Chocolats Passion (website, facebook, instagram) has leased a larger space for their West End chocolate shop. The new Chocolats Passion will be located at 144 State Street in the former Mercy Hospital building. The building is being completely renovated and has three retail spaces on the first floor, 171 apartments in the upper floors and a patio at the corner of Spring and Winter Streets (above).

Owner Catherine Wiersema, lead chocolatier Sarah Levine and their team are looking to have the 1100 sq ft space ready for a late October move. The 2x increase in space for Chocolats Passion will enable them to grow their team and significantly increase production of their excellent award-winning chocolates.

Hours for the shop will likely remain the same, Wednesday through Sunday, 1 – 6 pm. Catherine Wiersema opened Chocolats Passion at 189 Brackett Street in 2018.

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

New Hampshire-based brewery Modestman Brewing is opening a Maine location in South Portland. Modestman (instagram) has leased the Fore River Brewing tasting room on Huntress Ave. They’ll be making some renovations and hope to be open in early summer.

Owner Ash Sheehan lives on Peaks and is originally from Wells. He’s excited to open an outpost of his brewery in his home state. Sheehan plans to do some brewing onsite. The tasting room will serve food and, in addition to Modestman beer, will also offer wine and spirits.

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

A new bar called The End (instagram) is under development at 229 Congress Street in the space formerly occupied by Saint Joe’s Restobar.

Johnny Althoff, Andrew Roseman, Celeste Parke, and Benbazi plan to open a friendly neighborhood bar for the Munjoy Hill and Washington Ave communities serving classic cocktails along with canned beer and whiskey. The draft food menu includes snack mix, an open face cheese melt, veggie chili and a rotating cupcake special.

The bar’s name is a nod to being located across the street from the Eastern Cemetery. When it launches—hopefully sometime in May—The End will be open 4 pm to Midnight, Wednesday through Sunday.

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

Freedom’s Edge Cider (website, facebook, instagram) has leased space at 31 Diamond Street in East Bayside where they plan to open a tasting room for their Albion-based cidery. Co-owners Andrew Kaplan and Ned Ervin hope to build out the 3,288 sq ft space in time for a summer launch.

There will be a 50+ seat tasting room with an additional 20 outdoor seats in the summer, and a big part of the Diamond Street location will be used for barrel aging and bottle conditioning of their limited release ciders. Kaplan and Ervin are planning to expand their barrel-aged premium cider offerings with the launch of their Portland location.

Freedom’s Edge currently produces 5 varieties of cider: original blend, redfield rose, sweet mull-et, 3 o’clock twilight, and freedom’s edge gold. For more information on Freedom’s Edge read this 2020 article in the Waterville Sentinel.

Freedom’s Edge will be joining three other existing cider producers in East Bayside: Apres, Urban Farm Fermentory, and Blue Lobster Urban Winery. For a complete list of Maine cideries see our Guide to Maine Cider.

If you’ve driven through Westbrook recently, you can’t help but have noticed that construction of Vertical Harvest (website, facebook, instagram, twitter) is underway. The project was announced back in 2020, construction began in 2022 and the urban farm will harvest its first crops in early next year.

We recently had the chance to join a tour and see the building with co-founder Caroline Estay to hear how plans for Westbrook and VH overall are progressing. It’s an impressive building and an even more impressive initiative. When it goes online in 2024 the 70,000 square foot indoor farm will produce more than 2,000,000 pounds of lettuces and greens a year.

Vertical Harvest is currently accepting general applications via their website and plans to employ a team of 40 – 50 FTEs to operate the greenhouse when they open next year. Co-founders Nona Yehia and Caroline Estay will fill about half of those positions with people who have intellectual and physical disabilities. Their goal is to help people that often encounter barriers to meaningful work, have increased opportunity for economic independence. For more on VH and their employees watch the documentary Hearts of Glass.

The lettuces and microgreens VH grows will be sold through distributors like Native Maine and Sodexo as well as at Hannaford and to hospitals, corporate cafeterias, and schools across the state. There may also be a Vertical Harvest retail shop in Westbrook.

The original Vertical Harvest building was built in Jackson Hole and served as a proof of concept for the technology, employment and business model. Vertical Harvest Westbrook is the first full scale location, and the blueprint moving forward. They plan to build 15 more urban farms across the country over the next 5 years.

Photos: a view of the construction site from across William Clarke Drive (above), a view of the 3rd floor, co-founder Caroline Estay leading a tour of the ground floor produce processing area, 2nd floor front-facing windows, a view of downtown Westbrook from the greenhouse, the front corner where the plant elevator will be located, another view of the 2nd floor of the building where produce will be grown.