Category: Events

The Boston Globe has published an article about this year’s upcoming Portland Wine Week (June 17 – 23).

Restaurants, bars, and shops all over town will present a multitude of offerings, from the budget-friendly to the splurge-worthy. Sip a gently priced glass of bubbly alongside freshly shucked oysters at a shellfish market, or learn to craft your own spritzer at a stylish cocktail lounge. In the evening, drop by a restaurant you’ve been wanting to try, and get acquainted with a winemaker over a prix fixe repast. The next morning, hop aboard a sailboat and enjoy a scenic brunch on Casco Bay. Tickets to events are sold a la carte, so it’s a snap to customize your own adventure.

Monday – Seaweed Week continues with restaurants across the city participating by having seaweed based dishes and drinks on their menu. See the Seaweed Week website for a list of participating venues in Portland and across the state.

Tuesday – Solo Italiano is holding a Pasta with Paolo pasta making class.

Wednesday – the 1st Monument Square Farmers’ Market of the year is taking place, there will be a Greek wine tasting at Old Port Wine Merchants, and Jake Parrot will be at Little Giant for a Haus Alpenz cocktail and wine dinner.

Thursday – Jake Parrot will be at Maine & Loire for a Haus Alpenz wine tasting, and the Great Lost Bear will be featuring beer from Banded Horn.

Friday – there will be a wine tasting at the West End Rosemont.

Saturday – Devenish Wines and Belleville are teaming up on a sparking wine pizza night, and the Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market is taking place.

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.

This weekend (Friday – Sunday) the Maine Oyster Company on Portland Street will be holding Spring Slurpfest 2019.

The oyster festival will include, “Free oyster schwag from growers,  daily prize giveaways including private farm tours, club memberships & oysters, free shucking demonstrations, speciality oyster dishes” and on Sunday they’ll be holding the first of four Slurp Madness (an oyster eating contest) qualifying events.

 

Monday – Chaval is featuring ciders from ANXO and serving some additional menu items to pair with them.

Tuesday – Chefs Matt Ginn and Christian Hayes will be at One Longfellow Square for an onstage MaineVoices conversation,  and Chaval is featuring wines from Greek winemaker 14/27 and serving some additional menu to pair with them.

Thursday – Mary Ann Esposito will be at Solo Italiano for a wine dinner, GMRI is holding their annual Seafood Celebration, and the 33rd Annual Chocolate Lover’s Fling is taking place.

Friday – Seaweed Week kick’s off, and there will be a wine tasting at the West End Rosemont.

Saturday – the 1st Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market of the year is taking place, Allagash is releasing their Coolship la Mûre, and both Blue Lobster Wines and Eighteen Twenty Wines are opening in their new digs on Anderson Street (they swapped spaces).

A Look Ahead – here are a couple events happening a little further out that you may want to check out.

• • Nine Maine restaurants are collaborating with Winebow/Leonardo Locasio Selections to hold Italian wine dinners on May 8th: Enoteca Athena, Evo Kitchn + Bar, Inn by the Sea, Lolita, Paciarino, Solo Italiano, Tipo, Union, Varano’s.
  • Hop Culture is holding their Juicy Brews Craft Beer Festival to Mast Landing Brewing Company in Westbrook on June 29th.

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.

Monday – Piccolo is hosting a Ripka pop-up dinner (menu).

Wednesday – there will be wine tastings at RSVP and the Old Port Wine Merchants, and a Kate McCarty (aka The Blueberry Files) is teaching a Pickling Workshop at UFF.

Thursday – The Great Lost Bear will be showcasing beer from Bunker Brewing.

Friday – future Biddeford cocktail bar Magnus on Water will be collaborating with LB Kitchen on a pop-up dinner, and there will be a wine tasting at the East End Rosemont.

Saturday – the Winter Farmers’ Market is taking place.

A Look Ahead – here are a couple events happening a little further out that you may want to check out.

• • Chaval will be serving a special menu and featuring ANXO Ciders on April 22nd.
  • Seaweed Week is taking place April 26 – May 4. You can see a full list of restaurants planning to add seaweed-based dishes to the menu on seaweedweek.org.

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.

