Category: General News

Portland Daily Sun columnist Natalie Ladd has provided some guidance for people who are considering opening their own restaurant.

The debatable statistic is that nine out of ten restaurants fail within the first year, but just about everyone is enamored with the thought of flitting from table to table greeting guests and chatting about the freshest local ingredients, or hiding in the kitchen to create a favorite recipe for the masses. Many of the dreamers who have romanticized these visions don’t know the first thing about the financial Restaurant Big 3 (food, beverage, payroll costs), or if they do, are unsure how to manage them.

Tuesday’s Portland Daily Sun includes an impassioned plea for a less bureaucratic and litigious approach to regulating local food.

The number of laws, legislators and lawyers are symptomatic of an engorged and pervasive government. Laws both liberate and throttle the free market. They save lives as well as injure and kill people with the same thick rulebooks, red tape and bureaucratic hurdles. It’s often hard to know if something is a law is for the good of the community or for the good of a corporation. Rules regarding organic food are created in order to protect small farmers from the agri-industrial complex, but are in turn used to squash those same small farmers on technicalities and loose interpretations. Got Monsanto?

After many months of legal wrangling the Cactus Club had it’s day in court and won their case before the Maine Supreme Court to reverse the City Council’s decision to renew their liquor license.
Additional reporting: The Forecaster

Press Herald Maine at Work reporter Ray Routhier spends the day delivering kegs, wine and other drinks to local restaurants and bars.

It didn’t budge. Not even a little.

“Yeah, those are pretty heavy. They weigh about 160 pounds,” said Gale, 42, of Biddeford.

Gale, who weighs about 165 pounds, grabbed the same keg, slid it to the edge of the bay and lowered it to the street. Then he slid a dolly underneath it.

The Portland Daily Sun interviewed Jeremy Pelkey from Bard, Stella Hernandez from Hilltop and others about a cold brew method for ice coffee that’s gaining currency in Portland coffee houses,

“A lot of people go for the cream and sugar, they know what they like, but we recommend trying it without,” said Jeremy Pelkey owner of Bard Coffee, where they have been using the cold brew technique in their iced coffee since day one.

The techniques differs from the traditional ice coffee technique, which calls for hot coffee to be brewed at twice it’s normal strength and then chilled, a method that according to some, dilutes the drink when poured over ice.

Wednesday’s newspaper also included a report on the opening of Venue Music Bar,

A counterpart to Venue at 5 Depot St., Box 5, in Freeport, Portland’s version is larger, accommodating around 150 inside with a deck that seats 50.

“The idea here is to do bigger shows, more food, lunch, dinner, happy hours,” Roper said.

and an article on how “Adding liquor can add some culinary zest” to a dish.

The American Journal has a report on some changes afoot at The French Press Eatery. (via the Westbrook Diarist)

But now The French Press, run by Andre Tranchemontagne, the younger brother of the Frog & Turtle’s chef, James Tranchemontagne, has developed its own full-grown identity.

The French Press will continue to serve breakfast and lunch, but next week, starting Tuesday, July 13, it also will be open in the evenings serving dinner.

And coffee will no longer be the strongest tipple at The French Press  – the eatery recently won approval from the city for a liquor license and has installed a full bar.