This Week’s Events: Twilight Dinner, Greek Heritage Festival, Summer Dinner, Latte Art, 555 10th Anniversary, Pocket Brunch

| Posted in Events

Wednesday — the Bier Cellar is holding a tasting with North Coast Brewing where they’ll be debuting a collaboration North Coast did with Deschutes Brewing and Rogue, Black Tie is catering a Graze Farm Dinners at Pineland in New Gloucester, and the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — Cultivating Community is holding their first Twilight Dinner of the season, it’s the first day of the Greek Heritage Festival, Blue Rooster and Portland Hunt & Alpine Club are collaborating on a New England Summer Dinner, Bard is holding the monthly Latte Art Throwdown, there will be a wine and cheese tasting at the Public Market House, and The Great Lost Bear will be showcasing beers from Greenflash Brewing.

Friday — Five Fifty-Five is celebrating their 10th Anniversary with a 10-course wine dinner, it’s the second day of the Greek Heritage Festival, Rising Tide, Bunker Brewing, Urban Farm Fermentory and Tandem are coordinating on June’s Last Friday event (noon to 7pm) in East Bayside. Love Cupcakes will be at Rising Tide and Small Axe will be at Bunker.

Saturday — the 5th Annual Strawberry Festival is taking place in Cape Elizabeth, it’s the last day of the Greek Heritage Festival, and the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

Sunday — the June edition of Pocket Brunch is taking place, Krista Kern Desjarlais and Erik Desjarlais are the guest chefs for Pocket Picnic. Tickets for the June Pocket Brunch sold out in less than 2 hours.

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.

Crowdsourcing Campaigns: Tortillería Pachanga & UFF Community Kitchen

| Posted in General News, Uncategorized

A pair of Portland companies are raising funds on the Indiegogo crowdsourcing site:

The Urban Farm Fermentory (facebook) is trying to raise $16,000 to fund the build out of a community kitchen and the construction of a greenhouse along the back side of their building on Anderson Street. The community kitchen will provide commercial kitchen space that’s needed by small food business that don’t yet have their own building. To watch a short video by owner Eli Cayer and contribute visit the UFF page on Indiegogo.

Tortilleria Pachanga (facebook) is a new company still under development that wants to manufacture “fresh, local corn tortillas using organic and heritage varieties of corn grown” in Maine. They have all the equipment needed, and are raising the funds to build our their space and to underwrite the other start-up costs associated with getting the business running. To watch a short video about Tortilleria Pachanga and contribute visit the Pachanga page on Indiegogo.

While not a Portland food business, it’s interesting to see that Samantha Hoyt Lindgren, co-owner of Rabelais, also has a new company called A Gathering of Stitches that raising funds on Indiegogo.

Regina Spices

| Posted in Openings

Maine a la Carte has published an article about Regina Spices, the second act by the creator of the Portland Spice Co.

Jessica Regina Moore is back selling her original spice blends under the name Regina Spices (reginaspices.com). She does not have a storefront, but her products are available at K. Horton’s Specialty Foods in the Public Market House in Monument Square and at Maine’s Pantry on Commercial Street.

Regina Spice is also part of an article in today’s Maine Sunday Telegram.

The Festival (Updated)

| Posted in Beer

TheFestival

The Festival, the international gathering of brewers and beer enthusiasts in Portland, came to a close last night.

Mixonymics with Trey Hughes, John Myers and Nathaniel Meiklejohn

| Posted in Distilling & Cocktails

Three Portland bartenders—Trey Hughes, John Myers, Nathaniel Meiklejohn—were interviewed for an article in The Morning News about how bartenders go about naming the cocktails they invent.

This sort of creative referentiality runs rampant in mixonymics. Perhaps because, for many bartenders, the name comes at the end of the mixing—and the sipping, sipping, sipping. Many cocktail menus contain a fascinating, nearly Joycean sediment of in-jokes, failed poems, portmanteau words, geographical and historical reference, hat-tips, thumb-bites, and general alcoholic homage. Bartenders don’t need lawyers, they need lexicographers.

Review of Local 188

| Posted in Reviews

The Golden Dish has published a review of Local 188.

Fortunately the rest of our meal was very satisfying, and  for an entree I had the evening  special,  halibut scented with basil and served over wheat berries, a healthy and soulful dish that I quite enjoyed.  And my friend chose the house gnocchi, albeit an unusual preparation that placed sautéed gnocchi in a beer and sausage gravy, with red bell peppers, manchego and topped with an egg sunny side up.

Out of the Blue

| Posted in Fisheries

This week’s edition of the Portland Phoenix reports on GMRI’s Out of the Blue program.

There’s a delicious opportunity this summer to give more plentiful local varieties a chance through the annual “Out of the Blue” campaign the Gulf of Maine Research Institute runs in partnership with area fine-dining establishments. This week’s promotion focuses on Atlantic mackerel, nearly twice as high as salmon in omega-3 fatty acids but one of the least used from Maine waters. Europeans and the Japanese love it.

Under Construction: Maine Fodder

| Posted in Under Construction

A new venture called Maine Fodder (website, facebook, twitter) is currently under development in Portland. It’s a “collaboration of a Farmer/Chef and a Dietitian” that will be tap into their connections with local farmers and their own work experience in cooking, farming and nutrition to launch a food truck and educational program.

The truck will be serving a dual purpose both as a food truck serving prepared foods and as a mobile farmers market that brings vegetables, fruits, meats and cheeses from many of the areas smaller farms to retail customers and restaurant kitchens in the area.

The owners hope to launch by mid-summer.

You can read more about the food truck on the Farm Truck  page on their site.