The Send Brewing in Knightville

The Send Brewing Company (instagram) is under construction in the Knightville neighborhood of South Portland. Cole Corbin (linkedin) is the new owner of the former Foulmouthed Brewing property in where he plans to launch a new brewery and restaurant.

The Send will serve a menu of Japanese comfort food and they’ll be brewing a variety of beer styles including some rice-based Japanese-style lagers to complement the food menu.

For 8 years Corbin worked at Maine Beer Company initially as a brewer and then as the director of brewing operations and the technical director for the Freeport-based brewery. He’s since been a prep cook at Nighthawk’s Kitchen and a bartender at Mast Landing. Earlier in his career Corbin was an aerospace engineer at NASA.

He is planning some light renovations to the dining room and hopes to open The Send this fall.

Foulmouthed Brewing closed at the end of April and at the time shared that the business had been sold to someone with “plenty of experience working within the industry here in Maine” planning to reopen the Ocean Street property as a brewery and restaurant under a new name.

Rabelais Books on Washington Ave

Don Lindgren has leased a retail space at The Black Box on Washington Ave which will become a temporary retail shop for his acclaimed culinary bookstore Rabelais Books (website, facebook, instagram) during the months of July, August and September.

The shop will feature a mixture of food and drink-related books, ephemera, and artifacts, mixing new and recent publications with old and rare cookbooks, recipe manuscripts, and culinary ephemera.

Once a behemoth of a cookbook shop in Biddeford’s North Dam Mill, the tiny container space will be a cabinet of curiosities, featuring a mixture of food and drink-related books, ephemera, and artifacts. Mixing new and recent publications with old and rare cookbooks, recipe manuscripts, and culinary ephemera, we expect a visit to Rabelais’ tiny space to make a gargantuan impact on what you think about cookbooks, or food writing, or culinary history.

Lindgren plans to launch this pocket-sized Rabelais on the July 4th weekend. The regular hours of operation will be Wednesday through Monday, 11 am to 7 pm. It will be located in the space immediately to the right of Moonday Coffee.

Rabelais was named to the Saveur 100 list of their favorite foods, people, places, and things, was called the “Best Cookbook Shop in America” by Andrew Knowlton in Bon Appetite, and was featured in the Maine episode of the show of Somebody Feed Phil. Launched in 2007 in the storefront that’s now home to Eventide on Middle Street, Rabelais was in the city to witness and participate in its rise as a culinary destination. In 2012 the bookshop moved to Biddeford. Lindgren closed the Biddeford store in September 2023 and since then has operated Rabelais as a virtual business.

Lindgren has spent an active life in the book trade. He has served on the Board of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of American, was a presenter at the Oxford Food Symposium in 2017 and in 2019, and was named a Literary Lion in the 2023 Readable Feast honors program. He was a contributing author to the Maine Community Cookbooks and currently serves as a Board member of Community Plate, an organization dedicated to facilitating connection and building community through a common language of food, shared food stories and recipes.

Cuties in the Old Port

A group of friends and industry professionals—Bryce Summers, Garrett Lenderman, Ryan Nielsen, Arvid Brown and Nick Coffin—have teamed up to lease the former Petite Jacqueline space where they plan to open Cuties (instagram).

Cuties will be an all-day bar that starts off as a coffee shop in the morning and transitions in the evening into a wine and cocktail bar.  There will be a mix of bar and lounge seating and a drink rail that runs the length of the windows facing Market Street.

The vision for Cuties is to offer a brightly lit and welcoming space for folks to gather over low-ABV drinks, coffee and laptops during the day. Evenings will morph into an unfussy wine and cocktail bar and will highlight an affordable bottle list and playful drinks like unique frozen cocktails, a rotating margarita menu and an espresso martini on nitro. Later into the night Cuties will embrace a “lights down, music up” atmosphere that encourages good times while still offering good product. The food program will be a tight, fresh, and fun selection of snacks that aims to complement the beverage offerings.

Lenderman and Summers currently work at Bar Futo where Summer is the bar manager, Nielsen was the initial chef at Magnus and operates the Wild Haven pop-up series, and Coffin and Brown are the owners of Room for Improvement which launched in 2023.

The team plans to fully launch into renovations this fall and hopes to launch Cuties this winter.

