Category: General News

As in past years, the James Beard Foundation has posted an open call for recommendations from industry professionals and the general public for the awards committee to consider when building the list of semifinalists for 2025.

The entry and recommendation period for the 2025 James Beard Awards…is officially open! We’re looking for chefs, beverage experts, creators, and culinary and food system leaders who could be the next James Beard Award winners…Whether you published a cookbook in the last year, own a restaurant, or advocate for food system change, we encourage you to submit your entries and recommend your talented colleagues.

A notable change from last year is the addition of three new awards categories: Best New Bar, Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service, and Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service. These are in addition to the existing categories of Outstanding Bar and Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program.

The deadline to submit recommendations is Friday, November 29th and if the process follows the pattern from 2023 and 2024 then we can expect to see the semifinalist list come out in late January.

Reference these PDFs for guidelines on the chef and restaurant awards categories, and for insight into the overall awards process. Also check out this list we maintain on Portland Food Map for a list of past award winners, nominees and semifinalists from Maine.

To create an account and submit your recommendations visit: jamesbeardawards.awardsplatform.com

Vien Dobui, chef and co-owner of Công Tử Bột, is one of the restaurateurs interviewed by Eater for an article on “Why Restaurants Are So Expensive Now.” Dobui’s commentary reads in part,

“I’m going to be completely transparent; we filed for bankruptcy in December 2023. We might break even this year. Most of our costs go to labor; our restaurant is actually unionized, so our labor percentage is almost unsustainably high, around 50 percent. And that’s by design. When I am pricing our food, I generally take the highest-cost ingredients, and multiply that by a factor of three and a half to four and a half, and that usually captures my labor costs.

Portland Old Port has released the list of award winners from their Best of 2024 readership survey. Dozens of categories run the gamut from Best Bar (The Great Lost Bear) to Best Veggie Burger (Totally Awesome Vegan Food Truck).

Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to everyone who voted for Portland Food Map, with your help we won the Best Blog/Website category.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes an article about gluten-free dining in Maine and a list of 100% gluten-free businesses.

In the 16 years since Maine’s first gluten-free bakery, Wildflours, opened in Brunswick, the options for those with celiac disease or gluten intolerance in Greater Portland have only grown. Back then, “gluten-free eating was still a bit of an anomaly,” as Wildflours website puts it. Today, though, whether someone on a gluten-restricted diet likes to eat out, enjoy a beer at a local craft brewery or snack on a special bakery treat, there are plenty of places where they can do so safely.

CNN has published a profile of Portland as part of their series on the America’s Ten Best Towns to Visit. Portland’s restaurants and breweries are highlighted in the article including Allagash, Il Leone, Fore Street, Mr. Tuna and Eventide.

Rob Evans and Nancy Pugh have sold their restaurants Duckfat and Duckfat Frites Shack and retired from the restaurant industry. The team at Duckfat and overall philosophy of the business will remain the same. A 16-year veteran team member and front of house manager, Trevor Lilly, will be the overall GM of the business and the new owner of Duckfat is David Shryock. The sale was completed on April 30th.

We caught up with Pugh and Evans recently. They shared their pride in what they’d built at Duckfat and their confidence in the team’s ability to independently carry their vision for Duckfat in the coming years. In fact it was the commitment and skill of the Duckfat staff that made Evans and Pugh comfortable that company could continue on without them under new ownership.

Trevor Lilly shared some similar sentiments about the path forward for Duckfat,

The Duckfat team is passionate about building upon Rob and Nancy’s legacy. We couldn’t be more excited to be stewards of the collaborative, respectful, and dynamic culture they’ve fostered over the years. We look forward to continuing to cultivate approachable menus with a focus on consistency, technique, and a commitment to supporting the Maine food and beverage community. More than anything, our staff is thrilled to continue to provide delicious food and exceptional service to our friends in Portland – in our hearts, we see both locations as neighborhood spots.

Rob Evans and Nancy Pugh moved to Portland and took over Hugo’s in 2000 and for nearly a quarter of a century have been central figures in the Portland restaurant community. The couple launched Duckfat in 2005 and Duckfat Frites Shack on Washington Ave in 2018. Evans was a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2004, and he won a James Beard award in the Best Chef North East category in 2009. A legion of their former employees at Hugo’s and Duckfat have gone on to make their own mark in the industry.

Maine Public reports that Coffee by Design has signed an agreement with a union of their baristas.

The contract signed this week secures a wage increase and establishes a labor-management committee between Coffee By Design and its workers. The mutual agreement is for one year, which Sheldman said will allow both parties to continue crafting a long-term agreement.