Speed Rack

Five bartenders from Portland are competing in the Northeast regional Speed Rack competition:

  • Liz Smith from Lio
  • LyAnna Sanabria from Chaval
  • Sylvi Roy from Hunt & Alpine
  • Kristen Mixter from Hunt & Alpine
  • Charlotte Stanton from Little Giant
Speed Rack is a charity female bartending competition that raises money for breast cancer research. The winner in the Northeast will go on to keep in the national competition in NYC this May.
Tickets for the Northest regional competition taking place March 11 are available online.

Rabelais Books

Life & Thyme has published a profile of Rabelais Books and its owner Don Lindgren.

For Don Lindgren of Rabelais, an antiquarian bookshop in Biddeford, Maine, these culinary texts serve a purpose even more expansive than the preservation of recipes. Widely considered a leading buyer and seller of antiquarian cookbooks and culinary ephemera, his work consists not just in seeking out rare material, but in helping others understand the role those books played in the lives of both their individual owners and society at large.

Relocations: North Bayou & Ripka

A pair of food businesses originally founded elsewhere in New England have relocated to the Portland area:

  • North Bayou Cold Brew has moved from Burlington, Vermont and is now setting up at a location in the Pepperell Mill Campus in Biddeford. North Bayou’s bottled cold brew is for sale at the Little Woodfords coffee shop.
  • Ripka has relocated to Portland from Providence, Rhode Island. Owner Rebecca Volynsky hopes to eventually open her own hybrid Eastern European & Jewish eatery and gallery. In the meantime she’s hosting pop-ups with participating bakeries and restaurants including an upcoming pierogi pop-up at Rose Foods on March 31st.

Under Construction: Dean’s Sweets

Dean’s Sweets (website, facebook, instagram, twitter) is planning to open a second location at 54 Cove Street in East Bayside. The new location will provide additional production space and a retail shop. They hope to open the new location in late Spring.

54 Cove Street is adjacent to the building that will house Extrava and just around the corner from little Tandem.

Dean’s was founded 15 years ago by co-owners Dean and Kristin Bingham. Dean’s will continue to produce and sell their nut-free chocolates at 475 Fore Street as well.

This Week’s Events: MRW, Chopped, N To Tail, Hi Bar Brunch, TLK Reservations

MondayMaine Restaurant Week continues.

TuesdayElise Miller, a butcher at Rosemont, will be competing on Chopped at 9 pm.

Wednesday – the 1st floor of N To Tail will open. The downstairs space opened as a Korean BBQ and sake/soju bar in December. The final renovations are now complete and the first floor will serve a “unique Korean Fusion menu with popular dishes such as Bibimbap and Poke”.

Thursday – there will be a wine tasting at Maine & Loire.

FridayVignola is holding a wine dinner featuring wines from Corte alla Flora, and there will be a wine tasting at the Brighton Ave Rosemont.

SaturdayHi Bar Bakery  is holding a brunch pop-up at Fork Food Lab, and the Winter Farmers’ Market is taking place.

SundayThe Lost Kitchen will be announcing their method for accepting reservation requests for the 2019 season; check back here on Sunday and I’ll publish the details. Maine Restaurant Week is holding their (sold out) Spirit Quest event.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

Ten Ten Pié Closing

I’m sad to report that Ten Ten Pié has gone out of business. The news was announced on instagram with this message:

I regret to inform you that Ten Ten Pié is closing. 
You, customers and community, have made this such a wonderful and rewarding experience. I am grateful for your support these last 4 ½ years. 
I prepare for new projects and look forward to seeing you down the road.
Keep doing what you’re doing to help local food, local business, and local community flourish. 
Thank you for letting me be part of your journey.

Markos

Ten Ten opened on August 16, 2014 as a much loved bakery, cafe and neighborhood market. They’ve received some national press, especially during the last year.