New Onggi Cafe Opens Friday

Onggi (websiteinstagram) will be launching a new cafe on Friday which will be open Wednesday through Sunday, 9 am – 4 pm.

The counter service cafe will be located in the back room of their storefront at 131 Washington Ave and be accessible through door on the right side of the building.

The menu (see below) includes coffee featuring 44 North Coffee, teas, refreshers, a variety of  house specialty drinks and food. Several matcha drinks are on the menu including matcha and hojicha lattes, strawberry milk matcha and a lychee matcha soda. The cafe will serve the baked goods Onggi and pastry chef Amy Ng have become known for, like the sourdough chocolate chip cookies and miso scallion scones. A yogurt parfait and a savory overnight oats dish will be joining the menu.

Amy Ng, Erin Zobitz, and Marcus Im launched Onggi in 2021 and moved the store to its current location in April 2022.

Restaurant Real Estate: June 2024

Welcome to the June 2024 edition of the Portland Food Map restaurant real estate listings sponsored by The Boulos Company—a commercial real estate brokerage that has helped Maine’s restauranteurs buy and lease restaurant spaces since 1975.

This resource gathers in one convenient place the spaces available in Portland (and a few in the surrounding area) that could be potential sites for restaurants and food producers and retailers to locate their next business. Finding the right spot is one of the crucial early challenges in launching a new business and hopefully this resource will make that step just a little bit easier.

West End/Parkside

867 Congress St – the 3,200 sq ft former church that had been slated to be a new home of Vena’s is for sale for $725,000.

Arts District

553 Congress St – the commercial kitchen in the former Five Fifty Five space (now leased by the Core Cannabis Museum) is available to a co-tenant for $2,000/month (MG).

554 Congress St – 1,621 sq ft former Dunkin’ Donuts space for $2,301/month (NNN).

594 Congress St – the 2,592 sq ft space in the Upper H. H. Hay Building formerly occupied by Starbucks is available for $28/sq ft (MG).

600 Congress St – for lease signs are in the window of the ground floor space at the corner of High and Congress. The Schwartz Building has been under renovation for a decade. For more info call (207) 773-7100.

Bayside/Inner Washington

73 Cove St – a 5,519 sq ft industrial space in East Bayside is listed for $35/sq ft; it’s expected to become available later this year.

52 Hanover St – On the first floor of a new building will be 1,500 – 4,500 sq ft retail space available for $30/sq ft (NNN). One spot in the building has earmarked for a coffee shop.

178 Kennebec St – 2,644 sq ft of space are available in a newly constructed Bayside building for $25/sq ft (NNN).

55 Washington Ave – this 7,815 sq ft space is in the Nissen Bakery building right in between Cong Tu Bot and Hardshore Distillery. It’s available for $13,708/month (NNN).

Old Port

1 Canal Plaza – 4,284 – 14,412 sq ft of ground floor retail space will be available as part of upcoming renovations; $30/sq ft (NNN).

15 Chestnut St – the building that was home to Grace restaurant is for sale. It includes the property, business assets and all FF&E. The restaurant seats 175 and features a large circular bar on the first floor of the former church. The building has 14,358 sq ft of space. It’s for sale for $2,985,000.

185 Commercial St – a new building under construction will include 2,334 sq ft of ground floor retail space that will be available in 2024 for $55/sq ft (NNN).

383 Commercial St – 1,193 – 4,805 square feet of space in a newly constructed building on Commercial Street is available for $28/sq ft (NNN).

201 Federal St – a2,300 sq ft space in the new 18-story Casco building is available for $40/sq ft (MG). The building owners are looking for someone who wants to open a market in that space.

420 Fore St – the space formerly occupied by the Old Port Slice Bar is for lease. The 2,600 sq ft space is available for $40/sq ft (MG).

442 Fore St – the former Venus and Mars cannabis shop is for lease; 2,400 sq ft at $55/sq ft (MG).

477 Fore St – the 1,134 sq ft space formerly occupied by B + B Bakery is available for $25-30/sq ft (MG).

40 Free St – a 1,511 sq ft space in the new building constructed by JB Brown is available for $27.50/sq ft (NNN).

28 Market St – the 850 sq ft space formerly occupied by Lucky Juju is available for lease for $2,250/month (MG).

55 Market St – this 3,700 sq ft space on Market Street was formerly occupied by the Big Easy. It’s available for $18/sq ft (NNN).

