This Week’s Events: Restaurant Week, Hero, Mast Landing, Peddleman’s, Fading Light

MondaySur Lie is hosting a Foundation beer dinner.

Tuesday — It’s the official first day of Maine Restaurant Week, and in celebration of their 1st anniversary Otherside Delicatessen is holding a wine/charcuterie tasting.

Wednesday — winemakers Eric Texier and Hervé Villemade will be at Drifter’s Wife.

Thursday — there will be a wine tasting at Aurora Provisions.

FridayHero is launching in time for First Friday, and Mast Landing is opening their tasting room in Westbrook at 3pm.

SaturdayPeddleman’s is kicking off their to go service at Union Bagel, Foundation is holding a bottle release of Fading Light (8.5%, dark ale aged with Brettanomyces), and Pine Pitch Press is holding a potluck dinner.

Sunday — Tiqa sommelier Zara Edwards will be teaching a Sparkling Wine and Champagne class.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

Brewery Tasting Rooms

There’s a front page article in today’s Maine Sunday Telegram about the increasing vitality and contribution to the bottom line of brewery tasting rooms.

An explosion of microbreweries in Portland – and throughout Maine – is being fueled by a 2011 state law that allowed beer-makers to sell beer right at their breweries, in “samples” that can range from 4 to 16 ounces or more. The law gave birth to the modern craft brewery tasting room, an innovation that has pumped up revenues, expanded the market and attracted even more would-be brewers into the industry.

Under Construction: Hero

Urban Eye has posted an update on Hero.

Hero, opening in early March at 30 City Center, is about to rock your downtown lunch game Portland. Don’t have a lunch game? You soon will.

“Portland is in need of a lunch spot that is consistently producing high quality food,” said co-owner Todd Bernard, who makes diners swoon at Empire on Congress Street with lobster dim sum delights.

Harvest on the Harbor Sold

The Press Herald reports the Harvest on the Harbor conference has been sold.

The buyers are Stefanie Manning and Gabrielle Garofalo, partners in Portland-based S&G LLC.

Manning is the vice president of marketing and circulation at MaineToday Media and Garofalo owns Gabrielle Garofalo Inc. Consulting & Creative Energy in New York City, where she has worked on the 2012 Billboard Music Awards and New York Magazine’s annual Taste of New York culinary event.

Under Construction: Rossobianco

The Press Herald reports that Vinland owner David Levi has decided to name the natural wine bar he has under construction at 3 Deering St Rossobianco. Levi plans to serve Northern Italian food at Rossobianco,

“My family on my dad’s side is northern Italian,” Levi said. “My family’s from Venice and Milan. I’ve spent a lot of time there, and it’s really the cuisine I grew up with. I’ve always had a very deep love for it…

Under Construction: Old Port Lobster Shack

The Forecaster has posted an update on the branch of the Old Port Lobster Shack under construction on Fore Street. It is the 4th location of a California firm owned by a Boston native and former Portland resident.

Russell Deutsch is ready for a homecoming, even if it is a bit later than expected.

“There is no rush, I want to do it right,” he said Monday about his delayed plans to open the Old Port Lobster Shack in late April at 425 Fore St.

It has been almost a year since city councilors approved a license for the restaurant, which would be the first on the East Coast for the California chain.

Winter Foraging

Food  & Wine interviewed chefs David Levi at Vinland and Justin Walker at Earth about ingredients they forage throughout the winter in Maine.

Though his restaurant, Earth, is closed in the off-season, Walker gets inventive with wild Maine moss in winter. “We have a lot of reindeer moss growing on the Hidden Pond property,” he says. “It grows on ledgy areas. If it’s frozen you can reconstitute it in water, or you can burn it into an ash, which you can do a zillion things with. Or you can fry it. It’s very interesting fried,” he says. “But it’s just an addition—you don’t eat a pile of reindeer moss, unless you’re at Noma.”