and Ilma Lopez.
- Hunt & Alpine’s Spirited Scandinavian Sojourn dinner on December 4th is a cocktail dinner. Each course is paired with a different cocktail that complements the dish.
Leigh Kellis from Holy Donut
MaineBiz has published an article about Leigh Kellis and her company The Holy Donut.
But creating a decadent but wholesome treat “was like a mission from God,” she says. “I love doughnuts and the idea of bringing it to Portland was exciting.”
Once she hit on a winning potato-based recipe, she brought six doughnuts to Coffee By Design’s Washington Avenue store to see if they’d sell. They did and she brought back a dozen the next day. Soon she got orders from Whole Foods Market and Lois’ Natural Marketplace and rented commercial kitchen space. Forty dozen doughnuts a week became 100 dozen. After eight months, she was yearning for a doughnut shop of her own.
Review of Ramen Suzukiya
The Bollard has reviewed Ramen Suzukiya.
Shoyu broth is “Oriental” flavor’s elegant cousin — a complex, meaty broth with an earthy taste of mushrooms. The miso broth is more refined, with a satisfying saltiness. The Hakata-style ramen has an incomparably rich tonkotsu broth. Traditionally made by boiling pork and chicken until the bones and marrow begin to break down, this broth is milky and murky with sediment, yet has a gelatinous sheen. This is the ultimate comfort food, and surely the style I’ll choose when winter’s chill arrives.
100 Best Beers
Men’s Journal has included Allagash White, Allagash Coolship Resurgam, Mo from Maine Beer Co. and Bissell Brothers Substance in their 2015 list of the 100 Best Beers in the World.
Under Construction: Foulmouthed Brewing
Julia and Craig Dilger are holding a casual meet and greet this evening at CIA Cafe to talk about the new brewpub they have under development in the Knightsville neighborhood of South Portland.
The business is called Foulmouthed Brewery(twitter, instagram). It’s located at 15 Ocean Street and they hope to open in June.