Category: Profiles

PortlandTown has continued his photographic tour of Maine Restaurant Week with a visit to The Back Bay Grill.
Photo Credit: Michael Barriault

As part of his project to photographically document Maine Restaurant Week, PortlandTown has published a set of photos of El Rayo and The Front Room.
Photo Credit: Michael Barriault

PortlandTown has published a set of Maine Restaurant Week photos taken last night at David’s and Green Elephant.
Photo Credit: Michael Barriault

PortlandTown has published a set of Maine Restaurant Week photos taken last night at David’s and Green Elephant.

Photo Credit: Michael Barriault

The Boston Globe has published a profile of Scratch Baking Co.

So they turned Scratch into a village bakery with Cheers-like camaraderie. Johnson’s got everyone’s name and morning brews down pat. Baskets of daily breads beckon in the front window, alongside a small spread of “things that go with bread,’’ including Silver Moon Creamery cheeses from Westbrook, Maine, salumi, Johnson’s well-chosen wine collection, and really good butter.

PortlandTown has continued with his project to photograph nominees from the Phoenix’s Best of Portland readership poll. This time around he’s photographed the coffee shops: Arabica, Bard, Coffee by Design, Hilltop and North Star.
Photo Credit: Michael Barriault

PortlandTown has published a set of photos of Bresca showing chef Krista Desjarlais and her staff in action.
For an additional view of Bresca see Stephen Quirk’s photos of the restaurant from 2007.
Photo Credit: Maichael Barriault

PortlandTown has published photos of the contenders in the Neighborhood Store category from the 2010 Phoenix’s Best of Portland readership poll: Colucci’s, Fresh Approach, Micucci’s, Rosemont, and the West End Deli.
Photo Credit: Michael Barriault

The recent launches of Boda and Sonny’s are reminders that a growing number of Portland area food business are tied together by some degree of common ownership. Some of the connections are readily apparent such as Harding Lee Smith’s three ‘Room’ restaurants which share a single website and others are little less visible.
Note: I’ve continued to keep this list up to date as the business landscape continue to evolve (March 2011).
Here are the budding food empires that I’m aware of:

• The Front Room, The Grill Room, The Corner Room and Boone’s
• Fore Street and Street & Co.
• Five Fifty-Five, Petite Jacqueline and Portland Patisserie
• Nosh and Slab
• Tempo Dulu and Natalie’s (Camden)
• Evo and the Chebeague Island Inn
• David’s, David’s 388 and David’s Opus Ten
• Hugo’s, Eventide Oyster Co. and The Honey Paw
• Bard Coffee and Wicked Joe Coffee
• Aurora Provisions and the Museum Cafe
• Green Elephant and Boda (and a Green Elephant in Portsmouth)
• Local 188, Sonny’s and Salvage BBQ
• Shay’s and the Crooked Mile Cafe
• Maine Beer and Beverage and Market House Coffee
• Pat’s Pizza and Grille 233 in Yarmouth
• Shipyard Brewing, Casco Bay Brewing, Sea Dog Brewing and The Inn on Peaks Island
• Lolita and Hilltop Coffee Shop
• Miyake and Pai Men Miyake
• Novare Res and Liquid Riot Bottling Co.
• Benkay and Kushiya Benkay
• Zen Chinese Bistro and Mediteranean Grill(Freeport)
• Blackbird Baking and Two Fat Cats
• Pom’s Thai Taste and its 3 sisters
• The North Point and Timber
• Bonfire, The Drink Exchange, Dusk and 51 Wharf
• There’s a family connection that links the owners of DiMillo’s Floating Restaurant,and Bruno’s
• And there are the many businesses with multiple locations that have the same name like Coffee by Design, Tandem Coffee and Rosemont Market

There are probably others, what am I missing?