Drink Up and Get Happy has posted a happy hour review of El Rayo.
El Rayo Scarborough is definitely a stand-out on Route One and is a great spot to catch a delicious drink without having to venture in town. Give it a chance if you live or work nearby, it’s worth the visit. They also have daily specials Sunday – Wednesday if you can’t make their happy hours or need something more substantial to accompany your drinks.
Contrary to earlier reports, Rosen’s Full Belly Deli will be located in Westbrook rather than the Old Port. A hand written sign in the window of the former Blue Burrito space at 652 Main Street indicates that “Rosen’s Deli” will be opening at that location in May.
Update: for additional information see this report by the Press Herald.
Monday — Local 188 is holding an Oxbow beer dinner.
Tuesday — Historian Sandy Oliver will be giving a talk in Yarmouth on The History of Colonial Kitchens.
Wednesday — Hugo’s is holding a Chateau Musar wine dinner, and the Portland Spirits Society will be gathering at Salvage for a Bourbon tasting.
Friday — Don Lindgren, owner of Rabelais, will be giving a talk at the Maine Historical Society entitled Spirited Ephemera: Cocktail and Liquor History Through Paper.
Saturday — the Winter Farmers’ Market is taking place.
Sunday — Rosemont is holding a Bean Supper, and the PSO is collaborrating with Hunt and Alpine on a Symphony + Spirits event.
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.
The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed Eve’s at the Garden.
Located on the second floor of the Portland Harbor Hotel, Eve’s at the Garden is a quiet, club-like space with a predictable hotel restaurant menu – and a penchant for over-embellished food. Skip the more complicated starters (such as “pickled beet salad with verjus vinaigrette, goat cheese, speck ham and broiled grapes”) and try a simple plate of creamy burrata. Then enjoy the flavorful stuffed Cornish hen served with polenta. And definitely ask about dessert: There’s a revolving list of specials and the maple panna cotta introduced by the executive chef is a sweet, ethereal standout.
Melissa Kelly, chef/owner of Primo in Rockland is one of a team 17 award winning chefs that have been invited to prepare a dish for the James Beard Award Gala in May.
Other chefs participating in the gala include luminaries such as David Chang, Daniel Patterson and Nancy Silverton.
Four Maine chefs are nominees in this year’s awards competition: Cara Stadler(Rising Star), Central Provisions(Best New Restaurant), Masa Miyake(Best Chef: Northeast) and Andrew Taylor/Mike Wiley(Best Chef: Northeast).
Chef Josh Potocki from 158/Pocket Brunch will be the guest chef this evening along with colleague Sean Esten at The Bearded Lady. This will kick-off an ongoing roll by the pair as TBL’s “ghost chefs”. They’ll be periodically dreaming up new dishes and reconfiguring the menu for the bar.
Looking further out, on Sunday, May 24th, the bar staff of Black Birch will be doing a bar takeover at The Bearded Lady serving up a special cocktail menu for the evening.
The Honey Paw(instagram, twitter) passed their last inspection earlier this week. As you can see the dining room is nearly almost finished, and the restaurant is on a fast track to open.
The Honey Paw menu is organized into 5 unnamed, numerically designated sections: 001 – 005. Here are a few items that caught my interest:
Behind the scenes there’s a large new kitchen that extends nearly the full length of the building behind Hugo’s, Eventide and The Honey Paw.
Eater Maine has published an interview with Sean Wilkinson from Might & Main about the design/branding work his company has done with several Portland restaurants.
Can you have a house design but ensure you’re not copying yourself with all these restaurants?
I feel like as time has gone by, it’s easier for us to recognize we have a certain set of house aesthetics. We work really hard to make sure things don’t look alike but when you have a creative director in charge of decisions, things are going to be put through that person’s filter.
We try to make sure that the overall appearance for each restaurant is appropriate, and we turn projects down on a fairly regular basis because we’re afraid they may be a conflict. If somebody were to open a nordic-themed craft cocktail bar and asked us to design the menu systems, that’d be a no-brainer for us to say no to [because of Might & Main’s work with The Portland Hunt and Alpine Club], or if somebody were opening an oyster bar. We’re very conscious of differentiation in this town.
Urban Eye has posted a report on a recent visit to Opus Ten.
With its brick walls, diaphanous curtains and bistro-style seating, Opus Ten is a food lab for chef Bo Bryne. The bearded Bryne works quietly in a small, open kitchen all night, toiling like a scientist mixing new formulas for your gastro pleasure. Dish by dish, a parade of butter-poached lobster on a risotto cake with citrus truffle micro greens, arrive as if parachuting down from heaven.
The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes an article about Maine native and food book author Nancy Harmon Jenkins and her new book on olive oil.
Jenkins, already a nationally known expert on the Mediterranean diet, has just written a book that focuses exclusively on olive oil. “Virgin Territory: Exploring the World of Olive Oil” is part primer on olive oil, part cookbook – it includes more than 100 Mediterranean recipes – and part autobiographical account of producing olive oil on her own Tuscan farm. It’s the sixth book she’s written about Mediterranean food.