Chérie Opens Thursday

| Posted in Openings

Chefs Melody Medina and Quinn Williams are launching Chérie (instagram) on Thursday. Chérie is located at 249 Congress Street in the space formerly occupied by Quanto Basta.

The menu (see below)  includes dishes like steak frites (shown above), roast chicken, and halibut with tarbais beans as well as desserts like creme brulee and strawberry sorbet (shown above). Chérie also features a full bar program run by Lucie Anderson. The beverage menu includes wines by the glass and bottle, local beer and cider, appertifs and a cocktail program as well as non-alcoholic options. The Chérie Negroni as well as the asparagus and snap pea salad, and the leek vinaigrette are shown above.

Williams and Medina have made some light renovations to the 20-seat dining room but otherwise retain the same general layout—including the Fiero Forni oven. Cherie also has a 20-seat enclosed patio located behind the building.

The couple moved to Portland from Brooklyn in 2024. They met when both were working at Frenchette New York City. Medina is a 2011 graduate of the French Culinary Institute and helped launch the bread program at Frenchette and open the Frenchette Bakery in Tribeca. Williams’ career began in his hometown of Pittsburgh and once in NYC worked at Le Rock and Lords. Since last fall they have been holding a series of Cherie pop-up events at Lambs, Hunt & Alpine and the Big Tree event space.

Chérie will initially be open Thursday through Monday, 5 – 10 pm with plans to expand hours this summer to offer lunch and brunch on the weekend.

Bold Coast Spirits – Marine 01

| Posted in Distilling & Cocktails, Openings

Bold Coast Spirits (website, instagram) is launching the first batch of Marine 01 today. It is an “oyster shell vodka” that is being produced and bottled by Artisan Distillery in Oxford, Maine by co-founders Jay Lombard and Stuart Littlefield. Lombard shared,

Marine 01 is built around texture and coastal mineral character. When the spirit rests on the shells, the calcium and natural tannins in the shell slowly work into the vodka, building structure and a distinctly coastal minerality. The result is a vodka with a soft, rounded palate and a finish that holds up in a dirty martini, a Bloody Mary, or any savory build where balance matters.

The vodka is produced by resting the spirits on cracked Maine oyster shells sourced from Nor’Easter Oyster Company. It is the first product in Bold Coast’s Marine series, “a collection of small-batch spirits built around ingredients sourced from Maine’s coast.”

Four local bars and restaurants will be having special cocktails on their menu featuring Marine 01 including Douro, The Marquis, Magnus on Water in Biddeford, and Salty Spirits in Kittery, with bottles available at Bow Street Beverage, Oak Hill Beverage in Scarborough and other retailers.

Photo Credit: photograph courtesy of Bold Coast Spirits and taken by Evan Kalman with food styling by Sheila Jarnes.

Upcoming Food & Dining Events

| Posted in Events

Wednesday – Sissle & Daughters will be holding a cheese sensory analysis class taught by Will Sissle and Leigh Falzone from Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont. This class is part of an ongoing education program offered by Sissle & Daughters.

Friday – There will be a Bold Coast Spirits tasting at Bow Street Beverage on Forest Ave, 4 – 6 pm.

May 28 – Kathy Gunst and Domenica Marchetti will be at Print bookstore to discuss Marchetti’s book Italian Cookies: Authentic Recipes and Sweet Stories from Every Region.

June 8 – Scratch Baking Company is teaching a corn baking workshop.

June 15 – The James Beard Foundation will be announcing the 2026 award winners. Thomas Takashi Cooke from Izakaya Minato and Dana Street from Fore Street, Scales, Standard Baking, and Street & Company are this year’s nominees from Maine.

June 27 – Mast Landing is holding the 2026 Wavy Days Beer Fest at Thompson’s Point.

June 28 – The Good Food Foundation will be announcing the winners of their 2026 awards program. 7 Maine food producers are finalists.

July 24-26 – The Kneading Conference is taking place in Skowhegan.

August 22 – The Maine State Cake Decorating Championship is taking place in South Paris.

August 28-30 – Maine Apple Camp is taking place in Hope. The biennial event covers a wide range of topics including “innovative orcharding methods, identifying and preserving heritage varieties, foraging wild fruit, cider making and lots more.”

