New Chef at Sur Lie

| Posted in People

Sur Lie has announced the hire Jordan Slocum (instagram) as their new chef de cuisine. Slocum will take the place of Jef Wright.

Native to the Northern Panhandle of Texas, Jordan started his culinary journey in Seattle, Washington. After attending a curated dinner held by his brother Joel he began pursuing a career in the professional kitchen. Attending National Culinary Institute in San Diego, California while simultaneously serving as an apprentice through a classic French tutelage at Penfolds in Temecula, he embraced his new career with fervor and eagerness. Focusing his passion and craft in the Industry for 13 years working in all aspects of service. From craft bartending, private estates & yachts, to running his own events company with Forage & Fir he found himself on the shores of Maine in 2017 and instantly fell in love. The bountiful resources and the romanticism of the seasons only fuels his drive for a focus on international technique through hyper local ingredients. Those diversely abundant treasures of our bountiful coasts, hearty seasonal produce, and mystic forests. With the goal to translate nostalgia and draw lines to cuisine all over the world in his dishes, while still remaining acutely, and respectfully… Maine.

Pugh & Evans: The Early Days

| Posted in People, History

This month’s edition of Mainer News includes a feature on Rob Evans and Nancy Pugh as they made their way through the early days on their Portland careers with Hugo’s and the founding of Duckfat.

When Evans and Pugh bought Hugo’s in the fall of 2000, all they had was trust in each other’s strength and ability. They certainly didn’t have any money, and though Chef Rob went on to earn many accolades, including a James Beard Foundation award in 2009, it took a decade to attain financial security. Only in the past year or two has the couple — who sold Hugo’s to a group of its employees in 2012 — felt that Duckfat Culture had evolved to the point where they can rely on the team to run the perpetually busy restaurant without them being in the building.

The March issue also includes a report on a visit to Panda Market in Buxton and an article about using cocktail bitters with beer.

Wonderbar and Jonesy’s

| Posted in Closings, History

The Courier reports on two Biddeford restaurants impacted by the pandemic. Jonesy’s Main Street Cafe is closing March 28th, and the 86 year old Wonderbar is for sale.

The popular landmark’s beginnings are familiar to many. Charlie and Archie Droggitis started Charlie’s Cafe in 1935, selling beer and sandwiches in their parent’s former shoe repair shop location on Washington Street, said Charlie’s son Spiros Droggitis. A couple of years later, Archie bought a mahogany bar in Boston, had it shipped to Maine, and another brother, Ted, suggested changing the name to Wonderbar. Soon, four brothers were involved in the business — Jimmy and Alex joining Archie and Charlie.

Restaurant Merchandise and Packaging

| Posted in General News

The Food & Dining section in today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes articles on the big increase in takeout containers being used during the pandemic,

In my zeal to support local restaurants during the pandemic, I’ve amassed my own takeout container mountain like those Jenkins warned about. I compost the compostable ones, reuse many plastic ones for storage, and repurpose others to parcel out goodies to neighbors I make and bake as part of my job as a recipe developer. Even with these waste stream diversion tactics in place, I still contribute to my town’s waste management problem when I drop the remaining ones in the recycling bin.

and on restaurant’s sale of branded merchandise to augment their income.

As the pandemic has lingered, lots of Maine restaurants have either started selling merchandise with their logos, or beefed up their online stores with new products, in hope that the additional stream of cash can help them keep their heads above water. That stream is uneven, spiking over the holidays or whenever a photo gets posted on Instagram, but all the restaurateurs interviewed for this article say the same thing: Every little bit helps.

Strata to Move/Expand

| Posted in Under Construction

Strata (website, instagram) has leased space at 67 Washington Ave in the former Nissen Bakery Building where they plan to move their specialty culinary knife store in the May/June time frame.

We need more space to fit more amazing products AND we will have a dedicated classroom space for all sorts of informative and hands-on classes starting with knife sharpening and knife skills tutorials, as well as other lessons taught by talented locals…Stay tuned for updates and a boat load of new awesome products from around the world and Maine.

