Category: General News

Portland-based Finest Kind Tea (website, facebook, twitter) is one of 15 new food companies from across the country that have been selected to participate in the 2013 Next Big Food Thing competition.

The winner will receive $10,000 and their products will be sold through the online grocer Fresh Direct. Competitors are being judged on the their product idea as well as the amount of crowdfunding they raise in the next 28 days and how they interact with public throughout the competition.

Finest Kind is trying to raise $20,000 to

expand our business and develop a new organic, 100% GMO-free & ethically sourced flavor as part of our commitment to natural products and sourcing the best ingredients from around the world. The money we raise will help us fund the process for tracing our tea from field to bottle using established, internationally accredited certifiers.

Owner Jay Lombard launched the company earlier this year with two tea concentrate flavors (blueberry white tea, black tea and lemonade) and is developing new flavors for launch in 2014. You can find Finest Kind Tea on the shelves at Whole Foods.

You can learn more about Finest Kind Tea and make a pledge to help them reach their goal on the RocketHub crowdfunding site.

MPBN and the Press Herald report that four companies have submitted bids for the state’s liquor contract.

When the 2 p.m. deadline arrived and the bidder’s identities were revealed, four contenders emerged: All Maine Spirits LLC and Pine State Trading, both out of Augusta, CD&M Communications of Portland and Dirigo Spirit Company LLC of Cumberland.

In today’s Portland Daily Sun, columnist Natalie Ladd confesses to her short criminal career and shares her perspective on restaurant comment cards.

There are many things fundamentally wrong with the concept of comment cards in a restaurant. They arrive with your tab, neatly tucked into a black book we call a “check minder,” which is hand delivered (and most likely collected) by the server you’re supposed to be evaluating.

MaineToday.com has assembled a tour of Portland food tours: Maine Beer Tours, Wine Wise, Maine Foodie Tours, The Brew Bus and Portland Taste Tours,

A food and drink tour of Portland may seem like something designed just for visitors, but if you want to learn about this city’s new restaurants, food producers, breweries and distilleries — or want a distinctive experience you might not get on your own — don’t turn your nose up at letting a guide lead the way.

and The 207 Foodie has shared her experience on the Halloween tour run by Portland Taste Tours.

I recommend anybody who A. Loves food, B. Wants to try new food, C. Enjoys a good tour and D. Wants to explore the Portland food scene to check out a Portland Taste Tour. Trust me, this is something you will not regret.

The Maine Sunday Telegram has drafted John Golden to serves as the newspaper’s weekly restaurant critic spot.

Many years later my perusal of Maine dining – which I will now bring to you in this space, every Sunday – is altogether a different kettle of fish. It’s more about the food – the quality of what you’re eating and where it came from, important factors that make such an otherwise pompous social pecking order seem all the more superficial.

The thrill of it all still excites me today. Of course I have my favorite dining spots, and others that I avoid. As a critic I won’t sugar-coat the experience just to play nice. I will tell it like it is – to report on the good, bad or indifferent experience.

Portland Daily Sun columnist Natalie Ladd provides a behind the scenes look at the practice of tip pooling at restaurants.

3) One upside to pooling (which conversely is the downside as well) is you never know who’s going to be in your audience. Rotating tables and even reservations are always the luck of the draw. I can have a great night where my section is full of drinkers and overeaters, while my colleagues have the water (with lemon, please) and appetizer people. My experience is that it all comes out as a wash. In other words, the next shift it’ll be my turn to randomly wait on the entree-splitters and decaf drinkers.

Maine a la Carte has published a report on the new food menu at Gingko Blue.

The Portland Food Co-op has launched a campaign to recruit  1,000 new members. Recruiting new members is seen by the Co-op as an essential first step to eventually launching a retail store front. The Co-op has received a $330,000 loan from the Cooperative Fund of New England to help launch the new store.

Kate McCarty, author of The Blueberry Files, is working on a book about the Portland food scene entitled Portland Food: The Culinary Capital of Maine.

The book is published by The History Press and due out June of 2014. In 40,000 words, I’ll tell the history of the Portland food scene and highlight some of its interesting players. I’ve been interviewing farmers, fisherman, chefs… all of whom bring something different and interesting to our vibrant food scene.

Mike Roylos, owner of the Spartan Grill, was in today’s Press Herald in connection with his invention of the Buttler, a device to collect cigarette butts outside his restaurant in Monument Square.

Roylos’ invention, which he calls the Sidewalk Buttler, is a tubular container, painted to look like a mustachioed butler in a bow tie and bowler hat. It’s capped on both ends, strapped by metal to a utility pole, and has a circular hole where the butler’s mouth would be. Smokers deposit their spent cigarette butts there.