The 2024 Pocket Guide is now available. As in past years the guide highlights a cross section of the restaurants, bakeries, breweries, coffee shops, cocktail bars, and cafes that make eating and drinking in Portland so compelling.

Use the guide as a starting point for your ongoing exploration of the Portland and Maine food scenes. See the Portland Food Map directory for the full list of independent eateries in the city and the Maine Food Map list, and put together your own selection. We’d enjoy seeing your list and hearing about your eating adventures. If you have a moment, send us a copy of your set of favorites and new finds for us to consider for the next edition of the pocket guide.

Many thanks to the Pocket Guide sponsors! Their support is essential to making this resource available: Evergreen Credit Union, The Boulos Company, the Canopy by Hilton Waterfront, Wine Wise, Allagash Brewing Company, The Longfellow Hotel, and Vertical Harvest.

While supplies last you can pick-up a free copy of the guide at these local businesses: Tandem Coffee Roasters, Portland Trading Company, Allagash Brewing, Rose Foods, Oxbow Brewing, Onggi, Ugly Duckling, Bresca and the Honey Bee in New Gloucester, and at the Portland Yoga Collective.

Do you need a larger number of pocket guides for an event you’re holding or for your business? Starting this year, they’re for sale in packages of 25 on our online store. Please contact us if you’re from a nonprofit organizations or if you’re interested in volume discount pricing or have any questions about buying copies of the pocket guide.

One final note: The pocket guide wouldn’t be as good as it, in fact it wouldn’t exist at all, without the skills and contributions of graphic designer Sofija Razgaitis and of Dawn Hagin from Rare Bird Strategic. Congratulate them on their work the next time you see them.

Over the last couple years we’ve road-tripped through all of Maine’s sixteen counties to see the state and explore Maine’s food and dining scene. While there’s still so much more to do in that regard, we’re pleased to introduce the Maine Food Map, a growing guide to notable coffee shops, bars, restaurants, bakeries, cafes, and other food and dining businesses from all around the state.

The list is a work-in-progress—just like the Maine restaurant scene itself—it will continue to grow as the new establishments come to light and as we work through our extensive backlog of businesses to write-up.

The Maine Food Map currently has 83 entries representing nearly 60 communities from all of Maine’s sixteen counties. We hope you can put it to good use this summer to plan your own eating and travel adventures in Maine.

Check the Maine Food & Dining column each week for a list of new additions, and please keep sending in your recommendations for places across the state that we should visit, share on social media and add to the list.