Street Fairs

The Maine Sunday Telegram has reports on yesterday’s African street festival,

For an afternoon, Brown Street was transformed into a setting resembling an African market, with food and other vendors lining the street.

and the St Peter’s Italian Bazaar that started yesterday and continues on today.

The Italian bazaar began in 1926 and is the longest continuously running street festival in Portland, co-chair Ken Giaquinto said.

Jenner's Mind on Caiola's and The Porthole

The blogger at Where is Jenner’s Mind has published her take on two restaurants that are “guarenteed good meal[s]”. The Porthole and Caiola’s.

there are two places that seth and i go to on a regular basis and we know we will always get a good meal. and i have never written about either of them! in the portland food blog-o-sphere, both restaurants have gotten their fair shares of reviews, but let me tell you why i love caiola’s and the port hole.

Jenner’s Mind on Caiola’s and The Porthole

The blogger at Where is Jenner’s Mind has published her take on two restaurants that are “guarenteed good meal[s]”. The Porthole and Caiola’s.

there are two places that seth and i go to on a regular basis and we know we will always get a good meal. and i have never written about either of them! in the portland food blog-o-sphere, both restaurants have gotten their fair shares of reviews, but let me tell you why i love caiola’s and the port hole.

Twenty Milk Outdoor Dining Review

The Portland Phoenix has reviewed the outdoor dining experience to be had at Twenty Milk Street.

The string lights in the trees, and the bamboo fence fronted by a sea-rose hedge, give it the feel of the sort of leafy garden dining found all over Vietnam. Old-fashioned lanterns hang over many tables. Watching the waiters complete the long traverse from the 19th-century building in formal attire adds to the colonial feel. Customers seem to embrace the mood — dining in a desultory fashion, laughing rambunctiously, and talking themselves into extra rounds of drinks.

Spicelines on Rabelais

Spicelines has posted a write-up on her recent visit to Rabelais Books.

Rabelais is a different sort of “clean, well-lighted” place: a tranquil but cheerful gathering spot for food-obsessed souls in a food-obsessed town. And what a location: It’s in Portland’s burgeoning East End, next door to Hugo’s (chef Rob Evans won the 2009 James Beard award for Best Chef Northeast) and within walking distance of half a dozen great restaurants, including Bresca, Duckfat and Fore Street. There’s something irresistible about a destination cookbook shop just a couple of blocks from the world’s best Belgian frites and Tahitian vanilla milkshakes.

Restaurants on Twitter

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a feature story on Maine restaurants use of Twitter.

Arsenault was still new to Twitter, so when she organized a “tweet-up” at the inn for the folks who had been following her posts online, she hoped that maybe 15 people would show up.

“And then people just started piling in,” she said.

To Arsenault’s surprise, 37 diners drove to Scarborough to take advantage of the inn’s tweet-up specials – $5 mussel appetizers, $2 beers and $5 glasses of wine. Many were new to the inn, and some of them stayed on for dinner.

The Corner Room

Portland Food Heads has published a review of The Corner Room.

I really wanted to like The Corner Room – really, I did. And because this experience was so terribly awful, I may have to give the place one more shot at some point, just so that I can rest easy in the possibility that this meal was a fluke rather than a representation of the restaurant in general.