Vena’s Fizz House (website, facebook, instagram) is making good progress in renovating their new location at 867 Congress Street in Parkside and the owners hope to launch in December.

The former church will be home to the expanded Vena’s cocktail/mocktail bar and mixology shop which will eventually span three floors with seating for 129 people. The main floor with bar and mixology shop and the mezzanine seating area will be open for the relaunch of Vena’s.

The mixology shop will offer a similar mix of products as the old Vena’s with bar tools, books, bitters, mixers, and glassware as well as Vena’s branded products. Vena’s will also be hosting their mixology classes on Congress Street and the space will be available for private events.

The draft menu supplied with their liquor license application includes drinks like the Sea Rose (gin, rose petals, apple, hibiscus, tonic, lime, Vena’s meadow bitters), Mezcalcillin (mezcal, drambuie, ancho chili liquer, ginger, sfumato, Vena’s fiesta bitters) and a the Maine Maple Fire mocktail (maple syrup, apple cider syrup, lemon, ghost pepper, Vena’s aromatic bitters).

Vena’s Fizz House was founded in 2013 and was originally located at the corner of Silver and Fore Streets in the Old Port.

Khanhly Nguyen has applied for a liquor license for the Old Port Noodle House at 245 Commercial Street.

Nguyen is in the process of buying the Veranda Noodle House from family members. He expects to continue to operate the business along the same lines but will rename it as the Old Port Noodle House.

The Veranda Noodle House originally opened in 2015.

A new African restaurant called Merveille is under construction in Woodfords Corner at 683 Forest Ave in the space formerly occupied by the Shawarma & Kebab House.

Owner Liliana Mungongo Da Silva is a recent immigrant who originally hails from Angola. Here’s a bit of her personal history shared in her liquor license application.

Indeed, I embraced commerce, trading and business at an early age in Africa. Coming out from a humble family, armed with a very strong will to succeed in life, my beginning was hard. I endured the hardship from selling water in the street to becoming one of the prominent businesswomen in Luanda, Angola. I became a role-model and led many other women into the field of business, traveled to more than 20 countries around the world; due to political unrest, I finally rested my luggages in the USA.

Da Silva’s goal is for Merveille to be “place where people from different cultures can meet and mingle.” Merveille is intended to be a place where Americans can experience a food culture that may be new to them, and where members of the African immigrant community “can easily find their home foods when going to or coming back from work”.

The draft menu includes some regional dishes like fufu, fumbua, bolino de chuva, kikwanga, plantains and casava leaves along with vegetables, salad, and dishes featuring goat, fish and chicken.

Merveille is a French word that appears to mean a ‘wonder’ or ‘marvel’.