Under Construction: Bramhall Speakeasy, Otto Pizza and Jazeera Market

The Portland food scene continues to grow and develop:

  • The old Bramhall Pub space in the basement of the Roma/Quimby Colony building at 769 Congress Street has been leased. The owners are planning to launch a “old school speakeasy with American comfort food”. They hope to open sometime this Summer after renovations are complete.
  • Otto Pizza has leased a space at 125 John Roberts Road in South Portland to handle their delivery business in the Portland area.
  • Jazeera Market, currently located at 652 Congress Street, will be moving to 625 Forest Ave in Woodford Corner. This move one of several that quickly changing the set of retail shops in the first floor of the Lafayette Apartments building.

For more information on food businesses under development see the PFM Under Construction List.

Under Construction: Lolita

Lolita (facebook, website), the new restaurant that Guy and Stella Hernandez and their business partners have under construction in the East End, has applied for a liquor license.

As usual the application includes a floor plan (shown below) and draft menu (page 39). The owners are aiming to launch Lolita in May and will be open 7 days a week, 11 am to 11 pm. It will be located at 90 Congress Street.

lolita_plan

Under Construction: Mittapheap, New Dana Street, Gourmaine

Here are a pair of new items for the Under Construction List:

Black Dinah’s Portland Expansion

Maine a la Carte has published an update on Black Dinah’s expansion into Portland.

At this point, the Portland expansion does not include a retail store. (Black Dinah chocolates are already sold in Portland at LeRoux Kitchen and Browne Trading Co., both located on Commercial Street.)

“It would just be too much to do all at once,” Shaffer said. “The first thing is maintain quality and get production up, and start getting our name more out there.”

Under Construction: CBD in East Bayside

Urban Eye has posted an article about the new CBD in East Bayside.

An experimental lab for everything emergent in coffee science is percolating in East Bayside. When Coffee By Design’s new Portland cafe opens March 4th (mark it down coffee pilgrims) the 20 year-old company will finally live up to its name.

CBD’s new cafe is scheduled to open on March 4th at 6:30 am.

Under Construction: Lolita

Lolita (facebook) will be the name of the new restaurant that Guy and Stella Hernandez along with business partner Neil Reiter have under construction at 90 Congress Street. Lolita will serve “American cuisine with a Mediterranean flare” in a completely renovated 28-seat space which includes a custom designed zinc bar for 10.

lolita2Check out the Lolita facebook page for more information and to stay up to date on the latest developments as they make progress towards an opening date in May.

Lolita’s website is at www.lolita-portland.com.