Liquor License for Rising Tide

| Posted in General News

The Press Herald has published a report on the City Council’s approval of a new liquor license for Rising Tide.

Portland city councilors have rushed through a liquor license for a local brewery despite a warning from the city attorney that doing so would violate the city’s zoning rules and code of ordinances, and go against precedent it set in dealing with a competing brewery.

Norimoto Bakery

| Posted in Under Construction

Former Ten Ten Pié baker, Atsuko Fujimoto, has founded Norimoto Bakery (instagram).

For now, she’s operating it as a wholesale bakery supplying goods to customers like Woodford F&B,  Boda and Kuno, as well as taking retail special orders. She’s working out kitchen space at Two Fat Cats in South Portland.

Fujimoto continues to look for a storefront in the Portland area where she plans to take the next step and open a retail bakery. I’ll post an update when that takes place, but not before buying up all the lingonberry pinwheels for myself!

Norimoto is a concatenation of Fujimoto’s last name and that of her husband.

Slurpfest 2019

| Posted in Events

This weekend (Friday – Sunday) the Maine Oyster Company on Portland Street will be holding Spring Slurpfest 2019.

The oyster festival will include, “Free oyster schwag from growers,  daily prize giveaways including private farm tours, club memberships & oysters, free shucking demonstrations, speciality oyster dishes” and on Sunday they’ll be holding the first of four Slurp Madness (an oyster eating contest) qualifying events.

 

Other Side Diner Opening

| Posted in Openings

Owners Peter and Jessica Sueltenfuss plan to open the Other Side Diner (facebook, instagram) Wednesday morning. The OSD is located at 500 Washington Ave, the space formerly occupied by Hella Good Tacos and Steve and Renee’s Diner. You can see a draft copy of the menu here.

The diner will have the same focus on using local product and in-house production as the East Deering and West End Other Side Delicatessens. Other Side will serve traditional breakfast and lunch diner fare with some Greek influences such as baklava and Greek donuts. Jessica Sueltenfuss will be managing the diner.

Hours for the diner are 7:30 – 3:00.

This Week’s Events: Greek Wines, MaineVoices, Chocolate Lovers’ Fling, Deering Oaks Market, Coolship la Mûre

| Posted in Events

Monday – Chaval is featuring ciders from ANXO and serving some additional menu items to pair with them.

Tuesday – Chefs Matt Ginn and Christian Hayes will be at One Longfellow Square for an onstage MaineVoices conversation,  and Chaval is featuring wines from Greek winemaker 14/27 and serving some additional menu to pair with them.

Thursday – Mary Ann Esposito will be at Solo Italiano for a wine dinner, GMRI is holding their annual Seafood Celebration, and the 33rd Annual Chocolate Lover’s Fling is taking place.

Friday – Seaweed Week kick’s off, and there will be a wine tasting at the West End Rosemont.

Saturday – the 1st Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market of the year is taking place, Allagash is releasing their Coolship la Mûre, and both Blue Lobster Wines and Eighteen Twenty Wines are opening in their new digs on Anderson Street (they swapped spaces).

A Look Ahead – here are a couple events happening a little further out that you may want to check out.

    • Nine Maine restaurants are collaborating with Winebow/Leonardo Locasio Selections to hold Italian wine dinners on May 8th: Enoteca Athena, Evo Kitchn + Bar, Inn by the Sea, Lolita, Paciarino, Solo Italiano, Tipo, Union, Varano’s.
    • Hop Culture is holding their Juicy Brews Craft Beer Festival to Mast Landing Brewing Company in Westbrook on June 29th.

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.

Under Construction: Cocktail Mary

| Posted in Under Construction

A new cocktail bar called Cocktail Mary (instagram) is under development in the former Ramen Suzukiya space located at 229 Congress Street.

Owner Isaac MacDougal grew up in Portland where his family owned and operated Vaughan Street Variety. MacDougal has worked as a general manager or bartender in a number of restaurants in New York City including at WD-50. He’s currently the head bartender at Izakaya Minato.

MacDougal hopes to open the 21-seat establishment later this Summer.

Under Construction: Flood’s

| Posted in Under Construction

Flood’s (instagram) Greg Mitchell’s new 50-seat restaurant at 747 Congress Street is currently undergoing renovations and anticipating a late Spring opening.

On the personnel front Mitchell has made some key hires for for the new West End restaurant:

Billy Hager will be the Head Chef and lead BOH operations for Flood’s. He’s moving to Portland from California where he worked at Homestead in Oakland. Mitchell and Hager will be collaborating to develop the menu for Flood’s.
Caroline Richter has been hired as the Bar Manager, and is moving to Portland from New Orleans where she worked at Turkey and the Wolf. She’s also the co-founder of Shift Change which is “a not-for-profit organization engaged in sexual violence prevention, response, and education for hospitality professionals and patrons”.