The International Foodservice Editorial Council (IFEC) is holding their annual conference in Portland this November.
The IFEC is “a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the overall quality of business-to-business communication within the foodservice industry and to encouraging high professional and aesthetic standards among those working in and with the foodservice media.”
Maine cheesemakers took home 10 awards from this year’s American Cheese Society competition, reports the Maine Cheese Guild.
From among 267 companies submitting 1,779 entries seven Maine cheese makers won ten awards including four 1st place ribbons, four 2nd place, and two 3rd place ribbons.
You can see the complete list of winners on the competition website.
The 10 restaurants PFM readers looked up most often last month were:
The numbers in parentheses indicates their rank last month.
The Portland Phoenix has interviewed Heather Sanborn, co-owner of Rising Tide.
KB: You have a small rack of barrels aging in the back of the brewery. Will that be a bigger part of your model going forward, or are your barrel-aged beers more of a side project?
HS: I think that remains to be seen. Right now we don’t have more space for barrel aging, but that’s about to change. We have a 8,000 square foot warehouse in Westbrook that’s coming online in about three weeks. We just hired somebody to manage it and we leased a box truck that we’re going to use to bring things back and forth. So we should have a lot more space for barrel storage soon. Then it’s really just a process of ramping up that barrel program over time. It takes a long time to build up a successful barrel program at any kind of scale.
Novare Res is one of a select list of bars worldwide participating in this year’s Cantillon Zwanze day. Get to Novare early on September 19 to try this year’s beer.
The Press Herald has published a bar review of Crooners & Cocktails.
A classy joint with a major throwback vibe to the 50s and 60s era of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, Crooners & Cocktails offers classic cocktails, beer on draft, a great happy hour, and a full dinner menu.
The Boston Globe has a report on Peak Organic’s expansion into markets across the country.
Peak products are now available in cities beyond New York; they’re all along the East Coast and in California, reflective of their 29 percent overall growth in 2014. Cadoux credits the expansion to thriving restaurant scenes in Miami, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Boston, and a sales staff focused on selling the brew as a good beer for food.
The Portland Phoenix has published an interview with El Rayo general manager Kate Poze.
LO: What do you tell your wait staff the secret is to excellent service?
KP: Always make eye contact, be attentive, accommodating and personal, know the menu. Control the chaos and be ahead of your tables, ask if they would like another drink before their glass is bone dry, mark their table, and don’t serve them soup without a spoon.
A camera crew from the Cooking Channel was onsite at The Well yesterday filming for a show called Extra Virgin. The epsiode which includes The Well is expected to air in January.
Update: On Wednesday the Extra Virgin camera crew was filming at Portland Lobster Company. The Press Herald has posted an article with further info, as does Eater Maine.
The Press Herald reports that a group of New England senators are advocating for September 25th to be designated National Lobster Day.