Upcoming Food & Dining Events

| Posted in Events

Wednesday – Mrs. Gee Free Living and Gather are collaborating on a gluten-free dinner. GMRI is hosting a talk about sustainable seafood with guest Ben Conniff, co-owner of Luke’s Lobster.

Thursday – The Maine Center for Entrepreneurs is holding the biennial Maine Food Producer Showcase & Golden Fork Awards at Brick South on Thompson’s Point. Farms for Food Equity is holding their Fall Harvest Gathering fundraiser with food from Big Tree Catering and Harbor Fish, wines from National Distributors and beer from Oxbow. The Knotted Apron is serving a 4-course Vendage wine dinner.

Thursday-Saturday – Harvest on the Harbor is taking place.

Friday – Kasha’s Kitchen in Kittery is holding a Polish dinner.

Saturday – Maine Vegfest is taking place.

Sunday – Victoria Nam from Siblings Bakery is teaching a virtual class on Spiking Your Cakes With Whole Grains for the Maine Grains Alliance.

October 29 – The annual HospitalityMaine summit is taking place at Sugarloaf.

November 4-10 – 207 Beer Week is taking place.

November 5 – Gross Confection Bar is holding a (sold out) pastry baking class.

November 11-17 – Brunswick Wine Week is taking place.

November 14 – Angoor Wine Bar and Taj are collaborating to hold a Friendsgiving Feast with a 3-course meal from Taj paired with a set of wine pairings.

November 20 – GMRI is holding an event to discuss Climate Resilience Potential in Gulf of Maine Fisheries.

Thanksgiving – Thanksgiving seems a ways off but restaurants, bakeries, markets and other businesses have already begun sharing their plans. See our 2024 Thanksgiving Resource Guide for a full list of dinners and take-out options as well as birds, baked goods and side dishes for your meal at home.

November 30 – The deadline to submit recommendations for the 2025 Beard Awards.

December 1 – Sean Turley will be delivering a presentation on cider & pomology at Lambs in South Portland.

December 31 – Elk’s Lodge 188 is holding a Vegas-themed New Year’s Eve party; $80 per person.

Planning a wedding, holding a business event, or hosting visitors from away? Our printed guides are a great resource to help your guests explore the Maine restaurant scene.
25-packs of the Portland and Midcoast pocket guides are now available on our online store.

CO2 Capture & Review of Camp Pennant

| Posted in Reviews

This week’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a review of Camp Pennant,

“Camp” is a unique conceptual theme for a restaurant, but Fraser not only makes it work, he and his front-of-house staff bring a transportative levity to the experience. Chef Max Mejia’s menu of comfort foods is also solid, especially a Caprese-style sandwich bookended by pizza dough baked in the restaurant’s enormous Le Panyol wood-fired oven, crisp-tender roasted broccolini topped with garlicky bread crumbs, and warm soft-baked pretzels to dunk in hops-infused mustard. It’s not perfect yet, but Camp Pennant is already a charming diversion.

and an article on how breweries are using technology to adapt to capture carbon dioxide produced during fermentation for reuse at the brewery.

The funny thing is, breweries also produce CO2, or carbon dioxide, in the beer-making process. Recently, a few Maine breweries have turned to technology newly adapted to small craft breweries that allows them to recapture the CO2 they produce and reuse it to make their beer. These closed-loop systems can save the breweries money, offer security in the event of future CO2 shortages and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

Maine Food & Dining News: Bar Harbor, Wells, Kennebunkport, Saco, Dixfield, Biddeford, Westbrook

| Posted in Maine

New food and dining developments are taking place all across Maine. Here are some recent updates to keep you in the know:

    • South Berwick-based Lee Franks has opened a second location of their burger and hot dog restaurant in Wells. It is located at 321 US Route 1. They’re currently open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
    • Mussette owner Jonathan Cartwright has announced plans to launch Caring Community Cuisine, a new initiative to “focusing on family nutrition and human interaction to help those battling cancer.”
    • Lorraine Fagela plans to launch her new Saco gluten-free bakery/cafe on Friday. Sweets & Co. (instagram) is located at 294 Main Street and will be open 9 am – 5 pm on Friday and Saturday this week.
    • The Bethel Sugar Shack recently launched Mimi’s Place (facebook) in Dixfield. Mimi’s serves a menu of burgers, sandwiches, wraps, salads and specialty pizzas. They’re located at 60 Weld Street and are open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 am – 8 pm.
    • Peekytoe Provisions (website, facebook, instagram) recently opened their new Bar Harbor market/cafe. Owners Drew Smith and Cyndi Bridges have built out a new market/cafe at 244 Main Street where they’re open Wednesday through Sunday, noon – 8 pm. The market stocks seafood as well as charcuterie, cheeses and other provisions. The cafe serves (menu) a wide range of apps, salads, sandwiches and entrees with cocktails, wine, beer and non-alcoholic beverages.
    • Owner Derek Laplume has announced plans to close the Pint & Pawn board game cafe in Biddeford at the end of November.
    • Kennebunkport-based chef Germán Lucarelli, has leased space at Rock Row in Westbrook with plans to open a new restaurant called The Asador Grill.

