Category: Events

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.

Monday—The weekly Piatto per Tutti cooking class and Foodie Trivia Contest are taking place tonight.
Tuesday—Simply Divine Brownies is hosting a brownie tasting to celebrate their Grand Opening. Bar Lola is holding a wine dinner featuring wines from Portugal. A cooking class is taking place at SMCC.
Wednesday—The Monument Square Farmers’ Market takes places in the morning. In the evening, there’s a Slow Food Dinner at Cinque Terre with guest Douglas Gayeton, author of Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town. There’s also a cooking class taking place at Black Tie Bistro.
Thursday—Wine tastings are scheduled to take place at Leavitt & Sons and Kitchen and Cork. There will be a launch party for Shipyard Prelude at Portland Pie. Vignola is holding their 4th Annual Allagash Tasting Dinner, and Port Sports is organizing a Mead Crawl which will finish up at Novare Res to taste Maine Mead Works’ new Lavender Mead.
Friday—Rosemont Market on Congress Street is holding a wine tasting.
Saturday—The Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market takes places in the morning. In the afternoon Barbara Lynch, chef/owner of No. 9 Park and James Beard Award for Best Chef Northeast in 2003 will be at Rabelais for a book signing for her work Stir: Mixing it Up in the Italian Tradition.
For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

Meredith Goad visited The Merry Table to attend November’s French language night at the restaurant.

When I told my colleagues I was going to “French night,” it elicited the usual jokes about Pepe LePew and a lot of exaggerated French accents. That didn’t help my nerves, which were a bit rattled by the prospect of trying to have an actual conversation with someone with only three years of high school French to rely on.

Monday—The Food Film Series is screening the animated movie Ratatouille tonight with Rob Evans as the featured chef. Also tonight are the weekly Piatto per Tutti cooking class and Foodie Trivia Contest.
Tuesday—A cooking class taking place at SMCC.
Wednesday—The Monument Square Farmers’ Market takes places in the morning. In the afternoon, wine tastings are taking place at both RSVP and Old Port Wine Merchants.
Saturday—The Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market takes places in the morning. In the afternoon Novella Carpenter, urban farmer and author Farm City, will be at Rabelais for a book signing; local farmers and members of Cultivating Community will be presenting on “the unique challenges of farming in this city.”
Sunday—Hugo’s is holding their 9th Annual Potato Dinner.
For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

The Maine Brewer’s Festival is taking place today at the Portland Expo. 16 Maine brewers are taking part including small-scale Portland newcomer Maine Beer Co. The Portland Daily Sun published a piece earlier this week on the Festival:

Brothers David and Daniel Kleban’s tiny brewery is one of four new additions to this year’s event, and they have generated some buzz despite their size — or maybe because of it. They run a one-barrel system, borrow equipment when it comes time to unload supplies and occupy a space slightly beyond homebrewing on the route to the big time.

“I don’t know how much smaller you could possibly get,” said David Kleban. “We don’t even have a forklift, we just borrow one from the folks down the way.”

Here are a few additional events taking place this week that weren’t on the list published earlier today:

• Tuesday—Flatbread and Rippling Waters Farm are teaming up to raise money for a elementary school garden. Fo every pizza $3 goes to the project.
• Thursday—The Great Lost Bear weekly showcase is featuring beers from Unibroue.
• Friday—Devenish Wines is holding a wine tasting at the West End Deli.

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 the Foodie Trivia Contest are taking place this evening. As is the Full Moon Cask Beer Night at Sebago Brewing.
Tuesday—Bar Lola is holding a beer dinner featuring brews from Belgium and France, and there’s a Japanese cooking class taking place at SMCC.
Wednesday—The Monument Square Farmers’ Market takes places in the morning. I the evening, The Salt Exchange is running their weekly wine and canapes event, and Black Tie Bistro is holding a cooking class.
Friday—First Friday Art Walk is taking place. Restaurants tend to be very busy during FFAW so make your reservation early.
Saturday—The Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market takes places in the morning. The Maine Brewer’s Festival has sessions planned for both the afternoon and evening at the Portland Expo.
For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

The blog, I Love Portland Maine, has published an overview of Halloween-themed events for adults and children taking place this weekend.