Category: Under Construction

A new business called The Cheese Shop of Portland (instagram, facebook) is under development. Owners Mary and Will Sissle plan to locate on Washington Ave with a target opening date in late June.

The Sissles met when the pair worked at Cowgirl Creamery in the San Francisco Bay Area. Most recently they were on the staff at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge where Will was the international cheese buyer and Mary worked in the shop and handled their media relations. Mary Sissle is a originally from Maine having grown up in Cape Elizabeth. Will Sissle is an ACS Certified Cheese Professional.

The Cheese Shop will be one of the first businesses to be located in Black Box, a retail space slated for the corner of Washington Ave and Marion Street built out of shipping containers. Developer Jed Harris has conceived of Black Box as a start-up space for new retail businesses.

Quill Books & Beverage (facebook, instagram), the new bookstore/bar/coffee shop located at One Westbrook Common in Westbrook is now open and plans to hold a grand opening this Saturday.

Owners Matthew Irving and Allison Krzanowski will be serving cocktails as well as bagels, baked goods, yogurt and oatmeal for breakfast, and sandwiches and salads for lunch, as well as a line-up of toasts, cheeses and charcuterie. The bookstore will stock a “diverse selection of carefully curated gently used books, including many recent titles” and will host “author and poetry readings, book clubs, and a weekly board game night”.

The new Veranda restaurant in Westbrook, Veranda Kitchen & Bar, is scheduled to open on March 20th.

This will make the fifth location of the Veranda business group. The original restaurant, Veranda Thai, opened in the space that had been formerly occupied by Espans Quick Lunch on Veranda Street in May 2008.

The GM of the Veranda group recently leased retail property in South Portland so it looks like a sixth location is in the works.

Than Pham, the general manager of the Veranda Group, has leased a 1,881 square foot space at 740 Broadway in South Portland, presumably to open a South Portland Veranda Thai restaurant. Veranda currently has a a new restaurant under construction at 672 Main Street in Westbrook.

740 Broadway is in the same strip mall where Two Fat Cats plans to open a second location.

The Press Herald reports that Paciarino owners Enrico Barbiero and Fabiana de Savino have leased the former Zapoteca space on Fore Street. They plan to move the restaurant into the new building and hold on to the existing Paciarino store front for their retail sales.

At the new space, which they are leasing, they will continue to serve the current Paciarino menu, Barbiero said, but he plans to add brick-oven pizza, risotto, arancini, gnocchi and other items.

Maine Startup Insider reports that the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs  has launched a food and beverage startup accelerator program.

The organization will accept 10 companies into the 12-month program, dubbed Cultivator. Selected companies will spend the year receiving hands-on strategic assessments, mentoring, and access to professional resources, to help them overcome the specific challenges faced by specialty food and beverage companies. The program is sponsored by FocusMaine.

The application deadline is March 18th.

Erin French, chef and owner of The Lost Kitchen in Freedom Maine, is working on a new book entitled Finding Freedom which will will chronicle the “challenges, stumbles and victories that have led me to the exact place I was ever meant to be”. The book is being published by Celadon Books, an imprint of MacMillan.

This will be French’s second book. The Lost Kitchen Cookbook debuted last May.

French was recently named a 2018 Beard Awards semifinalist in the Best Chef: Northeast category.

The Forecaster has posted an update on Crown Jewel and their proposal for a Planning Board change of use on Great Diamond Island.

The Planning Board scheduled a hearing and vote Tuesday on the change-of-use request by Wight and her partner, Gail Landry. They are seeking permission to open the 35-seat restaurant while downsizing the general store now operating at the island’s Fort McKinley historic site. The building is also part of the Diamond Cove Association.

Jason Loring launched a new restaurant called Hunker Down this season at Sugarloaf. Now comes word that a Hunker Down branded will be setting up shop in the kitchen a little closer to Portland at Erik’s Church, a new country music restaurant under construction in Windham.

Portland artist Heidi Geist has launched a Kickstarter campaign for her 48 Beers Project. Geist has designed beer labels for Bissell Brothers, Barreled Souls, Boothbay Craft Brewing, Norway Brewing, Cold Harbor, and many others.

For the 48 Beers Project Geist plans visit each of the 48 contiguous US states, and in each state she plans to design a label for a local brewery. She’s raising $6,000 to help with costs to renovate a short school bus into a livable space that will be my art studio. She plans to depart Maine on June 21st.