Culture House in Woodfords Corner

| Posted in Under Construction

A new restaurant called Culture House (instagram) is under construction at 683 Forest Ave in Woodfords Corner.

Martin Beavers and Esperance Yende plans to serve a menu of soul food and Ethiopian cuisine with dishes like catfish, deviled eggs, fried okra, jerk chicken sandwiches, oxtail fries, and brown butter beignets. Yende is Ethiopian and on the weekends Culture House will offer a growing set of Ethiopian options like doro wat chicken with injera and an Ethiopian coffee ceremony service.

Beavers and Yende hopes to launch Culture House on September 4th with an extended two week soft opening period. The ~50 seat restaurant will be open Thursday through Sunday, noon – 9:30 pm. The restaurant has six dedicated parking spaces located behind the building.

Beavers formerly operated Soul Food Paradise which began as a pop-up and then transitioned into a space at the Maine Mall food court.

Upcoming Food & Dining Events

| Posted in Events

Saturday – Adega will be holding a pop-up at Lambs in South Portland. The menu will include grilled oysters, piri piri prawns, and fire-roasted cheese and melon salad.

September 10 – Bold Coast Spirits will be the featured guest at the next Crafted Conversations event at the Five of Clubs bar at the Longfellow Hotel. Coffee by Design is holding an Ethiopian New Year celebration which will include a guided tasting of Ethiopian coffees and an Ethiopian dinner prepared by Niyat Catering.

September 12 – Orange Bike Brewing is hosting a Gluten-Free Market & Expo.

September 13 – The 10th Annual Maine Cheese Festival is taking place in Pittsfield.

September 15 – High Roller is holding a Maker’s Mark bourbon tasting dinner.

September 16 – Chaval is holding a 5-course dinner that will feature wines from Olé & Obrigado with owner Patrick Mata attending the dinner.

September 19 – PoutineFest is taking place. En-Noble and Ugly Duckling are collaborating on a global dinner series celebrating the food of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The focus of the September dinner is the food of Latin America.

September 19-26 – Maine Lobster Week is taking place.

September 23 – The 2nd Annual Lobster Roll Remix is taking place—nine local chefs are will be serving their take on a globally-inspired version of the classic Maine lobster roll.

September 25-27 – The 50th Annual Common Ground Fair is taking place in Unity.

September 26 – The 2nd Annual Portland Hotdog Safari is taking place.

September 29 – Via Vecchia is hold the 3rd Annual Bitter Ball Negroni Contest. Press Herald food section editor Peggy Grodinski will be speaking at an event organized by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at USM.

September 30 – Glenn Prickett, the CEO of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, will be the guest speaker at an Open Door event organized by the Maine Trust for Local News.

October 1 – Wayside Food Programs is holding their annual Inside Wayside event with food provided by the Casco Bay Chapter of the American Chefs Federation.

October 3 – Oxbow Brewing’s annual Goods from the Woods event is taking place in Newcastle; tickets are now on sale.

October 5 – Luncheonette is relaunching their Korean Night Dinner series.

October 8 – The Maine Food Producers Showcase & Golden Fork Awards are taking place in Portland.

October 11 – Chef and author Erin French will be speaking at the State Theatre. Tickets include a copy of her book The Lost Kitchen: Seize the Supper.

October 15-17 – Harvest on the Harbor is taking place. Tickets are now on sale for all three events.

October 24 – The 21st Annual Veg Fest is taking place.

October 25 – The Great Maine Apple Day 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 2026 Portland and Midcoast pocket guides are now for sale in packs of 25 on our online store.

The Teal Duck Opened Friday

| Posted in Openings

The Teal Duck (facebook, instagram) opened for business on Friday. The cocktail bar is located at 8 Exchange Street in the space formerly occupied by Portland Bar and Bites. The renovated 1,800 sq ft space includes bar, table and booth seating for ~70 people. Classic films are being screened on the back wall of the room—Saturday afternoon was a screening of I’ll Give Million from 1938.

Owner Brandon James Allegue and his team are serving a menu (see below) of house cocktails, draft beer, wine by the glass and bottle, and a selection of meat and cheese board options. Shown above is the Big Sexy World made with rum, fig syrup, lime juice and clarified with rhubarb and strawberry yogurt.

The Teal Duck will be open Monday through Saturday, 5 pm – 1 am.

Belleville to Close Permanently

| Posted in Closings

Belleville owners Chris Deutsch and Amy Fuller have announced plans to shutdown down their bakery. Retail operations will wind down in September and they plan to make their last wholesale deliveries at the end of the month.

Thank you all for the years of support which allowed us to experiment and bake what we loved. This business fulfilled a lifelong dream of ours and it has been an honor to bake for you. Thank you to all the talented people who worked with us to create the food and atmosphere we strived for. 

Running a small food service business is a grind. Running a small business while simultaneously raising a family is at times an impossible juggling act. Kudos to all those small business owners out there working hard right now. We see you. 

Deutsch and Fuller launched Belleville in 2017. They closed the Munjoy Hill location earlier this summer.

Sommelier Jenn Forge

| Posted in People

The Maine Sunday Telegram has published a profile of sommelier Jenn Forge. In July, Forge passed a series of rigorous exams to attain the level of Advanced Sommelier.

Just as she once threw herself into her music, Forge, 36, has spent the last 10 years exploring the unfathomably complex field of wine. Her passionate devotion paid off: This summer, Forge became the first woman in Maine, and the first native Mainer, to earn her level 3 advanced certification from the Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS).

Allagash White in Hall of Fame

| Posted in Beer

Allagash White has been inducted as a Landmark Craft Beer in the American Craft Beer Hall of Fame.

The initiative recognizes beers not simply because they became popular or commercially successful, but because they changed the industry around them, leaving a mark that echoes forward into today. These are beers that introduced drinkers to new flavors and styles, influenced new generations of brewers, pioneered new techniques, or helped to redefine what craft beer can be.

Allagash is one of five beers inducted in 2026, along with Russian River Pliny the Elder, Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, Pete’s Wicked Ale, and Alaskan Smoked Porter.