Mainely Wraps (website, facebook) has leased 339 Fore Street in Boothby Square. This will be the 3rd location for Mainely Wraps which also has shops in Old Orchard Beach and Scarborough. Mainely Wraps was founded by Rich & Naphtali Maynard.
339 Fore was most recently the home of the short-lived Compass Rose, and prior to that has been occupied by Sebastian’s, Apsara, Shima.
For a complete list of Portland restaurants in development check out the PFM Under Construction list.
In time for Portland Beer Week, the Portland Phoenix has published a feature story on the robust home brew culture in Portland. The article also touches base with 3 home brewers that are currently making the leap to the pro leagues: Austin Street, Bissell Brothers and Foundation Brewing.
It seems there’s always more, and there is: Up-and-comers like Bissell Brothers Brewing, Austin Street Brewing, and Foundation Brewing Company (see sidebar) will be opening up shop on Industrial Way. One benefit of the craft beer boom is home-brewers are getting more attention. “With the amount of breweries that have opened over the last five years or so, people’s palates have just exploded,” says home brewer Gregg Carine. “It’s reviving people’s interest in beer — both drinking it and brewing it.”
Chef/owner David Levi has provided an update on Vinland (website, facebook, twitter) and announced plans to open the restaurant in December.
…Our locally sourced, solid birch bar is finished, all our major equipment is purchased, our gorgeous local birch and walnut tables made by artisan woodworker Marc McCabe are done, the plumbing and electric are roughed in, the floors are refinished, and, in short, we’re getting close. We easily won approval from Portland’s City Council for our food, liquor, and outdoor seating permits. Portland Dry Goods and Seawall are teaming up to help us outfit our staff in casual elegance, in clothing made ethically here in New England…
The Portland Phoenix has published a review of Omi’s Coffee Shop and Vena’s Fizz House.
The Italian was rich, dark, and roasty without any of the bitterness dark roast often brings. It was smooth and a touch chocolaty. A cappuccino had the same virtues but intensified. [Omi’s]
The results are pretty fantastic, and what initially seems like it will be a bit of a hoot ends up as a revelation. The sodas look gorgeous and taste like nothing else in town. For a ginger julep, fresh ginger and spearmint are muddled and mixed with a root soda. The first sip sends an explosion of ginger through your head, filling your sinuses and tickling the front of your brain, while the spearmint spice lingers on your tongue. A cider bite also gets a head-filling heat from ginger, but mellows it with apple and clove rather than an intensifying minty spice. [Vena’s]
The 10 eateries looked up most often on PFM in October were:
The numbers in parentheses indicates their rank last month.
The Forecaster has published an article about Portland-based Bountiful Mushrooms Farm.
On the outskirts of downtown, wedged between a billiards bar and a busy stretch of train tracks, lies a graffiti-marked cinder-block garage. Deep within, a delicate beauty grows under heavenly white light.
Welcome to Bountiful Mushrooms Farm. Here, alongside heavy traffic and light industry, three urban farmers toil to bring fresh oyster mushrooms to life and deliver them to 20 local restaurants.
You can keep up to date on the farm by visiting them on Facebook.
The Bangor Daily News has published an article about the Portland Food Co-op and their efforts to scale up and open a retail store.
In a warehouse in downtown Portland, scores of people share a secret. Two nights a week, a local farm-fresh cornucopia including beets, chard and free-range chickens are packed into boxes and sent out the door.
Is it the best farmers market you’ve never heard of?
Not quite. It’s the Portland Food Co-op, and it hopes soon to be a visible part of this food-centric city.
Portland Magazine has published a review of Piccolo,
Patrimonio ($24) features “Abruzzi style” pork sausages that simply melt in our mouths. Think an ever so lightly orange touch, with a subtle mix of herbs and no gristle. Alongside creamy polenta and fennel, this is a dish worth remembering and ordering again.
and the Press Herald has published a bar review of Zapoteca.
Zapoteca’s tequila menu, which features more than 60 varieties, will definitely impress. And the tequila flights – 12 different flight combinations to choose from – are three half-ounce glasses of special samplings, which include blanco, repossado & anejo, served with Zapoteca’s own tomatillo sangrita (a non-alcoholic shot meant to cleanse the palate).
Map & Menu have posted a report from last week’s Kabaj wine event. The wine and food tasting was a collaboration between Rosemont and Tandem.
Learning a new cuisine in the weeks leading up to the event proved to be an easy task for the talented chef, and we were fortunate to enjoy meats that he had cured himself, a regional bean, pork, and cabbage soup, potica nut rolls, and a tasty salted bread that accompanies many Slovenian meals. The night was capped off with an optional cup of the best espresso in town, and as Meredith and I made our way home that evening, we couldn’t help but think of what an enjoyable date night these pairings might make in the months to come.
Portland Daily Sun columnist Natalie Ladd provides a behind the scenes look at the practice of tip pooling at restaurants.
3) One upside to pooling (which conversely is the downside as well) is you never know who’s going to be in your audience. Rotating tables and even reservations are always the luck of the draw. I can have a great night where my section is full of drinkers and overeaters, while my colleagues have the water (with lemon, please) and appetizer people. My experience is that it all comes out as a wash. In other words, the next shift it’ll be my turn to randomly wait on the entree-splitters and decaf drinkers.