Category: Openings

Aomori Kitchen and Market (instagram) is now open. The West Bayside market is the sister establishment to Aomori Restaurant launched by chef Masa Miyake and his family in December.

The 12-seat market and cafe is serving an line-up of baked goods and hot and cold dishes. First thing this morning the line-up included chocolate orange rolls (center right), cookies, Gallete Bretonne, egg danish with kale, cottage cheese and bacon (top left), sausage rolls, chocolate raspberry bread, okonomiyake rolls, sesame white chocolate scones, praline bars, hazelnut praline chocolate cake, several types of tarts, and a delicious Maitake mushroom onion quiche (top left). There wer vegan and gluten free options from the bakery. Grab and go savory items like egg salad sandwiches, curry chicken sandwiches and onigiri were available first thing, and as the day progresses sushi rolls, and hot food items like karage skewers and beef curry handpies were prepared by the kitchen. Aomori is offering pour overs featuring Ogawa Coffee, with ready made drip coffee made with beans from Portland-based Lay Day Coffee available as well.

The kitchen is overseen by baker Yumiko Kobayashi with pastries developed by Yuta Shimotsuma. Kobayashi was previously the Head Baker at Frenchette Bakery in New York City, and earlier in her career was a pastry cook at Maxim de Paris in Tokyo. Shimotsuma has worked in Japan, Australia, and Canada including at Tadashi Yanagi in Tokyo.

The new Aomori is a Japanese conbini-style market—an all-day combination convenience store and quick service eatery. In addition to the baked goods and prepared foods, Aomori stocks pantry items like soy sauces, Japanese sodas and drinks, noodles and rice as well as Japanese specialty items like Tsugaru Vidro glassware from the Aomori region, housewares, and children’s toys.

With today as an exception, Aomori will be open Thursday through Monday, 8 am – 5 pm with plans to eventually extend hours to 8 pm.

Mainebiz has published an article about Softcut Knife Company (website, instagram), a new company founded by Evan Atwell of Strata and Kiran Chapman of Soma Metalwork. The new company produces and sells hand-forged knives.

“Our goal is straightforward,” said Atwell. “Make knives that perform beautifully and are informed by years of selling and servicing many exceptional blades. We expect a wide range of users, from home chefs to industry professionals, and we’ve designed knives to hit the mark for both.”

LB. Kitchen (website, instagram) owners Bryna Gootkind and chef Lee Farrington opened a new location of their LB. Mini-Mart (website, instagram) business this morning. The market and beverage counter is located at 235 Vaughan Street in the space formerly occupied by the Other Side Deli. It sells grab and go breakfast and lunch items like salads, snacks, sandwiches and wraps, serves made to order coffee, and smoothies (beverage menu below), and offer a variety of grocery staples, wine, newspapers, magazines, and other retail goods. The West End location will initially will be open daily, 7 am – 5 pm.

Gootkind shared “We designed this store and what we carry within it, for the West End neighborhood—from the Maine Medical campus to the residential full time Portlanders who care about what they eat, what they buy, and how they connect. Need a birthday celebration at the hospital? We have the supplies. Need a to-go lunch on your way to work and a bottle of wine for dinner later in the day, we have that too. We want to be part of the neighborhood’s daily rhythm—that quick coffee or smoothie, cookie, newspaper or conversation that makes the day a little better whether you are walking your kid to school or walking the dog.”

Farrington and Gootkind launched their first market at Rock Row this past March. The original restaurant opened in 2017 and moved to the corner of Smith and Congress Streets in 2023. They have on deck the expansion of the market at their Congress Street location into the adjacent storefront which is expected to launch next year.

The highly anticipated Tuan Yuan Hotpot (facebook, instagram) is officially opening for business this week. The restaurant is being launched by Qi Shen, the owner of Sichuan Kitchen, and is located at 29 Forest Ave in the former Able Baker space on the first floor of the Portland Stage building. The name of the restaurant means reunion dinner.

