Adweek: Might & Main

Adweek has published an article about Might & Main and how they “Helped Make Portland, Maine, the Hippest Foodie Town in New England”.

“Eventide set things into motion for us,” adds Wilkinson. “By fate of timing, and being in the right place at the right time, and stumbling into what was going to be the most exciting restaurant for Portland for a while, we ended really being at the front of a lot of what has made Portland’s food scene what it is today. We’ve continued to try to put that effort into every other restaurant that’s come along, and it came at a time when every other restaurant opening up was better than the last. It built a really cool, robust scene that keeps getting better. Our work with restaurants is beginning to taper off, so we got to own a really nice moment in time in Portland.”

 

Cups of Sea

The Forecaster has published an article about Cup of Sea (website, facebook, instagram), a Portland company selling seaweed teas.

Each blend of tea uses a different type of seaweed, Rogers said, including bladderwrack, dulse, kelp and sea lettuce. He buys only sustainably harvested seaweed from sources like the Atlantic Holdfast Seaweed Company in Deer Isle.

Once the seaweed is harvested, Rogers said it is dried and milled into flakes. Then, he said, “I get to do the easy part: blending it with other ingredients. The final product is a loose-leaf tea that you can brew just like regular tea.”

The New Roma Cafe

Today’s Press Herald includes a feature article about the memories of the old Roma Cafe and new incarnation.

The first weeks of the restaurant’s second life were filled with diners who told the staff that the Roma, closed for more than a decade, was where they’d celebrated birthdays and anniversaries, held wedding rehearsal dinners and romantic Valentine’s Day celebrations, and gotten engaged. Teenagers trying to impress each other suffered through awkward prom dates at the Roma.

See more photos of the new Roma Cafe.

Ice Cream Delivery

Today’s Press Herald includes a feature article on ice cream delivery services with a special focus on Rosanna’s, the craft ice cream operation run by Salli Wason.

While having ice cream delivered to your home is convenient, Wason’s customers say her creative flavors play just as big a role in enticing them to pick up the phone and order intriguing flavors like Thai iced tea, fresh nectarine and honey lavender. Wason posts her daily menus on her Facebook page, and changes flavors often. Like a musician, she also takes requests from customers. Most recently she tried her hand at a flavor she calls “rose red” – made with raspberries and housemade beach rose syrup – because someone told her it was popular in Paris. A customer request for blueberry-lemon with gingersnaps sold so quickly she still makes it.

Portland Barrel Co.

Mainebiz has published an article about the Portland Barrel Co. and its owner Ed Lutjens.

Lutjens works alone, planing staves so they fit together tightly, sculpting the staves’ inside and shearing off some wood outside so they’ll form a round barrel when set into hoops. He starts from the top of the barrel, placing the staves, which are of different widths, inside a metal hoop that he also hand makes. No glue is involved, so the sides of the staves need to be planed flat and fitted carefully.

Scott DeSimon and Long Grain

Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal published an article by Nancy Harmon Jenkins about Long Grain in Camden,

If I told you that one of the most captivating Asian restaurants in the country is a hole-in-the-wall in a pretty little town on the coast of Maine, would you believe me? Forget lobster rolls, I tell skeptics; you’re going to love the kao klug kapi. And the always come away from Long Grain, in Camden, with a one-word reaction: “Wow.”

and the Lewiston Sun Journal has published an interview with A-list food writer and editor, and Maine native Scott DeSimon. He will be a judge at the Down East lobster roll competition in early July.

It’s your first time judging a lobster roll competition. What will make the winner stand out? For me, the ideal roll is all about the perfect mix of mayo to perfectly cooked meat, with very little in the way of other ingredients or seasonings. And the bun needs to be hot and buttery, with a touch of crispness from the flat top. Simple, but so many people screw it up. Of course, if someone does some brilliant take on a lobster banh mi, I could be swayed.

Coffee Me Up

The Portland Phoenix has published an article about Coffee Me Up and its owners Alba Zakja and Mateo Hodo.

What sets this gem apart are three things: First, the owners, Alba Zakja and Mateo Hodo are two of the most beautiful humans I have encountered. Their smiles are warm, welcoming and real. Second, their pastry offerings are homemade and Albanian; Albania is their birthplace, although they have both become American citizens. Two of their pastries are especially delicious: Byrek is a traditional phyllo savory pastry. It’s light, unlike anything you’ll find anywhere else in Portland, and you can rely on seeing it at Coffee ME Up seven days a week. The other is Alba’s mother Simina’s Baklava.