Sweetgrass Winery Fire

| Posted in General News

The Penobscot Bay Pilot reports that a fire destroyed the Sweetgrass Winery & Distillery building in Union early this morning.

As first to arrive on scene, Union Fire Chief Jesse Thompson encountered a fully-involved structure fire and most of the building was already on the ground, he said. To him, this was an indication that the fire had been burning for a while prior to the 911 calls at approximately 2:05 a.m. Though the structure was referred to as a barn, a winery was in operation inside.

Sweetgrass (website, facebook, instagram) was founded in 2005. Owners Keith and Constance Bodine have also operated a tasting room in Boothby Square in the Old Port since 2014. Sweetgrass produces a wide range of products and are especially well know for their Back River Gin.

Upcoming Food and Dining Events

| Posted in Events

Tuesday – Graziano Nicosia will be at Old Port Wine Merchants for a tasting of wines from his family’s Sicilian vineyard Tenute Nicosia, 4 – 6 pm.

Friday-Sunday – The Common Ground Country Fair is taking place in Unity.

Sunday – Cherie will be holding a pop-up at Lambs in South Portland.

September 21-28 – Maine Lobster Week is taking place.

September 23 – Luncheonette is holding a (sold out) Korean dinner.

September 25 – Twelve is hold a Billecart-Salmon Champagne 4-course wine dinner. A part of Maine Lobster Week is the Lobster Roll Remix, a benefit for the Maine Lobstermen’s Relief Fund. It will on September 25th at Southern Maine Community College. Chefs from Chaval, Dok Mali, Douro, Great Wave Sushi, Little Pig, Portland Lobster Company, Sichuan Kitchen, Sicilian Table, Taj, and Terlingua/Ocotillo will each be serving their own creative take on the classic Maine lobster roll.

October 2 – Wayside Food Programs is holding their annual Inside Wayside event.

October 9 – A Maine Food Producer Social is taking place at the Maine Tasting Center in Wiscasset.

October 11 – A community cider pressing will take place at the Mount Joy Orchard.

October 12 – Maine Open Creamery Day is taking place.

October 14 – The Maine Farm & Sea to Institution Summit is taking place at Colby College.

November 1-9 – 207 Beer Week is taking place.

November 10-16 – Brunswick Wine Week is taking place.

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

Maine Food & Dining: Hampden, Bass Harbor, Rockland, Nobleboro, Bethel, Deer Isle, Old Town, Castine, Brunswick, Kittery, East Boothbay

| 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:

  • Marsh Island Kitchen (website, facebook, instagram) has launched in Hampden. The menu includes soups, salads, burgers, sandwiches, wings, poutine and entrees like fish and chips and ribeye steaks. Joe Robbins joined the team earlier this year as the executive chef for Marsh Island Kitchen. Robbins was a 2024 Beard Awards semifinalist in the Emerging Chef category, and has cooked at the White House Tribal Nations Summit in 2023 and 2024. This is the second Marsh Island Brewing location, they were founded in 2016 in Orono.
  • A breakfast food truck called Actual Foods (instagram)  launch yesterday in Bass Harbor on Mount Desert Island. Owner Steffy Amondi is serving a build-your-own menu from which customers choose the bread, protein, vegetables and sauce for a breakfast scramble. The menu also includes the egg dish shakshuka. Actual Foods is located next to the ferry terminal in Bass Harbor at 53 Granville Road, and is open Thursday through Sunday, 7 am – 1 pm. Amondi had operated a earlier iteration Actual Foods truck in in Portland in 2020.
  • A wine and cocktail bar called Lemon Bar (instagram) is under construction in Rockland. As reported by the Midcoast Villager, “[Co-owner] Carly Summers said Lemon Bar will be an intimate bar/lounge with an extensive focus on wines and cocktails. ‘The real focus will be a multi-faceted space where you can come for a date night, or a book club can meet,’ she said.” Lemon Bar will be located in the former Brass Compass Cafe at 305 Main Street. The space is under renovation and owners Carly and Wesley Summers hope to open for business this fall.
  • The Lincoln County News reports that a bakery called Savory Moose has (re)opened in Nobleboro. “Close to a year after they shuttered Ginger Mousse Bakery, Karen and John Kelly have reopened the business with a new name and some familiar favorites.”
  • Down East magazine has published an article about Watershed in Bethel. “Up the front steps and inside, the atmosphere is relaxed, the layout is snug, the pastas are house-made, and the chocolate pot de crème is served in vintage Italian espresso cups, quite a few of which have been in chef-owner Victoria Fimiani’s family for generations. What the place is, in essence, is a proper trattoria.”
  • The New York Times has included Sammy’s Deluxe in Rockland and Pilgrim’s Inn on Deer Isle in their 2025 Restaurant List of the “50 best places in America right now.”
  • The Bangor Daily News has word on Yahweh Cafe and Bakery which is set to open this Saturday in Old Town, and a report on the closure of Safe Harbor Cafe in Castine.
  • The Maine Sunday Telegram has published a 3½ star review of the Ram & Bull in Brunswick. “The menu includes classic pub fare like fish and chips, mussels, a variety of sandwiches and burgers — including a cheese-stuffed Juicy Lucy, in a nod to Khristine [Leeman]’s native Minnesota.”
  • New England Fishmongers has announced plans to close their shop in Kittery which opened in 2021. “We’ve made the tough choice to not renew our lease so that we can return to our roots, commercial fishing. This shift will give us more time on the water and allow us to bring you even more seafood directly from our vessel.”
  • Eating Through the Seacoast has provided a look at Color Field Coffee Company (instagram), a honor system self serve coffee shop in East Boothbay. Colorfield is a micro-roastery run by a “family of artists”.

