The 10 eateries looked up most often on Portland Food Map in February were:
The numbers in parentheses indicates their rank last month.
Drink Up and Get Happy has reviewed Zen Chinese Bistro,
Staff were friendly and attentive to our group, joking with us and patiently explaining what each specialty drink was. It was a great night filled with everything that happy hour should be, delicious beverages, tasty food, and great friends.
and The Golden Dish has revisited and re-reviewed Salvage BBQ.
On the whole, I liked Salvage a lot. Some of my comments reflect personal preference perhaps, but the place is great, the ribs were terrific and most everything else was good enough. And for about $20 you can’t beat the price.
Lolita (facebook, website), the new restaurant that Guy and Stella Hernandez and their business partners have under construction in the East End, has applied for a liquor license.
As usual the application includes a floor plan (shown below) and draft menu (page 39). The owners are aiming to launch Lolita in May and will be open 7 days a week, 11 am to 11 pm. It will be located at 90 Congress Street.
Booze, Fish & Coffee has reviewed Central Provisions.
Aside from the forethought about design and flow, we also really, really liked the food. Chef Chris Gould brings some familiar classics, and reimagines them by adding a single unconventional but brilliant ingredient, such as the nutty brussels sprouts with pecorino and pine nuts, but also with a hint of horseradish. The bread and butter is truly transcendent, both for the creamy, slightly salty butter and the genius inclusion of a raw farm egg on the plate. The porchetta board includes not only slices of swine heaven in the porchetta, but also sunchokes, soft rolls, and a tangy apple-dijon mustard sauce that made the dish sing.
This week’s Portland Phoenix includes an article about the invasive green crab and the impact its having on the Maine shellfish industry,
They’re green, they’re mean, and they’re endangering not only Maine’s soft-shell clam population, but also oysters, mussels, lobsters, and eelgrass. This menace is known as the green crab (a/k/a carcinus maenas), an invasive, omnivorous species that has been in Maine for 114 years but only recently began affecting the productivity of clam flats in places like Freeport, Brunswick, and on down the coast.
The new issue also includes a review of Eventide and Street & Co.
The Press Herald has published a bar review of Empire.
Dragon’s Milk, Shiso Crazy, Yellow Fever. These are a few of the cocktails you’ll find at Empire Chinese Kitchen in Portland’s arts district. Scorpion bowls don’t cross the menu, nor do cocktails with tiny paper umbrellas.
The West End Deli opened at their new location (photo) at 545 Congress Street yesterday. The new store is located immediately adjacent to Emilitsa and just a couple blocks away from Monument Square.
Maine magazine has published a feature article about Allagash Brewing and its founder Rob Tod.
But, while walking back through the Allagash brewery past a door that reads: “Innovation: Continually pushing the limits of beer and ourselves,” I can’t help but feel that some magic has happened here that, if not found in the chili, must be hiding in that little sugar-hut-looking koelschip building built off the back of the brewery. There, shrouded in clouds of sweaty steam and fed by locally sourced and totally free yeast that comes through church-like stained glass windows near the ceiling, the brown, syrupy wort will be fermented and aged for another two years before being sold in little batches that usually sell out in a couple of days.
Eater Maine has published an interview with Press Herald blogger and restaurant critic John Golden.
How do you chose the restaurants for review?
I try to chose those that haven’t been written about in a long time. Obviously, there’s the new ones. I don’t write about them in a review until they’ve been around at least two months. I’ll do my first look on the blog, but you have to give them some time. Some of it is what I’m in the mood for. This past month, I’ve been doing inexpensive places. That’s been fun but I can’t wait to go to good restaurants again.
The Press Herald recently polled a set of local chefs and random other food experts, including yours truly, about their favorite dishes from the last 12 months.
This year, once again, I’ve asked some local chefs, food writers and bloggers to weigh in and name a favorite restaurant dish they discovered in the state during the past 12 months. And judging by the number of exclamation points in their responses, they found some real gems.
The full list of recommendations was published in today’s paper. They range all over the board from fish chowder at Pizza Villa to the squid tappanyaki dish at Long Grain.