The New York Times has included The Alna Store in their 2024 restaurant list. The list represents the paper’s “50 favorite places in America right now.”

Over the last 12 months, reporters and editors traveled to nearly every state scouting restaurants for our annual list. This year, it was about spaces as much as places. We ate hyperlocal dishes served out of a trailer in a rural Virginia field, experienced one of America’s most refined seasonal tasting menus in one of San Francisco’s most refined rooms, dined on Creole fare in a strip mall down the road from NASA in Texas and joined a party behind a tattered ranch house in Johns Island, S.C.

With regards to The Alna Store, food reporter and columnist Melissa Clark wrote,

…And in front, an ambitious restaurant serves a thoroughly of-the-moment, local menu that’s full of sophisticated touches without being at all pretentious. The house margarita is made with mezcal; the buttermilk wedge salad is dusted with crispy fried shallots and capers; and the shrimp topping a mound of creamy grits are coated in warm, fragrant spices, then seared until caramelized…

The Alna Store is located in the Midcoast town of Alna. It opened in late December 2022. The Maine Sunday Telegram gave the restaurant a 4½ star rating in a review published last year.

Boston Magazine has published an article about where to eat and drink in East Bayside.

Perhaps you’ve already spent some time exploring the incredible food and drink scene in Portland, Maine. But one area you may have overlooked is East Bayside—an increasingly delectable neighborhood inside the parameters of Congress Street, Washington Avenue, Route 295, and Franklin Arterial that’s home to young families and a vibrant East African community.

The article highlights The Cheese Shop, Forage, Hardshore, Lil Chippy, Magissa, Maine & Loire, Minato, Moonday Coffee,  Onggi, Quanto Basta, Ramona’s, Red Sea, Rising Tide, and Root Wild, Sticky Sweet, Terlingua, and The Shop.

The Infatuation has included Banh Appetit in their list of the 13 Best Banh Mi Across America.

Banh Appetit is a straightforward and reliable Vietnamese takeout spot in Portland, Maine. But leaving it at that would be like saying Costco’s just a grocery store. The excellent lemongrass beef bánh mì is the type of meal that can turn an awful day around. Stop by on Saturday evenings to check out the Mama Le menu, where you can get a bunch of different vegetarian and vegan dishes like the banh mi chay—a sandwich stuffed with rice powder, glass noodles, sweet chili, and vegan mayo—freshly prepared by the owners’ actual mama.