Month: July 2021

Cong Tu Bot Reopening

| Posted in Openings

Cong Tu Bot (website, instagram) will be reopening this summer as a counter service daytime cafe serving breakfast and lunch.

Co-owner and chef Vien Dobui shared that some perennial favorites such as the phở gà and bún chả will carrying over but that most of the menu will be entirely new dishes. The breakfast menu is expected to include phở, congee, fried rice, house made coconut yogurt, bánh tiêu (semi-sweet hollow fry bread) and baked goods. CTB will add lunch hours a few weeks after launching with their breakfast service. The lunch menu is still under development but will definitely include the bún chả.

As part of the relaunch, Cong Tu Bot will be switching over from Parlor to serve Portrait Coffee (website, instagram). The coffee service will be influenced by menus from Vietnamese and Chinese bakeries, Hong Kong cafes, and boba shops. In addition to cà phê sữa đá Vietnamese coffee CTB will be serving they’ll also have an iced coffee topped with kinako cold foam made with their own soy milk. Other coffee and tea items are under development.

Cong Tu Bot has managed to keep many of their pre-pandemic staff on the team which will be a point of continuity. Dobui shared that “[w]ith everything we’ve survived this year it feels very significant to acknowledge that we’re still together.”

The current renovations to the space on Washington Ave have been to create additional kitchen prep space. The reduced indoor seating area will be offset by the addition of an outdoor seating on a covered patio. A decision on when CTB will open for indoor seating will be made as the public health impacts of the delta variant become more clear.

Cong Tu Bot is expected to reopen in mid/late August.

KitNA Brewing

| Posted in Under Construction, Beer

A new brewery producing nonalcoholic beer is under construction in West Bayside. KitNA Brewing (website, instagram) will be Maine’s first brewery dedicated to making nonalcoholic beer. KitNA is a collaboration between Rob Barrett, the owner Barrett Made, and Will Fisher, the cofounder of Austin Street Brewing.

According the press release,

[Barrett and Fisher] aim to provide a premium, high-quality alternative to alcoholic beer, with the goal to master a product that satisfies the discerning palate of beer drinkers and beyond. The duo brought on local experienced brewers, Adrian Beck-Oliver and Simon Burhoe to join KITna as Co-Head Brewers. The two have been working day in and day out to create the brewery’s core beer lineup while simultaneously launching the production side of the brewery. Headquartered in an old workshop-turned-brewery in Barrett’s West Bayside building, KITna will announce the name of its first beer in the coming weeks. All of their offerings will deliver on the founding intent to bring the quality, consistency, and integrity of craft beer without the alcohol.

Their first beers are expected to be available later this year.

A&C Grocery Crowdfunding

| Posted in Under Construction

A&C Grocery has launch a $25k crowdfunding campaign to help with the expense of moving to their new location on Congress Street.

My vision for A&C has always been a community-based, swashbuckling-owned, neighborhood joint that would benefit the coterie of locals. While the Top of Fox is bustling and profitable, it cannot fund the opening of a new location with it’s current cash flow alone. I am currently paying rent for PART II and there are still permitting and build-out costs I still have yet to tackle. I couldn’t have done Top of Fox without you guys, and again, I can’t do PART II without you either.

Visit their Go Fund Me page to make a contribution.

Little Woodfords & BenReuben’s

| Posted in People, Profiles

BenReuben’s Knishery was recently featured in an article published by Beyondish,

Graeme shucked oysters at Big Tree Hospitality’s Eventide Oyster Bar in Portland and eventually became the chef de cuisine there and later the purchasing and distribution manager. Caitlin worked in the front of house and became the company’s HR director in 2016. Though they were surrounded by shellfish, the couple always dreamed of opening a Jewish deli.

Little Woodfords was featured in an article in Salon,

Little Woodfords opens everyday at 7 a.m. and closes at 3 or 4 in the afternoon. They don’t serve alcohol, but, as Zarro puts it, customers can have all the caffeine and housemade ice cream sandwiches they want. “When people think of gay spaces or queer spaces, they immediately think of a nightclub or bar — maybe a little hole in the wall,” he said. “They don’t necessarily think a bright coffee shop, but we’re happy to change that.”

Wayside Tavern Now Open

| Posted in Openings

The Wayside Tavern (website, instagram, reservations) opened for business on Friday night. Wayside is located in Parkside in the former Flood’s space at The Francis hotel.

The menu includes a variety of small plates such as country pate, fried sunchokes and chicory salad, and larger plates such as a dry-aged rib steak, Bangs Island mussels and roast chicken. The drinks menu include a variety of wines by the glass, classic cocktails and draft beer and cider.

Wayside is being launched by the founders of Roll Call, Michael and Siobhán Sindoni.  Prior to moving to Maine, Michael was the executive chef of the Joule Hotel and opened the restaurant CBD Provisions in Dallas. Siobhán was the sommelier/manager at FT33 in Dallas. They also worked together for Makeready as culinary director and service/wine director. Their most recent Makeready opening was Frannie & the Fox in Hotel Emeline in Charleston.

Neapolitan Pizza Food Truck

| Posted in Under Construction

A new food truck called Quanto Basta (website, instagram) is expected to launch in the next few weeks. Owner Elizabeth English plans to serve a rotating menu of four to five Neapolitan pizzas as well as Italian pastries and provisions.

English has lived and cooked in Rome at the Rome Sustainable Food Project and in the Campania region. She’s also worked as a baker in Chicago and Portland. Recently, she headed up the prepared foods and baked goods at The Cheese Shop on Washington Ave.

Quanto Basta will be operating out of a retrofitted vintage 1959 Morris Minor Van. English plans to regularly be at the Eastern Prom, as well as various other locations around town.