Category: Openings

Artemisia Cafe on Pleasant Street has started serving dinner, Wednesday through Saturday. The evening service is run by husband and wife team Guy and Heather. You can see photos of the menu below (click to enlarge).

The restaurant wasn’t very busy when I was there, but based on my meal (Muhummara appetizer, Pappardelle with Braised Chicken for a main course followed by Lemon Vanilla Layer Cake) I can’t imagine that will be the case for very long.

Update: According to a PFM reader comment, Heather and Guy are Maine natives who spent time working at restaurants in and around San Francisco including Chez Panisse.

Wicked Good Street Kitchen (website, facebook, twitter) and El Corazon (website, facebook, twitter) will be launching tonight at the May edition of Flea Bites.

Outlier’s Eatery (Facebook, Twitter, website) is now open. The restaurant and bar is located at 231 York Street at the street corner where Popeye’s Icebox used to be. Tivi Design—the folks who designed and built the bar at Grace—has created a very unique look for the new restaurant.

Chef Jonathan Dexter (formerly of Street & Co. and Hugo’s) is serving a menu (see below) of “sustainable farm to table” meals. The grilled rabbit entree (see below) was excellent.

 

The Porthole (website, Facebook) reopened today. Their plan is to slowly ramp up hours, serving breakfast today and tomorrow, lunch service starts Thursday and dinner will likely begin on Friday.

For additional reporting see this article from the Press Herald.

Update: i stopped by Wednesday morning and had breakfast at the bar. Their revised plan for the week is to start lunch on Friday. A start for dinner service is still TBD.

The new Rosemont location of the Crooked Mile Cafe (website, facebook) opened this weekend at 428 Brighton Ave in the space formerly occupied by Udder Cafe.

Cia quietly opened earlier this week on Wednesday. They’re located on Ocean Street in South Portland just a block or so down the road from Smaha’s.

Here are some details from the Forecaster,

Cia offers an eclectic blend of local products: coffee from Wicked Joe’s in Brunswick, ice cream by Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook, and baked goods from Two Fat Cats and Bagel Guy in Portland. The Knight family, owners of Smiling Hill Farm, have even blended a special “White Knight” ice cream for the shop – a mix of French Vanilla, salted caramel, and chocolate chunk served over a chocolate brownie with hot fudge.

For those of you keeping score, this makes for 5 openings (Enio’s, In’finiti, Little Tap House, Blue Rooster and Cia) in the last 8 days. Last year Roost, Zen, Tandem and Kushiya Benkay all open during the same week in August.

Blue Rooster Food Company (website, Facebook, Twitter) is opening tonight at 9 pm. Blue Rooster is located in the space that had the home of Big Mama’s Diner at 5 Dana Street.

Blue Rooster is a collaboration between four partners including chef Damian Sansonetti and Tom Barr, the owner of Taco Escobarr.

The menu is a mix of sandwiches ($6-7.50), specialty hot dogs ($2.75-5.00), baked goods. There’s even a tater-tot poutine. I’d recommend the Porchetta: sausage stuffed pork belly, pickled tomato, arugula, citrus mayo on a house-made focaccia.

 

Little Tap House is opening at 6 pm. For opening night they have a limited menu of drinks and complimentary apps.

The “craftbeer gastro-pub with local farm to table dining” is located at the corner of High and Spring Streets in what was once the home of Katahdin.

The menu includes a range of appetizers ($8-10), soups, salads, sandwiches, and entrees ($14-18) like cider-brined chicken with mash potatoes, roast pork shoulder with smoked cheddar grits, and grilled salmon over roasted vegetable hash. The duck confit sliders (see below) were quite tasty.

On tap opening night were beers from Bunker, Maine Beer Co., Allagash, Sebago, Brooklyn Brewery and Goose Island.

LTH is owned by Lee Goyette and the chef is Andrew Kadish.

For some additional photos and details see this First Look post from The Blueberry Files and this post on In the City.

The highly anticipated new distillery and brewpub from the owners of Novare Res, In’finiti, is now open for business. In’finiti is located at 250 Commercial Street right across the street from Three Dollar Deweys.

The house beer avaiable so far, Primus Primus, is augmented with a good selection of local brews from Allagash, Oxbow and the usual suspects. I can personally recommend the Haute Fashioned from the cocktail menu. For food you have a choice of tapas (see partial list below) and entrees (moule frites, pretzel crusted  fried chicken, etc).

For another first-hand account of the opening day’s lunch read this PFM comment. For photos of the menu see this user comment on Beer Advocate, and for some additional photos of the food and interior go to The Blueberry Files.

For additional info see this recent article from The Bollard,

“…If you’re having a pint of beer, it was brewed right here on-premise. If you’re having a cocktail, every ingredient in that cocktail was made here. So if there’s three or four different alcohols in that, we made it. If it’s a gin martini, we made the gin and the vermouth.”

 

Enio’s is now open. The South Portland Italian restaurant is run by Bob and Laura Butler who for many years operated Rachel’s L’Osteria on Woodford Street. I’ts located at 347 Cottage Rd, near Willard Square and in the former home of The Buttered Biscuit.