Joe Ricchio has written an article for Dispatch magazine (page 40) listing the 20 or so restaurants he misses the most from the late 90s and early part of this century.
Mentioned in the article are Fresh Market Pasta, Mazza, Bandol, Haggarty’s, Go-Go Burger, Una, Perfetto, Village Cafe, Hu Shang, Carbur’s, Michaela’s, Ladle, Bodega Latina, G’Vanni’s, Portland Public Market, The Roma, Aubergine, Honey’s, Crab Louie, and Ruby’s Choice.
That era overlaps with when I first moved to the city, so many happy food memories….
The new issue of Dispatch also contains an interview with Alice Van de Water, bartender at Rosie’s (page 44).
Great article! I will never forget high school lunch trips to go go burger and pretty much every special occassion at the Village! Love the grandparents reference too, I thnk we ate at the village with my grandparents more than without!
Thanks for the article, brings back many happy memories!
The one place from that era I would have included as well was Valle’s. I’d love to see someone who was around and frequenting the city’s better restaurants in the 80’s take a stab at that era, though, including Brattle Street and the incarnations of Alberta’s.
The other thing I’d really like to see someday is a decent story on what really happened with the Portland Public Market. ISTR a lot of coverage at the time that alluded to behind-the-scenes stuff that “everyone” knew about but which never made it out to the rest of “everyone”.
Hu Shang. Wow a real sichuan restaurant. Gone but not forgotten. Please, let the new sichuan restaurant opening on congress will be authentic. Every other chinese restaurant has NO IDEA what real Sichuan tastes like.
Who remembers duffys pancake kitchen ? I know it was somewhere around civic center area, I was really young. How about the New York deli inside of the rainbow mall? I remember getting French toast and they had a pac man arcade game.
There was shakeys pizza in Westbrook and it was also sgt pepperonis. It was like ground round.
I remember Duffy’s, although I don’t think I ever ate there. I believe it was in one of the retail spots on Free St. in the parking garage.
How about DiPhillipo’s (“Ye Olde Pancake Shoppe”), up on Congress in the State Theater building? The food was terrific but you couldn’t breathe in there with all the smoking.