Category: Events

Maine Restaurant Week kicked off this week and runs through March 12.

Thursday – Fore Street, Street & Co, and Scales are re-opening after a long winter break, and Sugar High Donuts will be at Urban Farm Fermentory for a 2-day pop-up.

Saturday – Crispy Gai is participating the guest chef series at Ramona’s (continues on Sunday), Briana Holt from Tandem will be participating in the Small Axe guest chef series (menu) at East Ender (continues on Sunday), Ada’s is holding the first of a series of pop-ups (menu will go live today) in anticipation of fully re-opening later this year, and the Winter Farmers’ Market is taking place.

As part of Maine Restaurant Week, 11 Maine chefs and bakers are producing special coffee-based Crave desserts. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Preble Street. Visit the MRW website for a complete list of coffee desserts and participating restaurants and bakeries.

Ramona’s and A&C Grocery on Washington Ave are teaming up for a one day pop-up on March 13th.

The menu will include:

• Fried Chicken Hoagie – prosciutto and provolone stuffed peppers, artichoke mayo, arugula & hoagie dressing
• Broccoli Rabe Reuben – broccoli rabe, swiss, kraut, Ramona’s Very Special Sauce, rye bread (vegetarian)
• Hoagie Dip & Utz Chips – It’s chips & dip
• Macaroni Caesar Salad – romaine, radicchio, elbow noodles, pepperoncini, Caesar dressing, bread crumbs
• Bissell Brothers Beer

Joey Ramona’s will be taking place at A&C Grocery. A portion of the sales will benefit the Maine Music Alliance.

Tuesday – Eaux will be serving be serving a menu of po’boys, gumbo, cornbread and more at a Mardi Gras pop-up in Oxbow Alley. Chaval will be participating in the BBQ collaboration series at Terlingua.

Friday – Fred Eliot will be participating in the Small Axe guest chef series at East Ender (continues on Saturday).

Saturday – Terlingua is participating the guest chef series at Ramona’s (continues on Sunday), and the Winter Farmers’ Market is taking place.

March – The new pop-up series from Chaval called Con Todo will begin taking pre-orders on Monday March 1st, Fore Street, Street and Co, and Scales are re-opening after a long winter break on March 4th, as is Gather on March 10th.

Maine Restaurant Week is set to take place March 1 – 12. The Press Herald has published an article about how this annual event has adjusted to the pandemic and highlights some of the restaurants taking part in 2021.

Maine Restaurant Week organizer Gillian Britt, of gBritt PR, said the usual $495 participation fee for restaurants has been waived this year, with help from several sponsors. Maybe because that, there is a wider variety of eateries participating this year representing a wider geographic area, spreading a little more inland and little farther from Portland in all directions, Britt said, including Doolin’s Pub in Litchfield and Jonathan’s in Ogunquit.

For information on all the restaurants taking part visit the MRW website.

Chaval is launching a new takeout pop-up series called Con Todo (instagram). The pop-ups will be taking place every 3-4 weeks and each one will have a different  theme.

The first Con Todo will be taking place Monday March 1st and the concept is Chef’s Night Out in KTown. Chaval has been barrel fermenting kimchee for the last 2 months and they’re excited to use it in the upcoming Con Todo menu. Future ideas for pop-ups include a Quebec sugar house menu, and a Piccolo dinner.

Follow Con Todo on instagram to get alerted when pre-orders go live.

Sam Sifton will be the featured guest in a Press Herald Maine Voices Live event taking place April 6th. Register online to attend.

Sam Sifton is the assistant managing editor of The New York Times, overseeing culture and lifestyle coverage. He is the founding editor of NYT Cooking, writes a food column for The New York Times Magazine. While based in New York City, Sifton has spent time in Maine every year of his life. His love of the state and its food heritage frequently shows up in his popular NYT Cooking email newsletter.

Sifton was originally scheduled to speak on March 16th, 2020, but the event was postponed due to the pandemic.

Today is National Random Acts of Kindness Day, and in keeping with the spirit of that holiday, hospitality and marketing pro Jennifer Trebino Wyllie (instagram) is launching the Kindfulness Service Challenge.

Wyllie shared the definition of Kindfulness which is “the quality or state of being mindful of the people around you + bringing kindness to their day”.

For her program she’s challenging us all for the next 10 days to “consciously + purposely be kind to service workers. It costs nothing to be kind and I know that not only will service workers have better days, but everyone will feel happier + lighter and hopefully continue doing so. This is meant to be a habit breaking challenge that spreads kindness and love.”

For more information see the steps in the graphic shown here and view the program announcement on instagram.

Monday – it’s President’s Day.

Tuesday – Eaux will be serving be serving a menu of po’boys, gumbo, cornbread and more at a Mardi Gras pop-up in Oxbow Alley. (Rescheduled to February 23rd)

Friday – Atsuko Fujimoto from Norimoto Bakery will be participating in the Small Axe guest chef series at East Ender (continues on Saturday)

Saturday – Chris Lynch from Commander’s Palace in New Orleans is participating in the Ramona’s guest chef series (continues on Sunday).

Tuesday – Mr Tuna is the featured restaurant in the Terlingua guest chef series.

Thursday – Helm is opening for takeout.

Friday – Bao Bao is offering a regional dumpling menu in celebration of Chinese New Year, and Little Brother Chinese Food (instagram) will start taking orders for their new frozen dumpling business for pick-up starting on the 19th at Fork Food Lab.

Saturday – Judy Gibson is the featured restaurant in the Ramona’s guest chef series.

Sunday – It’s Valentine’s Day—see our list of V-Day specials. The Pink Waffle will be holding a pop-up at Figgy’s.