Fans of the former Rick’s Lobby Cafe will be happy to hear that The Proper Cup is starting to serve chef Rick Wood’s breakfast sandwiches starting October 24th.
Rick’s Lobby Cafe closed on September 1st. The Proper Cup was launched in 2018 and is located at 500 Forest Ave. They’re open 7 am – 1 pm.
Punch has published an article featuring the Room for Improvement Cosmopolitan created.
The intention was to appeal not only to the customer who orders Cosmos at every bar, but also to “nerdy cocktail friends who might never ordinarily call for a Cosmo,” says [Arvid] Brown. That meant rethinking each ingredient. “We looked at what it is that people like about it: It’s pink, it’s served up, it’s citrusy, it’s refreshing and it’s got a little tartness,” Brown says. “We tried to reengineer those flavors with more craft ingredients.”
Wednesday – South Portland restaurants Judy Gibson and Lambs will be collaborating on a Burger Night.
Wednesday-Saturday – Harvest on the Harbor is taking place. See their website for tickets to events that celebrate Maine’s distilleries, cheese makers, chocolate makers and oyster farms and for tickets to the Maine Lobster Chef of the Year event.
Thursday – Bar Futo is hosting Roundtable, an event and dinner that “brings together chefs, organizers and neighbors for actionable discussion about social justice, mutual aid and sustainability.” Hardshore Distilling is holding a launch party for their Shorebird bourbon. Apres in East Bayside is holding an heirloom apple tasting.
Saturday – Chefs Tracy Chang from Pagu, Ilma Lopez from the Ugly Duckling and Matt Ginn from Evo are collaboration on a dinner at the Ugly Ducking–sign-up for a Farmers’ Market Tour with the chefs and return in the evening for the dinner. The 18th Annual Veg Fest is taking place. The Maine Tasting Center in Wiscasset is holding an insect dinner with ants, mealworms and crickets on the menu. Liu Bian Tan is holding a lunch pop-up at Norimoto Baking. Roma Cafe is holding a launch party (12:30 at 767 Congress Street) for Roma Sauce, their new line of fresh pasta, sauces, Italian delicacies and pasta kits.
Sunday – The Cheese Shop is kicking off their cheese classroom series with a Cheese 101 class.
October 30 – Ore Nell’s North in Biddeford is holding a 5-course beer dinner.
Halloween – check with your favorite websites and bars for details on what Halloween events they may have on Halloween or the prior weekend.
November 5 – Chaval is holding a late harvest dinner at Wolfe’s Neck Center in Freeport.
November 9 – Judy Gibson is serving a 4-course wine dinner featuring wines from Lauren Bonnois.
November 15 – A whiskey and chocolate tasting featuring Liquid Riot and Dean’s Sweets is taking place at Ballast.
Thanksgiving – Restaurants, market and other food purveyors are just starting to share details on the Thanksgiving options. We will be adding them to this list as the information is made public. Drop us a line if you know of a Thanksgiving-themed offering not yet on the list.
November 30 – deadline for the public and industry professionals to submit recommendations to the James Beard Foundation to consideration for the 2024 Awards program.
December 7 – Secret Supper is holding a (sold out) holiday dinner in the Portland area.
June 26 – Secret Supper (instagram) is holding a dinner in the Portland area.
The Porttown Public House & Coffee Bar (facebook, instagram) opened on Friday. The coffee shop and pub is located at 123 Commercial Street next to Olive Cafe. Porttown serves baked goods, breakfast sandwiches and coffee in the morning, and transitions to a bar with pizza and paninis for the rest of the day.
Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a four star review of Little Pig.
Outside, on the tree-covered patio, there are café tables to park yourself while you devour superlative Lao sausage and fiery jao sauce, fried hake banh mi sandwiches slathered with choo chee curry, and basil-flecked Thai-style street corn. Once winter hits, you’ll want to consider this stellar newcomer as takeout-only. It shouldn’t matter. Cooking this confident, spicing with such self-assured swagger, is a rarity. Don’t let the lack of a chair put you off.
The paper also includes an article about the Maine oyster industry.
We’re into the “R months,” the stretch from September to April when oysters are at their culinary peak. In Maine, half-shell fans and lovers of local seafood have more cause for excitement each year as oyster farms continue to proliferate along the state’s coast.
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York-based bakery When Pigs Fly (website, facebook, instagram) opened their Portland retail shop this week. They’re open 10 am – 6 pm daily.
The shop is located at 65 Hanover Street in West Bayside. It carries the full range of the breads they produce at their central bakery as well as other baked goods like cookies, muffins, and scones, and oils, jams, butter, and other pantry items that pair well with their breads.
The bakery was founded by Ron Siegel in 1993. When Pigs Fly has retail shops in Kittery as well as Somerville, Jamaica Plain, Lexington and Brookline in Massachusetts.
Here are some updates from around the state:
Lorne Wine in Biddeford has announced they’ve chosen not to renew their lease and so will be closing their wine shop and bar in the summer of 2024.
Come hang with us over the next few months! We are throwing some killer parties and events and we are stoked to tell y’all about what we got planned next. Lorne will celebrate its 5th anniversary in June 2024 the last and hopefully the best.
A new business called Good Wine Bar (instagram) is under construction at 172 Main Street in Saco in the space that was formerly the home of Unwind Cocktail Lounge.
Owners Sunny Chung and Kim Lully are hoping to launch the wine bar in November. In addition to wine, Good Wine Bar will also serve classic cocktails, local beers, and a menu of cheese, charcuterie, small plates, and desserts. Lully and Chung anticipate having biodynamic and organic wines on the list which will lean towards Old World wines.
Chung and Lully formerly ran the Korean restaurant Yobo, and were partners with Sarah Gabrielson and chef Tony Pastor in the launch of Main Street Steak & Oyster in Brunswick.
The owners of Unwind Lounge announced back in July that they had sold the business to new owners.
Washington Avenue pizzeria Radici has announced they’ll be closing in November. Their last day in business will be November 18th.
Over the next month we’re going to take a look back at some of our favorite pizzas like this Parsnip, Castelfranco and Lemon number because they’re delicious, and we’re feeling sentimental as we’ve decided to close Radici.
Owners Randy and Ally Forrester launched Radici on July 2, 2020. They had moved to Portland from Allentown, New Jersey where they had operated Osteria Radici which was a Jame Beard Awards semi-finalist for Best New Restaurant and Best Chef in the Mid-Atlantic region.
