Category: Events

Monday—The weekly Piatto per Tutti cooking class and Foodie Trivia Contest are taking place tonight.

Tuesday—is the start of Maine Shrimp Season.

Wednesday—Black Tie Bistro is holding a cooking class.

Friday—First Friday Art Walk is taking place, and there will be an art exhibit and information session at the Meg Perry Center  by the co-owners of Local Sprouts.  West End Grocery is holding their monthly wine tasting.

Saturday—A wine tasting is taking place at Leroux Kitchen.

Sunday—culinary superstar David Chang from Momofuku will be at Rabelais for a book signing. Sweet Marguerites will be at an opening at the Toby Rosenberg Gallery for a chocolate tasting.

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

Monday—The weekly Piatto per Tutti cooking class and Foodie Trivia Contest are taking place tonight.
Wednesday—The Monument Square Farmers’ Market takes places in the morning. Brewer Rob Todd will be at The Great Lost Bear for their annual Allagash Showcase which takes place each year on the night before Thanksgiving. They plan on serving a “huge line-up of Allagash rarities cask conditioned and Allagash White”.
Thursday—Several restaurants are holding special Thanksgiving Day dinners: Black Point Inn, Eastland Park Hotel, Eves at the Garden, Sea Glass Restaurant, Twenty Milk Street and Verillo’s. North Star is hosting a potluck dinner.
Sunday—A cookie swap and book signing with Julia Usher author of Cookie Swap: Creative Treats to Share Throughout the Year is scheduled at Rabelais Books. Bring a couple dozen cookies to swap and trade with others.

PortlandTown finished up his week of food event photography with a nice set of shots from yesterday’s wine tasting at Rosemont Market on Congress Street.

There have been two last minute additions to the weekend food event calendar that I wanted to let you know about:

• On Saturday the Rainbow United Methodist Church at 618 Washington Ave is holding a fair that will include homemade Korean food.
• Leroux Kitchen has gotten the green light to restart their wine tastings and will be holding one on Sunday 1-3. Next month they’ll be returning to their normal schedule of the first Saturday of each month.

For more information visit the event calendar.

For Day 4 of his photographic tour of the week’s food events, PortlandTown went to Vignola for the 4th Annual Allagash Beer Dinner.

Day 3 of PortlandTown’s photographic tour of this week’s food events took him to Cinque Terre for the Slow Food Dinner.

The whole concept of “Slow Food’s” could be another post, but let’s say it’s a cousin to the 30 Mile Meal idea to eat local, eat fresh, know your food. Much of the food tonight was grown local and prepared on the premise. The meal was part of a national promotion of “Slow Food” farm to table movement at 6 to 8 premier restaurants around the country.

PortlandTown has continued his photographic walking tour through this week’s calendar of food events with a stop at the Simply Divine Brownies grand opening followed by a visit to Bar Lola for their Portuguese wine dinner.

Taking this week’s busy schedule of food events as a challenge, PortlandTown is trying to “do as many as I can or at least one every day” and is reporting on the experience. The first post in the series is on last night’s Piatto per Tutti cooking class and includes a number of photos of the Lanzalotta-led class cooking crepe-style cannelloni and olive oil brownies.

Some restaurants do stay open on Thanksgiving. Here’s the ones I know about so far:

• Black Point Inn, noon – 4 pm, $70 for adults, $35 for children
• Eastland Park Hotel, $26 for adults, $22, for seniors, $13 for children
• Eves at the Garden, $38 for adults, $19 for children
• North Star Music Cafe is holding a Thanksgiving potluck
• Sea Glass Restaurant at the Inn by the Sea, 12:30 – 4:30, $65 for adults, $20 for children
• Twenty Milk Street at the Regency
• Verrillo’s, $16.95 for adults, $12.95 for seniors, $7.95 for children

There are also several vendors are selling pies, cakes and even entire meals to take home:

• Aurora Provisions is selling a full dinner for two, $68
• Aunt Dee’s is selling apple, pumpkin, squash and pecan pies
• Cakes Extraordinaire, is offering a free pumpkin pie with every pie purchase
• Rosemont Market, pre-order your locally raise turkey by Nov 20, they’re also selling pies, rolls, quick breads, cranberry sauce, a stuffing mix, gravy, herb butters, etc.
• Leavitt and Sons is “offering side dish catering (everything but the bird)”
• Standard Baking on Commercial Street, Scratch Baking in South Portland, and many of the other bakeries in the area are good sources for pies, breads, etc. They probably produce some holiday themed options in addition to their usual offerings.
• Black Tie Bistro is “offering everything from fully stuffed and cooked birds, to all the side dishes and trimmings. Desserts from bread puddings to classic pies, everything from scratch and available to pick up.”

UPDATE: The Press Herald has also published a list of sources for Thanksgiving, pies, side dishes, etc and it includes a number of options not already listed above as well as additional details on the ones that are.
Is there a local restaurant, market or bakery that’s missing? Post  a comment and I’ll add them to the list.