Category: Events

Wednesday — the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — it’s Thanksgiving, see the PFM Thanksgiving Resource Guide for a list of restaurants that will be open. The Wayside Food Programs will be serving a free dinner (11am – 1pm) at the Portland Club on State Street.

Friday — it’s the release day for Allagash Midnight Bret and for Rising Tide Hesperus.

Saturday — the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

Sunday — Petite Jacqueline is holding their next movie night.

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.

As usual a number of Portland area restaurants plan on serving a Thanksgiving dinner. Here are the ones I know about so far. I’ll update the list as more info comes in:

• Eves at the Garden, noon, $45 for adults
• Five Fifty-Five, 1 – 7:30, 4-course dinner, $75; wine pairings and children’s menus available
• Harraseeket Inn, noon – 4:30, $60 for adults, $30 for children
• Holiday Inn by the Bay, 11 – 1, buffet, $28 for adults and $13.50 for children
• Rosie’s, serves Thanksgiving dinner
• Sable Oaks Marriott, $30, buffet
  
• Saltwater Grille, buffet, 11 – 4, $36.99 for adults, $12.99 for children
• Sea Glass Restaurant at the Inn by the Sea, 11 – 9, 3-course, $62 per person
• Season’s Grille, 11 – 4, $25.95 for adults, $22.95 for seniors, $12.95 for children
  
• The North Point, 2-midnight, $35
• Twenty Milk Street
  
• Zackery’s, noon – 4, buffet, $24 for adults, $18 for children

For those of you hosting your own meal at home:

• The Blueberry Files has published her annual turkey buying guide complete with per pound pricing and additional details on turkeys from 10 different farms and stores.
• You can pre-order your free-range turkeys from Aurora Provisions or Rosemont Market. Between the two of them you can source also the pies, rolls, quick breads, side dishes and just about other item you might need for your Thanksgiving dinner.
• Or you can also get turkeys direct from the farm from Frith Farm or Wolfe’s Neck Farm.
• Standard Baking, Scratch Baking, Maine Pie Line, Two Fat Cats, Foley’s and many of the other bakeries in the area are good sources for pies, breads, etc.
• Portland Magazine and The Root have published an article on locally sourcing Thanksgiving dinner ingredients.
• Learn how to put together a holiday cheese plate from Certified Cheese Professional Shannon Tallman.

Community Dinners & Donations:

• The Wayside Food Programs is serving a free Thanksgiving community dinner to an estimated 400+ people.
• To help fight hunger across the state and all year round, make a donation to the Good Shepherd Food Bank.

Inspiration:

• Listen to this interview with authors David Buchanan, Sandy Oliver and Michael Sanders about the traditions of Thanksgiving Dinner.

Is there a local restaurant, market, bakery, or Thanksgiving event that’s missing? Post a comment with the info and I’ll add them to the list.

Monday —MPBN’s Jennifer Rooks will be interviewing Sam Hayward, Kathy Gunst and Amanda Beal about Maine’s farm-to-table movement.

Tuesday — the monthly local food networking breakfast is taking place at Local Sprouts, and an Oxbow tap takeover and izakaya menu, dubbed Oxbozakaya, is taking place at Pai Men.

Wednesday — Five Fifty-Five is serving a 4-course seafood dinner in collaboration with GMRI, there will be an open house in East Bayside for Bomb Diggity Bakery, Pure Pops, Maine Pie Line, and Swallowtail Farm and the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — Josh Christie, author of Maine Beer: Brewing in Vacationland will be delivering a lecture at the Maine Historical Society on the history of Maine’s post-Prohibition brewing industry, Rosemont and Tandem are collaborating on the 4th in their tasting series, MJ’s is having a Beaujolais Nouveau release party, and there will bee a wine and cheese tasting at the Public Market House.

Friday — Jason C. Anthony, author of Hoosh: Roast Penguin, Scurvy Day, and Other Stories of Antarctic Cuisine, will be giving a lecture at the Portland Public Library.

Saturday — the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

Sunday — the American Sommelier foundation series will be featuring wines from the southern hemisphere, and Petite Jacqueline will be holding a Beaujolais Nouveau wine dinner.

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.

Chef Shannon Bard is scheduled to serve a dinner at the James Beard House in January, according to a report from, Maine a la Carte.

“I’m planning on doing a Mexico meets Maine (theme),” she said. “I want to feature a lot of Maine products in it.”

Tom Bard will be in charge of the wine pairings. Tequila sommelier Sergio Ramos, who is the managing partner in the couple’s two restaurants, will create a tequila cocktail to start off the meal, and one of the courses will feature a tequila pairing as well.

“It’s a great honor to do it,” Bard said. “To even get invited is fantastic. I never thought that would ever happen. I’m very excited.”

For more information see this press release and this article by the Bangor Daily News.

Tuesday — Bar Lola is holding a Spanish wine dinner. It’s their last one before closing at the end of the week to refocus their energy on a new project.

Wednesday — the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — the Bier Cellar is holding a tasting with the Bantam Cider Company.

Saturday — Bardic Brews is teaching a mead making workshop at The Honey Exchange, Browne Trading is holding a wine tasting, and the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

Ice Bar — the 10th Annual Ice Bar is taking place January 23-25 at the Portland Harbor Hotel. Tickets are now on sale.

PSO Wine Dinner — the 13th Annual Portland Symphony Orchestra wine dinner will be featuring wines from Greece. Chefs from Fore Street, Emilitsa, Piccolo, the Inn by the Sea and the Harraseeket Inn will collaborate on the 5-course dinner. Tickets are now on sale.

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.

Maine a la Carte reports that From Away blogger Malcolm Bedell is going to compete in the World Sandwich Championships.

Monday — Portland Beer Week continues. Be sure to check portlandbeerweek.org for the full calendar of PBW events. I’ve included a few of the highlights below. The Thirsty Pig is hosting a New England Beer dinner.

Tuesday — the Maine Brew Bus and Portland Taste Tours are coordinating a traveling beer dinner that starts at Bunker Brewing and continues on to stops at Local 188, Sonny’s and Salvage BBQ.

Wednesday — a blind tasting of 10 IPA’s with a $500 prize to whoever can correctly identify them all, a 4-course beer dinner at Bull Feeney’s, and the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place in the morning.

Thursday — a 5-course Marshall Wharf dinner at East Ender, a 4-course Allagash dinner at the Inn by the Sea.

Friday — a screening of Strange Brew at the Urban Farm Fermentory.

Saturday — Novare Res is holding the Where the Wild Beers Are sour beer fest, and the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

Sunday — the Hunt & Alpine Club is teaching a holiday cocktail making class, Krista Kern Desjarlais is the featured chef at a sold out Flanagan’s Table farm dinner, and the American Sommelier foundation series will be featuring wines from 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.

Map & Menu have posted a report from last week’s Kabaj wine event. The wine and food tasting was a collaboration between Rosemont and Tandem.

Learning a new cuisine in the weeks leading up to the event proved to be an easy task for the talented chef, and we were fortunate to enjoy meats that he had cured himself, a regional bean, pork, and cabbage soup, potica nut rolls, and a tasty salted bread that accompanies many Slovenian meals. The night was capped off with an optional cup of the best espresso in town, and as Meredith and I made our way home that evening, we couldn’t help but think of what an enjoyable date night these pairings might make in the months to come.

A Greenville Maine food truck called Cafe Crepe is now operating in Portland. They were at Tandem this weekend and have posted a schedule on Facebook that includes the Falmouth winter farmers market on Wednesday, Bunker Brewing on Friday night and Tandem Saturday morning.