For a statewide guide to eating and drinking see the Maine Food Map—a growing list of coffee shops, bars, restaurants, bakeries, cafes, and other food and dining businesses in all of Maine’s 16 counties.

The Asador Grill at Rock Row

| Posted in Under Construction

Chef Germán Lucarelli, owner of The Lost Fire in Kennebunkport, has leased space at Rock Row where he is planning to open The Asador Grill (instagram). The restaurant will specialize in Patagonian cuisine featuring traditional open-flame cooking.

“The Lost Fire began as a means of reconnecting with the tastes of my home and introducing people to the unique style of grilling Argentinians have mastered, “ said Chef Germán Lucarelli. “The Asador Grill will bring guests closer to the wonder of authentic open fire cooking than ever before.”

Lucarelli opened The Lost Fire in 2018, two seafood restaurants Casa Seventy-Seven and Ultramar in 2023, and he launched an ice cream food truck in 2024 called Dos Elenas Gelato. The Asador Grill will be his first business in the Portland area.

Construction of the 7,000 square foot restaurant is expected to start in 2025. An opening timeframe is TBD.

Upcoming Food & Dining Events

| Posted in Events

Tuesday – Master Sommelier Jonathan Eichholz and Butter + Kale are holding 5-course wine dinner at Magnus on Water.

Thursday/Friday – SMCC culinary and hospitality students are serving a 5-course Dining with the Departed dinner.

Friday – Author Corrie Locke-Hardy will be at the Equality Community Center for a reading from their new cookbook The Revolution Will be Well Fed and herbal tea workshop.

Saturday – McDougal Orchards in Springvale is holding their 5th Annual Apple Tasting.

Sunday – Great Maine Apple Day is taking place in Unity.

October 23 – Mrs. Gee Free Living and Sur Lie are collaborating on a gluten-free dinner. GMRI is hosting a talk about sustainable seafood with guest Ben Conniff, co-owner of Luke’s Lobster.

October 24 – The Maine Center for Entrepreneurs is holding the biennial Maine Food Producer Showcase & Golden Fork Awards at Brick South on Thompson’s Point. Farms for Food Equity is holding their Fall Harvest Gathering fundraiser with food from Big Tree Catering and Harbor Fish, wines from National Distributors and beer from Oxbow.

October 25 – Kasha’s Kitchen in Kittery is holding a Polish dinner.

October 24-26 – Harvest on the Harbor is taking place.

October 27 – Victoria Nam from Siblings Bakery is teaching a virtual class on Spiking Your Cakes With Whole Grains for the Maine Grains Alliance.

October 29 – The annual HospitalityMaine summit is taking place at Sugarloaf.

November 4-10 – 207 Beer Week is taking place.

November 5 – Gross Confection Bar is holding a (sold out) pastry baking class.

November 11-17 – Brunswick Wine Week is taking place.

November 20 – GMRI is holding an event to discuss Climate Resilience Potential in Gulf of Maine Fisheries.

November 28 – Thanksgiving is taking place. We’ll be publishing a list of Turkey events, dinners, community meals, special takeout and take home options. Send us the details on ones you may be offering or know about.

November 30 – The deadline to submit recommendations for the 2025 Beard Awards.

December 1 – Sean Turley will be delivering a presentation on cider & pomology at Lambs in South Portland.

Planning a wedding, holding a business event, or hosting visitors from away? Our printed guides are a great resource to help your guests explore the Maine restaurant scene.
25-packs of the Portland and Midcoast pocket guides are now available on our online store.

Kelly Nelson

| Posted in People

Restaurant community member, Kelly Nelson, has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her friends have set-up a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to help with medical bills and journey forward with an MS diagnosis.

The resources collected via this GoFundMe will go towards her mounting medical debt, and ultimately allowing Kelly to take some much needed time away from work to begin her medical journey and assess what the future holds for her. Those close to Kelly know she is grieving the loss of her former self. That process is painful enough without the stress and worry of financial burden. We’re hoping this GoFundMe can alleviate some of that burden and offer the opportunity for grace as Kelly enters this new chapter of her life.

Nelson has worked in the Portland industry for 15+ years. You may have crossed paths with her at Local 188, Sonny’s, Piccolo, Evo or more recently at Fore Street where she is a server and manages the restaurant’s wine list. You can read more about Kelly in this interview we published in 2021.

She is unmistakable, eccentric, and nothing short of fabulous. Her hair shifts from one vibrant shade to the next (it’s currently flamingo pink) and cephalopod tattoos wrap her arms and legs. On Instagram she’s @geeksquid, and if you follow her you are well aware of her fondness for hairless rats. After contributing to the Portland food scene in various ways for over a decade, she now revels in the role of wine coordinator at Fore Street. She is, of course, the one and only Kelly Nelson.

