Category: General News

The owners of Trudy Birds have announced that the property of the North Yarmouth restaurant is for sale and that the restaurant itself will shut down when a buyer is found, “As of right now the future of Trudy Birds is unclear but we will continue to operate as normal and keep making memories until the sale of the building. We hope this is only the end of a chapter in our book with many more left to write.”

Jonathan and I, along with our amazing staff have worked tirelessly and endlessly to make this restaurant concept a success and are damn proud of what we have accomplished over the last 16 months. However, in an effort to try and provide the best dining experience in an updated, refined setting we ran into cost and time overruns that have proven to be too difficult to overcome.

Trudy Birds opened December 9, 2022. It serves Scandinavian-style food. A highlight of the bar program is their extensive list of domestic and imported aquavit.

For more information the property, take a look at this listing.

The Press Herald reports that the Maine Med food pantry is getting a food truck.

“The idea is to bring free healthy food to people who are food insecure, whether they are unhoused or have a difficult time affording food,” said Barbara Ginley, MaineHealth’s director of community health for Greater Portland. Ginley said some people who need help getting food can’t get to the hospital-run pantry, which is open Thursdays from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at 950 Congress St., the site of the former Greyhound bus station, because they lack transportation or have a medical condition that makes it difficult to stand in line.

CarHop (website, facebook, instagram), a Portland-based food delivery company, has announced an expansion into Kentucky.

The development of this new delivery region for CarHop was made possible through the acquisition and licensing agreement with the owner of three Kentucky delivery companies: Colonel Delivery, Berea Delivery, and Bluegrass Local. The three companies deliver the Richmond and Berea areas.

CarHop was founded by Thomas Brems in 2019. This is CarHop’s second out of state expansion—they established a delivery capability in the Cambridge/Somerville area in Massachusetts in 2022.

A post on the Portland Reddit board is getting a lot of engagement. It poses the question “What is Portland’s food scene missing?” So far there have been 294 responses.

Korean food, Mexican food, Greek food, a Jewish delicatessen, a fast casual salad cafe, a steakhouse/chophouse have been frequently mentioned as have ideas like Georgian (the country) food, Peruvian food, a Waffle House, Filipino food, Soul Food, Ukrainian and Polish food, Moroccan food, Lebanese food, French food,  and suggestions for a variety of fast casual chains.

The full thread would be great market research for anyone wanting to open a new spot in Portland and who doesn’t have a concept already selected.

Katie Sampson explored How Portland Became a Restaurant City in a half hour segment that aired this past weekend on WGME/CBS 13.

Note: the interviews for this segment were conducted last fall.

The staff at Smalls (website, instagram) on Brackett Street have formed a union which has been voluntarily recognized by the business owners. Smalls is the third Portland food and beverage business with a unionized staff. The other two are Cong Tu Bot and Coffee by Design.

The One Small Union is joining the New England Joint Board Unite Here organization which represents “workers in the textile, garment, manufacturing, warehousing, laundry, human service, and hospitality industries in New England and New York”.

The Press Herald has published a very good overview of the Beard Awards process leavened with perspectives from local chefs on what the awards mean to them.

The Press Herald has a report on a series of restaurant break-ins that have taken place at Taco Trio, Buena Vista, LFK and the Coffee by Design on India Street. Taco Trio and Buena Vista have shared surveillance video of the break-ins.

Police are investigating several recent break-ins at food business in Portland and South Portland.

In South Portland, Buena Vista Filipino Market on Main Street and Taco Trio on Ocean Street were burglarized in the past week. The two businesses are about 3 miles apart. And police in Portland are investigating burglaries at Coffee By Design on India Street and LFK, a cocktail bar on State Street, both reported last weekend.

In December the shop Nibblesford in Biddeford was robbed at gunpoint.

UPDATE: Leavitt and Sons in Falmouth was broken into overnight on January 3/4.