Category: Profiles

Ice Cream, Hip Chicks and Red Wine

| Posted in Wine, Profiles, People

Today’s Press Herald reports on a new gelato shop that’s due in September, interviews MDI Ice Cream about their new business in Portland and reports on the “Obama Bump” they’ve received since the First Family ate there.

Even President Obama couldn’t resist a coconut cone from Mount Desert Island Ice Cream in Bar Harbor during his visit to Maine last weekend. The sight of the leader of the free world enjoying his afternoon treat sent sales of coconut ice cream soaring at MDI’s Bar Harbor and Portland stores, according to owner Linda Parker. More wholesale orders came rolling in as well.

An interview with macrobiotic author and former Maine resident Jessica Porter,

A former Mainer, Porter lived in Portland when she wrote “The Hip Chick’s Guide to Macrobiotics.” The fun book — which mixes humorous advice and explanations with recipes — was published in 2004 and reigns as Amazon’s top seller in the macrobiotic category.

Porter returns to Portland next week to conduct a macrobiotic cooking class a week from today, followed by a lecture the following Friday, “Is the Macrobiotic Diet Vegan?” Both will take place at the Five Seasons Cooking School on Munjoy Hill.

and Joe Appel recommends a trio of red wines that are right for Summer.

Catbird Creamery

| Posted in Profiles

The Portland Phoenix has published a profile of Catbird Creamery, a new ice cream shop that’s found a temporary home at Fit to Eat on Market Street.

And then there’s the Furious George. “My wife came up with the name and I sat down and thought ‘What would Furious George ice cream be?'” he says. The answer: Hot pepper ice cream, caramelized bananas, and big chunks of dark chocolate. The hot pepper can be surprising, since the cream makes it linger on the tongue, but the bananas and chocolate mellow it out and bring it together. Experimenting with different combinations is a big part of the fun — [owner Andrew] Warren hopes his customers will come to trust his flavors.

Catbird is the third ice cream purveyor to open shop in Portland this Summer and that doesn’t even include the new Maple’s Scoop Shop in South Portland or the seasonal reopening of the sidewalk ice cream window at Bonobo.

Urban Farm Fermentory, Clam Shucking Champion, Picnic Wines

| Posted in General News, Profiles

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes an article about Beattie Quintal who is the reigning shucking champion at this weekend’s Yarmouth Clam Festival, advice on picnic-worthy wines and a profile of the Urban Farm Fermentory, a new venture taking shape in the Bayside neighborhood.

Even a small patch of earth in a neglected industrial area can become an oasis of food production.

That’s one of the lessons to be learned at the new Urban Farm Fermentory located on Anderson Street in Portland’s East Bayside neighborhood. Tucked in back of a single-story former warehouse and hidden from view by a jungle of Japanese knotweed, a greenhouse and a container garden grow lush and verdant with the fullness of midsummer. Here, tomatoes ripen and lavender blooms along with cilantro plants.

Guy and Stella Hernandez of Bar Lola Profiled in Find Eat Drink

| Posted in Profiles, People

Bar Lola and it’s owners Guy and Stella Hernandez are featured in a profile on Find Eat Drink penned by their former sous chef Erik Desjarlais.

In a risky career change, Guy and Stella Hernandez traded their pencils, straightedges and successful lives as architects for sauté pans, pork belly and martini shakers. They own and selflessly operate Bar Lola, a popular dinner spot on Munjoy Hill (or “The Hill” as locals call it) in Portland Maine. They have generated a very loyal following amongst locals and food tourists with Guy’s relentlessly organic and simple approach to straight-up tasty food, and Stella’s keen sense of…well…just basically making you feel welcome.

Beers of Maine: Sebago & Gritty's

| Posted in Profiles, Beer

Brews & Books blogger Josh Christie has continued his survey of Maine beer with an article about Sebago Brewing and Gritty McDuff’s.

