Impact

| Posted in General News

The Press Herald has followed up with some of those mentioned in this week’s New York Times article on Portland food  to see what the impact of the “second course of food glory” has had on their businesses.

Potocki made three dozen extra bagels Thursday in anticipation of a rush. He still sold out of some items on his menu by 2 p.m., which is unprecedented for him. He said he was seeing a lot of new customers from other suburbs, such as Falmouth and Cumberland.

“It’s been pretty major,” Potocki said. “I didn’t really know what to expect, to tell you the truth.”

Maine Beer Co.

| Posted in PFM

Maine Beer Company has been added to the Food Map. The brewery evolved out of the owner’s own home brew experiments and is still a very small operation. I recently enjoyed a bottle of their Spring Peeper Ale, the bottle was from batch #2 and batch #3 is now showing up on store shelves. They’re located out on Portland’s Brewery Row on Industrial near Allagash, Casco and Geary’s. Tours are by appointment only.

A Look Back

| Posted in General News

The Portland Phoenix has published a brief look back at what changes the past decade has brought to Portland’s restaurant landscape.

Just 10 years ago, when there were a handful of “foodie” enclaves, no one could have imagined the proliferation to come. Sam Hayward and Rob Evans would each take home the James Beard Award for Best Chef Northeast. The Commissary and the Portland Public Market would come and go, but more would come: Vignola, 555, Cinque Terre, Hugo’s, Salt Exchange, Grace, Farmer’s Table, Bar Lola, Caiola’s, Blue Spoon, Local 188, Evangeline, Bresca, Miyake .

Cafe at Pat's Review

| Posted in Reviews

The Portland Phoenix has published a review of Cafe at Pat’s.

As it should be at a neighborhood restaurant, the service was pleasantly casual in tone and professional in execution. Most important of all, the bill is reasonable. Thanks to the affordable wine and the many entrees $20 and under, you can get out of a nice meal at Pat’s for about $50 less than what we spent at Grace recently (a place I still recommend for a splurge). Nothing disperses the heady magic of charisma, as Obama is learning, than worrying about spending and the bottom line. But such matters are central to the sustainability of institutions, and to the persistence of Pat’s appeal.

ShopTalk with Dona Hachey

| Posted in People

Dona Hachey was interviewed for the ShopTalk column in today’s Press Herald. Hachey is the current owner of Ernie’s Pool, Darts & Ping Pong on Forest Ave.

Q. Who’s Ernie?

A. The one who owned it before I did. Ernie Rouleau, a good Frenchman. It was Timothy’s Sports Bar before, and originally called the Forest Avenue Tavern, or Fats. Like Minnesota Fats. I think way back it used to be a car dealership of some sort.

Ocean Approved Get's Kelp Farming Lease

| Posted in General News

Mainebiz has published an article on Ocean Approved Co.’s new lease to farm kelp in Casco Bay.

“Kelp aquaculture is a $7 billion a year industry worldwide,” says Paul Dobbins, president of Ocean Approved. “Twenty-eight countries now cultivate kelp, but it’s not happening here in the United States. That’s too bad because this is an aquaculture product that is beneficial to the environment. There is zero discharge, we don’t feed it any fertilizer, and it’s highly nutritious. We see tremendous opportunity for growing vegetables that don’t require freshwater, fertilizer or any arable land.”

Farmer's Cart

| Posted in Profiles

The Natural Foodie column in today’s Press Herald examines the regulatory challenges encountered by two farmers in setting up a prepared food cart at the Farmers’ Market. The collaborative venture is called Farmer’s Cart and appears at the weekly Wednesday markets.

When life gives you bruised potatoes, make homefries. Or potato salad.

This is what Simon Frost of Thirty Acre Farm in Whitefield and Daniel Price of Freedom Farm in Freedom are doing with their unsold and B-grade potatoes. The two farmers sell vegetables, meats and fermented foods each week at the Portland Farmers’ Market. A month ago, they launched the city’s first local food street vendor venture, aptly named the Farmer’s Cart.

NYT: A Controlled Fermentation for Culinary Ideas

| Posted in Reviews

The New York Times has published a celebration of food in Portland.

In the last decade, Portland has undergone a controlled fermentation for culinary ideas — combining young chefs in a hard climate with few rules, no European tradition to answer to, and relatively low economic pressure — and has become one of the best places to eat in the Northeast. The most interesting chefs here cook up and down the spectrum, from Erik Desjarlais’s classically pressed roast ducks at Evangeline, to the renegade baker Stephen Lanzalotta’s gorgeously caramelized sfogliatelle (sold out of the back of Micucci Grocery, an Italian-imports shop), to Mr. Potocki’s simple but brilliant chili-garlic cream cheese and handmade bagels.