This Week’s Events: Black Dinah, Independence Day, Launch of Twist, Brewers Brunch

| Posted in Events

Monday – Black Dinah Chocolatiers will be opening their new location in the Westin/Eastland at 10 am.

Wednesday – the Monument Square Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Thursday – it the 4th of July! Head out to the Eastern Prom to listen to the Portland Symphony and watch the fireworks. While you’re walking up the hill stop by the corner of Merrill and Congress Streets to check-out Twist (instagram), a new ice cream food truck set to launch at 2 pm on Thursday.

Saturday – the Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Sunday – Mast Landing and Top of the East are collaborating on a 5-course Brewer’s Brunch.

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.

Maine Apple Camp 2019

| Posted in Events

Registration for the Maine Apple Camp is now open. MAC is a 3-day gathering of apple enthusiasts, orchardists and cider makers taking place at the Maine Heritage Orchard in Liberty, Maine on August 16-18.

The program includes a talk on the history of apples in Maine by John Bunker, a round table on wild apple foraging, a presentation on apple storytelling, a guided cider tasting, a meeting of Cider Club, and more.

You can see the full program and register for the event on the Maine Heritage Orchard site.

Lorne Wine Now Open

| Posted in Openings

Lorne Wine (website, instagram, twitter), a wine bar and shop, opened for business in Biddeford on Friday.

Co-owners Carson James and Erin Sheehan are focusing on “low intervention wines” – organic/biodynamic sustainablely-produced wines made with minimal intervention in the wine making process. The shop also stocks some beer and cider.

Lorne is located in a 1,100 sq ft space at 61 Main Street (next to @dizzybirdsrotisserie and near @timeandtidecoffee).

They’re open Tuesday-Thursday 2-10, Friday/Saturday 12-11 and Sunday 12-6.

Twist Launches on the 4th

| Posted in Openings

The new ice cream food truck Twist (instagram) is set to launch on July 4th. They’ll be at the corner of Merrill and Congress Streets starting at 2 pm.

Twist is a collaboration between Melissa Lombardi a former manager at Woodford F&B, and Dan Zarin, the longtime writer of the Breakfast Serial column in The Bollard/Mainer. They’ll be serving custom-blended ice cream and shakes made to order, “mixing in everything from Maine blueberries to fruity pebbles to wasabi peas”.

Under Construction: The Cheese Shop 2.0

| Posted in Under Construction

The Cheese Shop of Portland (website, instagram, facebook) has announced plans to move into larger digs on Washington Ave later this year.

Owners Will and Mary Sissle opened The Cheese Shop opened September 28, 2018 and have quickly developed a loyal customer base working out of their container sized space in The Black Box incubator. The expanded store will be located in the front 950 square feet of 107 Washington Ave. They hope to open in September and until that time will continue to run their business out of its current location.

The new store will sell the same range of goods with a slightly larger selection. They’ll also begin offering evening classes and have some space for seating and producer demonstrations.

The Sissles met when the pair worked at Cowgirl Creamery in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to moving to Portland they were on the staff at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge where Will was the international cheese buyer and Mary worked in the shop and handled their media relations. Mary Sissle is a originally from Maine having grown up in Cape Elizabeth. Will Sissle is an ACS Certified Cheese Professional.

Home Kitchen

| Posted in People

Maine Women Magazine has published an article on the home kitchen life of chefs Ilma Lopez and Damian Sansonetti.

The room is painted a warm brown called Nutmeg. “I loved the color,” Lopez said, “but the name did it.” Throughout the kitchen are figurines of lizards and dinosaurs, courtesy of their daughter, as well as pigs, courtesy of the chefs in the family, who have a fondness for all things pig-related (their cast iron Griswold bacon press is often on display and in use for much more than just pressing bacon). There is a selection of Venezuelan rums on a side table—“My family brings a different bottle of Venezuelan rum every time they visit,” she says—as well as a spice collection in a wooden box, given to them by a regular customer on Piccolo’s fifth anniversary (the “wood” anniversary).

Under Construction: Speckled Ax Coffee

| Posted in Under Construction

Speckled Ax Coffee has leased space on Thames Street where they plan to open a second location.

Owner Matt Bolinder is planning a similar coffee program to Congress Street “with a few surprises”.  The Thames Street space will have a small kitchen which be used to “offer a focused but extremely high-quality menu of breakfast and lunch staples, with a few twists from coffee countries of origin.”

Bolinder is aiming to open the new shop sometime in October.