As reported back in November, Small Axe co-owners Karl Deuben and Bill Leavy are in the process of buying the East Ender. The deal is expected to close in January and after completing some renovations they plan to re-open in February or March next year.
Deuben and Leavy have now applied for a liquor license giving us all our first look at the lunch and dinner menus (page 120 of the City Council packet). Here are excerpts from the menus:
Bon Appétit has included the Tuna Sandwich at Palace Diner in their list of the Best Meals of 2014.
Palace Diner is a 15-seat charmer located in a shiny red 1927 dining car in Biddeford, Maine, located a 30-minute drive South of Portland. The two former fine dining chefs/owners—Chad Conley and Greg Mitchell—do simple and nostalgic diner food amazingly well. Their bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast is perfect. And, damn, those Palace potatoes: boiled, smashed down, and then crisped with abandon on the griddle.
But it’s the tuna salad sandwich (with a side of crunchy on the outside, creamy on the inside French fries) that I go back for. It’s not rocket science: just good ingredients executed with passion and precision. The bread is always toasted perfectly, the tuna to mayo ratio spot on, and the addition of dill and cucumber is just the way my mom used to make them for me back in grade school. Pair with a hangover and Coke and all is well with the world.
MPBN has aired a piece on a new crop of young farrmers in Maine.
“I think that we want to be reconnected with the fundamentals of life,” Gerritsen says, “with growing food, with producing things with our own hands. Living in the city, you commute by subway, you buy your food at the supermarket, you work in a cubicle all day. You’re not intimately tied to anything.”
The Golden Dish has reviewed Ruski’s.
The burgers were textbook good. They were perfectly grilled to medium rare and had the essential outer charred crust that gives the beef so much texture and flavor. The restaurant has many cooks, and that night Will was in the kitchen and did his job very well. For $8.95 you get a half pound burger on a big hefty roll with a mound of fries. Cocktails like premium vodka on the rocks are $6.50, and beers are often on special from $2.50 for PBR to premium drafts at $3.75. With tax, tip and drinks the $20 each spent on dinner was a satisfyingly cut-rate night on the town worth repeating many times over.
Otto Pizza’s 2nd pizzeria in South Portland opened today. The new pizza shop is located at 125 John Roberts Rd which is right near the Maine Mall.
The John Roberts Road location is OTTO’s 9th location overall (10, if you count our Portland delivery facility), and is one of our roomiest, with 5 picnic tables, and an indoor bocce court. Diners can enjoy pizza by the slice or whole pie, along with a full array of beverages, including beer and wine. (Yes, we’re serving Autohelm, our brand new collaboration with Rising Tide Brewing Company!)
Photo Credit: Otto Pizza
The Forecaster reports that Rivalries is working on opening a new 11,400 square foot sports bar in Falmouth.
The proposed restaurant would be a two-story, 11,400-square-foot building with its entrance on Hat Trick Drive. It would seat 192 patrons on the two floors, with 16 bar seats and function spaces upstairs. Seasonal outdoor seating would allow for 32 more patrons.
The lot of almost half an acre is bordered by Clearwater Drive to the east, Farm Gate Road to the south, and the proposed Hat Trick Drive to the north. It is currently undeveloped.
MPBN, WCSH and The Golden Dish have all published reports on the Portland Food Co-op,
The dairy cases stock all of the products that we’ve become so familiar with at farmers’ markets: Lakin’s Gorge’s ricotta (Rockport), Balfour cultured cream (great sour cream), yogurts and cheese to Swallowtail’s dairy lineup of kefir, cheese and flavored yogurts. Ice cream choices include the excellent Catbird Creamery and the store has a small but professional kitchen where many preparations like soups, sandwiches, salads and vegetable dips are made. [Golden Dish]
and today’s Press Herald includes an interview with Mary Alice Scott, the co-op’s education and outreach coordinator.
Q: Why join a co-op instead of going to a mainstream grocery store?
A: It’s a mission-driven idea. People want to support businesses that are locally owned and know they’re generating jobs. Our mission is to have a huge amount of organic and local products and buy from local vendors whenever practical. It’s not just fruit and vegetables, it’s local cleaning supplies and other local items. We already have relationships with more than 120 local producers.
News became public yesterday that Two Fat Cats bakery has purchased Maine Pie Line from owner Briana Warner.
Two Fat Cats has purchased both the business name as well as the recipes and plans to restart MPL’s wholesale business,
That means savory hand pies like spinach, feta and artichoke and southwest veggie will be back in Maine cafes, such as Coffee By Design, and a fresh line of gourmet, locally sourced pies will soon fill the cases at the nine-year-old India Street bakery.
[Two Fat Cats owner] Begin expects to see her retail business grow by 15 percent and double wholesale orders with the acquisition.
[Urban Eye]
For more information see these reports from Urban Eye and Eater Maine.
The Portland Sun has posted an article about the Co-op and its upcoming Grand Opening.
“We’ve gotten a lot of great feedback, exciting products to add,” said Mary Alice, education and outreach coordinator at Portland Food Co-op. “People have mostly walked in and exclaimed about how beautiful it is.”
Home Catering Company (website, instagram, facebook) owner Matt Chamberlain has leased the former Miyake Diner space at 129 Spring Street. According to his post on Instagram he’ll be selling prepared foods to go along with beer and wine as well as running his catering operation from that location.
Chamberlain hopes to be open by mid-February.