Candy’s (website, instagram), the queer community hub under construction at 34 Portland Street has included a draft menu (below) for their cafe along with their liquor license.
Milo Degoosh will be joining the Candy’s team as the Director of Coffee where he plans to serve coffee from Onyx Coffee Lab, a roaster from Arkansas.
Candy’s hopes to open sometime in late summer.
If you’ve walked down Washington Ave in the last couple of months you’re sure to have noticed the papered windows of the former Coffee by Design location 43 Washington Ave. Construction has been underway for a while and I’m happy to now to be able to share it’s slated to be the future home of Anoche (website, instagram) a cider and spirits bar being opened by longtime Novare Res manager Erika Colby.
In addition to cider and spirits, Colby is also planning to serve a menu of Basque-inspired food centered on pinxtos, tapas-style snacks that are traditionally served on bread with the topping spiked to the base with a small skewer.
Colby shared with me that she started this project with “a simple love for ciders” and it grew from there to encompass the full vision of a cider, spirits bar serving food from the Basque region of Spain. She’s found it a very rewarding process to start with a blank canvas and work to envision the final product of space, service, food and drinks, putting to use what she’s learned from years in the industry.
Colby is “excited to offer Portland something a little different” and hopes to open Anoche in late August.
Wine Enthusiast has included Drifters Wife in their 2019 list of the America’s 100 Best Wine Restaurants.
Each year, the editors of Wine Enthusiast sip and sup their way around the country, seeking eateries that incorporate wine in thoughtful and exciting ways. This list isn’t a ranking, nor is there a matrix of number of bottles, prices or types of food. Instead, it is a selection of restaurants where wine is shared and celebrated, and where, in our experiences, the selection, food, service and atmosphere are all exceptional. Cheers!
Forbes has published an article about Portland Wine Week which is taking place next week, June 17 -23.
What sets Portland apart as a wine-lover’s destination? Portland restaurants lean towards small boutique wineries for their wine lists–wines that are not big volume production and that are really delicious and have a unique story to tell. [And] a healthy number of wine distributors who are very passionate about the wines in their portfolio. …. There’s also a lot of focus on increasing one’s own wine knowledge among restaurant hospitality professionals here, in order to help customers understand the wine lists and to understand it themselves.
Owners Katie and Thom Werner opened Island Lobster Company(website, facebook, instagram) earlier this week. It’s located on Peaks Island in the space formerly occupied by Peaks Island House.
The 64-seat establishment is a trap-to-table restaurant, the Werners are serving lobsters that they’ve trapped and hauled in with their own boat. You can sea a copy of their menu on their website.
Coals Pizza (website, instagram, twitter) is scheduled to open today at 5 pm. Coals is located at 114 Preble Street in the former Portland & Rochester space. This is Coal’s only location outside of New York. They specialize in grilled pizza. You can see their full menu online.
A 2015 review in the New York Times sums up Coals this way,
The atmosphere is as quirky and appealing as the food, with a Catskills-meets-Brooklyn vibe from mounted deer antlers and painted country scenes. Sit there long enough and you’ll become aware of the rhythmic sound of the pizza cutter, a guy who wields a huge half moon of a knife that he rocks across the pies as they come out, dividing them into three- or four-bite squares. It’s a kind of siren call — one that should be heeded by all pizza lovers.
Coals was founded in 2004 in the Bronx. Their first two locations are located in Bronxville and Port Chester.
Back Story: Coals owner Billy Etzel was born and raised in NYC, but he’s been visiting Maine since age 3 and always felt connected to the state. Four years ago Etzel’s son began doing some family genealogical research. Etzel himself is adopted, and through the research online they discovered that his biological family was trying to get in contact with him. As it turns out his biological family is from Kittery, just 30 minutes away from where Etzel owns a cabin. It’s as a result of this connection to Maine to Etzel decided to open his latest branch of Coals Pizza here in Portland.
I’m happy to announce the release of the 2019 PFM Printed Pocket Guide. This handy paper reference provides a compact list of the best restaurants, bakeries, breweries, coffee shops, cocktail bars, and cafes in Portland. It also includes highlights of a few places to dine elsewhere in the state worth the drive. Portable, collectible, and always offline, the Pocket Guide helps you narrow down and answer that all important question — “where should I go for my next meal.”
Many thanks to the wonderful Pocket Guide sponsors for their generous support, which enabled Portland Food Map to produce and print this resource:
While supplies last you can pick-up your very own copy of the guide at these local businesses: Rose Foods, Maine & Loire, Rising Tide, Little Woodfords, Belleville, Giant Cafe, or the Portland Trading Company.
A limited number of pocket guides also are for sale in packs of 25 if you’d like to use them for your business. Whether that’s as a handout to Airbnb guests, to distribute to business clients, or for some other purpose where you need more than one personal copy. Contact anestes@portlandfoodmap.com for details.
The 2019 pocket guide wouldn’t be as good as it is, in fact it wouldn’t exist at all, without help from the extended PFM team of Dawn Hagin from Rare Brick Strategic, and from graphic designer Sofija Razgaitis. My thanks to both of them for all their hard work on the project.
Monday – The new LB Kitchen in West End is opening today. They’re open 8 am – 3 pm. LB Kitchen West is co-located with Good Medicine Collective in the former Outliers Eatery building at the corner of Brackett and York Streets.
Tuesday – a new food truck called Tacos la Poblanita is set to launch at Lone Pine Brewing on Anderson Street.
Wednesday – the new Forest Ave location of Blake Orchard (website, instagram, facebook) is scheduled to open at 561 Forest Ave, and the Monument Square Farmers’ Market is taking place.
Friday – there will be a wine tasting at the Brighton Ave Rosemont.
Saturday – the Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market is taking place.
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.
Today’s Sunday Telegram includes an article on the growing popularity of Bánh mì sandwiches.
In Portland, it used to be just the foodie crowd who knew what a banh mi was, and that you could get one at Kim’s Sandwich on St. John Street, before it closed in 2016. Today these Vietnamese sandwiches seem to be everywhere, showing up in both traditional and experimental forms.
Mainer has reviewed Baristas and Bites, and
We were so wrong. Baristas + Bites’ Hummus + Veggie Wrap rockets beyond bland with an incredibly fresh (like, made that morning), house-made hummus. This is a colorful wrap with perfectly ripe, crisp vegetables: spicy arugula, pickled onion, shredded carrots, sliced red peppers, bright red tomatoes, and cucumbers. There is a perfect balance of flavors, with a bit of acid, spice and salt. The hummus itself is expertly seasoned and has the added texture of red onion, pumpkin seeds and whole chickpeas.
The Press Herald has reviewed the Quality Shop.
When I got there my order was ready. The two burgers were very warm, wrapped in foil. They were much bigger than I expected for a two-fer deal. Both were thick, with white American cheese, on buns that had been buttered and grilled. They came with a white-and-red box of crinkle-cut fries, also hot.