Category: Profiles

The Portland Daily Sun has published an articl about Vena’s Fizz House.

Vena’s Fizz House offers a whole lotta buzz in a variety of non-alcoholic drinks. Mixing natural sodas at their Fore Street bar and mixology shop, Steve and Johanna Corman say the decision to fill a niche in the Portland drink scene was one brought about by a confluence of events — the desire to add a mainland connection to their Cliff Island market, Steve’s job loss, and Johanna’s habitual brainstorming. “It just came to me,” she said of the idea for a soda bar.

The Portland Phoenix has published a profile of Tortilleria Pachanga.

Rowe has expanded her tortilla operation into a production space on Industrial Way in Portland next to established brewers Allagash Brewing and up-and-comers Foundation and Bissell Brothers Brewing Companies. A new machine, purchased with funding from a successful Indiegogo campaign, is capable of pressing and cooking 12,000 tortillas per hour. Rowe has learned to talk about “fixed overhead costs” and “profit margins,” while ensuring she stays true to her mission of using Maine-grown corn to produce fresh tortillas.

Star Chefs has published a profile of the Hunt + Alpine Club.

When he opened Portland Hunt + Alpine Club, he didn’t want to recreate that Portland. Instead, he wanted to help Maine develop its own cocktail and spirit culture. “In smaller markets in particular, it’s important that owners pay very close attention to what their guests are looking for,” he says—facilitating but never foisting, forcing, or otherwise (sometimes literally) funneling cocktail culture down local gullets. But with his nurturing and finesse, Portland Hunt + Alpine Club has received “an overwhelming positive response.”

Maine Today has posted a profile and set of photos of Vena’s Fizz House.

Owned and operated by Johanna and Steve Corman, longtime Portlanders who also own the seasonal Pearl Seaside Market & Cafe on Cliff Island, Vena’s is named for Johanna’s great-grandmother, a staunch proponent of Maine’s temperance movement in the 1900s. She would approve of the drinks mixed and served at her namesake shop: housemade sodas, shrubs, mocktails and slushes — all made from high quality ingredients and without a drop of demon rum (or gin, whiskey or vodka).

The Forecaster has published an article about the new central kitchen that serves Portland’s public schools and increasing amount of local foods being used by the school district.

Increasingly, the food students eat is grown on farms throughout Maine. A small amount comes from students themselves.

Last year, the kitchen served 50,000 pounds of local produce and 15,000 pounds of local meats. This year, the kitchen is on track to double those amounts, according to Blair Currier, the School District’s local food specialist.

The Bangor Daily News has published an article about Kamasouptra.

In The Maine Mall’s bustling food court, Kamasouptra sticks out like a sore, independent thumb.

Named after the ancient Indian treatise on sensuality, the Portland soup company is doing its best to arouse your palate.