111 Middle St – the 1,622 sq ft former Cabana building is for lease for $3,500/month (NNN).

121 Middle St – a 2,482 sq ft retail spot is available for $45/sq ft (MG).

157 Middle St – 1,091 – 5,155 sq ft of retail space is available for $27.95/sq ft (MG).

184 Middle St – this newly renovated space becomes available in August. It includes 1,169 sq of first floor retail and 808 sq ft of basement storage space all for $75/sq ft (MG).

5 Milk St – this 2,199 sq ft former hair salon is available for $28/sq ft (NNN).

1 Monument Square – 1,500 sq ft of first floor space adjacent to Cera is available for $25/sq ft (MG).

28 Monument Square – a number of spots on the first and second floors of the Public Market House are available.

25 Pearl St – 1,689 sq ft former Subway space available for $30/sq ft (MG).

66 Pearl St – 5,796 sq ft of space—the former Bull Moose retail shop—is available for $15.75/sq ft (MG).

24 Preble St – the original Arcadia space is available. The 2,835 sq ft storefront near Dutch’s and Slab is listed for $20/sq ft (NNN).

3 Spring St – the space formerly occupied by Stage Cannabis is for lease; 2,000 sq ft for $15.50/sq ft (NNN).

144 State St – 2 retail spaces are available in the former Mercy Hospital building on State Street. The 1,100 and 2,477 sq ft spaces are available for $20-24/sq ft (MG). Chocolate Passions occupies the 3rd commercial space in this new development.

53 Wharf St –a 1,600 sq ft space on the corner of Wharf and Union Streets is available for $30/sq ft (MG).

India Street Area

144 Fore St – the former VA building is near the Portland Foreside development and adjacent to several new office buildings off Thames Street. It has 1,560 – 10,620 sq ft of space available for $22-29/sq ft (NNN).

Outer Forest Ave

503 – 509 Forest Ave – the exterior of this building is slated to be restored to its historic design. It has 1,268 – 6,313 sq ft of space available for $10-15/sq ft (NNN).

701 Forest Ave – 3,147 – 6,405 sq ft of space in a former Walgreens building is available for $16/sq ft (NNN). The building has its own parking lot.

Deering

164 Veranda St – the 1,000 sq ft former location of Other Side Deli is available for $2,500/month (Gross).

550 Washington Ave – 2,000 – 2,400 sq ft of the former Botto’s bakery is available to lease for $18/sq ft (NNN).

Elsewhere in Portland

1339 Washington Ave – the 4,150 sq ft former Parker’s Restaurant building in North Deering is for sale for $1,750,000.

Northgate Shopping Center – 2,000 to 3,500 sq ft of space is available.

Westgate Shopping Center – three spaces are for lease 1,400, 3,800 and 5,000 sq ft. The lease rates are negotiable and the property owner has a strong interest in finding a restaurant tenant for the shopping plaza.

Other Spaces – some vacated restaurant spaces haven’t yet been formerly listed for by the owner. Check the closing announcements for the latest information.

Outside of Portland

Trudy Birds, North Yarmouth – The business, land and both building are for sale for $1,825,000.

358 Main St, Yarmouth – the building that had housed a collection of gluten-free baking businesses is for sale for $499,000.

Ferry Village – The building that’s been home to the Knitting Nook will be available starting on June 15th. 500 -1,200 sq ft at $2,000 (MG).

188 Lincoln St, Lewiston – this 2,371 – 5,554 sq ft former fire station has been renovated for use as a retail/restaurant space. It’s listed at $5-14/sq ft (NNN).

Fuzzy Udder Creamery, Whitefield – the business and property are for sale for $595,000.

60 Mile Rd, Wells – an 8,684 sq ft turnkey restaurant in Wells is for sale for $2,150,000.

Glossary

MG – Modified Gross which indicates that the operating expenses (taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc.) for the property are included in the lease rate. The tenant would pay its own utilities, which sometimes includes heat.

