This Week’s Events: Ms Pac Man, Black Truffle, Pozole Night, Joshua Bernstein, Coffee Pairing Event

| Posted in Events

Maine Restaurant Week — MRW runs through March 14. See mainerestaurantweek.com for details on participating restaurants.

Monday — the East Ender opens at 11:30 am.

Tuesday — the 2nd Annual Brewers Ms Pac Man Tournament is taking place at Salvage BBQ.

Wednesday — Piccolo is holding their 2nd Annual Black Winter Truffle Dinner, Sam Richman from Salt Water Farm will be holding a pozole night at Tandem Bakery (pozole, various communal garnishes, “something sweet from Briana”), Vena’s will be holding a final trial run prior to their re-opening, and Black Tie is teaching a cooking class.

Thursday — Grace will be holding a Community Family Dinner to raise money for MOFGA, Ebb & Flow and Rising Tide will be collaborating on a beer dinner, there will be a beer and cheese tasting at the Public Market House, and The Great Lost Bear will be showcasing beer from Maine Beer Company.

Friday — Rosemont is holding a Cider event at Think Tank on Congress Street.

Saturday — Vena’s is holding their grand re-opening, Joshua Bernstein will be at Rising Tide for a book signing and at Salvage BBQ for an event with Banded Horn, Bissell Bros, Foundation and Austin Street, there will be a wine tasting at LeRoux Kitchen and the Winter Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Sunday — Rosemont and Rising Tide are collaborating on a beer dinner, and the MRW Great Coffee Pairing event is taking place at CBD Diamond Street.

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.

Review of The Grill Room

| Posted in Reviews

The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed The Grill Room.

The Grill Room is a noisy, popular, casual steakhouse on one of the prettiest streets in the Old Port. The menu isn’t particularly innovative, but servings are large and the traditional fare is so filling you may want to loosen your belt a notch. Start with fried clams – small, sweet whole bellies served with a bright tartar sauce. Then try steak or fish from the wood-fired grill. (The salmon is downright delicious.) And make sure to ask about apple fritters for dessert. No one likes a leaden fritter, and The Grill Room’s are light, crunchy and irresistible with a spoonful of the cider syrup offered alongside.

Tempo Dulu Pop-Up Dinner (Updated)

| Posted in Under Construction, Reviews

Urban Eye has posted a report from Thursday’s Tempo Dulu pop-up.

But it was the diver scallop with beet jalapeño pineapple gastrique augmented with dollops of fermented soybean and seaweed from Malaysia that elicited the most swoons. The plump and sweet scallop reminded me of a perfectly executed souffle. Ethereal. Effortless. Impossible to pull off at home. And with Klang headed to town, why would you want to?

Though Portland would seem to have reached restaurant overload in 2015, there is always room for a well-executed, elevated dining experience. The time is right for Tempo Dulu. Tick tock!

Updated: Both The Golden Dish and the Portland Phoenix have also posted a reports on Tempo Dulu and the dinner.

Value-priced Eating in Portland

| Posted in General News

BDN blogger Zack Barowitz has put together a list of some of his favorite value-prived eats in Portland.

When eating out, value may be considered a combination of price, tastiness, and portion size. In other words, a hearty but somewhat “meh” meal for $5 would rate much higher than a slightly  better, but paltry, “eh” meal for $50. This helps level the bar and allows for comparisons between fine-dining and fast food and everything in between.

Under Construction: Full Belly Deli, Old Port Lobster Shack

| Posted in Under Construction

Full Belly Deli(facebook) owner David Rosen has announced that he’ll be re-opening the business this Spring. There’s no official word on the location but some folks have suggested it will be in the Old Port.

Today’s Press Herald provides a detailed back story on the Old Port Lobster Shack and its owner Russell Deutsch. The California-based business is constructing its 4th restaurant at 425 Fore Street. This will be the first OPLS in Maine.

It dawned on him that a lot of the graduates of New England schools worked in the San Francisco Bay area, including Silicon Valley, and were probably lobster starved. So he wrote a business plan and got in touch with his old contacts from the exporting business. He opened his first lobster shack in Redwood City, in a strip mall next to a Super Cuts. It struggled at first; then three or four months in, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a review. “The next day we had 250 people in line at my door,” he said, “and it hasn’t settled down since.”

Mothers and Thieves at Vinland

| Posted in Events

mothersandthievesVinland will be kicking off their Tuesday night pop-up series later this month. On March 31st former Vinland sous chef Ryan Quigley along along with Tavis Potter will be the featured chefs preparing a meal as part of their Mothers and Thieves pop-up series.

Pulling inspiration from world travels, modern art, and curiosity, our dinners are based upon classic techniques, but accented by wild presentations, bright and exotic ingredients, and unusual flavor pairings. With hopes to inspire and spark creative thoughts and conversation, the dinners will be presented to our guest in a classic family table setting.

Tickets are on sale at Brown Paper Tickets.

Interview with Shannon Bard

| Posted in People

The Press Herald has published an interview with Shannon Bard, chef of Zapoteca.

Q: But why in Maine?
A: I knew there was a need for traditional Mexican cuisine. I take traditional dishes and I modernize them and make them my own, using as many local ingredients as possible. People have their preconceived idea of what Mexican is, but they’ve had border Mexican (cuisine). A huge majority hasn’t had interior Mexican cuisine. That was the biggest challenge – people having ideas of what Mexican food should be. I could bring up traditional produce and fish from (Mexico), but it would cost a lot more money and I want to focus on local products as much as possible.