This Week’s Events: Pocket Cruise, Flea Bites, Shipyard Festival, Bastille Day

| Posted in Events

Wednesday — the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — the Pocket Bunch crew is running their first Pocket Cruise; tickets are available online. The Great Lost Bear is showcasing beers from In’finiti.

Friday — a group of food trucks will be at Portland Flea-for-All for the July Flea Bites.

Saturday — the Shipyard Summer Festival is taking place as is the Deering Oaks Farmers Market.

Sunday — Petite Jacqueline is hosting a Bastille Day celebration; tickets are available online.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

Saveur’s Portland Grocery Mile

| Posted in Reviews

Saveur has posted a eating  tour of some of the author’s favorite Portland destinations.

You could (and should) plan a week-long itinerary around the city’s great restaurants, as many do. But the simple pleasure of selecting ingredients and enjoying them at their freshest shouldn’t be overlooked by visitors; whenever I have friends coming into town, I send them on my favorite Saturday morning grocery itinerary, to make like a local and gather the fixings for a perfect afternoon picnic. Because, after all, the same resources that attracted ambitious chefs to Portland—abundant seafood and an equal abundance of local produce—are available to you and me.

Interview with Foundation Brewing

| Posted in Beer, People

Epicurious has published an interview with Foundation Brewing.

“The biggest change,” he says, “is that something that was only a goal a short time ago is now a reality. You make plans, and when you really get into it, there’s a big difference.”

“How so?” I ask.

“We knew this intellectually,” John says, “but we really learned that when you are brewing, or doing some other task around the brewery, that you can’t leave until it’s done. So if it’s eight or nine at night, and you’re still in the middle of some process, you know you are staying late.”

Q&A with Leigh Kellis

| Posted in People

Knack Factory has interviewed Leigh Kellis, owner of The Holy Donut.

Whenever I go into your places, there is a full line, sometimes extending out the door. What is it about what you do that people are responding to?
That’s a really good question. I have been trying to figure it out for a couple of years. We have had a spectacular reception to this business. I don’t take that for granted. I am grateful for literally every person who comes through the line. I realize that this might not last forever. Yes, we have a good product, but there is also something very quirky about this place and I know that…

Under Construction: The Farm Stand

| Posted in Under Construction

thefarmstand

Joe Fournier, Managing Partner at The Farm Stand tells me that they’re making excellent progress on the build out of the space and that they hope to open sometime in mid-August. They’re currently hiring to staff the market.

The Farm Stand is a collaboration between Fournier, Penny Jordan and Ben Slayton. Fournier has been a longtime member of the Rosemont Market staff, Jordan is a co-owner of Jordan Farm in Cape Elizabeth and Slayton runs Farmer’s Gate Market which sources all its pasture-raised meats from Maine farms.

The Farm Stand is located at 161 Ocean Street in the Knightsville neighborhood of South Portland.

Beertown USA

| Posted in Beer

draftmag201407Draft magazine has paid a visit to Portland to explore our city’s rapidly evolving beer scene.

Bars like The Great Lost Bear and Novare Res have championed beer for years, and now there’s even more to root for: 13 [Maine] breweries launched in 2013 and a staggering 16 more will fling open their doors this year. Sense the excitement and convivial vibe in the city’s tasting rooms, and strike at the chance to taste East Coast Portland’s beer bounty.

The article highlights: Mama’s Crowbar, Rising Tide, Allagash, Bissell Brothers, Austin Street, Foundation Brewing, Salvage BBQ, Maine Beer Company, Pai Men Miyake, In’finiti, the Bier Cellar, Urban Farm Fermentory, and Central Provisions.

The article isn’t yet online but you should be able to find the July/August issue on newsstands soon.

Updated: the article is now online.

Review of Slab

| Posted in Reviews

The Golden Dish has reviewed Slab.

Portions are huge. We shared a panzanella salad, more than enough for two.  It was a delicious mix of crusty caraway bread, which was actually too hard to cut using those wooden utensils.  Ultimately we picked it up by hand and dunkedf the bread in the sauce. The salad contained feta cheese, cucumber, an orange-dill sauce, olives and onions.  But it didn’t have the traditional cubes of tomatoes; instead it was slathered in a tomato vinaigrette.  It was very good, though too bready.

Interview with Locally Sauced Burritos

| Posted in People

From Away has published a Q&A with Charlie Ely, owner of the Locally Sauced Burritos food cart.

What first attracted you to the food business?
My garden. Four years ago I had a small garden that produced over 100lbs of peppers (way more than I knew what to do with anyway). So I started to play around with hot sauces. I reached a point where I had around 10 sauces. At this time, I was working as an accountant and hating every second of it. I realized there had to be more to life than sitting at a desk. I decided to focus on how I could get these sauces out to the public and turn that in to a job. Locally Sauced was born.