Mainebiz has published an article about Bon Vivant, the new restaurant that the owners of Sonder & Dram and chef Michael Gosselin opened in July.
Category: Maine
Maine Food and Dining News
Here are some recent food and dining highlights from around the state:
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- Mainebiz has provided an overview of several new restaurants, bars, coffee shops and food retail shops in downtown Bangor including SugarRay Baking, The Stage Door, Chimera Coffee, Smoke & Steel, Utopia, The Nest Cafe, Tavola, Lazy Hound.
- Rise Pizza & Pub (instagram) has opened for business in Cumberland.
- Heather Thompson Paquette will be the new president of the Good Shepherd Food Bank. She’ll be taking over leadership of the organization starting in September. Paquette has had a 24-year career with the parent company of Hannaford.
Maine Food & Dining News
Here are some recent food and dining highlights from around the state:
- The Pen Bay Pilot reports that a new restaurant called Pottle’s (instagram) has opened in Liberty. Pottle’s is open Thursday through Tuesday, 11 am – 9 pm.
- A new children’s book called Dim Sum Palace by Midcoast resident X. Fang is due out on September 12th. In the book a “little girl’s love of dim sum spills over into her dreams, taking her on a fantastical food-filled adventure…”
Ore Nell’s North in Biddeford
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Ore Nell’s North (website, facebook, instagram), the Biddeford outpost of Ore Nell’s BBQ in Kittery, opened for business on Wednesday. It’s located just across the parking lot from Palace Diner at 42 Franklin Street in the building formerly occupied by Louie’s Pizza.
Ore Nell’s serves Texas-style barbecue (see menu below) that’s a reflection of chef Will Myska’s Houston upbringing. The menu includes brisket, ribs, pulled pork, other meats and even BBQ tofu as well as sandwiches, traditional sides. There’s also a children’s menu. Shown here are a plate of their Saint Louis ribs, brisket, collard greens and a loaded baked potato (top right), a smoked chicken taco from the day’s specials menu (bottom left), and a Toxic Mezcalinity cocktail (bottom right).
This week they will be open Wednesday through Sunday, 4 – 9 pm. Hours will expand next week and Ore Nell’s plans to eventually be open seven days a week.
The original Ore Nell’s in Kittery launched in 2018 as a collaboration between Myska, David Vargas from Vida Cantina in Portsmouth and restaurateur Jay McSharry. Kyle Chauncey has joining the founders in launching the Biddeford location.
Wander at Longwoods Now Open
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Wander at LongWoods (website, facebook, instagram) opened last Wednesday. The farm-to-table restaurant is located off Route 9 near the center of town in Cumberland. The restaurant is part of the overall Longwoods Preserve (instagram) project which will include walking trails, a sculpture garden and a farm to supply produce and other ingredients for the restaurant.
The menu (see below) takes a locally-focused approach both for the food and as a touchpoint for the cocktail program. Wines by the glass/bottle and beer from Maine producers like Allagash, Bissell, Oxbow and Nonesuch are also available. The dessert menu includes panna cotta, a butter cake topped with local berry puree, gluten-free donuts, ice cream, sorbet and espresso-based coffees.
The restaurant can accommodate close to 100 customers overall including a large outdoor seating area with picnic tables and Adirondack chairs looking out over the open fields surrounding the restaurant. If you sit outside be sure to try the wood-fired pizza. The Saint Fergus is topped with mozzarella, bone marrow butter, breadcrumbs, parsley, shallots, capers and gray sea salt.
Mike Allen is the executive chef, Rich Maggi is the restaurant’s chef de cuisine, and Molly and Jordan McDuffie, are the Longwood farmers with Joe Atwood as the overall general manager.
Wander is open Wednesday through Sunday, 4 – 9 pm. They’ve been operating Wander on a walk-in basis for its first week, but starting August 9th they’ll begin taking reservations—visit wanderatlongwoods.com starting Wednesday to book a table.
