More Press for Maine

| Posted in Maine

National press keeps rolling in about the Maine food scene. Here are the most recent highlights:

The New Taj Opens Next Week

| Posted in Openings

Owner Sai Guntaka plans to open the new Taj (website, facebook, instagram) restaurant on Tuesday. The new location for his well-loved Indian restaurant is in the Clarks Pond Shopping Center very close to its current spot on Gorham Road in South Portland. It’s been under construction since this past winter.

The restaurant will seat ~70 people with an 11-seat bar, a larger space for the lunch buffet, and a dedicated area for takeout pick-up. A much bigger kitchen will enable the staff to not only handle the dining room but also prepare takeout food quicker than at their current location.

Chef (and Sai Guntaka’s mother) Hema Latha Guntaka will be adding a selection of street-style appetizers like panipuri and frankie to the offerings on the current Taj menu.

The cocktail menu (see draft menu below) will also be a new addition at Taj. Sai Guntaka has long had a vision for a Indian cocktail program at the restaurant and the move to the new location has created the opportunity to bring that to life. Jim Baldi has joined the team as the restaurant’s bar manager, he formerly worked at the Bar of Chocolate in the Old Port.

Woodhull handled the build out of Taj, the mural in the buffet room (bottom right) was created by Mike Rich and the neon Taj sign at the end of the bar was created by David Johansen (aka Neon Dave).

The kitchen will be open Monday through Friday, 11 am – 9 pm, and Saturday/Sunday 11 am – 9:30 pm. The bar will stay open until 11 pm on Friday through Sunday.

Sissle and Daughters Crowdfunding

| Posted in Under Construction

Mary and Will Sissle, the owners of The Cheese Shop, have launched a crowdfunding campaign on NuMarket to help fund the launch of their new business Sissle and Daughters (instagram). Participants in the campaign will get a credit at the new business valued at 120% of their contribution.

News about Sissle and Daughters was released back in May. The new market/cafe will be located in Woodfords Corner at 634 Forest Ave. Here’s what the Sissles shared then about their plans for the new business,

Expect espresso drinks, wine & light fare in the café, and the same great retail offerings you find at The Cheese Shop with the addition of take-and-heat prepared meals made from those same quality ingredients in the market. So stop to see us on your way to work for a cappuccino & a bite, then in the afternoon for a glass of wine, and grab everything you need for a delicious dinner at home while you’re at it.

VOTEMEAL Dining Club

| Posted in Under Construction

Rick and Molly Wood, the former owners of Rick’s Lobby Cafe are launching a new dining club for the Portland area. VOTEMEAL (website, instagram) will provide diners a discount at local participating restaurants and with the aim of delivering more local customers to participating businesses all year round.

In addition, $5 of every membership fee will be donated to a local charity that’s addressing food insecurity. The first recipient of those funds will be Westbrook Families Feeding Families.

The Woods are currently recruiting restaurants to participate in the program. They plan to start sales of memberships later this summer with the goal of launching in early this fall.

Upcoming Food & Dining Events

| Posted in Events

Tuesday – Thai supper club Gaaeng will be at Crispy Gai for a pop-up menu.

Wednesday – The Taste of Waterville at the Waterville Riverwalk.

Thursday – It’s the grand opening day of Aki Japanese Fusion in Freeport, and Sebagels is holding a pop-up bagel dinner at Apres.

Wednesday-Sunday – The Maine Lobster Festival is taking place in Rockland.

Friday – Crown Jewel is hosting a (sold out) Art of Entertaining dinner in collaboration with Cherry Bombe.

Saturday/Sunday – The Maine Wild Blueberry Weekend is taking place.

Sunday – Yardie Ting will be in Deering Oaks for the 9th Annual Jamaican Independence Day Festival.

August 6 – Acclaimed author and thought leader Dana Cowin along with Allagash brewer Jason Perkins and  Maine Grain Alliance executive director Tristan Noyes will be participating in a panel discussion at Allagash Brewing to “discuss the ways that locally sourced food / food systems can bring joy, connection and positive transformation.” It’s the tentative opening day for Lucky Cheetah.

August 9/10 – The Saint Peter’s Italian Bazaar is taking place.

August 10 – Space Gallery along with Goodfire Brewing, The Jewel Box and the Ten Mothers food truck will be holding Feastland, a farm dinner, at Broadturn Farm in Scarborough.

August 11 – Dinner en Blanc—a food event and auction—is taking place in East Boothbay as a benefit for Veggies to Table.

August 11/12 – 2Gether is holding their next Secret Table dinner at an as-yet-undisclosed farm in the Portland area.

August 15 – Billy Hager and Hannah Buoye from Waxwing Bakery will be the featured chefs at the August taco night at Dandelion Spring Farm in Bowdoinham.

August 18 – Tender Table is holding its annual food music and art market in Congress Square Park.

August 30 – September 1 – The Maine Apple Camp is taking place.

September 8 – The Maine Cheese Festival is taking place in Pittsfield.

