Month: June 2009

Cactus Club’s Appeal

| Posted in General News

The Portland Daily Sun has an update on the status of the Cactus Club. Four months ago the City Council revoked the bar’s liquor license but it’s still operating during the appeals process.

Portland Police, who recommended in February that the council not reissue the bar’s liquor license, said 64 disturbances took place inside or in the immediate vicinity of Cactus Club in 2008, including 19 fights, a shooting, and a bizarre incident where a sport-utility vehicle drove into the side of the building. In addition, the bar was found guilty of two liquor license violations.

Standard Baking in Bon Apetit

| Posted in Reviews

Scones from Standard Baking are the subject of a review in the July issue of Bon Apetit. (via the weekly round-up in Psst!) For those of you who want to bake your own they’ve also published Standard’s recipe for the Blueberry Oatmeal Scones.

The scone was lightly crunchy on the outside, and the inside was moist and densely woven, freckled with tiny Maine blueberries. I took a bite. The texture was ideal: a bit like an old-fashioned biscuit, but more substantial. The oats were barely discernible, but they gave the crumb a gentle, homey flakiness. I should also tell you that the scone was perfectly sweetened—which is to say, barely sweet at all.

The Salt Exchange

| Posted in Profiles

The Maine Switch has published a profile of The Salt Exchange.

Instead she characterizes the food as new New England cuisine. This mean such offerings as Pemaquid oysters under lemon celeriac cream & hazelnut ($7/$12), Wolfe’s Neck Farm steak & tellagio on sourdough with sweet and sour onion & spicy roast tomato mayonnaise ($10), spiced Maine coast cioppino with Casco Bay fish, shellfish & grilled sourdough crostini ($12) and pea risotto with butter poached clams & fresh morel mushrooms ($9).

Cold River Vodka

| Posted in General News

Cold River Vodka made an appearance today in the Washington Post blog All We Can Eat.

Unlike Karlsson’s, Cold River is batch-distilled in a copper pot still. In the glass, it’s got a little sweeter taste than Karlsson’s, but it has an equally clean finish. Tasting Karlsson’s and Cold River side by side, you can understand that the idea of a potato vodka having “terroir” is actually not that far-fetched. In the right hands, a potato grown in northernmost Maine is going to make a different vodka from one grown on the southeastern coast of Sweden.