Stavros Elias Shamos, the longtime owner of Quality Shop on Stevens Ave, passed away earlier this week at the age of 91.
Steve owned and operated The Quality Shop on Stevens Avenue in Portland for his whole working career, expanding the business to include his son, who owns it to this day. A local icon in Deering Center, many people knew Steve as a hard worker who ran his business as a perfectionist and a gentleman.
MaineToday.com has published a brief interview with Larry Matthews, chef/owner of the Back Bay Grill.
How did you get here?
I was born here and never really left. That’s the truth. I was born in Portland and I’ve lived in 12 different towns over the years. My family on both sides goes really far back – in fact, we can trace family to Campobello Island in the 1600s. I am a seventh generation Mainer on both sides. At some point we obviously crossed the bridge from Canada and came to Maine, and we stayed. My dad was a lobsterman, so was his dad.
The Portland Daily Sun has published a profile of Steve and Renee’s Diner.
Renee was having trouble getting into the interview because she saw that my breakfast was getting cold. We had to take a break so I could finish eating, then things were fine. She cared. Just couldn’t get away from it.
Therein lies the tale. At Steve & Renee’s Diner it’s all about people. Has been for the twenty-nine years they’ve been in business. “Just don’t call us a restaurant,” she said, “there’s restaurants all over the place. We’re a diner, like the ones that used to exist in Portland. When people come in here they’re family.”
Russell Libby, the longtime Executive Director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, passed away early Sunday morning after a battle with cancer.
Russell lent his extraordinary leadership skills to MOFGA for almost 30 years. He served on the Board of Directors for a decade before becoming its long-serving Executive Director in 1995. He held that position until November 2 of this year, when he assumed the title of Senior Policy Advisor. In that role he continued to guide the organization with his characteristic wisdom, compassion and dedication, even as his health failed.
For more information see the Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald, Broadturn Farm, MPBN, Maine Cheese Guild and MOFGA on Facebook.
The State flew flags at half-staff to honor his passing.
Joe Ricchio has announced he’s moving to Boston.
Why? Well, I’ve accepted a sales position with an established wine company, which is certainly the catalyst for the transition. More importantly though I think it’s important for Food Coma to expand a bit (and really, Boston is closer to Portland than Camden!), and there are few things I enjoy more than drinking and eating my way through a new city, so this seemed like as good a time as any to pull the trigger and get the f[***] out of dodge.
The Munjoy Hill News has published a report on the Three Buoys Seafood Shanty and Grille which opened earlier this week on Cumberland Ave.
The two business partners behind 3 Buoys are former Legal Seafood officials. Bill Park, chef/owner, directed the test kitchen for it. “I got tired of being a number,” Park said recently. Legal Seafood has 30 restaurants between Boston and Florida. Although they do have growth in mind, the first and highly successful 3 Buoys in York will always be the flagship restaurant for Park. Currently, he’s looking for the right chef to step into his shoes here so Park can return to the larger York restaurant. The other business partner is Bill Holler, formerly vp of purchasing at Legal Seafood, Boston, with his wife Nikole. She’s former employee in the seafood business and is the operations manager at 3 Buoys. Nikole is looking for a few good servers, to fill out the staff. Currently Katie Haggerty is doing that job.
Dispatch has published an interview with one of my favorite Portland bartenders, Jeremy Sossei at Boda,
Because you were a novice until three years ago, did you find yourself researching drinking history like a mad man?
Oh God, yeah. Absolutely. I still am. I also went around to different bars and tried to watch and see how people made things. I was never much of a cocktail drinker before this job and honestly I don’t drink a lot of cocktails still right now. This job has kind of spoiled me in that I just developed a taste for hard liquor and it’s hard to go back once you get used to it.
and a profile of Dean’s Sweets.
As [owner Dean] Bingham humbly began recounting his journey in chocolate-making, his wife chimed in. “You were making some chocolate truffles and your friends all said ‘You should sell these!’”
“And I tell people that I foolishly believed them!” Bingham playfully countered.
Eater Maine has published an interview with Gingko Blue bartender Guy Streitburger.
What do you think of current cocktail trends? Are there some that you just say “no,” I’m not doing that?
The more weird trends there are, it makes people want to explore and try out all kinds of new things. I’m not a fan of fruity/sweet cocktails but some customers like those drinks, so I have to be able to make them. A sour apple martini is like fingernails on a chalkboard for me and for the longest time I didn’t carry anything apple so I could just say no. But now, if you really want it that badly, I’ll make it.
Dispatch has published an interview with Brian Boru bartender Whitney Reynolds.
Thoughts on the term mixologist?
Well my idea of a mixologist is a little different. To me it’s mixing everything that goes into bartending, which is creating a certain atmosphere. I’ve always worked at places where it’s not so much about making this amazing drink that you’ve never had before that you can’t get anywhere else. It’s more about knowing who’s walking in the door, knowing their name, and having their drink on the bar by the time they get to you.
The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a set of holiday food gift ideas,
Think of these items as hostess gifts you can take to all the holiday parties you’ll be attending this year, or as not-so-last-minute stocking stuffers. Some of these ideas are things I’ve written about earlier in the year, while others are brand new items I have given as gifts myself.
The common denominator: I promise you I have tried them all and liked them.
an interview with the Maine delegates who attended the Slow Food conference in Italy in October,
Fellow farmer and Maine delegate Sarah Bostick works for the New Americans Sustainable Agriculture Project at Cultivating Community, where she teaches Maine farming techniques to immigrant farmers from warmer climates. In addition, she runs a permaculture design business.
Bostick went to the conference looking for specific ideas that could help her in her work with immigrant farmers.
a report on a hog butchering workshop scheduled to take place at Local Sprouts in December.
Also in today’s paper is an update on restaurant health inspections,
The Wok Inn, which was shut down after failing four health inspections since April, is among four Portland restaurants to be closed in the past two months for health code violations. The other three — Sapporo Restaurant, The Loft and Mekhong Thai — have reopened after correcting violations.
and a report on a program that’s teaching Portland Pirates players how to cook healthy meals for themselves.
Chris Brown, a 21-year-old forward from Flower Mound, Texas, who calls himself “a sometimes cooker,” credited his ease with a knife to a lifetime of hunting deer. “I’m not a big vegetable person, so all these greens are freaking me out a little bit,” he said.
Brown said he is trying to eat better, and hopes the cooking class will help.