September 19 – Mrs. Gee Free Living and Sur Lie are collaborating on a gluten-free dinner.

September 20-22 – The Common Ground Fair will be taking place.

October 13 – The 16th Annual Open Creamery Day is taking place.

October 23 – Mrs. Gee Free Living and Sur Lie are collaborating on a gluten-free dinner.

October 24-26 – Harvest on the Harbor is taking place.

Planning a wedding, holding a business event, or hosting visitors from away? Our printed guides are a great resource to help your guests explore the Maine restaurant scene.
25-packs of the Portland and Midcoast pocket guides are now available on our online store.

Review of The Good Table

| Posted in Reviews

The Maine Sunday Telegram has published a 4 star review of The Good Table in Cape Elizabeth.

…Among the traditional bistro suspects, roast chicken ($32) and steak ($39), you’ll also find a fantastic pork schnitzel served with profoundly smokey ham-hock jus, a garlicky kale “Caesar” served under a blanket of snowy parmesan shavings, and crunchy duckmeat fritters plated with mustardy deviled-egg puree. Prentice Group superstar Georgia Macon makes all The Good Table’s breads and pastries – treats like tender brown bread rolls and platters of assorted, homemade cookies – and frankly, that’s enough reason to visit right there.

The Good Table’s original owners sold the restaurant to the Prentice Hospitality Group last year, and Prentice relaunched the restaurant in March. Shown below are a couple photos of the renovated dining room taken this spring.

Maine Food & Dining News: Wells, Deer Isle, Warren, Bangor, Yarmouth

| Posted in Maine

New food and dining developments are taking place all across Maine. Here are some recent updates to keep you in the know:

  • Lee Frank has leased the former Gravy location in Wells (321 US Route 1, above left) where he plans to open a second location of his eponymous restaurant Lee Frank’s (website, facebook, instagram). The menu, branding and concept is expected to remain the same in Wells as at the original Lee Frank’s which opened in South Berwick in 2021. Brooke Frank will be the general manager of both restaurants. The Franks hope to open the Wells location in late August and expect they’ll seasonally close the restaurant in January and February. While there are no definite plans, they may expand to other communities in the future.
  • Aragosta (website, facebook, instagram) on Deer Isle and its chef/owner Devin Finigan are the subject of a feature article in the August issue of Food & Wine magazine (above right). The April issue of F&W had named Aragosta to their list of the Top 20 Restaurants in the United States.
  • The Bangor Daily News published a report about The Key Room (facebook) a new cocktail bar that opened this week in Bangor. Owners Tan Tai, Katie Ratchatavech and Jira Rustana also operate Umami Noodle Bar which is next door to the bar.
  • Avery Yale Kamila has assembled a round-up of Maine plant-based food news for the Maine Sunday Telegram.
  • Cat Biggar and chef Derek Ronspies have announced they’ll be closing down Black Goat Test Kitchen in Warren later this year and moving to Europe to launch a new business. Additional details on the timing of their departure and where they’re relocating to are still TBD.
  • Chef/owner Christian Hayes announced he’ll be closing his restaurant The Garrison. Tonight is the Yarmouth restaurant’s last night in business.

For a statewide guide to eating and drinking see the Maine Food Map—a growing list of coffee shops, bars, restaurants, bakeries, cafes, and other food and dining businesses in all of Maine’s 16 counties.

The Garrison Closing Saturday

| Posted in Closings

The Garrison in Yarmouth is closing. Their last day in business will be this Saturday, July 27th. The restaurant first opened almost exactly 5 years ago on July 25, 2019.

Chef/owner Christian Hayes shared a statement, which in part reads,

To say we have been submerged in an education about life for the last five years is a drastic understatement, and to say we are the same humans we were when we started couldn’t be further from the truth. This journey has been both the absolute definition of the best and worst of times, and an education in not just business but mental health, physical health, expectations, pressure, failure, and success.

The last year has been brutal for so, so many reasons, and for the first time the actual struggles which usually hide within our spreadsheets and behind our facade has spilled over to our dedicated staff and it is not okay to continue on when we struggle to meet payroll and pay bills.

Hayes concludes with,

In the end, we are so proud of what we built, along with our incredible team beside us, and we know that our home on the river has made a nest of core memories and experiences that will carry on after the last plate is cleared. Thank you all for making this so much more than just a place to eat. It’s literally been a dream come true.

Hayes shared that he will be consolidating his efforts into his other businesses Dandy’s Handy (website, instagram) corner store and Thoroughfare (website, facebook, instagram) “and the endless potential to focus solely on creating food and restoration for our community around us through such a special spot.”

Here are a few photos from The Garrison back in 2019.

Looking Back at July 2009, 2014, and 2019

| Posted in History

The Portland Food Map archive  provides a chronicle of the past 16+ years of the Portland restaurant scene. While a lot of the reporting here is about what’s happening now and coming next, we thought it would be fun to take a look back each month at what the hot topics were from 5, 10 and 15 years ago.

Here’s are highlights from July 2009, 2014 and 2019: