Category: People

Interview with Micahel Angelone

| Posted in People, History

Portland Magazine has published an interview with Michael Angelone about the history of Pizza by Angelone.

It’s as unlikely for an origin story to be true as it is for a slice of pepperoni to realize it isn’t a savory island surrounded by icebergs of cheese in a sea of tomato sauce.

Angelone’s is the rare exception.

It was and is the first pizza shop ever in Maine. Established in 1947 and constant as the North Star, the local chain survives in the form of Angelone’s West at 768 Main Street in Westbrook.

F&W: Use of Salt in Cocktails

| Posted in People, Distilling & Cocktails

Both Magnus on Water in Biddeford and Bold Coast Spirits’s new Marine 01 oyster shell vodka were mentioned in a new Food & Wine article about the use of salt in cocktails which in part read,

Other products, like Bold Coast Spirits from Maine, infuse the spirit with a salty ingredient, like the brand’s Marine 01, an oyster shell–infused vodka…Brian Catapang, beverage director and co-owner of Magnus on Water in Biddeford, Maine, likes Marine 01 because it comes “properly seasoned” straight from the bottle. “I do not think of it as adding overt savory notes so much as contributing texture and minerality,” he says. “In a great Martini, texture is everything. The difference between something exceptional and something forgettable often comes down to mouthfeel.”

Photo Credit: Photograph courtesy of Bold Coast Spirits.

Rod Mitchell at Browne Trading

| Posted in People

Mainebiz reports that founder Rod Mitchell is stepping down as the CEO of Browne Trading.

More than three decades after founding Browne Trading Co. on Portland’s waterfront, Rod Browne Mitchell is stepping down as CEO of the specialty food vendor he built into a nationally recognized brand.

Mitchell will stay on with the company as brand ambassador, while David Yourd, who has served as president since May 2025, will take the reins as CEO.

Stadler Wins America’s Culinary Cup

| Posted in People

Chef Cara Stadler won the America’s Culinary Cup in the final episode that aired last night on CBS. She takes home a $1 million prize. Parade magazine has the details of the dish that helped her win,

Certainly what helped set her apart was her final meal, which was something even Lakshmi hasn’t tasted before. “Cara made this beautiful dish of tea with some dumplings in it, which I had never seen before,” she says of the chef’s third and final presentation, which Stadler described on the show as a fusion of English and Asian cultures. 

Stadler was named a Best New Chef by Food & Wine in 2014 and was a Beard Awards nominee for Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2015. She formerly ran a set of restaurants in Portland and Brunswick along with her mother Cecile Stadler.

Interview with Dan Zarin

| Posted in People

The Press Herald has published an interview with Dan Zarin, the longtime restaurant critic who’s been writing The Breakfast Serial series for The Bollard for two decades.

How has Greater Portland’s breakfast scene evolved over the last two decades?
What has changed is its volume and variety. There are certainly dozens more places now, and a lot more variety of approaches to breakfast. You’re always going to have your diners and your standard hotel brunch places, but then you get places that show up doing something unexpected like (Balkan-inspired) Nom Café. Nobody’s doing that. Wakie Wakie’s (Thai fusion) in Westbrook is fun, and something I haven’t had before.

Milo Ryan-Humphrey at Brewers Cup

| Posted in People

Milo Ryan-Humphrey from Another Round will be going to North Carolina later this month to compete in the US Brewers Cup Championship—one of 24 competitors from around the country.

As shared by Another Round, “Competitors spend months preparing a recipe with their own choice of specialty coffee. Preparing these recipes is an incredibly involved process involving trialing different types of filters, grind sizes, even temperatures and mineral content of the water. Milo will be competing with a washed-process Geisha from Panama expertly roasted by Onyx Coffee Lab.”

Ryan-Humphrey will be holding two demonstrations of the Brewers Cup program on March 22nd at Another Round that are open to the public—tickets are available online.