Both The Blueberry Files and Mainebiz have published reports on the new Maine Beer Company tasting room in Freeport.
Fortunately, the tasting room expansion is complete, with a 6,000 sq. ft. light-filled space with a wood-fired pizza oven and a water fountain. The new space is open to the public now, but the official grand opening is Saturday, March 9th.
Life & Thyme has published a profile of Rabelais Books and its owner Don Lindgren.
For Don Lindgren of Rabelais, an antiquarian bookshop in Biddeford, Maine, these culinary texts serve a purpose even more expansive than the preservation of recipes. Widely considered a leading buyer and seller of antiquarian cookbooks and culinary ephemera, his work consists not just in seeking out rare material, but in helping others understand the role those books played in the lives of both their individual owners and society at large.
A pair of food businesses originally founded elsewhere in New England have relocated to the Portland area:
The Press Herald is seeking nominees for this year’s Source Sustainability Awards. Past year’s winners have included butchers, grocers, aqua-cultivators. If you know of a person or organization (or are one yourself) that are “contributing to the state’s environmental well-being” then take a moment to nominate them for consideration.
Dean’s Sweets (website, facebook, instagram, twitter) is planning to open a second location at 54 Cove Street in East Bayside. The new location will provide additional production space and a retail shop. They hope to open the new location in late Spring.
54 Cove Street is adjacent to the building that will house Extrava and just around the corner from little Tandem.
Dean’s was founded 15 years ago by co-owners Dean and Kristin Bingham. Dean’s will continue to produce and sell their nut-free chocolates at 475 Fore Street as well.
Monday – Maine Restaurant Week continues.
Tuesday – Elise Miller, a butcher at Rosemont, will be competing on Chopped at 9 pm.
Wednesday – the 1st floor of N To Tail will open. The downstairs space opened as a Korean BBQ and sake/soju bar in December. The final renovations are now complete and the first floor will serve a “unique Korean Fusion menu with popular dishes such as Bibimbap and Poke”.
Thursday – there will be a wine tasting at Maine & Loire.
Friday – Vignola is holding a wine dinner featuring wines from Corte alla Flora, and there will be a wine tasting at the Brighton Ave Rosemont.
Saturday – Hi Bar Bakery is holding a brunch pop-up at Fork Food Lab, and the Winter Farmers’ Market is taking place.
Sunday – The Lost Kitchen will be announcing their method for accepting reservation requests for the 2019 season; check back here on Sunday and I’ll publish the details. Maine Restaurant Week is holding their (sold out) Spirit Quest event.
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.
I’m sad to report that Ten Ten Pié has gone out of business. The news was announced on instagram with this message:
I regret to inform you that Ten Ten Pié is closing.
You, customers and community, have made this such a wonderful and rewarding experience. I am grateful for your support these last 4 ½ years.
I prepare for new projects and look forward to seeing you down the road.
Keep doing what you’re doing to help local food, local business, and local community flourish.
Thank you for letting me be part of your journey.
Markos
Ten Ten opened on August 16, 2014 as a much loved bakery, cafe and neighborhood market. They’ve received some national press, especially during the last year.
The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed the Simply Vegan by Silly’s,
Simply Vegan is still evolving. Many menu items (especially sandwiches) are hopelessly sloppy and difficult to eat, but there are some real gems among them. You can’t go wrong with the chunky white-bean hummus and greens in the You’ve Got Kale sandwich, and the sweet, nuanced flavors of the BBQ beans are out of this world. But best of all are baker Jeremy Newbert’s baked goods, from homemade multigrain sandwich bread to extraordinary mint-chocolate grasshopper triple-layer cake. They’re so good, you won’t know, nor will you care, that they’re vegan.
The Portland Phoenix has reviewed the Mr. Tuna, and
Those hand rolls are still the stars of the show. Every combination I’ve tasted has been up there with the best vehicles for raw and slightly seared fish I’ve ever tasted, save for a few small, barely mentionable gripes (a heavy hand with powerfully fragrant shiso in the salmon belly temaki, a bit too much acid for my tastes in the tuna tataki). None of this matters once you sink your teeth into a fresh dayboat Maine scallop cone, with just enough smoky char from broiled sudachi mayo to balance what has got to be the sweetest, most texturally pleasing mollusk on the planet. Equally worth ordering is the Maine crab, where a simple dash of yuzu mayo brings out multiverses of salinity and soft, delicate funk.
The Press Herald has reviewed the Anthony’s Italian Kitchen.
The glorious creation was made with Genoa salami, prosciutto, capicola, imported provolone, tomato, onion, roasted red peppers, olive oil and oregano, all served on an 8-inch Piantedosi Italian roll ($8.50).
Greg Mitchell has supplied a draft menu (page 76) with his liquor license application for Flood’s (instagram) the 50-seat restaurant he has under at 747 Congress Street in the West End.
A new wine shop and bar called Lorne Wine (instagram) is under construction in Biddeford.
Lorne co-owners Carson James and Erin Sheehan plan to focus on “low intervention wines” – organic/biodynamic sustainablely-produced wines made with minimal intervention in the wine making process. The shop will also stock beer and the bar will have a 6-tap draft system. The couple plan to highlight domestic wines especially ones from California and are excited by wines being produced in New England by La Garagista in Vermont and Oyster River in Maine.
James and Sheehan are leasing a 1,100 sq ft space at 55 Main Street (near the soon to open Dizzy Bird), where they plan to open the bar this Summer.