For decades (two decades for Gritty’s, one for Sebago), the two breweries I’m looking at today have been staples in local pint glasses and refrigerators. Neither has quite the distribution around the US as an Allagash or a Shipyard, but it’s almost impossible to go to a bar in Maine and not see at least one tap devoted to Sebago and another to Gritty’s. Both also operate stellar brewpubs – bars with some of the best pub fare available in Maine.

Beers of Maine: Sebago & Gritty’s

| Posted in Profiles, Beer

Brews & Books blogger Josh Christie has continued his survey of Maine beer with an article about Sebago Brewing and Gritty McDuff’s.

For decades (two decades for Gritty’s, one for Sebago), the two breweries I’m looking at today have been staples in local pint glasses and refrigerators. Neither has quite the distribution around the US as an Allagash or a Shipyard, but it’s almost impossible to go to a bar in Maine and not see at least one tap devoted to Sebago and another to Gritty’s. Both also operate stellar brewpubs – bars with some of the best pub fare available in Maine.

Boston Globe: Two Fat Cats

| Posted in Profiles

The Boston Globe has published a profile of Two Fat Cats bakery on India Street.

The demand for traditional American confections was there, and [Dana] Street was anxious to back the project. He needed a partner to run the place. That’s where [Kristen] DuShane came in, with her two portly feline pets, Jacq and Lily, who could often be found snoozing in the building’s upstairs apartment, where DuShane lived until recently. “There was nowhere that just made a good, from-scratch cake,’’ she says.

Sun: Soakology & Shima

| Posted in Profiles, General News

Tuesday’s Portland Daily Sun includes a report on Shima’s new lounge area,

Feel like sweet-roasted red pepper? How about Maine shrimp fritter, sauteed prawns or calamari “a la plancha”? The list goes on, including additional entrees and appetizers, ranging from antipasto to cheese plates, from Japanese roast pork to salmon and haddock.

and a profile of the “foot sanctuary and teahouse” that is Soakology,

I’m brought a black almond tea, steamed with milk and honey and “Four Feet” of chocolate. Footprint-shaped wafers of chocolate from Coastline Confections in Cumberland are melted on slices of baguette and sprinkled with seasalt, the perfect internal reinforcement for the detoxifying that the Belgian cocoa is supposedly doing to my blissed out tootsies.

Sun: Soakology & Shima

| Posted in Profiles, General News

Tuesday’s Portland Daily Sun includes a report on Shima’s new lounge area,

Feel like sweet-roasted red pepper? How about Maine shrimp fritter, sauteed prawns or calamari “a la plancha”? The list goes on, including additional entrees and appetizers, ranging from antipasto to cheese plates, from Japanese roast pork to salmon and haddock.

and a profile of the “foot sanctuary and teahouse” that is Soakology,

I’m brought a black almond tea, steamed with milk and honey and “Four Feet” of chocolate. Footprint-shaped wafers of chocolate from Coastline Confections in Cumberland are melted on slices of baguette and sprinkled with seasalt, the perfect internal reinforcement for the detoxifying that the Belgian cocoa is supposedly doing to my blissed out tootsies.

SoPo Eats

| Posted in Reviews, Farming, Profiles

There have been some new additions to the dining scene in South Portland:

  • Cambridge Coffee Bar and Bakehouse is just across the bridge on Broadway where the Freaky Bean used to be located. It’s owned by Vicki Cambridge who explained to Mainebiz that she, “learned to cook from her grandmother, says she has ‘gained a baking reputation in the community, and having a shop of my own was a logical next step.’ “
  • A new Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Hanoi is giving SoPo pho-fans a way to satisfy their cravings without having to leave their hometown. Where is Jenner’s Mind writes that the pho “certainly rivals the pho at both Thanh Thanh and Saigon”
  • Willard Scoops opened last year and is getting praise for “raises the bar for gourmet ice cream in the Portland area”. Portland Eats writes that he especially “like how some of the ice creams at Willard Scoops use salt to good effect, such as in the chocolate sea salt ice cream and the salt caramel and salt caramel nut ice creams”
  • There’s even someone who’s started raising hops in South Portland.