Upcoming Events

| Posted in Events

Through Sunday – Biddeford & Saco Restaurant Week is taking place.

Wednesday – Tap & Taste, a gluten-free tasting event, will be taking place at Orange Bike Brewing in collaboration with Mrs. Gee Free Living and 2Gether.

March 20 – La Gallera is holding a pop-up at Root Wild.

March 23/24 – Maine Maple Weekend is taking place. See the Maine Maple Producers Association website to find a sugar house near you to visit.

March 25 – The 3rd Annual ChopTails Competition will be taking place at Batson River.

March 26 – there will be a 5-course sake dinner at Miyake, The Honey Paw will be featuring  Brooklyn Kura Sake with specials on the menu to pair with with 3 Brooklyn Kura sakes, and Chaval is holding a 5-course sake dinner.

March 27 – Chaval will be holding a Spanish vegan wine dinner.

March 28 – Ballast will be hosting a murder mystery dinner. Author Lidey Heuck will be at Viand Mercantile for a signing of her new book Cooking in Real Life.

April 3 – The Beard Foundation will release the 2024 list of restaurant and chef awards nominees. There are 10 semifinalists from Maine this year.

April 28 – The Casco Bay Chef’s Association is holding their 2024 annual dinner.

April 29 – The Good Food Awards winners will be announced. Eight Maine food producers are finalists in the 2024 Good Food awards program.

May 11 – CiderFeast, an “all-inclusive tasting event celebrates craft ciders from some of the top cider makers in New England and beyond” is taking place.

May 18 – The Maine Wild Wine Fest is taking place in Freeport.

June 10-16 – Portland Wine Week is taking place.

June 22 – The Great Falls Brewfest is taking place in Lewiston.

June 26 – Secret Supper (instagram) is holding a dinner in the Portland area.

June 29 – The 3rd Annual Mast Landing Wavy Days Festival is taking place.

July 25/26 – The Kneading Conference is taking place in Skowhegan.

August 30 – September 1 – Maine Apple Camp is taking place.

September 20-22 – The Common Ground Fair will be taking place.

Review of South Freeport Village Store, Vegan Veto, Food Styling

| Posted in General News, Reviews

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes an article about Maine-based food stylists, an article about the ‘vegan veto’ and a 4 star review of the South Freeport Village Store.

Big Tree Hospitality, one of Maine’s best-known culinary success stories, envisioned South Freeport Village Market as a breakfast-and-lunch café with a small, thoughtfully stocked retail market attached. And it is that, but in this newly built structure with gleaming stainless hood, flat top grill, deli counter and oven, the business is well-equipped to become a great spot for an early evening meal.

Cantina Calafia to Open Wednesday

| Posted in Openings

The West End’s newest restaurant, Cantina Calafia (instagram), is scheduled to open on Wednesday. Calafia located at the corner of Pine and Brackett Streets.

Owners Dominique Gonzalez and Justin Grey along with chefs Quinn Williams and Melody Medina are serving Alta and Baja California Mexican cuisine along with a beverage program house designed cocktails (like the Mango #5, bottom left), wines by the glass/bottle, packaged and draft beer, and mocktails. The menu (see below) include dishes like Aguachile Amarillo prepared with mackerel (middle right) and Ensalada Nopal. When you go don’t leave without having the wonderful flan made with Sunset Acres Farm goat cheese (top left).

The former Bonobo Pizza space has been completely renovated into a 49-seat restaurant with semicircular booths along the right side, a 12-seat bar and 2-seat tables all under a vaulted ceiling. Just inside the front door is elevated lounge area suitable for larger groups. The bathrooms have been decorated with vintage 1970s wallpaper (middle left).

Gonzalez grew up in San Diego with family on both sides of the border—her father was from Guadalajara and her mother lived in Santa Barbara and was the daughter of Mexican immigrants. The restaurant’s menu is a reflection of her personal culinary and cultural roots. Chefs Medina and Williams recently moved to Portland from Brooklyn. The met when both were working at Frenchette. Medina, who is Dominique Gonzalez’s cousin, previously cooked at Oxomoco. Williams most recently worked at Lords.

Cantina Calafia will initially be open Wednesday/Thursday, 4 – 9 pm, and Friday/Saturday, 4 – 10 pm.

Grey and Gonzalez had owned Bonobo since 2018, and closed the restaurant to realize their vision of launching their new restaurant.

Sacred Profane Opens in Portland

| Posted in Openings

Sacred Profane Brewing (website, instagram) has opened their new tasting room on Thompson’s Point. They’re located in the former Stroudwater Distilling space next to Bissell Brothers.

The menu (see below) includes the full range of pour styles for their light and dark lagers as well as draft pours from other brewers, wines by the bottle and spirits. The food menu offers a small selection of sandwiches and snacks: soft pretzels with lager mustard, warm and cold lobster roll options, kraut dogs, a meat and cheese board and a hummus plate with warm naan, zatar and olive oil.

The space has a long high top tables in the center of the room with booths along the right wall and group seating (see above) on the left side of the room. The Thompson’s Point location will initially be open Friday through Sunday, 11 am – 11 pm.

The Sacred Profane brewery and tankpub in Biddeford opened in September 2022.

Flash’s Barbecue

| Posted in Under Construction

Chris Wilcox, the chef/owner of the former Judy Gibson, has announced plans to launch Flash’s Barbecue (instagram) this summer. Wilcox will be serving Saint Louis-style barbecue.

