Category: Openings

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.

Rambler Cafe (website, facebook, instagram) recently reopened for business. They’re located at 463 Stevens Ave in the space formerly occupied by Rwanda Bean, and prior to that by the Black Cat Coffee.

Owner Charlee-Ann Charron took over the coffee shop earlier this year and relaunched it last week after a redesign of the cafe. Charron and her team are serving a full line-up of drip and espresso-based coffee drinks utilizing Rwanda Bean coffee including their house special The Brambler Latte which is made with house made blackberry and vanilla syrups (shown above).

The food menu includes croissants, Danish, muffins, bagels from Orchard Ridge Farm in Gorham, and on Sundays pastries from their neighbors at Norimoto Bakery. Shown above is the Za’atar special from this last weekend which was topped with whipped feta, honey, cucumbers and fresh dill.

Billed as Portland’s “Original Flower Cafe” Rambler also sells flowers and bouquets. Charron previously operated a mobile flower truck which she launched in 2022.

Rambler is open Tuesday through Friday, 7 am – 2 pm, and Saturday/Sunday, 8 am – 2 pm.

The Press Herald has published a report on Miss Sweet Bubble Tea (website, instagram). The new business launched last month in the space formerly occupied by Tin Pan Bakery.

Miss Sweet also sells snacks like pork buns, spring rolls, egg tarts and crab rangoon, along with desserts like cookies and puddings. The cafe offers takeout service only, but will have some outdoor seating next year, [owner Keri] Li said.

Miss Sweet is open Wednesday through Monday, 11 am – 6:30 pm.

A new restaurant in South Berwick called Catbird (website, facebook, instagram) is set to open today. Catbird is located at 279 Main Street in the space most recently occupied by Secundo. They’ll be open Tuesday through Saturday, 4:30 – 9:30 pm. Catbird is being launched by Molly Pritchett and chef Josh Grindstaff.

Grindstaff and his team are serving a contemporary American menu with dishes like the Braised Cabbage (XO butter, crispy garlic, shallots, kimchi powder) shown above, Cavatelli Pasta (braised oxtail ragu, ricotta, parmesan, Calabrian chilis) and a Duck Breast (braised cabbage, green lentils, squash, persimmon pan sauce).

In advance of opening Pritchett had shared some thoughts on the vision for Catbird “We’re building it with heart, humor, and a little edge. I care deeply about creating an environment where staff feel supported and trained to succeed, while Josh brings a calm and grounded energy to the kitchen that inspires trust. With the right team, Catbird won’t just be a restaurant; it’ll be a space that feels alive, approachable, and a little extraordinary.”

The couple initially met when working at Dufour in 2021 and have continued working together at several restaurants since including Northern Union in Ogunquit where Pritchett was the GM and Grindstaff the executive chef.

The indoor minigolf course and a 125+ seat sports bar and restaurant Minibar (website, instagram) is scheduled to open today at 3 pm.

Chef Tim Goddu and his team are serving a menu of apps like warm pretzels and sesame crusted seared yellow fin tuna, burgers, a variety of sandwiches like a North Shore roast beef and chicken sandwich with pesto and roasted red peppers. They’ll also have desserts like Sea Dog biscuits and donut holes from The Holy Donut.

Owner Kevin Moschella has built out an 18-hole minigolf course, restaurant space and course-side bar in a 15,000 sq ft space at 270 Marginal Way in East Bayside.

Minibar will be open Monday through Friday, 3 – close, and starting October 25th they’ll be open on the weekends starting at 11 am. Closing time will be dependent on when sports matches that their screening ends but will typically be 10 pm on weekdays and 11 pm on weekends.