Nine (9!) Italian wine dinners are taking place in Portland and elsewhere in Maine on May 8th. Participating restaurants are:

• Enoteca Athena, Brunswick
• Evo Kitchn + Bar
• Inn by the Sea, Cape Elizabeth
• Lolita
• Paciarino
• Solo Italiano
• Tipo
• Union
• Varano’s, Wells

Collectively, 43 wines from 23 different wineries will be served. They’re all imported by Leonardo Locasio Selections/Winebow.

For more details consults the individual restaurants.

Rose Foods is launching a guest chef program later this month. Each week a guest chef will create a signature bagel sandwich that will be featured on the menu Friday – Sunday. Here’s the schedule:

• April 26 – 28, Mr. Tuna
• May 3 – 5, Eventide
• May 10 – 12, Drifters Wife
• May 17 – 19, Meat Hook (a butcher shop from Brooklyn)
• May 24 – 26, The Honey Paw
• May 31 – June 2, Duckfat
• June 7 – 9, Noble BBQ
• June 14 – 16, Cong Tu Bot
• June 21 – 23, Little Giant

Monday – Good Wine for a Good Cause, a wine tasting event that raises money for the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland, is taking place at Grace.

Tuesday – the April Hush Hush event is taking place at Giant.

Wednesday – Woodford F&B is holding a launch party for Allagash Darling Ruby.

Friday – there will be a wine tasting at the Brighton Ave Rosemont and Vermont wine/cide maker Deirdre Heekin from La Garagista will be at Maine & Loire for a wine tasting, Oxbow Brewing is hosting Bully Boy Distilling for an event to launch their amaro, and a Graze Dinner is taking place.

Saturday – Lone Pine is opening their Gorham tasting room, a Titanic-themed dinner is taking place at the Cumberland Club, as is the Winter Farmers’ Market.

Sunday – there will be a Selections de la Vina tasting at Maine & Loire, and Bow Street is holding their monthly Sunday Wine Seminar.

A Look Ahead – here are a couple events happening a little further out that you may want to check out.

• • Ripka is holding a pop-up dinner at Piccolo “a night filled with vodka, “zakuski” to share, pierogis, “golubtsi” (stuffed cabbage) & more” on April 15th, 5-10pm.
  • Chefs Matt Ginn and Christian Hayes will be guest speakers at a MaineVoices event taking place on April 23rd at One Longfellow Square.

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.

Monday – Belleville is hosting a sold out Mexican pop-up dinner being produced by Turamali.

Thursday – Fred Eliot from Scales will be the guest chef for a sold out French wine dinner at Hugo’s, and The Great Lost Bear is showcasing beer from Maine Beer Company.

Friday – the Bier Cellar is holding a Cushnoc Brewing beer tasting.

Saturday – the Winter Farmers’ Market is taking place.

A Look Ahead – here are a couple events happening a little further out that you may want to check out.

• The Portland Wine Week Grand Opening Dinner is taking place June 17th. The dinner will feature “5 outstanding Maine Chefs and 10 Greater Portland Sommeliers who all happen to be women”. The 5-course dinner will take place on the greens of the Falmouth Country Club.
• Mary Ann Esposito will be the guest of honor for a 5-course dinner at Solo Italiano. The ticket includes a signed copy of her latest book Ciao Italia: My Lifelong Food Adventures in Italy.

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.

Acclaimed Maine author, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, will be teaching a food writing workshop this summer in Rockport, June 23-29.

Want to be a food writer but don’t know how to start? Already a food writer but feeling stumped or uninspired? Whether a beginner or experienced writer, you’ll explore every aspect of writing food, from recipes to restaurant reviews, from profiles to feature articles, from food memoir to food history to the issues that make food a compelling read in today’s news. Read, write and share thoughts about what makes the best food writing, what makes it salable, how to pitch a story, how to craft a cookbook, or just how and where to begin.

Join award-winning cookbook author and food journalist Nancy Harmon Jenkins and several of her peers including Brian Kevin, editor of “Down East” Magazine, and Edward Behr, editor and publisher of the online publication, “The Art of Eating”. Together, we’ll break apart the complex world of food writing and see what makes it work when it does—and also when it doesn’t.