Dana Street Wins Beard Award

| Posted in Reviews

 

Congratulations to Dana Street on being named a 2026 James Beard Awards winner in the Outstanding Restaurateur category. Street was a nominee in the category along with restaurant owners from  from California, North Carolina, Louisiana and Texas.

Street launched Street & Company in 1989 and has gone on to open several businesses Portland including Fore Street in collaboration with Sam Hayward in 1996 and Scales in 2016. It would be hard to overstate the impact Dana Street has had on the city’s restaurant industry and it’s great to see his work acknowledged in such a significant way by the Beard Foundation.

There were two nominees from Maine this year which were selected from seven chef and restaurant semifinalist in the 2026 James Beard Foundation Awards season. There have been 12 prior award winners from Maine. For more information on Maine’s Beard Awards history, see this complete list of award winners, nominees and semifinalists.

Upcoming Food & Dining Events

| Posted in Events

Monday – 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. Check back this evening for a report on how the Maine nominees fared at the awards ceremony in Chicago.

Wednesday – Twelve is holding a 5-course dinner featuring wines from Staglin Family Vineyards.

June 22-28 – Green Crab Week is taking place.

June 24 – The Portland Wild Food Meetup is taking place at Anoche.

June 25-27 – The Greek Festival is taking place.

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

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 50th Annual 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 2026 Portland and Midcoast pocket guides are now for sale in packs of 25 on our online store.

Lee Frank to Launch Mazon in York

| Posted in Under Construction

The Portsmouth Herald reports that chef Lee Frank has leased the former Arrows building in Cape Neddick where he plans to open a new fine dining restaurant called Mazon.

Frank, a two-time James Beard Northeast finalist, had just learned he needed to close his restaurant Otis in Exeter this year when he found out 41 Ogunquit Road in York was available for lease. He was the executive chef there when it was Arrows, whose owners won their own James Beard award in 2010.

Frank also operates a casual restaurant called Lee Frank’s with locations in South Berwick and Exeter, New Hampshire.

New Owner at Bar of Chocolate

| Posted in Under Construction

Sarah Martin has announced that she’s sold the Bar of Chocolate Cafe on Wharf Street to James Mack.

After 21 years we are selling the Bar of Chocolate.

To a former employee most of you know. James Mack! We are very excited for him and his new venture! He will have to close for a bit to make the transition but planning to open back up as quickly as possible!

Thank you to all the great staff and guests over the years!!

We wish James the best of luck and hope the BOC is as good to him as it was to us.

Mère by Georgia Macon

| Posted in Under Construction

Georgia Macon has purchased a building in Cumberland where she plans to launch Mère (website, instagram). The bakery/cafe will be located at 204 Gray Road across the street from Skillins Greenhouses.

Mère is billed as a “a technique-driven comfort bakery”. It will offer naturally leavened breads, pastries, cakes, savory baked goods and a full brewed and espresso-based coffee program. The lunch menu will include classic sandwiches and salads. The draft menu includes items like pain au chocolate, cardamom morning buns, sweet pea danish, plum and fig leaf hand pies, fruit tarts, quiche lorraine, croque madame, baby gem and buttermilk salad and a ploughman’s sandwich.

A special item on the menu will be a Gooey Butter Cake—a regional favorite from her hometown of Saint Louis, Missouri. It is a yeasted yellow cake topped with butter custard and powdered sugar.

Macon shared, “Mère is timeless and trendless. Our goal is to make the best possible version of foods people already know and love—community-driven, chef-executed. We do not bow to topical trends, and we do not fear butter.”

Renovations to the 2,000 sq ft building are underway and Macon hopes to launch Mère sometime by early fall. When the build out is complete there will be seating for ~30 people as well as a small market that sells prepared foods, take-and-bake meals, beer, wine, pantry items and locally produced homegoods. It will be open daily 7 am – 7 pm.

Macon was formerly the executive pastry chef for the Prentice Hospitality Group. She attend Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Macon worked at Tartine in San Francisco and was part of the team that launched Tartine Manufactory. In 2023 she was recognized as a Rising Star Pastry Chef by Star Chefs.

Maine Food & Dining News: Freeport, Durham, Freeport, Brunswick, Warren, South Portland, Pownal, South Paris, Rockport, Waldoboro, Augusta, Deer Isle, New Gloucester, Wells, Belfast

