Category: History

Here’s a look at the top food news from 10 years ago in March 2008:

• Forbes Traveler recognized The Great Lost Bear as one of the Best American Beer Bars, “Maine is a craft-brewing mecca, and there’s no better place to sample the Northeast’s bounty than this nearly 30-year-old institution offering a mind-boggling 52 taps.”
• Mayor Suslovic welcomed to town a master distiller from Bushmills Irish Whiskey.
• Hilltop Coffee moved across the street leaving the space that’s now occupied by Willa Wirth.
• the 2nd edition of Deathmatch took place.
• Foley’s Bakery closed.
• Olive Garden was ranked 2nd in the Best Restaurant category in the Press Herald readership poll.
• Blogger Beer, Maine & Me complained that, “We have a ton of great breweries, brewing lots of great beers, representing all different styles, but no IPAs that we can really brag about in the arena of holier-than-though hoppiness.”
• Rob Evans was a nominee for the 2008 James Beard awards in the Best Chef: Northeast category.

Chronicling the food scene has amassed a lot of information. Now that PFM has passed its 10-year anniversary, I’ve launched this new monthly column looking back at what the key stories were this month a decade ago.

Here’s a look at the top stories from February 2008:

• Emilitsa opened on February 8th, bringing Greek fine dining and an all Greek wine list to Portland. Type A Divervsions wrote, “Our expectations were exceeded on the night we dined; we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food, the exceptional service and the upscale decor.”
• Portland Food Map first published its list of Sunday Brunch destinations.
• The Atrium at The Cedars, a retirement community, won top honors from the judges in both the Best Chili and Best Chowder categories at the 15th annual Great Chili and Chowder Challenge.
• Una kicked-off a project to expand the cocktail bar into the space next door to them on Fore Street which had formerly been occupied by Portland Pie.
• The then anonymous writer of food blog Portland Psst was revealed to be Peter A. Smith.
• The Maine legislature considered a bill to legalize home delivery of beer and wine.

As a kid my favorite part of reading Scientific American was the 50 and 100 Years Ago section. Being able to look back and see what the hot topics in science with a century earlier was fascinating.

While I don’t (yet) have an accurate take on the food scene in Portland a century ago, Portland Food Map reached its 10-year anniversary last year. Daily chronicling the food scene has produced a lot of information to work with and this month I’m going to start a new monthly column looking back at what the key stories were a decade ago.

Here’s a look at the top stories from January 2008:

• StarEast opened in Woodfords Corner.
• News of Novare Res became public—this brought the Under Construction List up to a total of 12(!) businesses under development.
• Nancy English was the Maine Sunday Telegram restaurant critic, and blogs Type A Diversions and Portland Psst were very active in reviewing and reporting on what was going on.
• Otto Pizza co-owner Mike Keon changed the name of his Commercial Street restaurant from Crab Louie to One Eyed Jacks Pizza.
• Three years prior to the launch of Instagram, Portland food blogger From Way Away registered the word ‘Pastarazzi‘ into the Urban Dictionary. It was defined, “Foodie bloggers who insist on taking pictures of their meal at nice restaurants.”
• Rabelais and Slow Food Portland collaborated to hold the Slow Food Writers Night at SPACE Gallery.
• Both Bleachers and Wild Oats closed.

Cumberland resident Tom Foley has written about his memories of Forest Gardens bar in the 1960s.

The Sox and Celtics reigned. Fifteen-cent draught beer, usually Narragansett or Pabst Blue Ribbon, was served in 8-ounce fluted glasses. Frequent refills ensured that the beer was always fresh and cold. Six-ounce “dimeys” were also available, as were 10-cent bottles of “Little Bo Colts,” a National Bohemian brand associated with the Baltimore Colts. Most patrons were Giants fans, but who could resist a 10-cent bottle of beer when short of cash?

In November 1964 LBJ had just defeated Goldwater, the Sardine Law was front page news,  and famed chef and food writer James Beard visited Portland to lead a 4-day series of cooking demonstrations organized by the Portland Symphony Orchestra as a fundraising activity for their 1964-65 season.

Reporter Hazel Loveitt from the Press Herald along with “more than 200 women and two men” (Brunswick chef Pete Doyon and home cook Harry Dunbar) were on site for the first day of classes. Loveitt reported,

Beard’s heroic proportions belied his agility as he did a culinary ballet between the stove, oven and food preparation. When he added “about a half teaspoon” of vanilla to the filling he was making for apple flan the master chef dispensed the flavoring directly from the bottle to the cooking pan with the flair of a showman.

While using the slim handleless French rolling pin to roll the tart flan Beard explained that the pin was easier to guide than the more common rolling pin.

An earlier version of the article was certainly a product of the times. President Kennedy has delivered his famous challenge for a moon landing 2 years earlier, and the article referred to the rolling pin as a “slim space-aged model”.

The town was still in the afterglow of Beard’s visit several day later when the paper published a follow-on piece which concluded “All calories aside, we’ve been living in a gastronomical Shangri-La.”

Beard was assisted with the classes by Ruth Norman and they were held at the State Street Church. Their entire series of 5 classes went for $12 per person. Accounting for inflation that would be $91 in today’s dollars—a bargain in any decade.

A half century later few people in town remember Beard’s visit, but as luck would have it one of few artifacts of that week, a booklet from Beard’s classes (shown above), came into the possession of Rabelais Books, and owner Don Lindgren brought it to my attention. It contains 34 pages of recipes from the classes. They’re an interesting mix of French, Italian, American and Asian cooking such as Salad Nicoise, Shish Kebab, Rummed Crab Spread, Cannelloni, Crepes Duxelles, Barbecued Spareribs and Fried Rice.

Many thanks to PSO historian Hank Schmidtt and to the Symphony for their assistance in researching this article.

 

 

Cross West Bayside on Oxford Street and you’re likely to spot this old sign for the former Amergian Brothers neighborhood market at the intersection with Chestnut Street. It was founded by George Amergian in 1928 in what was then the Armenian neighborhood in Portland. The market remained in business until the beginning of the 21st century and was for many year’s run by his nephew Edward Mardigan.