Category: Openings

Lucky Cheetah (website, instagram) is scheduled to open in August (tentatively planned for August 6th). The 110-seat restaurant is being launched by Wills Dowd and Jared Dinsmore, the owners of Bird & Co, in the former Old Port Tavern space on Moulton Street.

Lucky Cheetah bar manager Ben Bozeman is creating a cocktail list that showcases Asian spirits. The restaurant will have a sparkling wine list with a 20+ bottle selection of champagnes including the 2013 Dom Perignon and Laurent-Perrier La Cuvee Brut. Bozeman had previously been the bar manager at The Honey Paw.

Chef Zachary Johnson will serving a menu of Cantonese-style dim sum like xiaolongbao and char siu bao. The menu will also include some dishes with modern twists like a foie gras blackberry dumplings topped with a brown butter miso crumb. Johnson has previously worked at Central Provisions and Bird & Co.

Ana Jovic will be the general manager for Lucky Cheetah. She was previously the food and beverage manager at Earth at Hidden Pond in Kennebunkport.

Dowd and Dinsmore have worked with Susie Smith Coughlin on the renovation and interior design of the 5,000 sq ft space. It now features a 10-seat Italian pink marble bar, a lounge area, a dining room with circular corner booths and a 16-seat private dining/event space. Displayed throughout the dining room are a collection of large format prints by photographer Slim Aarons.

Lucky Cheetah will be open Tuesday through Sunday, 5 – 10 pm. Reservations will be available via OpenTable.

Leisure Time Cocktail Company (instagram) is set to open on Wednesday next week.  Owners Kai Parrott-Wolfe and Matt Noyes have renovated the 1,400 sq ft former Rwanda Bean coffee shop on Thompson’s Point into a 50-seat bar with a mix of bar, banquette and table seating.

The Leisure Time drinks menu (see below) will feature a range of draft and freezer cocktails like the Strawberry Rhubarb Lemonade (top left), Teeny King’s Tea Martini and Negroni (both bottom right). There’s also a selection of wine and beer. The food menu (see below) prepared by chef Emma Reed includes pierogis, salads and house made hot dogs and sausages. Shown above are the Kielbasa sausage sandwich and the wild mushroom and kraut pierogis.

Leisure time will be open Wednesday/Thursday noon – 9 pm,  Friday/Saturday noon – 10 pm, and Sunday noon – 8 pm.

Owners Deen Haleem and Carol Mitchell are ramping up to reopen Tiqa (website, facebook, instagram). The pan-Mediterranean restaurant on Commercial Street had announced they were temporarily closing back in April 2023 while they “consider all possible future options.”

Haleem shared that after “a year of contemplation and self-reflection” they’ve decided to relaunch the restaurant. Philip Sokowolski will be the new chef at Tiqa. Sokowolski has moved to Maine from Annapolis where he had been the chef at Libations Tavern and previously at The Severn Inn.

Tiqa will be launching with a new menu but with the same concept of exploring the various cuisines of the Mediterranean region. Haleem and Mitchell hope to reopen Tiqa sometime in the next few weeks.

Tiqa originally  opened on January 21, 2015 and the  Tiqa Cafe in the Deering Oaks Castle (now closed) launched the following year.

The new Dok Mali restaurant in South Portland, Dok Mali Noodle Bar (website, facebook, instagram), is now open for business. It is located at 169 Ocean Street in the space formerly occupied by Judy Gibson.

Chef/owner Nonglack Thanephonesy, general manager Khaney Muyderman and their team are serving a menu (see below) that features a pan-Asian selection of noodle-based soups and dishes. Shown above is a Korean dish, Japchae, that’s made with sweet potato glass noodles, red bell peppers, carrots, spinach, mushrooms, onions, scallions and beef. They have a selection of cocktails, wine, beer and nonalcoholic drinks available (see menu below).

The layout of the restaurant has remained largely the same but with an interior design that makes use of photographs and books that highlights the family’s history and Thai culture. The restaurant is open daily 11 am – 9 pm.

Dok Mali on India Street opened in November 2022. Judy Gibson went out of business in November.