Maine Food & Dining News
Here are some recent food and dining highlights from around the state:
- Rabelais Books owner Don Lindgren has announced he’s shutting down the bookstore’s Biddeford retail shop. Lindgren will continue to operate the rare book component of Rabelais as a virtual business. The bookstore will remain open through the remainder of August, Thursday to Sunday, 10 am to 4 pm with a 30% discount on all books priced under $1,000.
- Wolfpeach in Camden will be closing permanently. The Camden restaurant opened in late 2021 and was a James Beard Awards semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in 2023. Earlier this year Wolfpeach transitioned to a pizza-centric menu and has also been home to Pastoralia Wines which has run a daytime wine shop and wine bar from the restaurant.
- Jodie’s Cafe and Bakery has announced they’ll be moving their operations to 45 Water Street in Wiscasset where they’ll be serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Last month owner Jodie Roquemore purchased the former Sarah’s Cafe from longtime owner Sarah Heald. The new Jodie’s is expected to open sometime in August.
- The Bangor Daily News reported on the use of invasive green crabs on the menu at Must Be Nice Lobster in Belfast.
Maine Food & Dining News
Here are some food and dining highlights from around the state:
- The new owners of the Saint George River Cafe have launched a new business called the Black Goat Test Kitchen + Supperclub (website, facebook, instagram). Joe Ricchio (aka Food Coma) recently attended a preview of their supperclub. The first public edition of the supperclub is scheduled to take place on August 5th.
- The Penobscot Bay Pilot has published an article about three new restaurants in Camden: Mosaic, the new wine bar at Goods, and Paper Plane.
Maine Food & Dining News
Here are some food and dining highlights from around the state:
- Scandinavia takeout bakery Fika (website, instagram) has opened for business in Saco. Fika is located just a few steps off Main Street at 17 Storer Street. Their menu included breakfast sandwiches, avocado toast, cardamom buns, galettes, olive oil cake and other pastries plus coffee from George Howell Coffee. They’re open Friday/Saturday 7:30 am – 2 pm, and Sunday: 8 am – noon.
- The Lincoln County News has a pair of updates from Round Pond. Dot’s Bakery has closed after 40 years in business., and the Round Pond Coffee has launched an evening wine bar. The new wine bar is called The Common House (facebook) serves wine, beer and meat and cheese boards Friday through Monday, 4 – 8:30 pm.
Bon Vivant Now Open in Lewiston
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Sonder & Dram in Lewiston has launched their new restaurant Bon Vivant (website, instagram) which is located at 133 Lisbon Street just upstairs from the cocktail bar. The ~50-seat restaurant features a long orange banquette along the left wall as well as central table seating and a cocktail bar and lounge area.
The beverage menu includes a selection of classic cocktails as well as New World and Old World wines by the glass and bottle, and a pair of draft beer from Oxbow Brewing and Definitive Brewing. Chef and co-owner Michael Gosselin is has put together a menu of contemporary small plates, steaks and entrees. Creme brulee, a lemon sabayon tart and a chocolate eclair are available for dessert along with a selection of after dinner cocktails, madeira and port.
The restaurant is open Wednesday through Saturday and on Monday, 4:30 – 9 pm. Reservations are available on Resy. For additional reporting on Bon Vivant read this article from the Lewiston Sun Journal.
Vuong Joining Tao
The Press Herald reports that Frying Dutchman chef/owner Leon Vuong will be closing down his business to fully devote his time in a new direction. Vuong will be working with Cara Stadler as a head chef and a business partner in the relaunch of Stadler’s Brunswick restaurant Tao Yuan.
Vuong, who has fine-dining cooking experience including at the Barbara Lynch restaurant Menton in Boston, said he’ll retire most of his Frying Dutchman dishes along with the venue itself. At Tao Yuan, Vuong said he expects they’ll keep some of the signature dishes from the pre-pandemic restaurant, but about 50 percent of the small plates and tasting menu dishes will be new, like a bahn mi savory eclair course he’s been fine-tuning.