Beautiful Swimmer Pop-up

| Posted in General

Ordering is now live for the Beautiful Swimmer (instagram) pop-up takeout dinner by chef Ben Jackson.

Visit beautifulswimmer.com to place your order.

The menu for the 3-course takeout dinner for two will feature:

  • Steamed greens and clams agrodolce
  • Chicken meatballs over sprouted lentils
  • Fishcake and scallops, turnip and laminaria, swimming in broth

Pick-up for the dinner will be on March 5th with time slots available from 5 – 7:30 pm. Tandem Coffee is lending out Little Tandem in East Bayside (122 Anderson Street) for Beautiful Swimmer to use as pick-up location for the night.

Beautiful Swimmer is being launched by Ben and Alexis Jackson. Ben is a Beard-award nominated chef. In Brooklyn he worked at Marlow and Sons and Diner before becoming the executive sous chef for Reynard at the Wythe Hotel. He moved to Maine in 2016 to become the chef de cuisine at the now closed Drifters Wife. He received a James Beard award Best Chef nomination in 2020 for his work at Drifters.

Beautiful Swimmer is a new and evolving concept. Follow Beautiful Swimmer on instagram to stay in the loop on future events and milestones in its development.

Mitr Ping Yang Thai Kitchen

| Posted in Under Construction

Earlier this week when Cheevitdee announced they would be permanently closing their Old Port restaurant the message ended on a hopeful note with, “The spirit of Cheevitdee lives on. Details in the near future.”

That “near future” has arrived and it’s a pleasure to share the news that some of the same team involved in Cheevitdee and its sister restaurant Mi Sen are launching a new Portland restaurant named Mitr (facebook, instagram).

When it opens later this year Mitr will serve a menu of Ping Yang style Thai food. According to Mitr, “Ping Yang style typically means grilled or charbroiled. In Thailand, these techniques are very popular for street food and you can find them just about any corner of the street of every part of Thailand. Sometimes on skewers, sometime it’s a grill meat as a whole. Marinaded and grilled to perfection presenting you with rich aromas. Oftentimes, the meals will be enjoy with various sauces you can choose.”

Follow Mitr on instagram to learn about the restaurant’s future location and on an upcoming pop-up.

Arcadia’s Big Move

| Posted in Under Construction

The Press Herald has publisihed a report on Arcadia’s move to Congress Street.

Pinball machines and classic arcade games, like Skee Ball and Centipede, are being transported from Arcadia National Bar’s current location on Preble Street in Portland to the former home of Port City Music Hall on Congress Street – a move that Arcadia co-owner David Aceto said he felt he had to make to save the business.

Bravo Maine Crowdfunding Campaign

| Posted in General News

Bravo Maine, the cooking education company located in the former Aurora Provisions space in the West End, has launched a crowd funding campaign on Go Fund Me. Owner Justine Corbi is hoping to raise $6,000 which “will be used for repair bills, a new fridge, and save money for future needs or in case of a new shutdown”.

For more information or to contribute visit the Bravo Maine page on GoFundMe.com.

Openings & Closings: Cheevitdee, Crispy Gai, The Holy Donut

| Posted in Under Construction, Closings

Several changes to the Portland food scene were announced today:

Bill’s Pizza Closing in the Old Port

| Posted in Closings


Bill’s Pizza, a longtime fixture in Portland, has announced they will be closing their Old Port location on February 28th.

Bill’s pizza is closing on commercial st. Come down and get your last pizza from Portland. Make sure you come say bye to Jess as she is not going to be going to Old Orchard with us. She is however looking for a new position if you have one to offer! Just about everything is up for sale if you are looking for restaurant equipment. We will miss all of you and hope to see all our regular faces before February 28th.

The Bill’s Pizza in Old Orchard Beach will remain in business.

This Week’s Events: Pop-ups, Events, Re-Openings

| Posted in Events

Tuesday – Eaux will be serving be serving a menu of po’boys, gumbo, cornbread and more at a Mardi Gras pop-up in Oxbow Alley. Chaval will be participating in the BBQ collaboration series at Terlingua.

Friday – Fred Eliot will be participating in the Small Axe guest chef series at East Ender (continues on Saturday).

Saturday – Terlingua is participating the guest chef series at Ramona’s (continues on Sunday), and the Winter Farmers’ Market is taking place.

March – The new pop-up series from Chaval called Con Todo will begin taking pre-orders on Monday March 1st, Fore Street, Street and Co, and Scales are re-opening after a long winter break on March 4th, as is Gather on March 10th.

Maine Restaurant Week 2021

| Posted in Events

Maine Restaurant Week is set to take place March 1 – 12. The Press Herald has published an article about how this annual event has adjusted to the pandemic and highlights some of the restaurants taking part in 2021.

Maine Restaurant Week organizer Gillian Britt, of gBritt PR, said the usual $495 participation fee for restaurants has been waived this year, with help from several sponsors. Maybe because that, there is a wider variety of eateries participating this year representing a wider geographic area, spreading a little more inland and little farther from Portland in all directions, Britt said, including Doolin’s Pub in Litchfield and Jonathan’s in Ogunquit.

For information on all the restaurants taking part visit the MRW website.

The Shuck Wagon

| Posted in Under Construction

A food cart called The Shuck Wagon (instagram) is planning to expand their mobile oyster shucking business this summer.

In 2020 The Shuck Wagon was onsite at some Portland area breweries including Fore River, Austin Street and Bunker Brewing. This year they’re building a second food cart that they hope to locate along the Portland waterfront and use for catering.

The Shuck Wagon is run by Spartan Sea Farms, an aquaculture operation in Freeport that farms oysters, scallops, quahogs, and kelp.

Outdoor Dining in Winter

| Posted in General News

The Food & Dining section in today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a feature on outdoor dining in February.

Actually, every diner but one interviewed for this story was ready to repeat the experience, in some cases surprising even themselves. “A year ago if someone had said, ‘Do you want to sit outside in the middle of winter and eat?’ I’d have said, ‘That’s what inside is for,’ ” Brewer said. ” ‘That’s what fireplaces are for.’ ” But now, weekly, he sits around fire pits in the yards of friends and eats outside at restaurants, too. He’s come up with a term to describe the phenomena: “fire-pit culture.”