Category: General News

Miyake has announced a change in concept for their flagship location on Fore Street. Starting in June,

Chef Masa Miyake will be restructuring the menu to combine the Japanese knowledge of food for which he is so well known with a variety of international cuisines from his extensive culinary background. The plan is to better utilize ingredients from Miyake Farm and from valued vendors both local and international. Ensuring quality ingredients and a unique dining experience for the restaurants’ patrons has always been a priority for Miyake.  These changes will allow for some new creativity.

The email announcing the change also states,

Miyake on Fore Street will be closing Sundays starting in June to give the staff the option to host events and special dinners to showcase some of the new Miyake Farm products. These will include Mangalitsa pig, American Guinea hog, and the first farm-hatched quail, chicken and duck.

Pocket Brunch is mentioned in this month’s Food & Wine talentspotting column.

Selling out in less than 2 hours, Pocket Brunch’s monthly pop-up events are Portland’s hardest reservation. Guest chefs like Rob Evans, a F&W Best New Chef 2004, provide the food, while the Pocket Brunch crew creates a unique  theme for each party…

Today’s Press Herald Food & Dining section includes an article on the new Good Shepherd Food Bank food truck.

The food bank will probably spend the entire next year testing out ideas for how best to use its truck, said Kristen Miale, president of the organization. First and foremost, she said, the truck will be tagging along with Good Shepherd’s food mobile, which is a kind of roving food pantry that distributes fresh produce and other foods to underserved areas of the state and neighborhoods with low-income housing.

The food truck recently had it’s debut at the GSFB annual gala with a chefs Rob Evans, Wilfred Beriau and Karl Deuben cooking up “cheeseburger hand pies and other appetizers”.

According to an article in the Press Herald, the b.good burger franchise is moving into the old Walter’s space at 15 Exchange Street,

The new restaurant, located at 15 Exchange St., is expected to open in June and will serve fast food-style burgers and fries made with local ingredients – or, as the chain’s motto puts it, “food made by people, not factories.”

Bite into Maine is running a Kickstarter campaign to help raise the funds they need to compete in the Lobster Roll Rumble, the olympics of lobster roll competitions. Their hope is that they can raise $5,500 to help defray the cost for their small business to produce 1,300 lobster rolls for the competition.

The latest issue of Portland magazine bemoans the lack of a French-Canadian restaurant in the city.

Everyone knows poutine, the retro pile-up of french fries, gravy, and cheese curds. The hearty Canadian treat has rocketed into the wider foodie-sphere and can be found all around Portland, including in a few fancy iterations like the East Ender’s lobster poutine and Duckfat’s silken version with local cheese curds and duck gravy. But where is the rest of traditional Franco-American or Acadian cuisine?

Several Portland area chefs have been included in the 2013 edition of Best Chefs America: Chad Conley (Gather), Steve Corry (555), Krista Kern Desjarlais (Bresca), Rob Evans (Duckfat), Christopher Geer (Vignola Cinque Terre), Mitchell Gerrow (East Ender), Matt Ginn (555), Sam Hayward (Fore Street), Ian Hayward (Petite Jacqueline), Jason Kennedy (Black Tie), Larry Matthews (Back Bay Grill), Masa Miyake (Miyake), Lee Skawinski(Vignola Cinque Terre), Harding Lee Smith (The Rooms), Peter Sultenfuss (Grace), Andrew Taylor (Hugo’s), David Turin (David’s), Mike Wiley (Hugo’s), Jason Williams (The Well).

Chris Gould was included in the Boston section for his work at Uni. There are also chefs from elsewhere in Maine on the list.

According to the publisher, the list of chefs in the book are “compiled by a comprehensive process of interviewing chefs across the country. Chefs are nominated for participation by fellow chefs, other culinary professionals, and food enthusiasts.”

This is the first year they’ve issued the list. If you see a name missing (and there certainly are many just in the Portland area) that you think belongs in the 2014 edition, you can nominate them on the BCA website.

The Press Herald has published an article about the high level of need for assistance facing food pantries and soup kitchens across the state.

“They’re seeing more families, more children and more seniors coming through their doors. The face of hunger today is much different than before the recession in 2008,” said Clara McConnell Whitney, communications and advocacy manager for Good Shepherd Food-Bank, which last year supplied 13 million pounds of food to food pantries and soup kitchens in Maine.

You can make a donation to the Good Shepherd Food Bank online. The organization distributes food aid to organizations across Maine.

Spartan Grill owner Mike Rolyos has a proposal in to the Historic Preservation Board to update the store front of his Monument Square cafe. The new store front would consist of a glass-paneled overhead door that in warm weather would open up the entire space on to the square.

Portland Daily Sun columnist Natalie LAdd has assembled her list of the Top Ten Restaurant On-The-Job No-No’s for restaurant workers.

1) I am velcroed to my cell phone. It’s common sense that cell phones should be prohibited during service but mine is typically tucked away in my back pocket, apron or in hand when I’m running into the bathroom.