Catbird Creamery

| Posted in Profiles

The Portland Phoenix has published a profile of Catbird Creamery, a new ice cream shop that’s found a temporary home at Fit to Eat on Market Street.

And then there’s the Furious George. “My wife came up with the name and I sat down and thought ‘What would Furious George ice cream be?'” he says. The answer: Hot pepper ice cream, caramelized bananas, and big chunks of dark chocolate. The hot pepper can be surprising, since the cream makes it linger on the tongue, but the bananas and chocolate mellow it out and bring it together. Experimenting with different combinations is a big part of the fun — [owner Andrew] Warren hopes his customers will come to trust his flavors.

Catbird is the third ice cream purveyor to open shop in Portland this Summer and that doesn’t even include the new Maple’s Scoop Shop in South Portland or the seasonal reopening of the sidewalk ice cream window at Bonobo.

Fugitive Scobys, Raw Milk, and Unicorn Meat

| Posted in General News

Tuesday’s Portland Daily Sun includes an impassioned plea for a less bureaucratic and litigious approach to regulating local food.

The number of laws, legislators and lawyers are symptomatic of an engorged and pervasive government. Laws both liberate and throttle the free market. They save lives as well as injure and kill people with the same thick rulebooks, red tape and bureaucratic hurdles. It’s often hard to know if something is a law is for the good of the community or for the good of a corporation. Rules regarding organic food are created in order to protect small farmers from the agri-industrial complex, but are in turn used to squash those same small farmers on technicalities and loose interpretations. Got Monsanto?

John Myers in Bon Appetit

| Posted in Distilling & Cocktails

Portland bartender and cocktail historian John Myers was interviewed for the new issue of Bon Appetit about a 19th century concoction called Slippery Punch. The recipe combines aged rum, sugar, lime juice, bitters and nutmeg and paprika into what the magazine dubs The Perfect Summer Punch. The article and detailed recipe are on page 20 of the August issue of Bon Appetit but aren’t available online.

Maine at Work: Delivering Kegs

| Posted in General News

Press Herald Maine at Work reporter Ray Routhier spends the day delivering kegs, wine and other drinks to local restaurants and bars.

It didn’t budge. Not even a little.

“Yeah, those are pretty heavy. They weigh about 160 pounds,” said Gale, 42, of Biddeford.

Gale, who weighs about 165 pounds, grabbed the same keg, slid it to the edge of the bay and lowered it to the street. Then he slid a dolly underneath it.

This Week's Events

| Posted in Events

Wednesday — a Wine Wise class at The Wine Bar.
Thursday — Cultivating Community is holding the next in their series of biweekly Twilight Dinners in Cape Elizabeth, and The Great Lost Bear is holding their annual Christmas in July night that features Maine-based holiday beers.
Friday — the 4th Friday Film Series is screening the movie The Garden.
Sunday — Sunday is Open Farm Day in Maine; 12 farms (see page 4) in Cumberland County are participating. Sam Calagione, owner of Dogfish Head Brewing, will be at Novare Res where 23 of Dogfish Head beers will be available on tap.
Farmer’s Markets — the traditional series of Farmer’s Markets are taking place Monday (Monument Square), Wednesday (Monument Square) and Saturday (Deering Oaks Park). Cultivating Community is running their new series of markets Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at various locations around the city.
For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.
If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

This Week’s Events

| Posted in Events

Wednesday — a Wine Wise class at The Wine Bar.

Thursday — Cultivating Community is holding the next in their series of biweekly Twilight Dinners in Cape Elizabeth, and The Great Lost Bear is holding their annual Christmas in July night that features Maine-based holiday beers.

Friday — the 4th Friday Film Series is screening the movie The Garden.

Sunday — Sunday is Open Farm Day in Maine; 12 farms (see page 4) in Cumberland County are participating. Sam Calagione, owner of Dogfish Head Brewing, will be at Novare Res where 23 of Dogfish Head beers will be available on tap.

Farmer’s Markets — the traditional series of Farmer’s Markets are taking place Monday (Monument Square), Wednesday (Monument Square) and Saturday (Deering Oaks Park). Cultivating Community is running their new series of markets Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at various locations around the city.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.