Tina Cromwell has leased the former Ela Market & Grill building at 125 Bucknam Road in Falmouth where she plans to relaunch her gluten-free business Bam Bam Bakery (website, facebook, intagram).

Cromwell will be selling the baked goods that earned Bam Bam such a strong reputation in the gluten-free community. The cinnamon rolls will be back and she hopes to ramp up the production of cakes and cupcakes. Savory options such as chicken pot pie, pizza and sandwiches are also part of the vision for the new location. In the future she also hopes to add a gluten-free market to the space to enable one-stop shopping for her customers.

Cromwell shared she’s very happy to have found a location to restart Bam Bam in Falmouth where she grew up and where she raised her kids and where she makes her home. She has been hoping to launch before the holidays but a opening date is still TBD.

A new restaurant called Off Track Pizza (instagram) is under construction at 15 Exchange Street. The space was most recently occupied by Lupita’s but longtime Portland residents will remember it as the original location of Walter’s.

Off Track is being launched by owners Mark Hibbard and Mitchell Ryan along with business partner Josh Miranda. Ryan and Hibbard are the executive chef and the beverage director at Via Vecchia.

The restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner serving a menu centered around pizza by the pie and slice and focaccia sandwiches made with bread baked daily in-house. The beverage program will include a selection of house-bottled cocktails. There will be prepared foods for customers who need a grab and go option, and Ryan and Hibbard also expect to be open for late night takeout.

Overall Off Track will seat 50-60 people. The second floor dining room (which has a great view of Exchange Street) will have a flexible table set-up that can easily be reconfigured for larger groups, or potentially for private events. There will also be seating for ~10 on the first floor.

Renovations to the restaurant are underway. Hibbard and Ryan hope to open Off Track Pizza this spring.

A new sports bar called Jerome’s (instagram) is set to takeover the space being vacated by The Snug on Congress Street. According to their liquor license application, owners Sasha Salzberg, Evan Carroll, and Ian Daly plan to launch a “neighborhood alternative sports pub” that specializes in “New England sports and board sports”.

Jerome’s will serve beer, cider, seltzer and cocktails as well and have a menu of appetizers, salads and sandwiches. Here’s a look at the draft menu supplied with the liquor license application.

Snug owner Margaret Lyons announced on Wednesday that she planned to close the bar and turn it over to “three lovely people” who had plans of their own. The new owners are making some light renovations to the space and hope to have Jerome’s open next year.

To get caught up on all the new restaurants, bars, breweries, bakeries and other hospitality businesses in development visit the Portland Food Map Under Construction List.

The owners of The Greeks of Peaks (instagram) food truck have leased the former Baharat/Full Turn space in East Bayside where they plan to open a contemporary Greek taverna-style restaurant. Founder Nancy Klosteridis and business partner Emily Otero have begun renovations and hope to open the restaurant in the spring.

The as-yet-to-be-named establishment will be open for both lunch and dinner. Lunch service will hew close to the food truck menu with fast casual favorites like gyros and lamb burgers.

In the evenings the restaurant will serve a menu of elevated contemporary dishes and drinks that make use of traditional Greek cooking methods and flavors while exhibiting some flexibility to fit the food and beverage program into the context of the Portland restaurant scene. They’ll be tapping into Klosteridis’ family recipes and taste memories as a guide.

The menu will scale from mezze to family-style meals and will include items for vegetarian and vegan customers. The nightly 4-item dessert menu which will include dialed-in traditional desserts like baklava with gluten-free options.

The beverage program will include a full bar with draft beer, a wine list that focuses on producers from Greece and Eastern Europe, and a cocktail menu that features ingredients like mastic and rosemary that bring the flavors of Greece into the cocktail glass. Wines will be available by the glass, carafe or bottle.

The new floor plan opens up room around the bar, creates a lounge area, and pushes back the wall along in the dining room for 10-seat banquette. Overall the design aims to deliver on a  European-style cafe feel with a touch of the white and blue motif Greece is known for melded with wood and warmer tones.

The weather is what set Otero and Klosteridis down the path of looking at restaurant real estate. A powerful thunderstorm last August crushed the food truck on Peaks and this past June’s rainy weather made running an outdoor business especially challenging. The former Baharat spot was on the market at just the right time to make the transition to brick and mortar a possibility.

The funds raised from the community to replace the Peaks Island Greeks of Peaks food truck have been reserved and earmarked for continuing to serve the Peaks Island community. The remaining Greeks of Peaks food truck is expected to make it out to the island sometime in 2024.

Stay tuned to the Greeks of Peaks instagram account Magissa instagram account for additional news on the restaurant: final name selection (they have some really great ideas they’re choosing from), progress on the build out and key staff hires.

To get caught up on all the new restaurants, bars, breweries, bakeries and other hospitality businesses in development visit the Under Construction List.

UPDATED: The restaurant will be named Mágissa (instagram).