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Category: General News
Jacques de Villier, Farms and Lobster
There’s a really nice profile in today’s Press Herald on Jacques de Villier the owner of Old Port Wine Merchants.
Tell Jacques de Villier what kind of wine you like, what you’re going to drink it with and how much you want to pay, and he’ll give you what you really want.
He’ll probably throw in a good yarn, too, because a love of stories is the other thing de Villier is known for among his regular customers. Some of his ostensibly true tales are a bit hard to believe – was this unpretentious, garrulous wine merchant really in military intelligence? – and he seems to get that. When he senses skepticism about the claim that he graduated from The Citadel, the famous military school in South Carolina, for example, de Villier pulls up a photo of himself in uniform on the computer.
Also in today’s paper is a timely reminder that this Sunday is Maine’s Open Farm Day–think Maple Sugar Sunday but with animals and orchards instead of syrup. There are 100+ participating farms across the state and 11 are here in Cumberland County.
There is also a Bill Nemitz column on the proposed lobster boat tie-up and the price of lobster, as well as a front page story on the recent shooting incident involving a pair of lobstermen.
The shooting appears to be the most extreme example of growing tensions all along the coast as Maine lobstermen and their families face historic financial pressures related to the global recession and a drop in demand. Some lobstermen are trying to organize a mass work stoppage to force prices higher.
Red Tide at Record Levels
Red tide blooms in Maine are at record high levels. They are at 50-60 times the limit at which the state closes clam flats, according to an article in today’s Press Herald.
“With this (red tide), even a small number of clams would get people very sick and might actually be fatal if harvested from certain locations,” Anderson [a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts] said.
Tomalley, the green substance in lobsters, also is considered unsafe to eat because of red tide. Lobster meat and meat from scallops and from fish are not affected by the toxin.
Maine Foodie Tours in Food & Dining
A front page article on Maine Foodie Tours is in the new Food & Dining section of today’s Press Herald.
This two-hour walking tour was launched in June and developed by Pamela Laskey, owner of a new company, Maine Foodie Tours. The Old Port Culinary Tour takes visitors to local merchants who make and sell artisanal foods.
There’s plenty of sampling to be had, and guides share a bit about the city’s history and its thriving restaurant scene along the way.
The newly redone Food & Dining section (formerly Food & Health) now includes the Taste & Tell reviews that had been in the Sunday paper, a restaurant dining guide and a promise from editor Rod Harmon that this is just the start. “But don’t think that just because we’ve made a few changes to the Food section we’re going to rest on our laurels. We’re constantly on the loookout for new ideas to help make this section better.”
Elsewhere in the paper was an article about Wolfe Neck Farm “losing it’s famed beef cattle“.
The company that is currently raising beef cattle there, Pineland Farms Natural Meats, plans to remove the livestock by September, its president confirmed Tuesday. Erick Jensen said the operation was no longer economical, in part because of the measures that would be needed to keep manure from washing away and contaminating nearby clam flats.
American Food Tour: Portland
Terrence Henry is a journalist who is making a food tour of US, Canada and beyond and reporting on the experience at TheAtlantic.com. He’ll be spending 24 hours in Portland and is asking for advice on where he should eat. Five Fifty-Five, Evangeline, Duckfat, Fore Street, Hugo’s and Bresca are all on his short list but he’s open to other ideas. The poll results are favoring Fore Street over Five Fifty-Five by a 2-1 margin at the moment. (via Port City Sally)
Had I planned this all out better, we would probably be spending a few days in Portland instead of just 24 hours. But this being a trip on a budget, we have to get to New York by Thursday to enjoy four nights of free accommodation (thanks, Mom!), so we’re left with too little time to sample what’s on offer in the promising city of Portland, Maine (this may necessitate a return trip in the future).
OpenTable Expands in Portland
OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation service, has never had that many Portland area restaurants to choose from on their site. That’s now starting to change. Bar Lola, Bull Feeney’s, Cinque Terre, David’s, Five Fifty-Five, Fore Street, Street & Co, The Frog and Turtle and Vignola are now all listed on the site. I hope they continue the expansion. It’s a very useful service, especially when looking for last minute reservations or trying to get a table for a larger group.
Restaurants are charged a fee for every reservation made through the site but the fee is less if you link to the OpenTable reservation page from the restaurant’s own website. So if you want to cut your favorite place a break go to their site first and click on their reservation link. Fore Street, Street & Co and Bull Feeney’s are the only ones that don’t have a reservations link on their own site.
12 Seats Releases
Erik and Krista Desjarlais, owners of Evangeline and Bresca, have posted information on their blogs (here and here) about their new venture, 12 Seats.
12 Seats is a collaboration between Krista and I. 12 Seats is just what the title says. 12 seats, 12 courses, 12 times in one year. The last Sunday of each month, Krista and I will transform bresca in to an amalgamation of our culinary and hospitality passions. 12 Seats will take over the bresca dining room and kitchen, and she and I will transform ourselves into one chef with the mind of two cooks.
Beans, Brown Bread and Water
Columnist Margo Mallar has written about B&M Beans history and her tour of the facility here in Portland in her weekly food column in this weekend’s Portland Daily Sun.
From the sluice where navy pea beans are first winnowed to the conveyor belt where labeled cans are wrapped for warehousing, we walked the canning process from start to finish. Salt pork before and after soaking, molasses tanks, spice totes, train cars that bring in 200,000 pounds of beans at a time from Canada and the Dakotas: Don explained each step of the eight-hour process, referring to workers by name, many of whom had been there for decades.
Also in the weekend edition is an article from Editor Curtis Robinson on how he’s “Staying hip to the city’s ongoing water debate” between Take Back the Tap and FLOW.
New Krista/Erik Collaboration
Type A has a report on 12 Seats, a new monthly cooking collaboration between Krista and Erik Desjarlais. It will be a highly customized event for 12 people and will be held at Bresca’s Middle Street location.
The goal is to create a highly personalized experience. For example there will be dialogue with every guest about dietary restrictions. The dinner will be $120pp, excluding wine.
Erik and Krista plan to secure a phone number over the weekend and will start taking reservations shortly. The first meal will be served on Sunday, October 25th. I’ll update this post when the phone number is available.
Trader Joe's Rumors
About Town is citing “fairly reliable sources” in a report that Trader Joe’s is coming to Portland. A commenter on the blog wrote that the checkout staff at a Trader Joe’s in Saugus said, ” they expected to open a Portland store in the next year to 18 months”.