The menu includes a short selection of appetizers like wings and the four-fold crispy pumpkin cakes (shown above). The bar menu includes wines by the glass, beer, cider and nonalcoholic drinks as well as sake. The sake menu features sakes from Japan and also from Farthest Star, a producer located in Medfield, Massachusetts.

The heart of the menu are the Sichuan hotpot options. They have a both a vegetarian Mala-spicy soup and a chicken with pumpkin soup. Vegetable options for the hotpot include winter melon, napa cabbage, and lotus root. Meat options like lamb shoulder, frog legs and rib eye steak, seafood options like mussels, prawns, and seafood dumplings, and the soy-based options are 5-spice pressed tofu and two types of tofu skins. Overall there are 28 add-ins to choose from for a hotpot meal.

Tuan Yuan seats 79 overall with a number of 4-seat hotpot tables and a bar area on the first floor, and seating for 32 with two 8-person marble-topped tables in the mezzanine dining area.

Tuan Yuan will be open Monday through Friday, 5 – 11 pm, and will open at noon on the weekends. While the official opening is this Monday, they’ll be soft opening this Saturday and Sunday for any who happens to walk in.

Barren’s Distillery (website, facebook, instagram) has taken over the former Sweetgrass spot on Fore Street in Boothby Square where they’ve opened a tasting room. Their December hours are Thursday through Saturday, noon – 5 pm operating in a pop-up mode selling their spirits.

They plan to hold a grand opening this spring with an expanded set of retail offerings to include glassware, shakers, syrups, bitters, wild blueberry-based products, apple cider vinegar, hot sauce, salts and soaps made with the botanicals sued in their spirits, and Barren’s merchandise.

Jeremy Howard and Andrew Stewart founded the business in 2019. Their restaurant is located at the Lyman-Morse wharf in Camden and their distillery is in the Midcoast town of Hope.

They produce a wide range of gins, vodkas and rums, as well as a whiskey made in collaboration with Cushnoc Brewing, an apple pommeau, a blueberry eau de vie and some other specialty spirits.

Aomori Restaurant (instagram) is set to open on Monday. The restaurant is being launched by acclaimed chef Masa Miyake along with his son Reo Miyake and Reo’s partner Helen Carter.

The self-described Japanese soul food restaurant will be serving a menu inspired by Maine and Japan’s Tohoku Region. The menu—which has the option for a 6-course Kaiseki prefix—includes chilled small plates like stir-fried celery (top right), medium sized dishes like shio-koji marinated pork chops, braised vegetables, and fried seafood (Kaisen Katsu, center left) and final course Shime dishes like udon with duck and meatballs (bottom right). The menu also includes soups, onigiri, a rotating selection of desserts as well as a raw bar, and selection of hand rolls and sashimi. Aomori is donating $1 of every order of the Yodare Dori to the Food for All Services Food Pantry.

The bar (see menu below) offers sake by the glass, carafe and bottle, draft beer and wine by the glass, classic Japanese drinks like a whisky highball and house designed cocktails like the Hato (center left) which is made with reposado tequila, Cointreau, daidai, jasmine and Mitsuya cider.

The 47-seat restaurant will include a bar, table seating including a 10-seat table for larger groups, and a 6-seat chef’s counter. During the summer Aomori will also have outdoor seating.

Aomori is located in West Bayside on Parris Street. They’ll be open Sunday through Thursday 5 – 10 pm, and Friday/Saturday 5 – 11:30 pm on a walk-in basis. The team also plans to launch Aomori Kitchen and Market (instagram) in an adjacent space next year. It will be modeled after the conbini convenience stores in Japan—an all-day combination convenience store, cafe, bar and quick service eatery.

The restaurant is named for the region of Japan that Miyake is from. The similarity in climate was part of why he opened his first Maine restaurant, Food Factory Miyake, in Portland in 2007. The small BYOB sushi bar quickly developed a reputation for excellence. The restaurant moved to its present location on Fore Street in 2011 and for a time the original space was home to Miyake Diner, an izakaya-style restaurant. Pai Men Miyake opened on September 15, 2010. In early 2024 he sold his restaurants to two members of his staff.