Plush West End opened tonight. The cocktail/wine/tapas bar is at 106 High Street in the space that was the original home of Katahdin.
October Bollard: Schulte & Herr, Zapoteca, Letters
The October issue of The Bollard is now online. It includes:
- A review of Portland’s new German restaurant, Schulte & Herr,
For my daughter, the Belgian waffle with blueberry-maple syrup ($7) looked too good to pass up. And she was right — it was fantastic. Unlike a typical waffle that serves only as a vehicle for fruity toppings and whipped cream, this one was delicious on its own, with flavors of whole wheat, yeast and vanilla melding together perfectly. Of course, dipping bites into a blend of wild blueberries and maple syrup was pretty freaking good, too. - A bar review of Zapoteca,
The drink menu is extensive and, in some cases, expensive — there are a couple shots that would cost more than your and your date’s meals combined. But don’t be intimidated. The first page of the libations menu has a dozen or so cocktails, the majority of them tequila-based, priced between $8 and $11. The second page is an extensive list of tequilas. It’s here that you’ll find shots as high as $65, though most fall in the $8-to-$13 range. These are not gimmick offerings, but an attempt to showcase the true diversity of premium tequilas. - Letters to the editor about prohibition cocktails and against “improving” the standard Maine Italian sandwich
The mere fact that he would even consider upgrading an Italian (or, to use the proper pronunciation, “eye-talian”) is an insult. Though he does acknowledge that “the junky goodness [is] part of the appeal,” he misses the fact that said junky goodness is the entire appeal.
Maine Beer Week
This week’s article in the Portland Phoenix by Leischen Stelter previews some of the plans in the works for Maine Beer Week.
You might want to tell your boss now that you’ll probably have some foggy mornings in mid-November, but only because you’re supporting local business. November 10 to 17 is set to be the first-ever Maine Beer Week, where craft brewers from around the state will be teaming with local restaurants to showcase their best brews.
Rising Tide Black Ale
The What Ales You column in today’s Press Herald reports on Rising Tide Brewing’s new black ale called Atlantis.
“This differs quite a bit from the black IPAs that are coming out,” said owner and head brewer Nathan Sanborn. “There is quite a bit of hops, but it’s not that bitter. We added a little bit of cherry wood-smoked malt, but it’s not a strongly smoked beer. It just adds a little bit of character with it.”
GoBerry Open
GoBerry, a frozen yogurt shop, opened for business Wednesday. The business is located on Fore Street across from Gritty’s. GoBerry also has 2 locations in Western, Mass.
Birds to Market
The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald reports on the challenges independent poultry farmers face in getting their birds processed.
Yeah, we could build a garage and slap something in there, but that’s really not doing it right,” Steve Hoad said. “We estimated it would take $39,000 to $55,000 to build a facility that would be reasonable and we could keep clean. Then you would also have the issue of labor.”
The Hoads ended up going to a state-inspected facility in Monmouth. When that closed earlier this year, they started taking their birds to Weston’s in West Gardiner, which is now the only poultry processing facility in the state that has on-site state inspectors.
Evans Wins Chopped
According to a tweet from Uke Mochi at Edible Obsessions, Rob Evans, chef/owner of Hugo’s, won last night’s episode of Chopped on the Food Network.
Visit the website BadMoonOwl for a play by play of the episode.
Portland Food Trucks on Facebook
Organizers of the campaign to allow food trucks in Portland have set up a Facebook page. There’s a growing collection of links to news articles on the issue and a survey to gauge public opinion on whether food trucks should be allowed to use street parking.
If you’re a fan of food trucks and want to see them come to Portland “like” the Bring Food Trucks to Portland profile to show your support.
Rabelais Moving
Rabelais has announced plans to move their bookstore to Biddeford early next year. Biddeford’s gain will be a real loss to the Portland food scene.
Here are details from the Rabelais email newsletter:
Change is afoot. If you’ve been in the store any time in the last year or two you have noticed all the boxes cluttering the store. Rabelais’ collection of Antiquarian Books has increased at a pace that has outgrown our current space. So in the New Year Rabelais will be moving to a larger space. We are so excited about our new location. It has been all we can do to keep it a secret this long. Rabelais’ new home will be a loft in the North Dam Mills in Biddeford. Our new digs will accompany a slight change in the ways of Rabelais. The focus of the business will shift predominantly to rare books, imports, and really special American releases. We’ll finally have enough shelf space for most of our books, and we will be building a test kitchen in which to cook from the tens of thousands of recipes in our collection. As soon as we have made some progress on the new space, pictures will go up on the blog/website. Fear not! We will be at 86 Middle Street through the holidays and a bit beyond, so we hope to be your source for holiday gifts again this year.
See Vrai-lean-uh for her perspective on the move.
For additional reporting see the Press Herald and the Portland Daily Sun.
Review of DiMillo’s
The Golden Dish has published a review of DiMillo’s.
On to the main course, I chose the mixed seafood broil—haddock, scallops, and Gulf shrimp. The scallops were as chewy as gum balls. The haddock was overcooked and the iodinated shrimp probably came flash frozen from Gulf waters since it’s nearly impossible to get fresh specimens anywhere in Maine unless our own variety is in season. The accompaniment of spinach with cheese sauce tasted like it came from the Bird’s Eye freezer pouch.