New food and dining developments are taking place all across Maine. Here are some recent updates to keep you in the know:

• The Boston Globe has published an article about chef Krista Kern Desjarlais and her restaurant The Purple House (website, instagram) in North Yarmouth. “The tasting menu, which will return this fall and is entirely gluten-free, draws on French, Italian, and Spanish influences. Pastry and baked goods still play a starring role – you even get one last goodie as you’re heading out the door after your meal – but the menu represents Desjarlais’s nearly four decades in the business. For the intimate lunches, a small group of strangers sit together at a single table, and have a front-row seat as Desjarlais cooks in a wood-fired brick oven. She makes moving between pastry-making, baking, and cooking savory dishes look effortless.”
• The Bangor Daily News has a feature article on Earth Dharma Winegrowers (website), a new winery run by David McDaniel and Heather Selin in Jackson. “[Oyster River Winegrowers Brian] Smith offered to show McDaniel and Selin how to make Carbonic Nation, a slightly effervescent deep-red wine, which they now do under the name Irina. They also make an amber wine called Vita that gets its apricot color from leaving the skins on white grapes for four days and has been described as having butterscotch flavors balanced by acidity and a suede mouthfeel, McDaniel said.”
• Palace Diner in Biddeford was featured in the ABC show Good Morning America.
• The Pen Bay Pilot and Midcoast Villager have reported on a new restaurant called Sakura Harbour (website, facebook, instagram) that opened late last month in Searsport. The restaurant is located in the building that was the former home of Rio’s Spiked Cafe and has been launched by chef Supannee Saengwong.
• The Bollard has published a review of Bred in the Bone in Damariscotta. “Other main dishes that evening included halibut ($42) with creamy white beans, sautéed kale and fried leeks, and a glisteningly rare duck breast ($38) with celeriac purée and fennel. Both were perfectly hearty in portion and flavor for a May evening in Maine.” The Bollard has also published the latest edition of their annual Smokin’ Sausage Showdown with entries from producers as far away as Ellsworth.
• Himalayas on the Bay (instagram) is holding the grand opening for their Nepali/Tibetan restaurant on August 15th.
• Virginia Shaffer appeared on Friday’s episode of Maine Calling. Shaffer (aka Lady Oyster) operates an oyster tasting room in Bath and is the author of a new book from Islandport Press entitled Oyster Society.
• The owners of Odd Alewives in Waldoboro have announed they’re closing this fall. September 20th will be their last day. “We can’t thank you enough for the years of support you have given us! Many of you we now call good friends. Many summer nights have been spent in the beer garden catching up with friends and family, celebrating your birthdays, upcoming weddings, even honoring the passing of your loved ones, and that has really meant a lot to us.”
• The Holy Donut has announced they’ll be closing their Brunswick donut shop. August 23rd will be the last day in business for the Brunswick location which opened for business in the summer of 2024.
• The Lincoln County News has published an article about the Riverside Butcher Company in Damariscotta which is celebrating their 10th anniversary. “Now, the storefront showcases a variety of meats, wines, and provisions such as pasta and different sauces. Avantaggio said he tries to source the meat as locally as possible, their poultry sourced from Tide Mill Organic Farm in South Trescott.”
• Tickets are now on sale for Oxbow Brewing’s annual Goods from the Woods event in Newcastle. It’s taking place Saturday October 3rd, noon – 5 pm.
• The 3rd Annual Tomato Tasting will be taking place on September 12th at the Merryspring Nature Center in Camden. It will provide an opportunity to try 30 varieties of tomatoes.
• The Sun Journal reports that El Tequila Mexican Restaurant will be moving into the space formerly occupied by the Farmington Diner.
• The Press Herald reports that the Hakuna Matata Sports Bar is under construction in the space formerly occupied by the Adams Street Pub in Biddeford.
• There are 15 new entries on the Maine Food Map: Dreamer Food (above center) and Barliman’s in Bangor, La Laiterie (above right) in Jonesboro, Bold Coast Coffee in East Machias, The Rumery in Eastport (above left), Claire’s Bakery in Lubec, The Biergarten in Skowhegan, Morse’s in Waldoboro, Belle Boulangerie in Hallowell, both First Fig and Paper Plane in Camden, Borderlands Coffee Company in Waterville, Fifth Pillar Tea House in Lewiston, Catbird in South Berwick, and Paolo’s in Brunswick. The statewide dining guide now includes 120 restaurants, bars, bakeries, cafes and and other food and dining establishments from across all of Maine’s 16 counties.

