Another Review of Eventide

Portland magazine has published a review of Eventide.

We learn that Winter Point Selects from West Bath are the most popular and order three, along with three Gliddens from Damariscotta, two Shallow Bays from Newcastle, two Ayock Salts from Washington State, and two Blackberry Points from Prince Edward Island. Hands down, these are the best oysters we’ve had. Accoutrements (red wine mignonette, kimchee, and angelica ice) are fanciful and fine, but we find the oysters need no enhancement.

Book Review of Chef’s Table

From Away has published a book review of Portland Maine Chef’s Table.

Finally there’s a book that compiles favorite recipes from some of the most prominent, popular, accomplished cooks on the Peninsula. Portland, Maine Chef’s Table: Extraordinary Recipes from Casco Bayis perfectly packaged with glossy photos of the food, profiles of each restaurant, and insight from the chefs themselves. It is the cookbook that Portland deserves.

Review of Eventide

The latest issue of Maine magazine includes a review of Eventide Oyster Company.

According to [co-owner Arlin] Smith, the restaurant’s crudo dishes are almost as popular as the oysters, and standouts include a lightly cured arctic char served resting in a pool of raw egg yolk, and topped with creme fraiche, piquant capers, and sweet briny salmon roe. The dish is the garnished with “fried bagel”. Equally impressive is the buttery Tuna Nicoise, a raw piece of flesh crowned with a garnish of chopped hard-boiled egg and red onion most commonly found on caviar, and further complimented with a wonderfully salty and sweet taste imparted by dehydrated black-olive powder.

Unfortunately, the article is not available online, but you should be able to find a copy of Maine on local newsstands.

Tandem Coffee Roasters

LiveWork Portland has published a profile of Tandem Coffee Roasters,

While Portland already has a wealth of high-quality local coffee shops, the trio noted that there weren’t many roasters focused on high-end wholesale coffee for the city’s restaurants, and they moved here early this spring with plans to establish their own roasting company in a year or two. But when a real estate broker showed them the mid-century brick industrial building on Anderson Street — a former office for a scrap metal recycling business — they decided to go for it, and open up a small retail coffee shop of their own in the light-filled corner room at the front of the building.

Check the LiveWork Portland blog later today for a profile of Tandem’s East Bayside neighbor Bunker Brewing.

Immigrant Kitchens: French Ratatouille

In the latest entry on Immigrant Kitchens Lindsay Sterling learns how to make French Ratatouille from Stephanie Looten-Caceres (read the recipe and see the photos).

My houseguest, a sixteen-year-old French brunette, pointed at the French toast we were serving for breakfast. “What is it?” She asked.
“It’s French toast!” I cried, baffled. “What – it’s not French?”
“Non.” She said, as confused as I was.

Thirsty Pig, Gritty’s, 2nd Annual Portland Brew Fest

Today’s Press Herald includes a review of Gritty’s,

Wow. I just ate the best chicken sandwich of my life.

 Just had to say that right out of the gate while my taste buds are still high-fiving each other in the post-lunch afterglow. Now, where was I? Ah yes, lunch. Since I never seem to remember my carrot and celery sticks to snack on, come lunchtime, I’m typically ravenous and will knock you down should you try and block my access to food.

as well as a bar review of The Thirsty Pig and an article about the upcoming 2nd Annual Portland Brew Festival.

The event includes more than 30 brewers — some of whom will offer mead or cider instead of beer — and more than 75 different drinks, up by about 50 percent in both categories from last year. And while Sprague is offering 24 tickets for 2-ounce pours of beer, attendees are still going to have to make some choices as they wander through the building.

Roost House of Juice Opening Today

Roost, a  vegan juice and biodynamic wine bar, is opening for business at 11 Free Street this morning at 8 am. Roost’s owners Kathleen Flanagan and Jeanette Richelson partially funded their new venture with a successful fund raising effort on Kickstarter.

For more information on Roost, read the Natural Foodie column in today’s Press Herald.

Kathleen Flanagan and Jeanette Richelson, yoga teachers with experience in the restaurant industry, have been planning this eatery for a year and a half. They worked with a large community of vendors, farmers, business consultants, family members, friends and artists to fine tune the restaurant into a space unique for this foodie town.

North Star Sheep Farm

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes an article about North Star Sheep Farm in Windham. North Star provides lamb to several local restaurants as well as to Whole Foods.

The thin line of animals marching in single file is part of a larger flock of 500 to 600 that Webster and his wife, Lisa, keep here on about 650 acres of leased land that is just steps away from the country’s first woolen mill. The sheep that grazed here during the American Revolution provided the wool blankets that kept patriots warm.

Soon, this pastureland may once again be filled with these gentle creatures and the distant sound of their soft bleating.