The ballot is now online for this year’s Indie Biz Awards. This is the 9th year that Buy Local has run the awards program which celebrates outstanding independent Portland businesses.
Many restaurants and food businesses are nominees: Local Sprouts, Vinland, Casco Bay Organics, Woodford F&B, Aurora Provisions, Asmara, Thanh Thanh 2, Treehouse, Lincolns, Rhum, Sister’s Gourmet Deli, The Holy Donut, Gritty’s, Bayside Bowl, Portland Food Coop, and the Farmers’ Market.
The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a feature article about Certine, a new ceramic flatware launched by former Opus Ten server David Muse with Bill Todd and Rachel Rodrigues in June.
“At this point,” he said, “this product is for the type of people who make dinner reservations before they make hotel reservations, because if you don’t get the dinner reservations you’re probably not going to that town. It’s for people who go to buy foodstuffs three or four times a week as opposed to one time a week. It’s for the kind of people who take more pictures of their food than they do their children or their pets. It’s ultimately for the kind of people who are thinking about genuine interaction with their food.”
A group of some of Maine’s leading female chefs are coming together this fall for the 2nd annual Fabulous Femmes dinner at Flanagan’s Table, a benefit for the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital.
The dream team of culinary talent includes:
Tickets go on sale on September 21st.
Arabica Coffee will be hosting a screening of The Coffee Man later this month at their location on Commercial Street.
The movie follows the story of Sasa Sestic on his road to winning the 2015 World Barista Championship.
From the birthplace of coffee in Ethiopia, through Honduras, Colombia, and on to Seattle where the specialty coffee movement originated, The Coffee Man traverses the globe, following Sasa on his journey to the 2015 World Barista Championships. After partnering up with Sasa in 2014, Roland and Jeff from Jeraff have been with Sasa every step of the way on his road to being crowned the World Champion.
Monday — Nicholas Nappi and fellow Local 188 restaurant group colleague Gary Bowcott are holding a pop-up for Black Cow on September 5th to share their “vision for a return to good old days of the soda fountain”.
Wednesday — the Monument Square Farmers’ Market is taking place.
Thursday — Christopher Kimball, founder of Cook’s Illustrated and former America’s Test Kitchen host, will be speaking at the State Theater. Tickets are available online, use discount code MSK50.
Thursday — Foundation Brewing is participating in Rails and Ales.
Saturday — There will be a wine tasting at LeRoux Kitchen, Rising Tide is participating in Rails and Ales, and the Saturday Farmers’ Market will take place.
Sunday — Miyake will be serving a Pig Roast at Wolfe’s Neck Farm, and Jason Williams and Bryan Dane are the featured chefs at this week’s Twilight Dinner at The Well.
Food History Lecture — food historian Sandy Oliver will be giving a lecture at the Tate House on “the Early American kitchen and its importance to the Colonial household”.
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.
Five Fifty-Five received 3½ stars from the review published today in the Maine Sunday Telegram,
At its best, Five Fifty-Five produces sublime dishes like seared New England scallops with a grilled corn sauce and a warm vegetable accompaniment that distills everything magical about summer onto a single plate. Its steaks, like a chimichurri-sauced Pineland Farm striploin, are simple, yet superb. (Poor grill ventilation, on the other hand, is a problem, allowing an unpleasant, irritating haze to spread across the dining room when several diners order steaks simultaneously.) Other dishes, like bland spinach fettuccini, a too-ambitious grilled watermelon and baby kale salad, and a botched local blackberry salad demonstrate how conceptual and execution issues keep the menu from being as stellar as its reputation suggests. Service can also be spotty – sometimes revealing impressive competence, and sometimes neglect or a total lack of situational awareness. None of these problems in and of itself is a catastrophe, but each is a small setback, and in aggregate, they keep Five Fifty-Five from shining quite as brightly as it should.
and the Press Herald has reviewed Tiqa Cafe.
I started out simple with the grilled cheese, since this is a column that loves a good deal, and you can tell a lot about a place by the care and attention it puts into its simplest fare. I chose cheddar over provolone, and the cheese oozed out of the freshly made focaccia bread. There were a couple of sliced, seasoned tomatoes in the sandwich as well. Not much to say; it was neither the best nor the worst grilled cheese I have had, but it was perfectly fine for a casual take-out lunch.
Christopher Kimball will be speaking next week on September 8th at the State Theater as part of his Culinary Mystery Tour. Organizers of the tour are offering 50% off on the ticket price, use the discount code: MSK50.
Kimball was the founder of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and the longtime host of the TV show America’s Test Kitchen. He’s moved on from those projects and last year started Milk Street Kitchen, a cooking school and magazine.
Brea Lu Cafe (facebook) reopened yesterday at their location, 9 Cumberland Street in Westbrook.
Brea Lu was founded in 1989 and for 27 operated at 428 Forest Ave. Damage from a fire on Valentine’s Day this year forced them to close and owner Christian DeLuca made the decision earlier this summer to move to Westbrook.
Brea Lu is open 6 – 2 (M-F) and 7 – 2 (weekends).
Chris and Paige Gould, co-owners of Central Provisions, have applied for a liquor license for their new restaurant Tipo.
Tipo is going to be a full service restaurant offering traditional Italian fare to the local community…We are hoping to provide the Back Cove community with a neighborhood spot to stop for a wood fired pizza, homemade pasta dish, and a small selection of beer, wine and Italian inspired cocktails.
Tipo will be located at 182 Ocean Ave in the former Borealis Bakery. Plans call for it to seat 48 including a 9-seat bar (see floor plan below). Chef Mike Smith and Robyn Lungo have joined the Tipo team as the chef and front of house manager for the restaurant.
Here’s a look at the draft menu provided with the application (click to enlarge):
The Goulds hope to open in December or January, serving dinner Wednesday through Sunday with plans to eventually open for weekend brunch.
Eater has included Krista Kern Desjarlais’ upcoming bakery/cafe The Purple House in their list of the most anticipated restaurant openings of the fall.
At the aptly named Purple House, cooking will be fueled only by the small bakery’s wood-fired oven; mornings will begin with Montreal-style bagels and a serious coffee program, really the only one in town. Other “rustic breakfast pastries” will follow suit, and as the oven’s temperature cools down, more delicate baked goods will be prepared mid-morning. Come lunch time, the menu will switch to Roman-style pizza, hearth breads like boule and baguettes, and vegetables.