| Posted in Maine

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

  • Love Point Oysters has launched their new oyster shop and market, Love Point Provisions (instagram). It is located at 43 Old South Freeport Road in Freeport selling tinned fish, wine, beer, and, of course, LP oysters. They’ll be open Wednesday through Saturiday, 11 am – 6 pm.
  • Nikaline Iacono , the owner of Vessel & Vine in Brunswick, has launched Full Hearts Farm Store (facebook, instagram) in Durham (above, right). It’s located at the former site of the Replanova Farm store and will continue to sell Replanova’s organic produce. Full Hearts is open Tuesday through Friday, 10 am – 6:30 pm, and 11 am – 5 pm on the weekends. The market sells Maine raised meats, locally baked bread and pastries, dairy products and eggs, and a selection of other locally produced foods. There’s a menu of sandwiches and salads liked smoked bluefish and a meatball sub to grab-and-go or to enjoy on the back deck which looks out over the farm. The kid’s menu offers PBJs and grilled cheese sandwiches. Iacono is working with the local historical society to develop names for sandwiches that connect with history of the community. Starting next month she plans to hold classes at Full Hearts and hopes the store will become a gathering space for the community.
  •  Sodt (website, facebook, instagram) plans to launch their new store in Freeport on Saturday. It is located at 58 Main Street downstairs from Vineyard Vines and will be open that day 10 am – 7 pm.
  • Moderation Brewing (website, facebook, instagram) will be holding the grand opening for their new location in Brunswick on June 19th at 4 pm with food trucks, live music and an official ribbon cutting.
  • The 2026 edition of our Midcoast dining guide has been released.
  • The owners of Saint George Pizza have shared plans to launch Upstairs Books (instagram) in Warren. The stock is expected to have “a heavy focus on cookbooks”. They expect to launch Upstairs Books this summer.
  • As previously reported, a new restaurant that will serve Nepali and Tibetan cuisine called Himalayas on the Bay (instagram) is under development at 60 Ocean Street in South Portland.
  • Portersfield Cider (instagram) will close at the end of this year. David Buchanan founded Portersfield in 2015 and initially began selling his cider at the Portland Farmers’ Market. The tasting room at the Portersfield orchard in Pownal launched in 2017. Portersfield received a Good Food Award in 2019 for their Ridlon 16/2 cider. Buchanan shared “When I started collecting apple trees and making cider 16 years ago, I had only a vague idea where wild and heirloom apples might lead. It’s been a wonderful run, more gratifying and fulfilling than I’d imagined. Part of the reason I’m stepping back now is that I feel satisfied with the ciders I’ve made, happy with the way things have turned out. I’m ready for something new, and prefer to end on a high note. Although this year will be my last for alcohol sales, I don’t intend to give up the community presence at my farm. I’m excited to develop new uses for the tasting room and outdoor gathering spaces, and I look forward to exploring ways to collaborate with other food businesses in the years ahead.” The photo above (left) shows Buchanan preparing buckwheat galettes at the Portersfield tasting room in 2022.
  • The owners of X Vault Pub and Provisions have announced they’re is closing their South Paris restaurant. Their last day in business will be Saturday. Their statement reads in part “A restaurant is never just a restaurant. It’s the people who walk through the doors every day, the staff who work tirelessly behind the scenes, and the community that chooses to support it. We want to thank our community for always being our biggest supporter. Thank you for trusting us, whether that meant ordering your usual favorite or stepping outside your comfort zone to try something new. From oysters and sushi to craft cocktails and chef-driven specials, your willingness to embrace new flavors allowed us to create, experiment, and share our passion for food with all of you.” The statement also mentions that a new restaurant is expected to move into the space next year—more details on that are TBD.
  • The Rockport Donut Festival (website, facebook, instagram) is taking place Friday and Saturday. Ruckus Donuts, Old Time Donuts, The Only Doughnut, Eighty 8 Donut Cafe, Graffiti Donuts, The Donut Grove, and The Holy Donut will be taking place in the event.
  • The Waldo Theatre in Waldoboro is staging a production of Don’t Dress for Dinner on June 13th, 14th, 19th and 20th.
  • In celebration fo the Common Ground Fair’s 50th anniversary, MOFGA has produced an exhibit of the fair’s posters from the last 5 decades. “Fifty Years of Common Ground, an exhibition of five decades of the posters of the Common Ground Country Fair, is free and open to the public, now in Augusta until August 30th; then moving to Waterville September 4 through 30, in partnership with the Maine Arts Commission and Waterville Creates.”
  • The Ark restaurant on Deer Isle has released the details for this year’s guest chef series. Lucy Gibson will be at The Ark mid-June to mid-July, followed by Sam Fore, Neftalí Duran, and then Justin Tootla and Jennifer Jackson. See The Ark website for all the details on the chefs and their upcoming tenures.
  • The Graze dinner series is once again taking place at Pineland Farms. Dinners are taking place this Friday as well as dates in July, August and September.
  • Three more dinners in the Wolfe’s Neck Center farm-to-table dinner series are taking place in Freeport this September, October and November with guest chefs from Sawyer’s, Fire & Company, and Douro.
  • The Portsmouth Herald reports that Feile Irish Pub in Wells is expected to reopen later this month.
  • The Bangor Daily News reports that the Dockside Family Restaurant—which went of business last year after a 36-year run—will be reopening in June.
  • Maine Famous has assembled a list of festivals and events taking place across the state this summer.

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.

Review of Gill’s

| Posted in Reviews

The Bollard has published a review of Gill’s.

If you’re looking for a light appetizer, definitely don’t get the Moxie Pork Ribs ($15), which were so tender that I managed to eat them only an hour after getting two dental crowns. Or do, and bring home the other half of your turkey sandwich ($15) with aged gouda, banana peppers and club sauce as “second dinner,” like I did.