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.

More NYT Love

| Posted in Reviews

The New York Times shared some Portland dining guidance as part of the launch of their 2025 Restaurant List. As part of that effort they published this guide to eating in Denver, San Diego, San Antonio, Minneapolis/St Paul, and Portland.

The Portland section highlights: Bite INto Maine, Bread & Friends, Franciska, LB Kitchen, Luke’s, Minato, Mr. Tuna, Ocotillo, Sur Lie, Tandem, The Shop, and Zu Bakery.

Watami Now Open in the Old Port

| Posted in Openings

Watami (website, facebook, instagram) has opened for business. They’re located in the former Sapporo location at 230 Commercial Street. This is the second location for the Brunswick-based Japanese restaurant.

Watami serves a menu of sushi, sashimi, rolls, poke, ramen, hibachi dishes and noodle and rice dishes. Shown above is the Daily Selection of Sushi, 8 pieces of sushi and a Maine crab roll.

Watami is open daily 11:30 am – 9 pm and until 9:30 on Fridays and Saturdays.

Jordan Rubin F&W Best New Chef

| Posted in People

Food & Wine has named Jordan Rubin to their 2025 class of Best New Chefs. Rubin is the chef and co-owner of Mr. Tuna which he launched as a food cart in 2017. The now fully realized Mr. Tuna restaurant opened for business on Middle Street in 2024.

Rubin is one of just ten Best New Chefs this year which Food & Wine identified as “the most dynamic and promising up-and-coming chefs in the country.” The article about Rubin and Mr Tuna reads in-part,

The food at the standalone incarnation of Mr. Tuna is delightful, impeccable, honest, and full of surprises. The emphasis is on Japanese-inspired sushi: elaborate, overflowing donburi rice bowls, gorgeous sashimi, and over a dozen types of hand rolls. Rubin also pulls from the global pantry, as in his ravishing Tuna de Tigre dish, a Peruvian- and Thai-inspired ceviche in which creamy avocado and ruby-red cubes of tuna get dressed in a sauce made from coconut, fish sauce, lime juice, and bird chiles, then topped with herbs and crispy shallots.

The article about Rubin also includes editor Raphael Brion’s recommendation for the “perfect order” at Mr Tuna which starts with the Skin N Dip and ends with Tuna Tasting.

Begun in 1988, the annual Best New Chef program highlights chefs from around the country. You can see a full list of prior honorees on the F&W website which include luminaries like Nancy Silverton (1990), Wylie Dufresne (2001) and David Chang (2006). Four Maine chefs have received this recognition in the past: Rob Evans (2004), Steve Corry (2007), Bowman Brown (2011) and Cara Stadler (2014).

NYT: Best Restaurant List

| Posted in Reviews

The New York Times has included Sammy’s Deluxe in Rockland and Pilgrim’s Inn on Deer Isle in their 2025 Restaurant List of the “50 best places in America right now.”

