This week’s Portland Phoenix includes advice on which local restaurants “offer healthy food to enhance your performance and help you fuel and recharge before and after a workout.”
Category: General News
Local Hop Farm, Reviews of Mellen Street Market and Congress Bar & Grill, Lobster Dinner Math
Today’s Press Herald includes a bar review of Congress Bar & Grill,
The menus were tucked in between condiments in round tins on the bar. Specialty drinks range from the house-made sangria for $6 to the “JD Rita,” the bar’s spin on a margarita, for $12. There are eight beers on tap for $4 or $5 apiece, and a number offered by the bottle for $2 to $4. There’s also a selection of white, red and pink wines costing $5 to $7.
and a review of Mellen Street Market.
I ordered a steak-and-cheese with green peppers and onions for $6.49, which I thought was a fair price. The bun was chewy, the veggies were freshly grilled, and American cheese embedded underneath the meat melted into a favorable gooey mix.
The steak? Eh. So-so. It was very chewy, which disappointed me. But it was mostly chunky and not cut into strips, so it was easy to eat.
Also in today’s paper is an article about Rock Island Hop Farm in Springvale which raises hops for Sebago Brewing Bunker Brewing, and a detailed explanation from the President of the Maine Restaurant Association on what factors go into the price of a lobster dinner.
Calculating the average lobster cost at $4.25 per pound, a 1.25-pound lobster means a $5.31 raw lobster food cost for a typically served one and a quarter pound lobster. Add drawn butter, side salad or fries and a roll and you arrive at a total food cost of $6.815. This would result in a retail price of $20.63 for the meal, with a 33 percent food cost. All of that retail price except for $1.03 (5 percent profit) goes to pay the business overhead.
New England Distilling & Maine Coastal Vineyards
The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a profile of New England Distilling Company,
Wight’s rum, which will be bottled as Eight Bells Rum, is expected to be on the shelves by the first week in September. It’s the second artisanal spirit hand crafted by Wight’s new company, New England Distilling. His Ingenium Dry Gin, a flavorful sipping gin made with southeast Asian herbs as well as more traditional botanicals, launched in April.
and an article about Maine Coast Vineyards.
Steve Melchiskey has a dream. “I truly believe there’s a future for 10 to 12 good wineries in southern and coastal Maine that use only grapes grown on their properties.”
Melchiskey’s Maine Coast Vineyards (distributed in Maine by Mariner Beverages) is the first, and he’s working hard to create a culture that nourishes more.
Restaurant Inspections
According to the Press Herald the city’s restaurant inspector has been holding a series of sessions to educate people in the industry about the FDA rules in use in Portland.
On July 13, Sturgeon sent a letter to all city-licensed food establishments, inviting their operators to information sessions because she was finding “a lack of education” about the food code during inspections.
Sturgeon and her boss, Michael Russell of the city’s Health and Human Services Department, hosted their third session Tuesday night. About 20 people, most of them restaurant owners, attended the session at City Hall.
For additional reporting read the Munjoy Hill News.
Don’s & Smaha’s
The Press Herald is reporting that Don’s Lunch in Westbrook has been bought by the son of the original owner,
The food truck was bought recently by Jim Richards, the only son of the original owners, Don and Yvonne Richards, who ran the business for 25 years.
and that Smaha’s Market in South Portland has also changed hands.
Smaha’s Legion Square Market has been sold to Alan Cardinal of Scarborough, a former Hannaford Supermarkets executive who will run the grocery store and butcher shop with his wife, Sylvia Most.
Horse-Drawn Grocery Service in Rockland
Chalk this one up in the outside Portland but too interesting to pass up category. From Away has published an interview with Brian Smith from Oyster River Farm in Rockland about the horse-drawn grocery delivery service he’s trying to get going in Rockland.
While he waits for his vines to mature, proprietor Brian Smith has another creative idea for this coming winter. Smith intends to roll out the “Oyster River Farm Express” in Rockland, a door-to-door horse-drawn delivery service of Oyster River farm goods, including locally grown produce, freshly baked bread, homemade sausage, and their own well-regarded wine.
Smith is raising $10,000 on Kickstarter to pay for a vintage delivery cart and other essentials for the service. His Belgian draft horse, Don, will be doing all the hard work of pulling the wagon around downtown Rockland for the Oyster River Farm Express.
It makes me wonder if some sort of farmers market delivery service, albeit using pedal power or standard transportation, could work in Portland.
Fox Family Potato Chips
Bon Appetit columnist Andrew Knowlton has gone public with his “chip tryst” with Fox Family Potato Chips which are made here in Maine.
My latest crush is Fox Farms, the hand-sliced chips made in Mapleton, Maine. The Fox family have been potato farmers since the 1800s, but only recently put these beauties on the market. They’re not too thick but not too thin, they’re cooked to a nice amber brown, and they come in longish strips. During the summer I go to Maine as much as the bosses will allow and each time I return with a few bags.
I even introduced them to my parents. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to chip commitment.
I know I’ve seen the chips for sale but haven’t found a bag at some of the likely spots. Does anyone know where an aspiring tryster can pick up a bag here in the Portland?
Three Sons Eviction
According to an article in today’s Portland Daily Sun, Three Sons lost the appeal on their eviction.
Despite an emergency appeal to a federal bankruptcy judge, Three Sons Fishing can no longer stay at its Commercial Street location.
Stuart Norton, owner of Three Sons Fishing, hoped that an appeal to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court would stave off his business’s eviction from the Maine Wharf, though Judge James Haines ruled that Great Maine Wharf, LLC., had the legal backing to take possession of the building and require the seafood market to remove its belongings. Haines said it was “crystal clear” that the lease was with a limited liability company and not Norton.
What’s in a Name & Coffee Shop Humor
The Opinion section in today’s Press Herald includes a defense of the Acadian Redfish,
Words can lend a person a presence they don’t have by themselves. The same goes for how we describe our food. Broccoli is just broccoli, until we describe it as organic, sustainable or local. Then it becomes superior, and more desirable.
Or, in this example of redfish being described as bait fish, it becomes less desirable.
and A Slanted View column on Portland’s coffee shops.
I decided to investigate. At every downtown coffee shop, I would order, drink, and rate one (1) small cup of black coffee. I would measure each establishment’s VSOP (Vibe, Sincerity, Organic Purity).
I would note which Famous Maine Personage (FMP) each shop most personifies, as well as Other Outstanding Oddities (OOO).
I did it all yesterday morning between 8 and 10.
Three Sons, Lobster Protests & Restaurant Lobster Pricing
Today’s Press Herald includes an investigation into why restaurant pricing of lobster dishes hasn’t dropped as fast or as low as the price paid to lobstermen,
By the time that bright-red lobster lands in front of a customer in a Maine restaurant, those low dock prices of $2 or $2.50 a pound are more like a distant murmur than the issue that’s causing all that shouting by lobstermen up in Canada, who are worried that their livelihood is threatened by the cheap Maine lobster flowing to processing plants north of the border.
the latest in the ongoing controversy in Canada over the processing of Maine lobster,
The judge granted an injunction that orders protesters not to block entrances to lobster processing plants for the next 10 days. The order says no more than six people can protest at a time, and they must stay at least 200 feet from the plants.
Canadian lobstermen protested the delivery of Maine lobsters to Canadian processors last week by blocking access to the facilities. They said Canadians could not compete with the low price of the imported product.
and an article about the eviction of Three Sons Lobster from their digs on Commercial Street.
The owner of Three Sons Lobster and Fish on Commercial Street was evicted Thursday, but he’s hoping a last-minute bankruptcy filing will allow him to reopen at the same location.