Category: Under Construction

The new brunch cafe under development by chef David Mallari at 906 Brighton Ave is slated to be named The Sinful Kitchen(facebook).

Blue owner Terez Fraser has leased the space at 652 Congress with plans to expand her bar and live music venue. Fraser will be adding 50% more seating capacity as well as a stage and has applied for a revised liquor license that will enable Blue to add spirits to the their current menu of wine and beer.

Today’s Press Herald includes a report on Cellardoor Winery’s plans to open a 5,000 square foot tasting room and retail store at Thompson’s Point.

The satellite location will be known as Cellardoor at the Point and will host wine tastings, dinners, cooking classes, food-and-wine pairings and other special events. It also will have retail space for selling the company’s “Cellardoor at Home” product line, which includes jams and jellies, oils, vinegars, desserts, syrups and other food products.

Cellardoor joins Oxbow and Sweetgrass as Mid-Coast food enterprises that have opened Portland locations to better connect with the Southern Maine locals and tourists to the area.

Update: for additional information see this report from the Urban Eye.

Maine a la Carte has posted information on two new restaurants under development:

• Chef Dave Mallari, former owner of Francesco’s Blue House Cafe, plans to open a new cafe at 906 Brighton Ave in the space formerly occupied by La Familia. Mallari will serve brunch Wednesday through Sunday with a focus on gluten-free and Paleo diet options. He hopes to open in March.
• Chef Mitchell Kaldrovitch is opening MK Kitchen(website, facebook) at 2 School Street in Gorham with his wife Lisa. Kaldrovitch has worked for the past 7 years as the executive chef at the Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth. The new restaurant will serve “simple handmade food, all from scratch from desserts to pastas”. They hope to open in April.

Eater Maine has posted an interview with Suzie St. Pierre, who along with her husband are opening Isa (facebook) on Portland Street.

What makes you eager to open it in Portland, which is packed with places to eat?
We love Maine and we love Portland and we’re encouraged by the city’s passion for good food. Every city has competition and, of course, Portland doesn’t lack it. But the residents and visitors support this industry better than almost any other city in the nation, which makes us think there’s always room for another good restaurant with a different experience to offer.

The Forecaster has posted an update on the Otherside Delicatessen.

Quattrucci’s Variety at 164 Veranda St. was a neighborhood staple for more than three decades. The store closed without fanfare late last year, but the building won’t be empty very long.

Peter Sueltenfuss leased the building on Jan. 1 for the Otherside Delicatessen, which will open around Jan. 26, he said – as long as telephone and Internet connections are done.

Oxbow Brewing has also applied for a liquor license so they can serve wine, spirits, food (draft menu, page 39) and beers from other brewers along with their own products at their tasting room on Washington Ave.

Although we have been enjoying a steady early draw of customers to our new Portland tasting room, it has quickly become apparent that the ability to provide a more complete [experience] would generate substantially more traffic to our location, and subsequently to the many small businesses that surround us. To be able to maximize the potential of our space, we would like to have the option of preparing snacks as well as serving guest beers, wines and spirits from other local artisan producers.

Steve and Michelle Corry have applied for a liquor license for Portland Patisserie, the new bakery/cafe they have under development at 46 Market Street.

The cafe will serve “classic French pastries along with crepes, sandwiches, salads and coffee” as well as pies, cakes and other French baked goods. The full draft menu can be found on pages 58-62 of the City Council agenda. Here’s a small  excerpt:

Portland Patisserie is scheduled to be open 7 days a week, 6am to 8pm. In addition to the baked goods the cafe will stock a selection of wine, beer and champagne for retails sale and will sell specialty foods such as French cheeses, charcouterie, spices and fresh-baked breads.

The Corry’s recently were issued a building permit for the space and so construction should be starting up soon. They hope to have Portland Patisserie open in the March/April time frame. The floor plan has a what looks like a central retail display area and seating for 33 at tables around the perimeter of the room.

Owners Eric and Julie Michaud have announced plans to rename and reconcept In’finiti as the Liquid Riot Bottling Company (facebook, instagram, twitter).

Part of the new identity of Liquid Riot is the “tasting room.” The raised dining area of In’finiti has been removed in order to open up the space and bring the room together on one level. Instead of a “restaurant” which typically has a focus on food, we now have a “tasting room” where one can focus on the taste of our cocktails made from our house-made spirits and the taste of our beer brewed on premise. To accompany these offerings we will have tasty, fresh food prepared in our kitchen. You can still get a full meal or just apps and snacks, just as you can still get an array of intoxicatingly delicious liquids. Our products are not changing, just the name, a little bit of the layout, and the idea of what that space provides.

The Michauds are just completing a renovation of the space at 250 Commercial Street and plan to re-open the business today at 3pm.

Urban Eye reports that Unwined is scheduled to open on Friday.

Located next to Speckled Axe and steps from MECA, Unwined is poised to be a causal alternative, custom made for those moments when a double espresso just won’t cut it. “Our main goal is to become a local attraction. A place you visit before you go out to dinner, or afterwards to relax,” he said.