This Week’s Events: Pizzarino, Lio Loire Dinner, Kalamata’s Kitchen Launch, Fall Tickets

| Posted in Events

Monday – Pizzarino is scheduled to open at 4:30 pm.

Tuesday – there will be a Loire wine tasting at the Veranda Street Other Side Deli.

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

Thursday – Lio is holding an 8-course Loire wine dinner, and Black Tie is holding a farm dinner at Pineland.

Saturday – there will be a wine tasting at LeRoux Kitchen, and the Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Sunday – a Kalamata’s Kitchen launch party is taking place at Oxbow Brewing.

2nd Annual Dine OUT for Equality – the event is scheduled to take place on August 22nd. Restaurants that want to participate and support the EqualityMaine Foundation can learn more on their site.

Hunt & Alpine Celebration – tickets for Hunt & Alpine’s 5th year anniversary and book launch are now on sale.

Goods from the Woods – tickets for Oxbow’s annual event in New Castle are now on sale.

Harvest on the Harbor – tickets for the annual Fall food festival are now on sale.

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.

Black Box Moving Forward

| Posted in Under Construction

The Cheese Shop of Portland (instagram, facebook) has shared an update that the shipping containers that will house their business and the coffee shop All Those Who Wander(website, facebook, instagram) on Washington Ave, are scheduled to arrive in Portland mid-August.

The Cheese Shop is planning to open in early September, and ATWW hopes to open in late August/early September.

For more info see these earlier announcements on the two businesses:

Cheap Eats & BYOB

| Posted in General News

The Portland Phoenix has published a Portland cheap eats guide, a list of 20 destinations where you can eat well and tread lightly on your wallet.

2018 is already more than halfway in the books, and it’s been yet another year of explosive growth for the Portland dining scene. While there’s no shortage of splurge-worthy area meals to sink one’s teeth into, the hunt for cheap eats is as challenging as ever.

Nevertheless, there are a handful of ways to eat relatively well around Portland without breaking the bank or meandering aimlessly around the grocery store. As much as we’d love to portray otherwise, foie gras, caviar and wine pairings do not an everyday option make for the majority of us. Here’s what we’re seeking out when money’s tight.

Also, Up Portland has published a list of BYOB establishments (page 10). I’d recommend they add The Well in Cape Elizabeth to their list. Up Portland is primarily a print publication. I picked up my copy at the West End location of Other Side Delicatessen.

GQ: Little Giant & Drifters Wife

| Posted in Reviews

Little Giant and Drifters Wife are both mentioned in a recent GQ article about the new generation in American bars that have,

updated the nostalgic references from Prohibition times to the louche playfulness of the ’70s and ’80s. (Think midcentury leather benches, overgrown plants, tons of neon, and rococo garnishes.) Formats are changing, too: Whole concepts are built around one kind of liquor or fermented beverage, meaning you can get an accessible, intoxicating crash course on rum in a single night. But the best part is the less uptight attitude. The expectation that you’ve memorized your periodic table of mixology is totally gone. Bartenders are eager to share their specialized knowledge. Curiosity is all you need. (That and a well-established tolerance.) Plus, bar food is better than it’s ever been. So why even bother with dinner? Pick a spot on this list and spend your entire evening there.

10 Years Ago in July & August

| Posted in History

Here’s a look at the top stories from a decade ago in July/August 2008:

    • Food historian Sandy Oliver wrote an article about Nabisco’s discontinuation of Crown Pilot Crackers for Working Waterfront.
    • Portland bartender John Myers was featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal about a competition held at the annual Tales of the Cocktail convention. Myers was one of six contestants who were challenged to come up with an original cocktail that had to include ginger marmalade and either Grand Marnier or Navan vanilla liqueur. The Journal called Myers’ combination of smoky single-malt Scotch, vanilla liqueur, bitters, and a spoonful of the marmalade an “essay in simplicity”.
    • The Great Lost Bear expanded their bar to include a set of taps dedicated just to Allagash.

Server Stress

| Posted in People

The Press Herald checked in with several current and former servers about the job-related stress dreams their job triggers.

Yes, talk to most any server, and they will tell you that their nights are punctuated by stress dreams filled with the weirdest details from their most recent shift. We asked servers at local restaurants, from a tiny bistro to a tourist favorite that seats hundreds, to reveal the job-related dreams that come to them after they’ve spent a long day running from table to table. Even people who no longer work as servers still have the dreams years later. We’ve gathered anxiety dreams from eight of them here.

Fork Food Lab Closing (Updated)

| Posted in Closings

Eating Portland Alive is reporting that Fork Food Lab plans to close up at the end of September,

After 2 years in operation and one under management of NYC-based Pilotworks, Fork Food Lab is closing and evicting its 35+ entrepreneurs effective September 30th.

Update: the Press Herald has published a report on the closing , as have Maine Startup Insider, and the Bangor Daily News.

Strata

| Posted in Under Construction, Openings

A new knife sharpening service called Strata (website, instagram) launched earlier this year. Owner Evan Atwell sharpens knives using a traditional Japanese whetstone process.

Atwell is looking to expand Strata in the coming months to include retail sales of specialty Japanese and French cutlery  and eventually include knives from New England producers as well.

Atwell moved to Portland from California where he worked for the Bi-Rite Market group. He currently works as a butcher at Rosemont Market.