The Golden Dish has published a review of the Little Tap House.
The moderately priced menu is not large but delivers the basics well. During my first visit I enjoyed a very tasty rendition of cider-brined roast chicken served over perfect mashed potatoes and a mess of sugar snaps. My dinner mate pronounced his fish and chips as classically good with a great corn-meal crust.
WGME has visited The Porthole for a interview with the new owner. According to the report, the restaurant will open later this month.
Erika Joyce, author of Vin et Grub, and the creator of Cloak & Dagger supper club and The Chinese Laundry pop-up, has announced that she’ll be leaving Portland for an extended research trip in Europe and Asia.
And now, it’s all changing. The next step in my journey is to find the roots of my obsession. To understand it and live it. That’s why I’m moving on. I’m hoping on a flight and making my way to Europe to see how and where food is produced. I’m going to farm and pickle, and jam, and stage, and find the roots to make this picture slightly more vivid. Sweden, Greece, Denmark, Italy, France. And an extended stay in Vietnam. I need to see my passion elsewhere in the world.
She’ll be running just one more Cloak & Dagger dinner and should have an update on the status of The Chinese Laundry “soon”.
For the What Ales You column in today’s paper, Tom Atwell paid a visit to Allagash to check in on their expansion. The article also provides info on Prince Tuesday, the Allagash house beer, and Cerise.
The 75-barrel BrauKon system will be used mostly for White, Black and Tripel, the three biggest sellers in the Allagash line. Germain said that White still amounts to about 80 percent volume of Allagash beer sold. The new system will be more automated than the current system, which still will be used for its other beers.
The Press Herald has published a review of The Local Press.
But like most customers, I went with the Rundown Stew. And a panini. It’s a lot of food, so go hungry.
The stew is delicious, and will be even more delicious when Sheehan adds lobster or haddock, which he plans to do soon. Sheehan’s brother, who is helping out at the shop, is a lobsterman and will be supplying lobster for the stew and a lobster panini.
Over the past few months Portland Hunt & Alpine Club has been organizing a series of private events called Hush Hush that feature their cocktails paired with food by guest chefs. Map & Menu has posted details and photos from the last two.
Now the Hunt & Alpine Club and Eventide Oyster Company are teaming up on Not So Hush Hush which will open this excellent event up to the public. Chefs Taylor and Wiley will be prepping a series of “off-menu” appetizers and PH&AC owner Andrew Volk will be mixing up a set custom cocktails.
Tickets are $50 per person and are available online at Brown Paper Tickets.
The Beer Babe has published a review of three of the beers brewed at In’finiti: Primus Primus, Won IPA and Blonde.
In all, I am very happy to have another beer project enter the Portland bar scene, and I am excited to see where they are going with this concept. All three beers were drinkable and of very high quality. If they keep pushing forward in this direction, I think they’re going to have a lot more busy nights on their hands.
Joe Appel pleads his case against Maine’s wine importing and distribution system in his column today in the Press Herald.
…why should we change the laws to bring in a Jura Poulsard?
Because it’s beautiful. Because it’s unique. Because it exists. That’s enough.
We don’t deny this country’s residents the right to read, view or listen to the literature and art they desire just because a particular work doesn’t fit some program of maximal business efficiency or satisfy the morals police. We don’t say, “Ah, no need for y’all to read the novels of Roberto Bolano; just read Haruki Murakami or Jonathan Franzen instead.”
Censorship of wine, or disregard for the importance of its diversity, is just as absurd.
According to the West End News, Johnny Robinson is planning to open Longfellow’s Attic, sharing the space currently occupied by The Frame Shop in Longfellow Square.
Robinson is best known as the original owner of Hugo’s which he sold Hugo’s to Rob Evans in 2000. He also ran Finch’s/Johnny’s Bistro in Falmouth.
According to a report in the Press Herald real estate section, Coffee by Design has bought a 44,000 square foot building in East Bayside where they plan on housing their roasting operation and “will feature a coffee bar training center, a public cupping and tasting bar, and a showroom for residential and commercial coffee equipment sales.” According to the article they’ll also be offering public tours of the facility.
The article is not, as far as I can tell, available online.