Category: Events

Vegan Thanksgiving

| Posted in Events

The Press Herald reports that both Sea Glass and Union are offering plant-based options on their Thanksgiving menus.

Many hotels in Maine serve special Thanksgiving meals, but in the past vegan offerings have been limited to side dishes. While a few hotels offer vegetarian entrees on Thanksgiving, the addition of vegan ones to at least two hotel menus is a milestone in Maine’s ongoing embrace of plant-based cuisine.

See our Thanksgiving Resource Guide for a growing list of local restaurants open on Thanksgiving.

This Week’s Events: Portland Beer Week, SMCC, Goodfire Brewing, Tuna Debunked

| Posted in Events, Openings

Monday – Portland Beer Week continues through Sunday. Visit the PBW site for the full schedule and see the our Beer Week highlights list.

Wednesday – Hugo’s is holding a beer dinner with Allagash, the SMCC Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management programs are holding A Light on the Point, and the Monument Square Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Thursday – The Thirsty Pig is hosting the Goodfire Brewing launch party, DiMillo’s is holding benefit dinner for Full Plates Full Potential, and there will be a lectures at GMRI entitled Tuna, Debunked: Myths and Misconceptions.

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

Saturday – there will be a wine tasting at LeRoux Kitchen, 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.

Thanksgiving Resource Guide

| Posted in Events

Thanksgiving is just a few short weeks away. I’m assembling a list of Thanksgiving dinners and local resources for home cooks and related events.

Here’s what’s surfaced so far. I’ll be expanding the list over the next few weeks:

  • Eat Out
    • BlueFin is serving a buffet, $49 per person, ages 6-12 $25 and children under 6 are free.
    • Bolster Snow is serving a 3-course dinner for $60 per person, 11 – 3.
    • Congress Squared, 3-course.
    • Five Fifty-Five, 4-course dinner for $88 per person, there’s also a 3-course children’s dinner for $35 per person, 12:20-8:30.
    • Harraseeket Inn is serving their Thanksgiving Grand Buffet.
    • Saltwater Grille is serving a Thanksgiving buffet 11:30 – 5, $55 per person, $20 for children 12 and under.
    • Sea Glass is serving their Thanksgiving Grand Buffet, $66 per adult, $24 per child, 12-7.
    • Tempo Dulu, 5 courses, $85 per person with optional wine and cocktail pairings for $55 or $59, 1 – 7.
    • Timber, 4-course dinner, $49 per person, 12 – 8.
    • Twenty Milk Street is serving a Thanksgiving dinner, 12 – 7.
    • Union is serving a 3-course meal for $55 per person with a children’s menu for $16.
    • Zackery’s is serving a Thanksgiving buffet, $32 per adult, $28 for seniors, children under 10 pay their age, 11 – 2.
  • Community Dinner
    • The Wayside Food Programs will hold a community dinner on Thanksgiving at the Portland Club, 11:30 – 1.
  • Eat at Home
  • Make a Donation

Portland Beer Week

| Posted in Events, Beer

Portland Beer Week kicks-off on Sunday. The full schedule more than 50 tap takeovers, lectures, beer dinners, and tours.

It would be close to impossible to get to them all so I’ve made a short list of the ones I’m most interested in getting to:

  • Blind IPA Tasting on Sunday at The Thirsty Pig
  • Early History of Maine Beer Lecture on Monday at The Great Lost Bear
  • Silence of the Lambics on Tuesday at Novare Res
  • Cookie and Beer Pairing on Wednesday at The Thirsty Pig
  • Allagash Mystery Beer Night on Tursday at The Great Lost Bear
  • Goodfire Brewing Launch on Thursday at The Thirsty Pig
  • Oxbozakaya on Thursday at Pai Men
  • Austin Street Beer Dinner on Thursday at Terlingua
  • From There to Here on Friday at Slab
  • Where the Wild Biers are on Saturday at Novare Res
  • Zymurgy Home Brew Tour on Sunday with the Maine Brew Bus
  • Freshman Orientation on Sunday at Bayside Bowl

This Week’s Events: Food Stories, Nonesuch River, Portland Beer Week, In Search of Israeli Cuisine

| Posted in Events

Monday – Meghan and Phil Gaven from The Honey Exchange will be interviewed on WMPG’s Food Stories radio program.

Wednesday – Browne Trading is hold a wine tasting, and the Monument Square Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Thursday – there will be a cider tasting at the Public Market House, and The Great Lost Bear will be showcasing Nonesuch River Brewing.

