Category: Profiles

Ajambo Africa has published an article about Oga Suya, the mobile Nigerian barbecue business owned by Young Francis and Rose Barboza.

Francis grew up in Nigeria surrounded by a big family, where food played a significant role in his upbringing. He worked in restaurants growing up, and his skills and passion for cooking – combined with Barboza’s business savvy – are a winning combination. “Young is just an amazing chef. Since we’ve met, I just don’t cook anymore. … He carefully blends a mix of spices and peanuts to create a nutty, smoky, and spicy flavor that is unmatched,” said Barboza.  

Author Lillian Lama has also profiled several other restaurants for Ajambo Africa including one of Tostones Cafe, Flores, Sal de la Terre, and Yardie Ting.

The Bangor Daily News has published an article about Harmon’s Lunch the venerable burger spot in Falmouth.

Each burger at Harmon’s starts with one or two two-ounce locally sourced beef patties, cooked on a flat top and served on a steamed bun with or without cheese. Wormell said he can fit 22 burgers on the restaurant’s flattop at one time, and can work through about 85 burgers in an hour.

Down East has published an article about the Top of the East which reopened this summer after extensive renovations.

Could it be that my new favorite cocktail bar in Portland is a chain hotel’s lounge? Those sorts of places are supposed to be for weary business travelers too uninspired to venture elsewhere, and yet the question weighed on me as I sipped a very good old-fashioned — subtle sweetness, restrained bittering, judicious dilution — at Top of the East, in Marriott’s downtown Westin. I tried to talk myself out of it: the vests and bowties on the staff were, perhaps, symptomatic of trying too hard at sophistication, and ouch, 20 bucks is awfully steep for an old-fashioned, even in our inflationary age. But Top of the East is the rare exorbitant cocktail joint that’s probably worth the price of admission, especially on account of the stellar views from 15 stories up.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes articles about The Lost Fire in Kennebunkport,

As the restaurant’s asador, or grill master, Lucarelli started the fires an hour earlier, at 4 p.m., so they’d be ready in time for 5 p.m. service. His Argentinian grill has crank wheels that let Lucarelli raise or lower the grill grate, away or toward the flames, but nothing needs adjustment. After four years of open-fire cooking in this kitchen – which doesn’t even have a propane hookup – he can tell when the heat is right practically by instinct.

and about Dennett’s Wharf in Castine.

First built as a sail loft to manufacture big canvases and at one time home to nine-pin bowling lanes, Dennett’s Wharf has been a restaurant and lounge for at least two generations now. Among the handful of spots in town to get a cocktail and a bite to eat, for residents, it’s most like an extension of home.

Colby College has published an article about alum Ben Wexler and his Peaks pizza business Il Leone.

Step off the ferry onto an island with pristine sandy beaches, cliffside bed-and-breakfasts, and a destination-worthy wood-fired pizza oven. This isn’t a place on the Italian Riviera. It’s a small, 740-acre island called Peaks Island, part of the city of Portland, Maine.

This week’s Portland Phoenix includes an article about the SMCC culinary school.

Their instructor, chef Bo Byrne, explains why he has 50 pounds of chicken bones in a pot in the back corner of the kitchen (for 20 gallons of chicken stock) to be mixed into the pot of beans he also has going for a traditional French cassoulet.

Near the conclusion of their two-year education at the South Portland bayside college, these young professionals are on a new, nuanced track into the hospitality industry.

Visit the SMCC site for more information about the SMCC Culinary Arts Program.

Mainer has published an article about the Fresh Approach Market.

During its first week, in February of 1992, the fledgling family business also got a boost from an unexpected source: Portland’s restaurant industry. Steve Harris, the legendary proprietor of Ruski’s Tavern, on the West End, and Rosie’s, the Old Port pub on Fore Street, walked into Fresh Approach just days after they’d opened and placed meat orders for both establishments. Harris, who passed away in 2009, was also the head of the local restaurant association, and by the end of the week Fresh Approach had eight or nine restaurant accounts. 

The USM Free Press has published an article about the Urban Farm Fermentory.

Cayer created this company as a way to collect the tastes and smells and local goods of his community to take a visceral snapshot and a reflection of the time. Only using local and native ingredients as a base of all of his flavors.