Rabelais Books (website, facebook, instagram) opened for business on Friday. The culinary bookstore is located at 93 Washington Ave in one of the Black Box shipping container spaces.

Bookseller Don Lindgren has stocked the shop with printed books, ephemera and manuscripts spanning across the past six centuries and covering a wide range of culinary subjects from mushrooms and mixology to farming and food photography, and of course cookbooks covering nearly every corner of the globe.

This Rabelais pop-up shop will be in business now through the end of September, Wednesday through Monday, 11 am – 7 pm.

For more information on Rabelais and Lindgren see this article from June.

Here’s a look at two of the food trucks that have launched in Portland this year.

The Toku Truck (website, instagram, order online) was launched in early June by chef/owner Felicia Dumont. Dumont previously ran Harvest Bar in Bethel and since moving to Portland has worked at The Shop. When you go, be sure to try the delicious roasted veggie sandwich (shown here topped with blackened shrimp). The name of business is a reference to Dumont’s family heritage and means wave in the Passamaquoddy language. You can find the Toku Truck at 82 Parris Street in West Bayside. They’re open Tuesday through Saturday, 8 am – 3 pm.

Vendredi’s (website, instagram) is operated by Matt Lair with Michael Irish. Their burgers are gaining some ardent fans which shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise once you learn that Lair worked for acclaimed Chicago burger restaurant Au Cheval prior to moving to Portland. Vendredi’s is open today 4 – 11 pm. They’ll be launching a new Sunday brunch service this weekend 11 am – 4 pm with coffee from the Side by Side (website, instagram) cart. Vendredi’s is located at Oxbow on Washington Ave.

A  new fish and chips shop called Lil Chippy (website, instagram) opened for business on Friday. They’re located at 52 Washington Ave in the space formerly occupied by Radici (and before that Terlingua). The restaurant will be open Wednesday through Sunday, noon – 8 pm.

Owners Ashley Wolf and William Durst have lightly renovated the space. In addition to bar and table seating there are three sidewalk picnic tables for outdoor seating.

Fish and chips is the signature dish on the menu (see below). Durst and Wolf are also serving a variety of buddy sandwiches, salads and crudos, sides, and a selection of wine, beer and non-alcoholic drinks.

Wolf was previously the GM of Liquid Riot and when the couple lived in Vermont she was the GM at Hen of the Woods in Waterbury. Durst also worked at Hen of the Woods, and was the original chef at Bistro Leluco is South Portland when it opened in 2023.

 

Mainebiz reports that a new bubble tea shop called Bubble Bliss has opened at 23 Temple Street. It’s located in the space formerly occupied by Old Port Nutrition.

Bubble Bliss offers 23 varieties of bubble tea, including strawberry, brown sugar, taro and vanilla chai. The teas are made with real milk, not milk powders, which gives the drink a richer and creamier taste.

The cafe will also offer refreshers, flavored iced Red Bull drinks and hot tea. 

Thames Landing (website, instagram) is set to open in early July. The restaurant is located in the space formerly occupied by Helm at 60 Thames Street in the first floor of the WEX building.

The dinner menu (see below) includes appetizers like salt cod croquettes, mussels and deviled eggs, a variety of salads and dinner entrees that range from lobster rolls and smashed burgers to lobster dinners and NY strip steaks. The lunch menu slots in some sandwiches in place of larger entrees, and the brunch menu offers some dishes like eggs benedict and French toast.

Thames Landing is being launched by owners Mark and Renae Roy who also operate Navis Cafe. Kristen Smedberg is joining the Thames Landing team as the head chef. She’s was most recently the sous chef at Isa Bistro. David Lacy will be the Thames Landing bartender. Lacy was previously a veteran member of the bar staff at Fore Street.

The Roys have made some changes to the layout of the dining room to open up the entrance area and replace the banquette with table seating. The bar area and private dining room remain in place and the Roys will be launching an expanded outdoor seating area.

Thames Landing will initially open on July 3rd and will hold a grand opening on July 10th. It will be open Monday and Wednesday through Friday 11 am – 9 pm and Saturday/Sunday 10 am – 9 pm.

The Roys are hiring to fill a few last positions at Thames Landing. Visit thames-landing.com for more information and to apply.