PortlandTown has continued his photographic walking tour through this week’s calendar of food events with a stop at the Simply Divine Brownies grand opening followed by a visit to Bar Lola for their Portuguese wine dinner.
Month: November 2009
Nouveau and Cranberry Mead
An article in Wednesday’s Portland Daily Sun reports on the upcoming arrival of the season’s Beaujolais Nouveau and the release of a new cranberry mead from Maine Mead Works.
Pine State Beverage Company has scheduled its first delivery of the 2009 Nouveau for 6 a.m. on Thursday (Nov. 19).
It will arrive at Rosemont Market & Bakery on Brighton Avenue in Portland where owner John Naylor and his staff will greet the new vintage of Georges Duboeuf Nouveau Beaujolais. They’ll be joined by the newest release from the boys from Maine Mead Works, a cranberry mead that comes on the eve of their one-year anniversary. It’s an old meets new meets older meets newer kind of thing.
#2 Brewery of the Decade
Allagash is in the #2 slot in Paste magazine’s list of The 25 Best American Breweries of the Decade (via a post from A Blog About Beer).
Allagash is like a little slice of Belgium without those pesky language barriers. Using Belgian yeasts and coloring brilliantly inside the style lines as with their flagships White, Dubbel and Triple, what really makes this Maine brewery special is their series of barrel-aged beers, led by Curiuex, Interlude and Fluxus—the latter of which includes sweet potatoes and black pepper in its recipe. We’re also impressed with tweaks to standards like the quad Allagash Four that blends four malts, hops and sugars.
December Down East
The new issue of Down East is out. It includes a review of Grace,
Grace is an ambitious restaurant that successfully bestows on its guests the multiple meanings of its name. “The original intention of grace,” says Anne Verrill, “is everything from beauty down to the actual saying of grace at the table.” After a feast or a bite, a cocktail or a bottle, guests will certainly have plenty to be grateful for.
and a survey of Maine chocolatiers which included Portland area favorites Haven’s, Dean’s Sweets, Sweet Marguerites and Len Libby’s.
PortlandTown Visits Piatto per Tutti
Taking this week’s busy schedule of food events as a challenge, PortlandTown is trying to “do as many as I can or at least one every day” and is reporting on the experience. The first post in the series is on last night’s Piatto per Tutti cooking class and includes a number of photos of the Lanzalotta-led class cooking crepe-style cannelloni and olive oil brownies.
Review of Quality Shop
Portland Food Heads has reviewed a lunch at the Quality Shop, a neighborhood convenience store located on Stevens Ave.
While that’s not necessarily my thing, the pre-made salads and sandwiches in the cooler are usually what I go with for a quick lunch if I have to hurry back to work. Again, there’s nothing special going on here, but for the price (usually $4 or under), you can’t go wrong.
Trader Joes News Nugget
An article in today’s Press Herald on the closing of LL Bean’s Portland store casts doubt on the possibility of Trader Joe’s landing in the spot.
Alison Mochizuki, spokeswoman for California-based Trader Joe’s, said Monday that “Portland, Maine, is not in our two-year plan.”
Thanksgiving Dinner
Some restaurants do stay open on Thanksgiving. Here’s the ones I know about so far:
- Black Point Inn, noon – 4 pm, $70 for adults, $35 for children
- Eastland Park Hotel, $26 for adults, $22, for seniors, $13 for children
- Eves at the Garden, $38 for adults, $19 for children
- North Star Music Cafe is holding a Thanksgiving potluck
- Sea Glass Restaurant at the Inn by the Sea, 12:30 – 4:30, $65 for adults, $20 for children
- Twenty Milk Street at the Regency
- Verrillo’s, $16.95 for adults, $12.95 for seniors, $7.95 for children
There are also several vendors are selling pies, cakes and even entire meals to take home:
- Aurora Provisions is selling a full dinner for two, $68
- Aunt Dee’s is selling apple, pumpkin, squash and pecan pies
- Cakes Extraordinaire, is offering a free pumpkin pie with every pie purchase
- Rosemont Market, pre-order your locally raise turkey by Nov 20, they’re also selling pies, rolls, quick breads, cranberry sauce, a stuffing mix, gravy, herb butters, etc.
- Leavitt and Sons is “offering side dish catering (everything but the bird)”
- Standard Baking on Commercial Street, Scratch Baking in South Portland, and many of the other bakeries in the area are good sources for pies, breads, etc. They probably produce some holiday themed options in addition to their usual offerings.
- Black Tie Bistro is “offering everything from fully stuffed and cooked birds, to all the side dishes and trimmings. Desserts from bread puddings to classic pies, everything from scratch and available to pick up.”
UPDATE: The Press Herald has also published a list of sources for Thanksgiving, pies, side dishes, etc and it includes a number of options not already listed above as well as additional details on the ones that are.
Is there a local restaurant, market or bakery that’s missing? Post a comment and I’ll add them to the list.
Big Sky Cookie Review
Hilly Town has published a cookie review of the Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Walnut Cookie at Big Sky, rating it a 4 out of 5 for Flavor and Bang for Buck, and a 3 out of 5 for Texture.
However, in my mind, there is a clear distinction between a chocolate-chip cookie and an oatmeal chocolate-chip cookie. Oats lend sturdiness, texture, and yes – flavor. Oats in a CCC aren’t an ‘add-in.’ They’re a revision (OCCC). Mind you, it can be a tasty revision, as this OCCC from Big Sky proves.
A Packed Week of Events
Monday—The weekly Piatto per Tutti cooking class and Foodie Trivia Contest are taking place tonight.
Tuesday—Simply Divine Brownies is hosting a brownie tasting to celebrate their Grand Opening. Bar Lola is holding a wine dinner featuring wines from Portugal. A cooking class is taking place at SMCC.
Wednesday—The Monument Square Farmers’ Market takes places in the morning. In the evening, there’s a Slow Food Dinner at Cinque Terre with guest Douglas Gayeton, author of Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town. There’s also a cooking class taking place at Black Tie Bistro.
Thursday—Wine tastings are scheduled to take place at Leavitt & Sons and Kitchen and Cork. There will be a launch party for Shipyard Prelude at Portland Pie. Vignola is holding their 4th Annual Allagash Tasting Dinner, and Port Sports is organizing a Mead Crawl which will finish up at Novare Res to taste Maine Mead Works’ new Lavender Mead.
Friday—Rosemont Market on Congress Street is holding a wine tasting.
Saturday—The Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market takes places in the morning. In the afternoon Barbara Lynch, chef/owner of No. 9 Park and James Beard Award for Best Chef Northeast in 2003 will be at Rabelais for a book signing for her work Stir: Mixing it Up in the Italian Tradition.
For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.