Friday – there will be a wine tasting at the Rosemont on Brighton.

Saturday – the Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Sunday – it’s the first day of Portland Beer Week, you can review the full schedule on portlandbeerweek.org. There will be a screening of In Search of Isreali Cuisine at the Jewish Community Center.

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, please provide details as a comment to this post.

This Week’s Events: Bring Back Breakfast, Austin St Beer Dinner, Parlor Ice Creamatorium, Rhone Dinner

| Posted in Events

Wednesday – Mast Landing is releasing their collaboration with Battery Steele called Bring Back Breakfast, and the Monument Square Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Thursday – Local 188 is serving a 5-course Austin Street beer dinner., The Great Lost Bear is showcasing beer from Gritty’s, and Petite Jacqueline is holding a 3-course Rhone wine dinner.

Friday – Fork Food Lab is hosting the Parlor Ice Creamatorium, a Halloween event with “spooky scoops, booozy shakes + other frightful delights”, and Aurora Provisions is holding a Halloween party and ribbon cutting to mark the change in ownership that took place this summer. The Halloween Party starts at 3:30 pm and the ribbon cutting takes place at 4:45.

Saturday – 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, please provide details as a comment to this post.

This Week’s Events: Harvest on the Harbor, Wine and Beer Dinners, Brand Events, Fighting Hunger

| Posted in Events

Monday – the Maine Gleaning Network is holding an event at the Public Library, and Sur Lie is hosting an Allagash beer dinner.

Tuesday – It’s the first day of Harvest on the Harbor, the USBG is holding a Diplimatico Rum lunch and learn at Sonny’s and later in the day there will be a Diplimatico happy hour at Rhum with US brand ambassador for Diplimatico, Manny Pena.

Wednesday – the Maine Food Means Business conference is taking place in Freeport, there will be a lecture and training on Closing Maine’s Hunger Gap, winemaker Danilo Marcucci from Della Staffa will be at Maine & Loire for a tasting, Piccolo is serving a 5-course Umbrian wine dinner, the US brand ambassador will be at Hunt & Alpine for a Brennivin US Brand Ambassador happy hour, there will be a wine tasting at Old Port Wine Merchants, and the Monument Square Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Thursday – Vinland is serving a 4-course wine dinner with special guest winemaker Andrej Razumovsky.

Friday – Rosemont is holding a wine tasting on Munjoy Hill.

Saturday – Oxbow’s Goods from the Woods is taking place in Newcastle, Maine Craft Distilling is holding a Farm to Flask celebration, and the Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Sunday – the 2nd Annual Feast of the Flying Pig is taking place and Lincolns is hosting a Symphony & Spirits event for the Portland Symphony Orchestra.

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, please provide details as a comment to this post.

Harvest on the Harbor

| Posted in Events

The 10th Harvest on the Harbor kicks off next week with a full schedule of events that runs Tuesday through Sunday:

Sustainable Suppers – a set of dinners held at Five Fifty-Five, Inn by the Sea, Little Giant, Union, and Woodford F&B on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Flavors of Maine – a tasting event featuring a dozen main chefs along with beer, wine and cocktail samples

Maine Lobster Chef of the Year – a competition among 10 Maine chefs for the title of Lobster Chef of the Year.

Harvest Happy Hour – 15 Maine craft distillers will be serving samples and cocktails made with their spirits

Market on the Harbor – a tasting event featuring food from Maine shops and food producers

Harvest Crawl – self-guided tasting tour of food and drink spots in Portland

Look & See @ Space Gallery

| Posted in Events, Farming

SPACE Gallery is screening the movie Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry.

In 1965, Wendell Berry returned home to Henry County, where he bought a small farm house and began a life of farming, writing and teaching. This lifelong relationship with the land and community would come to form the core of his prolific writings. A half century later Henry County, like many rural communities across America, has become a place of quiet ideological struggle. In the span of a generation, the agrarian virtues of simplicity, land stewardship, sustainable farming, local economies and rootedness to place have been replaced by a capital-intensive model of industrial agriculture characterized by machine labor, chemical fertilizers, soil erosion and debt – all of which have frayed the fabric of rural communities. Writing from a long wooden desk beneath a forty-paned window, Berry has watched this struggle unfold, becoming one of its most passionate and eloquent voices in defense of agrarian life.

Look & See will be screened Thursday night at 7pm and on Sunday at 4pm. Tickets are available online.

The movie is presented in collaboration with the Maine Farmland Trust.