Cabana Opens Friday

| Posted in Openings

Cabana (website, instagram) the new Latin American cocktail bar, restaurant and social space will be opening this Friday. Cabana is located at 111 Middle Street in the space formerly occupied by Piccolo, and will be open 5 pm to 1 am, Friday through Tuesday.

The small plate menu will include dishes like ceviche, pork and beef albondigas, cubano sliders, maduros with house-made ice cream (bottom right), and a seasonal tostones plate.

The beverage program includes mocktails, wine, beer and specialty cocktails like the Valentina (rum, Irish whiskey, velvet falernum, guava, lime, oat froth) and the Perla (pisco, yerba mate, lime, hibiscus dust).

Owner  René Emilio Peña (top right) also operates La Bodega Latina on Congress Street. He moved to Portland 12 years ago from Miami where he worked in the fashion industry. His vision for Cabana has been to meld his passions for fashion, music, art and food into a fully immersive experience that makes use of the small space as part of its personality.

 

Upcoming Events

| Posted in Events

August 29 – Pasilla is holding an aguachile and tostada pop-up at Cocktail Mary.

August 30 – Bar Futo is holding a pop-up at Terlingua.

September 3 – Tender Table is holding their 2nd Annual Food & Art Fair in Congress Square Park.

September 12 – Me Lon Togo in Rockland will be hosting winemaker Tinashe Nyamudoka from  Kumusha Wines in South Africa for a wine dinner.

September 13 – The Well at Jordan Farm is holding a benefit dinner for Farms for Food Equity (website).

September 19 – 25 – Maine Lobster Week is taking place.

September 23 – 25 – the Common Ground Fair is taking place in Unity.

October 8 – Oxbow is holding their annual Goods from the Woods event in Newcastle.

October 9 – Dandelion Spring Farm is holding a Harvest Feast. The meal will be a “Contemporary American style dinner influenced by Kristie Rudolph’s Korean American heritage. This multi-course dinner will be celebrating the best of seasonal produce along with local proteins.”

October 9 – the Maine Cheese Guild is holding Maine Open Creamery Day.

Keg and Kraken Now Open

| Posted in Openings

Keg and Kraken (instagram) opened tonight. The new restaurant is located at at 653 Congress Street in the space formerly occupied by Kushiya Benkay. Owners Jiraphon and Steve Richards along with Nisachuan Young are serving a menu of sushi, yakitori, and Thai dishes.

The Richards also own a laudromat in Biddeford. Nisachuan Young has experience in the hospitality business in Thailand where she was the assistant director of food and beverage at the Four Seasons Hotel in Samui as well as the manager of Luca Cafe in Maine.

Soni’s Market Place

| Posted in Under Construction

 

Yardie Ting owner Shanna-Kay Wright is taking over the former Karmasouptra space on the second floor of the Public Market House where she’s planning to open Soni’s Market Place (instagram) which will serve grab and go breakfast and lunch including sandwiches, pasta bowls, desserts, tea and coffee.

In addition Wright plans to use Soni’s to give Portland area micro businesses a little helping hand by stocking and selling their products at the Public Market House. She hopes to launch Soni’s by early September.

The business is named after Wright’s daughter who passed away at the age of 5. She plans on decorating it “pretty and pink…just the way she liked everything”.

Novel Book Bar & Cafe

| Posted in Under Construction

A new business called Novel (website, facebook, instagram) is under construction at 643 Congress Street. Business partners Joshua Ames and Nate Donovan are hoping to open their doors by January.

Novel will be a combination cafe and bar “nestled in the ambience of books” where customers can socialize with friends, work and read. Novel will eventually also include an event space where they plan to host local musical talent, book readings and other performances.

Ames and Donovan plan for Novel to “capture the spirit of the growing American trend of Book Bars and to be reminiscent of the classic European Cafe Bar. Come for atmosphere, good company, and great service.”

Novel will be house-roasting their own coffee with beans sourced from Guatemala, and will have a full liquor license serving beer, wine and cocktails. Ames and Donovan are getting help on the development of their menu from Jason and Amy Cote from Cote’s Cafe in One Portland Square.

DutchPot Part of Roux Residency

| Posted in General News

The new cohort of business leaders taking part in the Roux Institute’s 2022 Founder Residency program includes DutchPot  (website, instagram) co-founder Tamika Francis.

DutchPot is described as a digital platform for culinary collaboration that “curate[s] a trusted but dynamic map of collaborative business opportunities. The platform enables culinary creatives to connect, expand their teams, and work together on projects.”

Upcoming Events: Gluten-Free, Maine Apple Camp, Turkey and the Wolf

| Posted in Events

Thursday – a gluten-free sushi and slushi event at Apres co-produced with Mrs. Gee Free Living.

Friday – Sunday – the 2022 edition of the Maine Apple Camp is taking place.

Sunday – Crispy Gai and Turkey and the Wolf from NOLA are holding a joint food event and book signing.

September 3 – Tender Table is holding their 2nd Annual Food & Art Fair in Congress Square Park.

September 12 – Me Lon Togo in Rockland will be hosting winemaker Tinashe Nyamudoka from  Kumusha Wines in South Africa for a wine dinner.

September 19 – 25 – Maine Lobster Week is taking place.

September 23 – 25 – the Common Ground Fair is taking place in Unity.

October 8 – Oxbow is holding their annual Goods from the Woods event in Newcastle.

October 9 – Dandelion Spring Farm is holding a Harvest Feast. The meal will be a “Contemporary American style dinner influenced by Kristie Rudolph’s Korean American heritage. This multi-course dinner will be celebrating the best of seasonal produce along with local proteins.”

October 9 – the Maine Cheese Guild is holding Maine Open Creamery Day.

A History of Maine Restaurant Unionization

| Posted in History

The Maine chapter of the AFL-CIO has taken a look at the history of restaurant union organization in Maine.

As early as the 1890s, Maine restaurant and hotel workers began organizing and forming worker organization known as “labor and benefit” orders, according to labor historian Charlie Scontras. In 1919, members of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees’ International Alliance and Bartenders’ International League of America (HERE) established locals in Augusta and Portland. Then in 1928, the Portland local brought HERE’s international president, Edward Flore, and an organizer to the city where they reportedly “met with good success, adding several new houses to the fair list and strengthening the Local.”

Tender Table

| Posted in People

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes an article about Tender Table, an organization that “celebrates Black and Brown community by connecting and honoring our identities, traditions, joy, resilience, and fight for collective liberation through storytelling and food.”

“I knew this was a space I hadn’t seen or experienced in Portland before that I deeply knew I wanted to be a part of as a biracial person,” added Perez, who works as a sculptor and is now a Tender Table co-organizer with Tran. “Tender Table allowed me to embrace that part of my identity I thought was gone or missing.”

After being introduced to Tran and Tender Table, Perez grew motivated to cook traditional Puerto Rican dishes they remembered their father talking longingly about, like mofongo, a plantain-based dish with plenty of garlic and salt.