Strata was founded by Evan Atwell in 2018, and was among the first wave of businesses that took up residence in the Black Box container retail spaces on Washington Ave.

Atwell will keep knives at the center of what Strata sells but plans to diversify the product mix to become a more well-rounded kitchen store with cooking utensils, non electrical equipment, cookbooks and more.

Hospitality Worker Vaccinations

| Posted in General News

For this week’s edition the Portland Phoenix talked with Portland hospitality workers to get their perspectives on Maine’s vaccination rollout plan.

Gov. Janet Mills’ Moving Maine Forward plan promises to increase the state’s indoor gathering capacity to 50 percent on March 26 and 100 percent May 24. With many hospitality workers, including 32-year-old Zarro, still ineligible for vaccinations they feel their safety is being sacrificed for tourism.

Cheese Louise

| Posted in Under Construction

A new restaurant called Cheese Louise (website, facebook, instagram) is under construction at 363 Fore Street in the space formerly occupied by Cheevitdee. According to a report in the Press Herald,

Cheese Louise, founded by three college students in 2018, began as a food trailer in New Hampshire. James Gaudreault, Ian Lubkin and Bryce Harrison have since expanded the business to include two food trucks and two restaurants, all in the Mount Washington Valley. (The trio also have an ice cream business called Freeze Louise.) They specialize in upscale grilled cheese sandwiches such as The Canadian, made with applewood-smoked bacon, Cabot cheddar, sliced green apples and maple syrup on Tuscan bread. A vegetarian sandwich, No Porkin’ Way, is made with shredded barbecue sweet potato, caramelized onions and Cabot cheddar on house-made honey flax bread.

The article also reports that Pizzaiolo is opening a second location at 865 Forest Ave, and Urban Farm Fermentory is working on a bottle shop in Kittery.

Cera Coming to Monument Square

| Posted in Under Construction

A new cafe called Cera (website, instagram) is under construction in Monument Square. Cera will be offering a menu of “elevated sandwiches and salads” available 7-days a week from their ground floor space in 1 Monument Square.

The 22-seat 1,300 sq ft cafe will be open 11 am – 8 pm will have available corporate catering options to serve the needs of downtown businesses in addition to on site dining and to go meals for individual customers. During warmer months Cera plans to have a 24-seat patio in the square. Owners Steven Lacount, Jennifer Svendsen and Sean Doherty hope to open Cera in May.

Steven Lacount grew-up in the Waterville area and cites Big G’s in Winslow as one of his points of inspiration for Cera. He began is restaurant career working at Baldacci’s in Portland back in the late 1980s, and most recently worked with B.Good. Lacount has experience in helping restaurant be successful as they scale up, and hopes that Cera in Portland will be the first of what one day could be upwards of 10 locations.

Chef Sean Doherty will be leading the culinary team at Cera. Doherty has worked at Harding Smith’s Rooms restaurants. He also has strong interest in koji and fermentation, and was recently a presenter at the KojiCon online conference. At Cera, koji will be part of the process Dorherty uses to prepare their house-made pastrami.

The menu at Cera will include options like:

The Jaberwocky Sandwich
House roasted beef & our own pastrami, smoked bacon, Swiss cheese, BBQ, red onion, tomato
// choice: multigrain, rye, white

Peaches the Pig Sandwich
House Smoked ham, cheddar, peach-jalapeno chutney & lettuce
// choice: multigrain, rye, white

Super Mushroom Panini
Wood grilled mushrooms, garlic aioli, fontina cheese, spinach, roasted tomatoes
// Panini bread

Mercados Salad
Mixed greens with jicama, tri-colored grape tomatoes, fresh corn, black beans, avocado, cotija cheese, cucumber, red pepper & chili roasted pepitas
Dressing: Tomatillo vinaigrette

The owners are planning to get Cera certified as a B Corporation. In recognition of how central bee pollination is to the food system, Cera will focus some energy  on supporting bees and beekeeping, and are looking for organizations they will contribute to. Beekeepers with ideas should reach out to them with recommendations.