New food and dining developments are taking place all across Maine. Here are some recent updates to keep you in the know:

• Knead & Nosh (website, facebook, instagram) launched their new Topsham bagel shop on Saturday. It’s located at 4 Bowdoin Mill Island and will initially be open Friday through Sunday 7:30 am – 2 pm. Owner Jeff Mao and his team produce a wide range of flavors from standards like poppyseed and sesame to house specials like Sichuan Dragon. The Knead & Nosh menu (see below) offers a variety of breakfast and lunch sandwiches as well as Dou Shao Bao and Char Siu Bao. Shown above are the Midcoast Heritage sandwich on a Sichuan Dragon bagel, and a photo of Mao and team member Caitlyn Laffley at the bagel shop on opening day.
• A new Indian restaurant called Coastal Curry (website, instagram) is under construction in Scarborough. Owners Kiran Kumar Vellanki and David Patel hope to launch the business on Saturday August 15th. Cosastal Curry will specialize in South Indian cuisine like Hyderabad Dum Biryani and dosas, and will also offer some popular dishes from North India. They’re located at 300 Gallery Blvd, Unit B and they plan to be open Monday through Thursday 11 am – 2:30 pm and 4:30 – 10 pm, and Friday through Sunday 11 am – 10 pm.
• Himalayas on the Bay (instagram) is planning to initially open this Friday, August 7th serving a limited menu. The restaurant is located in Knightville at 60 Ocean Street in the buidling formerly occupied by Taco Trio. It’s is being launched by owners Sachet Timilsina, Pushpa Regmi, and Dipesh Karki with chefs Raj Kumar Karki and Laxman Neupane. Watch for their grand opening announcement when the full menu of Nepali/Tibetan dishes will be available.
• Maine Meat (website, facebook, instagram) has shared a look at the construction site for their new location. Owners Shannon Hill and Jarrod Spangler purchased the 3,400 sq ft former Best Auto space at 5 Whipple Road in Kittery. They anticipate relocating their butcher shop to there and opening a restaurant and bar on Whipple Street.
• A launch party for Virginia Shaffer’s book Oyster Society is taking place at Lambs in South Portland on August 10th. “Part culinary adventure, part personal awakening—one woman’s story of how chasing oysters across North America led her to discover an entire hidden community and her own true path.” The book is being published by Islandport Press.
• Wandering Lost and Hungry has published a field report from the new Kennebunk restaurant Signal (website, instagram). It is located at 27 Western Avenue in the building formerly occupied by Via Sophia by the Sea.
• The Portsmouth Herald has a report on the relaunch of the Five-O restaurant in Ogunquit. Five-O had been put of commission by a fire in March 2025. They’ve relocated to the former Northern Union building and reopened in mid June.
• The Lincoln County News reports that a new gluten-free cafe called the Tin Roof Diner (facebook) recently opened in Dresden Mills. The diner is located at 542 Gardiner Road, and is open Wednesday through Monday, 6 am. – 2 pm. According to the article, “Somerville resident Candice Kennedy is flipping the allergen script. Rather than offering a few options for gluten-free food, at Kennedy’s Tin Roof Diner in Dresden, customers have to specify if they want food containing gluten.”
• The Pen Bay Pilot has published an article about the new Rockport coffee shop, Kiri Coffeehouse in Rockport. “Kirí typically offers two rotating specialty single-origin coffees. Depending on availability, they may feature coffees from Kenya, Ethiopia, Colombia, or other producing regions. Their program focuses on lighter roast profiles, highlighting the unique characteristics of each origin.”
• The Bangor Daily News reports that a new restaurant called The Cooperage (facebook) opened in Bridgewater earlier this summer. Owners Joe Dube and Amanda Adams moved to Aroostook County from Worcester, Massachusetts “Dube and Adams are developing a new menu and there will be an entire poutine section, including the traditional, country fried chicken with sausage gravy and cheese curds that everyone has loved.”
• The Midcoast Villager has published a feature on Niweskok (website, facebook, instagram), a multifaceted project being run by Wabanaki people in Swanville. The Villager has also publisher articles on the 50th anniversary of the Belfast Co-op (website, facebook, instagram) and an article about Vesper Bread (website, instagram) in Freedom.
• The Lincoln County News reports that Jodie’s in Wiscasset has closed, “Closing Jodie’s Cafe and Bakery wasn’t simply closing a business. It felt like giving up a part of myself,” [Jodie] Roquemore said in the post. “This restaurant has been my heart, my dream, my stress, my pride, and my home for the last several years. Making the decision to let it go has honestly been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”
• Town & Country magazine has published A Snob’s Guide to Midcoast Maine.

For a statewide guide to eating and drinking see the Maine Food Map—a growing list of coffee shops, bars, restaurants, bakeries, cafes, plus other food and dining businesses in all of Maine’s 16 counties.