Joe Ricchio has published a very interesting conversation with chef Rob Evans for the latest issue of the Food Coma podcast.
Evans and his wife Nancy Pugh own and operate Duckfat and Duckfat Friteshack. Evans was a 2004 Food & Wine Best New Chef, and in 2009 he was the James Beard award winner in the Best Chef North East category.
The New York Times has included Vinland in an article that highlights 26 of the many restaurants across the country that have closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
From the moment it opened, Vinland was more than a restaurant: it was a thought experiment. Influenced by chefs like Dan Barber and Rene Redzepi, the self-taught chef David Levi made a commitment to local ingredients that went much further than taking tomato salad off the menu. It meant cooking without sugar or black pepper or olive oil. It meant that one night’s menu might have three different dishes based on mushrooms, and woe to the diner who doesn’t care for fungi. (Reviews, not surprisingly, were mixed and passionate.)
As part of their Family Interrupted series the New York Times talked with Ralph and Lisa Turner, owners of Laughing Stock Farm in Freeport, on how they changed their business model due to the pandemic by launching a farm stand.
LISA We bagged up stuff as if we were going to have maybe 10 people a day come.
We sent it out to probably 450 email addresses — and then people just started sharing it and sharing it and sharing it. The first day it was like, wow, that was a lot of people. And I had to refill some stuff that I wasn’t really expecting to.
The eggs were flying out of here — we had kind of a back stock of eggs. We went through 130 dozen eggs in two and a half days. It was insane.
35 options and counting on this year’s New Year’s list. Check back, we’ll be adding more as more restaurants announce their offerings. Don’t see your favorite restaurant on the list? Check with them directly. Some restaurants may be open on NYE with their regular takeout/menu options.
If you know of any restaurants offering special New Year’s Eve/Day options please email me or post a comment below with the details.
Leigh Kellis, the fonder of The Holy Donut, opened the doors to Sweet Sea Cookies (website, facebook, instagram) pop-up shop on Monday. Located in the former Old Port Sandwich Shop location at 89 Market Street. The goal of Sweet Sea Cookies is to raise money for Less Plastic Portland which encourages businesses to reduce plastic use.
Cookies come in 3 flavors: oatmeal raisin, sea salt chocolate, and sunflower crunch. The cookies are produced by Baristas + Bites for Sweet Sea.
The Boston Globe has published an article on the impact the pandemic is having on the Portland restaurant scene.
Across the city, Portland’s restaurateurs are asking the same question. Battered by pandemic restrictions, the city’s once-thriving dining scene is now in depressing straits, contracting in ways that were unthinkable before the virus hit in March.
One-quarter to a third of the restaurants in the Portland area have closed after a sparse tourist season and might never reopen, industry observers said. And for those that have survived — so far, at least — revenue has shrunk to a small fraction of its pre-pandemic total, the workforce has been reduced to skeleton crews, and hopes for a turnaround next year are guarded, at best.
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Browne Trading (website) has reopened their Commercial Street market after a long rebuilding project. The overall layout is the same as the old store. The seafood counter is fully stocked. Browne is working to scale-up the wine and specialty foods they have on hand.
Browne was the scene of a 3-alarm fire back in April. The fire shutdown the retail side of the business. Hours for the market are 10 – 6, Monday through Saturday.
Urban Farm Fermentory has been approved for a restaurant license. Starting January 1st UFF will begin serving brunch 8am to 6pm Thursday through Monday. Brunch will be available in their 50-person tasting room and as takeout.
Chef Andrew Collier has joined the UFF team and will be drawing on his past experience at Bayside American Cafe to launch the new UFF brunch service. Collier has created a menu of toasts and waffles that will change seasonally to in concert with the ingredients UFF sources for use in their kombucha, cider, mead, gruits and artisanal vinegars.
Brunch at UFF is something owner Eli Cayer has wanted to do for a while, the pandemic accelerated those thoughts into a concrete plan.
Here’s a look at the menu:
Chefs Matt Ginn and Colin Wyatt are collaborating on an Evo New Year’s Eve takeout menu.
Ginn is the executive chef of the Prentice Hospitality Group and Wyatt is the former executive sous chef from Eleven Madison Park. Wyatt and his wife Selena Juneau-Vogel recently resettled to the Portland area—part of a longstanding plan to return to Maine (where Juneau-Vogel grew up) that was accelerated by the pandemic.
The friendship between Ginn and Wyatt dates back to 2007 when they both worked for Steve Corry at Five Fifty-Five. As a reference back to those earlier days, the NYE menu includes a black truffle lobster lasagna as a nod to the truffle lobster mac and cheese that was a signature item on the menu at Five Fifty-Five.
The 5-course menu includes:
You can pre-order Evo’s New Year’s Eve takeout dinner online, $130 per person.
