Category: Profiles

The Press Herald has kicked off a new series, Maine at Work,with a look at the work life of Mark Boissonneault, a senior brewer at Shipyard.

And, to my horror, there was math.

Boissonneault showed me his recipe sheet for the day’s batch of Shipyard Export Ale, and I instantly had a flashback to high school algebra. There were numbers with six or seven numerals after the decimal point, and equations where “bitterness values” are assigned to various kinds of hops. (The bitterness value is calculated by multiplying the alpha acids by the weight of the hops, by the way.)

This is way too much math, I thought. I need a drink.

A Blog About Beer has published a profile of Maine Beer Co.

I really see great things in the future for the Maine Beer Co. They are providing Maine-made beer unlike every other beer made here. In Portland, it’s either all English-style ales or the Belgians of Allagash, but there wasn’t anything like the great beers being made in the Midwest and West Coast of the U.S., something Maine was severely lacking. Until now. If they can keep pumping out beers equal in quality and taste to the Spring Peeper and their first experimental (and Brown IPA which was on tap at Novare and the GLB a week or two ago) beer, they have nowhere to go but up.

The Natural Foodie column in today’s Press Herald examines the regulatory challenges encountered by two farmers in setting up a prepared food cart at the Farmers’ Market. The collaborative venture is called Farmer’s Cart and appears at the weekly Wednesday markets.

When life gives you bruised potatoes, make homefries. Or potato salad.

This is what Simon Frost of Thirty Acre Farm in Whitefield and Daniel Price of Freedom Farm in Freedom are doing with their unsold and B-grade potatoes. The two farmers sell vegetables, meats and fermented foods each week at the Portland Farmers’ Market. A month ago, they launched the city’s first local food street vendor venture, aptly named the Farmer’s Cart.

The Natural Foodie column in today’s Press Herald examines the regulatory challenges encountered by two farmers in setting up a prepared food cart at the Farmers’ Market. The collaborative venture is called Farmer’s Cart and appears at the weekly Wednesday markets.

When life gives you bruised potatoes, make homefries. Or potato salad.

This is what Simon Frost of Thirty Acre Farm in Whitefield and Daniel Price of Freedom Farm in Freedom are doing with their unsold and B-grade potatoes. The two farmers sell vegetables, meats and fermented foods each week at the Portland Farmers’ Market. A month ago, they launched the city’s first local food street vendor venture, aptly named the Farmer’s Cart.

This week’s edition of the Portland Phoenix includes an interview with Steve Corry, chef/owner of Five Fifty-Five.

As a chef in Portland, one of the challenges has been striking a balance between the local and tourist communities. “In trying to please those from afar, it’s hard to anticipate when and how to adjust the menu and still keep the savvy Portland community happy,” he said. A spike in culinary awareness in the city, thanks largely to national and local media attention as well as a thriving culinary-focused blogosphere, has increased expectations among patrons — local and visitor.

This week’s edition of the Portland Phoenix includes an interview with Steve Corry, chef/owner of Five Fifty-Five.

As a chef in Portland, one of the challenges has been striking a balance between the local and tourist communities. “In trying to please those from afar, it’s hard to anticipate when and how to adjust the menu and still keep the savvy Portland community happy,” he said. A spike in culinary awareness in the city, thanks largely to national and local media attention as well as a thriving culinary-focused blogosphere, has increased expectations among patrons — local and visitor.

The Boston Globe has published a profile of Cinque Terre with a focus on the restaurant’s farm-to-table approach.

If local farmers can’t supply a vegetable he needs for his Northern Italian kitchen, Skawinski will likely grow it from Italian seed at the restaurant’s Grand View Farm in Greene. “If we could only raise citrus in Maine, we’d be set,’’ he says. “All the other produce, there’s a way.’’

The Portland Phoenix has published an interview with Rachels L’Osteria about their move in 2003 out of the Old Port and to Woodford Street.

“People thought we were crazy,” says Bob Butler, co-owner and front-of-the-house manager at Rachels L’Osteria. But moving out of the Old Port and into their current space at 496 Woodford Street was more of a dream come true for the couple. “This is what we’ve always thought of as our restaurant,” says Laura Butler. “It’s more personal for us and for our customers.”

The owners of Uffa made a similar move when they left Longfellow Square and moved to Westbrook and became The Frog and Turtle. Are there other examples out of restaurants that moved away from the peninsula?

The Portland Phoenix has published an interview with Rachels L’Osteria about their move in 2003 out of the Old Port and to Woodford Street.

“People thought we were crazy,” says Bob Butler, co-owner and front-of-the-house manager at Rachels L’Osteria. But moving out of the Old Port and into their current space at 496 Woodford Street was more of a dream come true for the couple. “This is what we’ve always thought of as our restaurant,” says Laura Butler. “It’s more personal for us and for our customers.”

The owners of Uffa made a similar move when they left Longfellow Square and moved to Westbrook and became The Frog and Turtle. Are there other examples out of restaurants that moved away from the peninsula?