Category: Profiles

The Honey Exchange

| Posted in People, Profiles

This week’s Food & Dining section in the Press Herald features an interview with Phil and Meghan Gaven, owners of The Honey Exchange on Stevens Ave.

“This is a spring honey from a hive in Ferry Village, and this is the fall honey from that same hive,” Meghan Gaven said. “So the same bees in the same place, just different times of year, made these two different colors and flavors of honey.”

A recent selection at the tasting bar included a honey made by a police officer/beekeeper in Wells and a basswood honey from Pennsylvania that is “everything I like about honey but with the volume turned way up,” Phil Gaven said. “It’s real crystalline and brilliant.”

Miss Portland Diner

| Posted in Profiles

Today’s Press Herald featured a front page story on the Miss Portland Diner.

In the three years since Tom Manning rescued and reopened the Miss Portland Diner, he has come to appreciate the many challenges of running a restaurant.

A change in the weather, good or bad, can draw a crowd to the old Worcester Lunch Car on Marginal Way or leave his staff with plenty of time to fill salt and pepper shakers. A spike in gas prices can drive up supply costs and make it tough to keep meatloaf and hash browns affordable.

New England Distilling Co.

| Posted in People, Profiles

Mainebiz has published a profile of Ned Wight and his new company New England Distilling.

Ned Wight comes from a long line of distillers. His forebears made whiskey for about 100 years in Maryland until the 1950s, when the Wight family distillery was finally sold. Now, more than half a century later, he’s returning to the family trade and opening a small craft distillery in Portland, hoping to profit from a reawakened thirst for artisanal spirits, or what is sometimes referred to as boutique booze.

New Miyake

| Posted in Profiles

Maine Travel Maven has written about her visit to the new Miyake.

Let’s start with the space. It’s chic, sophisticated, sleek, and comfortable, decorated in earthy tones heavy on charcoal and natural woods. The tables are set with stoneware accents and chopsticks rest on small stones. Chairs are supportive and comfortable. Adornments are few; the patterned ceiling adds texture without being obtrusive.

Mobile Food

| Posted in Profiles

The Press Herald has published an article about Portland food carts,

While hot dogs are a food-cart staple, there are plenty of alternatives for anyone who’s looking for a quick and tasty lunch. Food carts in Portland offer everything from burgers and lobster rolls to ice cream, pizza, falafel, cookies, tacos, barbecue and shish kabobs.

and the Portland Phoenix has profiled a lobster roll vendor at Fort Williams as well as examined what’s holding back food truck culture in Portland,

While this location is ideal, next year the couple hopes to be rolling down the streets of the Old Port. They were originally inspired to start a food trailer after visiting Austin, Texas last year. “The food trailer scene there is huge,” she says. “I practically ate every meal out of a truck the week I was there.” She couldn’t figure out why Portland — in all its foodie-town glory — doesn’t have more of a mobile-food scene. And then she found out: city ordinances and tight restrictions block the trend.

See the PFM Directory for a list of the food carts in Portland.