With regard to Sammy’s Deluxe  they wrote in-part (right photo),

The chef Sam Richman ditched the haute cuisine halls of Jean-Georges and the Fat Duck for Midcoast Maine, opening Sammy’s Deluxe with a clear mission: to celebrate the state’s pristine ingredients without any high-end fuss. Mr. Richman forages his own mushrooms, pickles local alewives (those overlooked fish from the herring family) and smokes his own haddock snacks, which you can order with a side of sweet homemade brown bread…

With regard to the Pilgrim’s Inn they wrote in-part (left photo),

…A lobster and fennel chowder, with diminutive hush puppies scattered throughout, made the culinary connection up the seaboard. Ruby-red tiles of Maine bluefin crudo hummed with salted radish and Aleppo pepper. And the roasted monkfish with clams and tomato broth had a bouillabaisse-goes-Down East notion to it. The menu in the cozy tavern room, including the unmissable grilled skewers of local eel, stays relatively constant.

The Times shared this about their perspective on list making.

What does it mean to be a “best restaurant”? And what to make of a list as wide-ranging as this one? Can a storefront barbecue spot in Kansas specializing in turkey legs sit next to a tiny jewel box of a restaurant with a tasting menu in the Bay Area? What about a sultry new Miami steakhouse and a rustic 135-year-old dining room on Deer Isle, Maine?

The answer is yes. And when you read the list, you’ll see why. These places all have delicious food and a mastery of craft, but also a generosity of spirit and a singular point of view.

This isn’t the first time Maine restaurants have appeared in the list. Cong Tu Bot was featured in 2021. Leeward and Twelve in 2022, Tinder Hearth in 2023 and The Alna Store in 2024.

Interview with Harding Lee Smith

| Posted in People

The latest episode of the Boulos Beats podcast features an interview with Harding Lee Smith, the founder of The Front Room, The Corner Room, The Grill Room, The Mountain Room at Sunday River, and The Last Run Room in Newry.

Chef Smith shares his remarkable journey, from his introduction to the restaurant industry at the age of seven to his formal training at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America. Together, they explore the vision, inspiration, and challenges behind Smith’s five celebrated establishments…The discussion also delves into the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, persistent staffing challenges, and the complexities of rising operational costs.

Upcoming Food and Dining Events

| Posted in Events

Monday – Wiggle Room—a collaboration with the excellent Boston cocktail bar The Wig Shop—will be taking place at Room for Improvement.

Friday – The Portland VFW is holding a bourbon tasting.

Saturday – The Portland Hotdog Safari is taking place at eight locations around town including Allagash, Crispy Gai, High Roller, Red Dog Express, King’s Head Pub, Bite Into Maine, and Thirsty Pig. Proceeds from the $10 Hotdog Safari scorecards will benefit The Locker Project.

Sunday – Hoot Owl BBQ is holding a pop-up at Barber Brothers in South Portland. The Tender Table Night Market is taking place in Congress Square Park. The Maine Cheese Festival is taking place in Pittsfield, and Portersfield Cider in Pownal is holding a pizza party in collaboration with Night Moves and the Maine Grain Alliance.

September 9 – Phil Rosenthal of Somebody Feed Phil fame will be speaking at Merrill Auditorium.

September 19-21 – The Common Ground Country Fair is taking place in Unity.

September 21-28 – Maine Lobster Week is taking place.

September 23 – Luncheonette is holding a (sold out) Korean dinner.

September 25 – Twelve is hold a Billecart-Salmon Champagne 4-course wine dinner. A part of Maine Lobster Week is the Lobster Roll Remix, a benefit for the Maine Lobstermen’s Relief Fund. It will on September 25th at Southern Maine Community College. Chefs from Chaval, Dok Mali, Douro, Great Wave Sushi, Little Pig, Portland Lobster Company, Sichuan Kitchen, Sicilian Table, Taj, and Terlingua/Ocotillo will each be serving their own creative take on the classic Maine lobster roll.

October 2 – Wayside Food Programs is holding their annual Inside Wayside event.

October 12 – Maine Open Creamery Day is taking place.

October 14 – The Maine Farm & Sea to Institution Summit is taking place at Colby College.

November 1-9 – 207 Beer Week is taking place.

November 10-16 – Brunswick Wine Week is taking place.

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

Fork Food Lab

| Posted in Profiles

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes an article about Fork Food Lab, which highlights on several of the nonprofit business incubator’s members. Fork operates a 30,000 sq ft commercial kitchen in South Portland used by ~80 companies.

On any given day, you’ll find Fork Food Lab members at their kitchen stations baking hoagie rolls, simmering jams, prepping pork bellies or packaging spreads for sale at local farmers markets. Members run the gamut from food trucks and carts, packaged foods businesses and prepared meal shops to catering companies and private chefs.

“There’s really nothing quite like this in Northern New England,” said Corinne Tompkins, the facility’s deputy executive director. “Nobody’s doing under one roof what we’re doing to this scale and scope.”