Meats are cooked high above slow burning embers very slow giving everything a more grilled and less smokey flavor. Growing up in St.Louis, barbecue has always been a love of mine and I’m excited to cook A LOT of it. I’ll be popping up around Portland cooking my take on St.louis style barbecue while still giving everything the same JG touch we strived for in South Portland. Stay tuned for more details!

Portland Wine Week

| Posted in Events, People

Mainebiz has published an interview with Erica Archer about her company Wine Wise and her leadership of Portland Wine Week.

By definition, Portland Wine Week showcases the extensive wine offerings Maine establishments have to offer through engaging tasting events, wine classes and seminars, wine sails, and intimate dinner events at award-winning local restaurants. In reality it is a celebration of the people in our community. It’s your friends and my friends — it’s the Portland restaurant and wine industry coming together and doing what it does best.

Maine Food & Dining News: Ellsworth, N Berwick, Kittery, Old Town, Brunswick, Camden, Gorham

| 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 on what’s going on:

  • Provender in Ellsworth is launching Little PKB, a lunchtime sandwich cafe which will be open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 am – 3 pm. For additional information read this article in the Bangor Daily News.
  • Alex d’Emarese opened his new bakery/cafe in Baker Bru (instagram) in North Berwick this past Monday. d’Emarese is channeling his South African and Italian heritage selling a menu that includes breads, croissants, tarts, cookies, and South African meat pies. Baker Bru also has ready to eat sandwiches and prepared meals to go.
  • Toast, a gluten-free sandwich shop in Kittery, has announced they plan to close. April 6th will be their last day in business.
  • A new restaurant called Nanny’s opened Tuesday in Old Town.
  • Down East magazine has published an article about Tao Yuan.
  • The Place Bakery in Camden has launched a $15k crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to add a walk-in refrigerator to their bakery. So far they’ve raised $9,655 towards their goal.
  • The Backwoods Burger Shack is under construction in Gorham.

Backwoods Burger Shack in Gorham

| Posted in Under Construction

A new business called Backwoods Burger Shack (facebook, instagram) is under construction in the space formerly occupied by Curbside Comforts at 680 Gray Road in Gorham.

Chef/owner Rick Boyd (linkedin) will be serving a menu (see below) of salads, sandwiches, hand cut fries, and burgers along with milkshakes, beer, wine, cocktails and frozen drinks. Ice cream sandwiches will be available for dessert. The Backwoods menu will be available for takeout or to enjoy on their outdoor seating area.

Boyd hails from East Texas and attended the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont in the early 1990s. He owned and operated several restaurants first in Idaho and then in the Lake Tahoe area before moving to Maine.

Boyd hopes to launch Backwoods Burger in mid-April, and has plans to expand the patio for next year to include an outdoor bar, fire pits, stage and year round seating.


What’s Missing?

| Posted in General News

A post on the Portland Reddit board is getting a lot of engagement. It poses the question “What is Portland’s food scene missing?” So far there have been 294 responses.

Korean food, Mexican food, Greek food, a Jewish delicatessen, a fast casual salad cafe, a steakhouse/chophouse have been frequently mentioned as have ideas like Georgian (the country) food, Peruvian food, a Waffle House, Filipino food, Soul Food, Ukrainian and Polish food, Moroccan food, Lebanese food, French food,  and suggestions for a variety of fast casual chains.

The full thread would be great market research for anyone wanting to open a new spot in Portland and who doesn’t have a concept already selected.

Upcoming Events

| Posted in Events

Monday – The 16th Annual Maine Restaurant Week continues through March 12th. Check the mainerestaurantweek.com website for a complete list of participating restaurants and events.

Saturday – Jean Christophe Rusatira from Umuko Coffee Importers will be giving a talk at Coffee by Design on Diamond Street.

March 10-17 – Biddeford & Saco Restaurant Week is taking place.

March 13 – Tap & Taste, a gluten-free tasting event, will be taking place at Orange Bike Brewing in collaboration with Mrs. Gee Free Living and 2Gether.

March 23/24 – Maine Maple Weekend is taking place. See the Maine Maple Producers Association website to find a sugar house near you to visit.

March 25 – The 3rd Annual ChopTails Competition will be taking place at Batson River.

March 26 – there will be a 5-course sake dinner at Miyake, The Honey Paw will be featuring  Brooklyn Kura Sake with specials on the menu to pair with with 3 Brooklyn Kura sakes, and Chaval is holding a 5-course sake dinner.

March 27 – Chaval will be holding a Spanish vegan wine dinner.

March 28 – Ballast will be hosting a murder mystery dinner. Author Lidey Heuck will be at Viand Mercantile for a signing of her new book Cooking in Real Life.

April 3 – The Beard Foundation will release the 2024 list of restaurant and chef awards nominees. There are 10 semifinalists from Maine this year.

April 28 – The Casco Bay Chef’s Association is holding their 2024 annual dinner.

April 29 – The Good Food Awards winners will be announced. Eight Maine food producers are finalists in the 2024 Good Food awards program.

May 11 – CiderFeast, an “all-inclusive tasting event celebrates craft ciders from some of the top cider makers in New England and beyond” is taking place.

May 18 – The Maine Wild Wine Fest is taking place in Freeport.

June 10-16 – Portland Wine Week is taking place.

June 26 – Secret Supper (instagram) is holding a dinner in the Portland area.

June 29 – The 3rd Annual Mast Landing Wavy Days Festival is taking place.

July 25/26 – The Kneading Conference is taking place in Skowhegan.

August 30 – September 1 – Maine Apple Camp is taking place.

September 20-22 – The Common Ground Fair will be taking place.