Portland’s on track to get another oyster bar this Summer.
The Maine Oyster Company (website, facebook, instagram) has started construction at 38 Portland Street, just down the street from Isa and Back Bay Grill, of a 30-seat eatery serving oysters, lobster and crab rolls, and clam chowder. You can see the full menu on their website.
Maine Oyster Co. will be open 4 – 9 pm, Thursday through Saturday. They hope to open in July.
A new kobucha producer called Root Wild (website, facebook, instagram) is under construction in the former Sahara Club building at 135 Washington Ave.
Longtime Urban Farm Fermentory kombucha brewer, Reid Emmerich, is leading this new project. Root Wild hopes to open this summer.
A new mobile food venture named The Totally Awesome Vegan Food Truck (website, facebook, instagram) is under development.
Owner Tony DiPhillipo plans to launch the truck in July serving “decadent vegan comfort food from his totally rad 80’s synthwave themed mobile kitchen.”.
The menu isn’t set yet but DiPhillipo writes,
Expect to see our own creative twist on some American diner favorites, charbroiled sandwiches on artisan bread, eclectic dishes inspired by international street food, smokey cheese sauces, unique homemade dipping sauces and aiolis along with decadent vegan milkshakes and craft sodas.
Pastry chef Brant Dadaleares has leased 57 Exchange Street, the subterranean former location of Christmas Noel in the John Calvin Steven designed building at the intersection with Middle Street.
Dadaleares will be renovating the 2,000 sq ft space where this November he plans to open Gross Confection Bar (website, facebook, instagram) serving an “ever changing selection of high-quality artfully-plated desserts, cocktails, dessert wines, and digestifs” in the evening, and take-out pastries and coffee in the mornings.
GCB will have seating for 37.
Dadaleares was the longtime pastry chef at Fore Street. He’s also worked at Arrows, Hugo’s/Eventide/The Honey Paw, Roustabout and Central Provisions/Tipo.
Dextrous Creative has been hired as architects for Gross Confection Bar.
To get a sense of what a Gross-style dessert is like check out this fun video from Knack Factory.
Heritage Seaweed (website, facebook, instagram) is under construction at 61 India Street. The new shop will sell specialty seaweed-based foods and other seaweed products such as: skincare and bath products, candles, tinctures, tea, cookbooks, ID guides and art.
Heritage Seaweed hopes to open in July.
The newest member of the Veranda Thai family of restaurants is under development in South Portland. Hana Thai will be located at 740 Broadway is the mall that is also home to the branch location of Two Fat Cats.
Hana Thai is owned by Than Pham, the younger brother of Hai Pham who opened the first Veranda Thai in Deering.
Than Pham is currently hiring staff and plans to open the 1800 sq ft Hana Thai in June.
A new coffee bar called All Those Who Wander (website, facebook, instagram) is under development at the corner of inner Washington and Marion Street. ATWW is one of several businesses located in the Black Box space including The Cheese Shop.
Owners John-Henry and Cynthia Mlyniec recently moved to Portland from Providence where they worked in the coffee industry. They will be sourcing their coffee for All Those Who Wander from Parlor Coffee in Brooklyn. The Mlyniecs hope to open sometime in June.
Urban Sugar/Eighty 8 Donut Cafe owner Kevin Sandes and his business partner David Gilbert are developing a new restaurant in Waterville called Money Cat Fried Chicken and Donuts. The restaurant will be located at 173 Main Street and is slated to open in summer 2018.
Gilbert and Sandes were culinary school classmates and are longtime friends.
“This is more than a business,” said Sandes. “It’s about building community, friendships, connections.” Added Gilbert: “This is a partnership that has grown out of friendship. Twenty years after culinary school and some pretty wild adventure travel, we’re reconnecting and bringing together these two concepts—that’s where the magic is.”
Gilbert was a 2013 Beard award semifinalist in the Best Chef: South West category. He has traveled through Asia and used those experiences to inform the cooking at his restaurant Tuk Tuk Taproom in Texas.
Sandes spent years as a hotel chef and in catering before launching Eighty 8 Donut Cafe (formerly Urban Sugar) first as a food truck and then as a brick-and-mortar location at Sugarloaf Mountain.
The pair selected the restaurant’s name to “reflect the restaurant’s Asian inspiration, abundance for Waterville, and good fortune for all”.
Yesterday’s report from Mainebiz on the 100-acre mixed use development off Brighton Ave in Westbrook reports that a business group run by famed chef Tom Colicchio will building out a “25,000-square-foot beer and food hall” on the site.
One of the features of the village area will be 25,000-square-foot beer and food hall, developed by the group run by celebrity chef Tom Colicchio. The hall will have 18 to 22 local and regional vendors, and a brew pub, but also a place where local breweries can showcase their beer. The second floor would be office incubator space, he said.
Update: Mainebiz has excised reference to Tom Colicchio from the article. The business involved in the project is Colicchio Consulting, which isn’t owned by Tom Colicchio.
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Here’s a look inside the construction site of Sagamore Hill (website, instagram), the new cocktail bar going in to the former lobby of the Lafayette Hotel at the corner of Park and Congress. Owner Ryan Deskins is planning to open the 58-seat lounge in late May. An additional 30+ seats are planned for the sidewalk. Sagamore references Teddy Roosevelt, the nation’s 26th president, as a touchstone for the bar’s name, interior design and cocktail menu.