Maine Brew Bus

| Posted in Beer

Maine Today has posted a tour report from a recent trip aboard the Maine Brew Bus.

With our heads filled up from our fermented education – and maybe a little fuzzy on account of all that sampling – we boarded Lenny one last time. Our tour guide Don Littlefield regaled us with brewing-related trivia on the way back to The Thirsty Pig, where we’d all go our separate ways, clutching our purchases of mead and rum, all a little wiser for the ride.

Update: Brewbound has published an article about The Maine Brew Bus.

Anniversaries: Tandem & The Honey Exchange

| Posted in Events

A pair of local establishments are celebrating their anniversaries this week:

  • Tandem Coffee opened 1 year ago today. To celebrate they’ll be serving free Holy Donut donuts and all coffee drinks are priced at $2.
  • To celebrate their 2nd anniversary, this Saturday The Honey Exchange will be having “sweet and savory tastes, soft drinks, prizes and raffles, birthday cake, and a pinata”.

PHOP 25th & Makers Market

| Posted in Events, Profiles

The Portland Daily Sun has published articles about the new Makers Market at the Urban Farm Fermentory,

What looked like empty warehouse space was instead seen as an opportunity by the tenants of 200 Anderson St. Spearheaded by Eli Cayer and the Urban Farm Fermentory, 200 Anderson St. will be the home of a new “Makers Market.” Wednesday will be the first of the Makers Markets that will be held, and will include farmers offering produce, meats and diary products; artists; crafts people; and food trucks, Cayer said

and the 25th anniversary of the Portland House of Pizza.

Long a neighborhood staple, the original PHOP opened two doors down from the current 1359 Washington Ave. location and was closer to the intersection of Allen Avenue. “It was real tough on parking, and entering and exiting,” said General Manager Jason Cote, 31. “When the restaurant moved to the new building, there was a huge remodeling project changing an old bank vault into our office and making a dirty and dated ’80s dining room clean and relevant.”

Shrub Cocktails & Casco Bay Organics

| Posted in Reviews, Profiles, Distilling & Cocktails

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes an article about shrubs and shrub-based cocktails (see article for recipes),

Shrubs an old-fashioned drinks that date to Colonial times, but they are on their way back, thanks to the folks behind the bar who are discovering that a shrub’s bright, slightly tart, complex flavors make for a stand-out cocktail. Bartenders are doing lots of experimenting by replacing the fruit in the shrub with vegetables and herbs, trying out different kinds of vinegar, and otherwise tweaking the classic shrub formula.

and an article about Casco Bay Organics.

Time-crunched healthy eaters have a new way to get their hands on fresh fruits and vegetables. In April, Casco Bay Organics, a southern Maine grocery home delivery service, launched with a full array of organic and locally-sourced produce.