Review of The Well

Down East has published a review of The Well.

The sun is setting, the kids are playing happily in the grass, and you’re drinking that crisp bottle of sauvignon blanc you’ve been meaning to open. Yet a few key details signal that you’re someplace just a bit more pleasurable than your own backyard: You’re noshing on warm homemade bread and butter, the table is set with napkins and glowing tea lights — and a server arrives, bearing generous plates of tender greens and other vegetables, plucked from the nearby fields and gently dressed.

Beginnings and Growth of Otto Pizza

The Bangor Daily News has published an article about Otto Pizza.

“We started very barebones with all used equipment,” said Keon, who leased a 300-square foot space at the corner of Congress and Forest streets for their first slice shop. “It was very minimal.”

Four years later OTTO Pizza has 215 employees working in five thriving shops in Portland and Boston. Two more stores will open by summer’s end in South Portland and Lynnfield, Mass., and in the next few weeks OTTO will hire 50 more people.

This Week’s Events: Dogfish Dinner, Twilight Dinner, In’finiti Showcase, Flea Bites, Heart of the Mediterranean

TuesdaySonny’s, in conjunction with GMRI’s Out of the Blue initiative, is holding a 4-course wine dinner featuring Dogfish.

Wednesday — the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

ThursdayJosh Potocki from 158 Pickett Street Cafe will be the guest chef at this week’s Twilight Dinner at Turkey Hill Farm, and The Great Lost Bear will be showcasing beer from In’finiti.

Friday — Wicked Good Street Kitchen, Portside Picnic, Mainely Burgers, el Corozan, Bite into Maine, and Pretty Awesome Street Food will be serving at Flea Bites in Bayside, and there will be a wine tasting at the West End Deli.

Saturday — there will be wine tasting at LeRoux Kitchen and Browne Trading, and the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

Sunday — Rosemont is holding an event featuring the food and wine of North Lebanon.

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.

Immigrant Kitchens: Pho

In the latest entry from Immigrant Kitchens, Lindsay Sterling learns how to make Pho from Hieu Nguyen (read the story, get the recipe and see the photos).

My friend’s husband, Hieu Nguyen, grew up in Dalat, Vietnam, until he was five. He remembers Vietnam’s gorgeous rolling hills, beaches, rainforests, and lakes as a cross between Vermont and Costa Rica. He hasn’t been back since he left in 1975, the day before Saigon fell. He hopes one day to visit with his wife and kids. In the mean time, he lights incense and cooks a Vietnamese chicken noodle soup, called pho, combining his grandmother and mother’s methods with his own, discovered after years of cooking it every Sunday for his family.