NNN – Triple Net which indicates that operating expenses are not included in the lease rate, and the tenant will pay them separately. They are often referred to as CAM (Common Area Maintenance) charges and taxes, which are expressed as $/sf. The tenant is also responsible for utilities.

Gross – Gross indicates all expenses including utilities are included in the lease rate. The tenant would be responsible for phone and internet access, as well as interior janitorial.

Anjon’s Returning to Scarborough

Owner John DiSanto has announced plans to reopen Anjon’s Ristorante, the longtime Italian restaurant located on Route 1 adjacent to the Scarborough marsh.

Well it’s official the cat is out of the bag I am reopening Anjon’s Ristorante, I have missed it so much as much of you already know, and I wanna die there figuritively speaking and pass the legacy on to my family, I am shooting for a June 15th opening date it’s gonna be tough but I think I can pull it off, working with a shoestring budget so I am looking for help with money to paint the building, inside and out, new point of sale system, pave parking lot, pots, pans, dishes and glassware etc. etc.anyone willing to help me will get VIP treatment for reservations and seating plus your money back at the end of the summer, private message me if you can help, buon appetito manjard and just FUHGEDDABOUDIT

Anjon’s had been in business for more than 60 years when it closed in 2019.

Update: The opening has been delayed to mid-August.

Lil Chippy on Washington Ave

A  fish and chips shop called Lil Chippy (instagram) is under construction at 52 Washington Ave in the space formerly occupied by Radici (and before that Terlingua).

Owners Ashley Wolf and William Durst hope to open Lil Chippy by the end of June. Fish and chips will be the signature dish at the 30-seat counter service restaurant but Durst and Wolf also plan for a menu that also features seafood-centric small plates, sandwiches and a selection of wine and beer.

Wolf is currently the GM of Liquid Riot and when the couple lived in Vermont she was the GM at Hen of the Woods in Waterbury. Durst also worked at Hen of the Woods, and was the original chef at Bistro Leluco is South Portland when it opened in 2023.

Supper Club Cocktail Lounge

Cocktail Mary (websiteinstagram) founder Isaac MacDougal along with Jake Bosma, Brecken Macdougal and Zach Myers and  have leased the former Guitar Grave space at 441 Congress Street where they plan to open the Supper Club Cocktail Lounge (instagram) in early fall.

In creating Supper Club Cocktail Lounge we hope to add an anchor of community life in the heart of downtown Portland. Our aim is to become the “third place” for people living in Portland by offering hearty, affordable, locally sourced whole foods coupled with thoughtfully executed, delicious cocktails.

Our wine list will host producers from underrepresented communities making wine with sustainability in mind as well as a comprehensive champagne list for curious palettes and special occasions. Our beer menu will be composed of package and draft domestic and imported beer. Our cocktail menu will cover a wide range, with highballs that capture affordability and mindful ABVs, and martinis of every kind, for celebrations large and small. There will also be a variety of alcohol free options representing each of these categories.

The 2,400 sq ft space will have (see floor plan below) a main dining room with a 10-seat bar and banquette seating along the opposite wall with two large tables for communal seating in the front of the room. A curtain enclosure will enable the left side table to be a semiprivate space. An additional lounge area with its own 6-seat bar will be available for special events, private dinners, and overflow seating on busy nights. Outdoor seating is also part of the plan.

Isaac MacDougal grew up in Portland where his family owned and operated Vaughan Street Variety. He launched Cocktail Mary on November 8, 2019. Prior to returning to Maine he worked in the restaurant industry in NYC including time at Maialino, WD-50 and Diner. Bosma will serve as the beverage director for Supper Club, Brecken MacDougal as its operations manager and Myers as its contractor and facilities manager.

Supper Club is just starting to build out their team. Anyone interested in becoming part of “an organization that fosters community through breaking bread and social engagement” should contact them at info@supperclubcocktaillounge.com.

There’s a Lot Going On

Even when factoring in for the normal rapid base of developments in the Portland restaurant scene, there’s been a lot going on this spring. If you’re feeling like nearly every day there’s a new opening or news of another new business development, well that’s because that’s not far off from being the case.

To get caught-up and to see the scale of what’s been happening, here’s a summary of recent/upcoming opening:

And here’s a quick list of other business changes in Portland that have emerged in April and May: