2019 Pocket Guide Now Available

| Posted in Openings

I’m happy to announce the release of the 2019 PFM Printed Pocket Guide. This handy paper reference provides a compact list of the best restaurants, bakeries, breweries, coffee shops, cocktail bars, and cafes in Portland. It also includes highlights of a few places to dine elsewhere in the state worth the drive. Portable, collectible, and always offline, the Pocket Guide helps you narrow down and answer that all important question — “where should I go for my next meal.”

Many thanks to the wonderful Pocket Guide sponsors for their generous support, which enabled Portland Food Map to produce and print this resource:

While supplies last you can pick-up your very own copy of the guide at these local businesses: Rose Foods, Maine & Loire, Rising Tide, Little Woodfords, Belleville, Giant Cafe, or the Portland Trading Company.

A limited number of pocket guides also are for sale in packs of 25 if you’d like to use them for your business. Whether that’s as a handout to Airbnb guests, to distribute to business clients, or for some other purpose where you need more than one personal copy. Contact anestes@portlandfoodmap.com for details.

The 2019 pocket guide wouldn’t be as good as it is, in fact it wouldn’t exist at all, without help from the extended PFM team of Dawn Hagin from Rare Brick Strategic, and from graphic designer Sofija Razgaitis. My thanks to both of them for all their hard work on the project.

This Week’s Events: LB Kitchen, Tacos la Poblanita, Blake Orchard

| Posted in Events

Monday – The new LB Kitchen in West End is opening today. They’re open 8 am – 3 pm. LB Kitchen West is co-located with Good Medicine Collective in the former Outliers Eatery building at the corner of Brackett and York Streets.

Tuesday – a new food truck called Tacos la Poblanita is set to launch at Lone Pine Brewing on Anderson Street.

Wednesday – the new Forest Ave location of Blake Orchard (website, instagram, facebook) is scheduled to open at 561 Forest Ave, and the Monument Square Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Friday – there will be a wine tasting at the Brighton Ave Rosemont.

Saturday – the Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market is taking place.

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.

Reviews: Baristas and Bites, Quality Shop

| Posted in Reviews

Mainer has reviewed Baristas and Bites, and

We were so wrong. Baristas + Bites’ Hummus + Veggie Wrap rockets beyond bland with an incredibly fresh (like, made that morning), house-made hummus. This is a colorful wrap with perfectly ripe, crisp vegetables: spicy arugula, pickled onion, shredded carrots, sliced red peppers, bright red tomatoes, and cucumbers. There is a perfect balance of flavors, with a bit of acid, spice and salt. The hummus itself is expertly seasoned and has the added texture of red onion, pumpkin seeds and whole chickpeas.

The Press Herald has reviewed the Quality Shop.

When I got there my order was ready. The two burgers were very warm, wrapped in foil. They were much bigger than I expected for a two-fer deal. Both were thick, with white American cheese, on buns that had been buttered and grilled. They came with a white-and-red box of crinkle-cut fries, also hot.

Under Construction: Black Dinah Chocolatiers

| Posted in Under Construction

Black Dinah Chocolatiers has leased space in the Westin Hotel where they plan to open a retail shop by early July.

Black Dinah Chocolatiers at the Westin Portland Harborview will offer boxed assortments of our handmade chocolate confections, and will be a touch point for visitors and Portlanders alike to learn about our use of carefully sourced direct trade chocolates, and our partnerships with Maine dairy and cheese producers, and  Maine farmers and foragers.

 

Acadia House Provisions

| Posted in Under Construction

The Press Herald has published an article on Chicago Michelin star chef Ryan McCaskey and his project to open Acadia House Provisions, a restaurant in Stonington Maine.

Acadia House Provisions will be the more casual little sister of Acadia in Chicago, with a more accessible menu and a price point designed to lure locals. While a tasting menu at Acadia costs $185  – plus another $125 per person for wine pairings – McCaskey expects diners at Acadia House Provisions will be able to eat a burger-and-a-beer lunch for about $20 and enjoy a dinner that includes lobster for around $30. Acadia House Provisions will have no “tweezered food,” McCaskey said.

Travel & Leisure: Biddeford

| Posted in Reviews

“This small town in Maine should be on every food lover’s bucket list” declares Travel & Leisure. No, they’re not writing about Portland, but about Biddeford.

Our favorite stops were Elements, a bookstore/coffee shop/beer bar, which is perfect for an afternoon of browsing and sousing; and the town’s first real claim to chef-driven cuisine, Elda (entrées $26–$30), the brainchild of Bowman Brown, previously of Salt Lake City’s widely admired Forage. Everything about Elda—from the open kitchen to the seafood-centered menu—is impeccable and warm.

Eighteen Twenty PWW Wine Release

| Posted in Openings

Eighteen Twenty is releasing a new wine in honor of Portland Wine Week. Fête, a 11.5% ABV “off-dry wine with balanced acidity” was produced using rhubarb grown by Spiller Farm in Wells and Doles Orchard in Limington.

The label image is based on the gaff-rigged topsail cutter, The Frances, which operates in Casco Bay with rhubarb leave sails.

You  can try Fête at the Eighteen Twenty tasting room on Anderson Street starting this weekend, and it was also be on the menu for the Women Winemakers Luncheon on June 17th, as well as the Rose Wine Sail taking place on June 21st.