Visit this page to learn more and to donate to the GoFundMe campaign.

Practical Pomology Now On Kickstarter

| Posted in General News

Practical Pomology: A Field Guide, a new book guide for identifying and describing apples is now available to pre-order on Kickstarter. The 150-page book explains how to differentiate between seedling and grafted trees, how to recognize and name the various features of the apple, and includes anatomical photographs of the thirty-four varieties (Saint Lawrence shown below) that most commonly grow in historic orchards. The books is extensively illustrated with photos an drawings.

Practical Pomology has been written by Sean Turley, a Portland-based apple author, historian, photographer, cidermaker, forager and the creator of The Righteous Russet instagram account. Turley worked extensively with Maine’s preeminent apple expert John Bunker on writing the book, as well as with designers, artists, and photographers to bring the subject to life.

Apples are everywhere; so are books about apples. But despite the extraordinary quantity and quality of tomes about pomes, no text has ever been printed that provides a comprehensive, systematic approach to describing and identifying historic varieties of apples—let alone one that condenses the foundational work by pomologists over the last couple of centuries into a simple-to-follow, practical resource for the expert and novice alike.

Practical Pomology: A Field Guide aims to fill that void. Across its pages, you will be taught how to recognize and differentiate between seedling and grafted trees; describe and classify the anatomical features of the apple; and identify and distinguish among the varieties most commonly found in historic orchards. It is a resource that can be pulled off the shelf when deciphering descriptions of lost varieties in antiquated texts and a portable manual you can toss in your backpack when heading out into the field. Whether you are new to pomology or an old hand at describing and identifying pomes, this book should prove to be an indispensable resource.

You can pre-order your copy of Practical Pomology on Kickstarter now through December 14th. The book is expected to go to print in early January and be shipped to customers in mid-March.

The North Point and Salvage BBQ Have Closed

| Posted in Closings

Two more Portland establishments have closed their doors.

The North Point closed this weekend. Owner Dan Talmatch shared on instagram, “The North Point has closed it’s doors for the last time. This decision wasn’t made lightly, but was made in light of rising costs, difficulty staffing, and generally decreasing sales. More info will follow, but for now, I want to offer my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all that have made The North Point a Portland staple for nearly 12 years. We’re still loving you right back.” The Silver Street bar opened for business in February 2013.

Salvage BBQ has closed. The large sunny Parkside restaurant opened for business in September 2013 in at 919 Congress Street. The menu at the time included options like the Meat Coma and the Meat Fatality—½ rack of ribs, ½ pound of brisket, ½ pound of pork, ½ of a roast chicken, sausage, a bowl of chili and 2 pints of sides. A sign posted in the window late last week (see upper right image) read simply “Salvage BBQ Is Closed, Thanks for 10+ Years.”

Farewell to Local 188

| Posted in Closings

Local 188 has closed. The landmark restaurant had been in business for 25 years and contributed to the development of Portland as a nationally acclaimed culinary destination. They will be missed.

Chef/owner Jay Villani share some brief parting words,

Just wow. What a ride. None of this would have been possible without you.

You have given me a backdrop I can proudly hang my apron on. Words can not express how incredibly lucky I feel. The depth of meaning you all have given my life is immeasurable. What a truly special gift.

Thank you…

All of you.

When the restaurant launched in 1999, it brought a new vitality to Longfellow Square joining Cafe Uffa in an intersection that had not yet become the restaurant hub it is today. Warm personal service, an innovative menu of Spanish-inspired dishes, a great atmosphere and space made Local 188 a popular destination at the start of the new century. The name of the restaurant is a reference to its original street address 188 State Street—where Pai Men Miyake is now. It moved to much larger quarters on Congress Street in 2007.

In a fitting coda for a long running establishment, the kitchen at Local 188 had passed on to the next generation with Villani’s son Jackson (aka Sonny) as the chef de cuisine. If you’ve dined at 188 during the last few month you’ve likely had some delightful new dishes he’s brought to the menu.

Local 188 may have closed but the impact the legions of staff have made on the lives of their customers and on the city’s culinary scene and will be remembered for a long time to come.

Maine Food Influencers

| Posted in People

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram profiles 5 Maine food instagram influencer accounts: Biddo Foodies run by Holly Norburg and Daniela Amieva, Eating Portland Alive run by  Rob Schatz, Eating Through The Seacoast run by Jake Cryan, The Maine Foodies run by Erik and Alexis Dirkmaat, and Portland Eats ME run by Lydia Belden. All excellent accounts well worth following.

Maine has a large and growing food social media community. Whether it’s a specific geography, a type of food or a particular type of food lifestyle you want to learn more about there’s likely an account out their publishing about that already. If there isn’t then maybe you’re the right person to step into those shoes and share your passion with the world!