According to Maine a la Carte, Compass Rose opened for business last night. The restaurant is located in Boothby Square at 339 Fore Street in the space formerly occupied by Sebastian’s.

The restaurant, owned by chef Tony Kratovil and his wife Rose, will serve a variety of classic steak and seafood dishes. “We will be serving lunch and dinner and probably brunch on Sunday,” Rose Kratovil said. “We’ll do a light fare menu late afternoon, from 2 to 5. We’re serving hand-cut steaks. Everything’s done on premise.”

gBritt PR has sent out a release announcing the launch of Maine Craft Distilling. Maine Craft Distilling’s current product line includes Alchemy Gin
, Ration Rum
, and Black Cap Vodka. As soon as they clear final approval they will also have 50 Stone Whiskey, a blueberry moonshine, QueeQueg Spiced Rum and Chesuncook Botanical Gin.

Their tasting room and production facility is located at 101 Fox Street in East Bayside.

See this PFM news item from December for more info.

Hugo’s has announced that they’re reopening for dinner as of this evening. From the release,

In renovating, our aim was to strip the space down to its roots, exposing the building’s early 19th century original tin ceiling and brick and mortar walls.  We’ve entirely changed the floor plan with an open kitchen, plush booth seating, and a sprawling, wooden bar that offers diners a close up view of the inner workings of the Hugo’s kitchen.

While our kitchen remains committed to the creativity and attention to detail that has garnered Hugo’s it’s national acclaim, we are making some exciting changes: an intensified focus on local meats, seafood and foraged goods, a revamped menu format, single origin coffee’s from local roasters Tandem, and look out for large format shared meal specials.

Bourbon Portland Beer Politics has posted a set of photos taken by Zach Bowen of the newly renovated space.

Update: for details on the new menu and more pictures see this report on Maine a la Carte.