September 25-27 – The Common Ground Fair is taking place in Unity.

Planning a wedding, holding a business event, or hosting visitors from away? Our printed guides are a great resource to help your guests explore the Maine restaurant scene.

The Portland and Midcoast pocket guides are now for sale in packs of 25 on our online store.

Ladyfish Now Open

| Posted in Openings

Ladyfish (website, instagram) opened for business on Wednesday. The new restaurant has been launched in former Bar Futo space on Fore Street by the owners of Mr. Tuna. It’s a pop-up restaurant that will be in operation May through October. Reservations are available on OpenTable.

The kitchen is being headlined by chef Christine Lau. The menu (see below) includes dishes like steamed buns with uni butter (top right), crispy noodles alle vongole (top left), tuna carpaccio (center right), fragrant eggplant dip (bottom left) and key lime hand pies for dessert. The bar menu includes cocktails like the South End and North Country drinks shown above, wine, beer, vermouth and nonalcoholic beverages.

Lau was the executive chef at Kimika which was a Beard Awards semifinalists for Best New Restaurant in 2022. Her press accolades include an Eater NYC Best Dishes of 2020 nod, Condé Nast Traveler’s 2021 Hot List for Best New Restaurants, and Food & Wine magazine’s Best Bites of 2021.

Jordan and Marisa Rubin launched the Mr. Tuna food cart in 2017 and the Mr. Tuna restaurant on Middle Street in 2024. With partners Cyle Reynolds and Sasha Brouillard the Rubins launched Crispy Gai on Exchange Street in 2021. Last year Rubin was named to the 2025 class of Best New Chefs by Food & Wine magazine.

Ladyfish is located at 425 Fore Street and will be open daily, 5 – 10 pm.

Stadler Wins America’s Culinary Cup

| Posted in People

Chef Cara Stadler won the America’s Culinary Cup in the final episode that aired last night on CBS. She takes home a $1 million prize. Parade magazine has the details of the dish that helped her win,

Certainly what helped set her apart was her final meal, which was something even Lakshmi hasn’t tasted before. “Cara made this beautiful dish of tea with some dumplings in it, which I had never seen before,” she says of the chef’s third and final presentation, which Stadler described on the show as a fusion of English and Asian cultures. 

Stadler was named a Best New Chef by Food & Wine in 2014 and was a Beard Awards nominee for Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2015. She formerly ran a set of restaurants in Portland and Brunswick along with her mother Cecile Stadler.

The Company of Others on India Street

| Posted in Under Construction

Heather Gildea, the owner of Black Elephant Hostel, has been developing an all-day cafe and a listening lounge which together are called The Company of Others. They will be located in the former India Street Coffee by Design building. Renovations are well underway and Gildea hopes to launch the cafe space first early this summer followed by the lounge.

She envisions the establishment as a third place where members of the community can meet and connect.

In a world that moves too fast, we offer something essential: a place to pause, to connect, to feel at home in the company of others. Connection doesn’t happen on a schedule. So, we don’t close until the the night is over. The atmosphere changes as the night deepens – from high-end café to something funkier and looser — a late-night gathering spot for the people who aren’t ready to go home yet. Same room. Same welcome. The company just keeps getting better.

The menu for the cafe will include crepes, tartines, and other light fare. It will offer a full line-up of brewed and espresso-based coffee drinks using beans from a local roaster as well as a rotating selection of internationally-inspired beverages like Moroccan Mint Tea. Gildea expects to evolve the menu offerings as the community engages with the business.

In the evening The Company of Others will serve cocktails, wine by the glass, and craft beer as well as nonalcoholic beverages in Lowell’s Lounge—the listening lounge is named for Gildea’s father who “had a deep appreciation for music and how it should be heard.” A sound engineer has been working to create the optimal environment for a listening lounge. It will feature an experience “centered around high-fidelity audio and curated vinyl programming” that shares a wide range of musical genres, “jazz to soul, classical to electronic, we move across genres with the same spirit of genuine curiosity — following the music wherever it leads. Some nights a DJ takes the room on a journey. Other nights it’s just a needle, a record, and whatever Lowell might have put on next.”

Wednesday’s at The Company of Others will be an alcohol-free day in the cafe and lounge. The listening lounge menu is still under development so stay tuned for additional details.