Two Westbrook based businesses are planning to open this week:
The new Rosemont Market in the West End opened earlier today.
They’re located at the corner of Brackett and Pine Streets. The market will be open until 8pm tonight and 9-6 tomorrow.
The Blueberry Files has reviewed lunch at Lolita.
One of the $10 lunch specials was an open-faced sandwich with a speck, arugula, and smoked tomato aioli on grilled sourdough bread. It’s like Lolita in a sandwich: sliced Italian meat and a smoky flavor from their wood-fired grill. The sandwich came with a side of seared Shishito peppers, and I did encounter a few delightfully spicy ones.
Drink Up and Get Happy has done a happy hour review of Ebb & Flow.
We liked the happy hour at Ebb and Flow so much, that we’ve already been back before getting this review done. The second visit just proved that it was no fluke. Delicious wines and free bites, albeit not quite as plentiful as the first time, make for an enjoyable happy hour. This time we were given a bite of brie topped with compote and a small basil leaf.
An article from the Wall Street Journal highlights Tandem Coffee as one of Coffee’s Next Generation of Roasters.
Populated by veterans of those first pioneering brands, this new guard isn’t reinventing coffee so much as continuing a transformation already underway. Small, creative and hyperlocal, they’re sourcing even more adventurously and sustainably, importing the best beans from the farthest corners of the earth. And they’re opening in ever-smaller cities, turning America’s long-brewing revolution into a full-blown indie coffee diaspora.
Soon after the new West End location passed its final inspection yesterday afternoon Rosemont Market had a truck of supplies on its way to stock the shelves.
Rosemont hopes to be open to the public this weekend and may be open as soon as this afternoon.
Vena’s, Standard Baking, Eventide, Duckfat, Slab and Vinland all get a brief mentioned by Food & Wine editor Dana Cowin in the June issue. The magazine also includes a full page (page 98) devoted to a Vena’s recipe for the Meadow Mocktail.
This week’s Portland Phoenix explores the question Can Portland sustain the opening of another restaurant?
“The truth is, cream rises to the top — the best restaurants will stay open and the not-so-good restaurants will close,” says Jason Loring, co-owner and chef of Nosh and Slab, who recently shared his thoughts about the number of restaurants in Portland. “Competition is a good thing, it forces us to put our best food forward.”
For an historical perspective check out this report from 1977.
The Press Herald has reviewed The Muthah Truckah.
First, my teeth sank into the slices of griddle-fried ciabatta bread. Then came the layers of bacon jam (bacon literally pulverized into jam), bright orange BBQ potato chips with ridges, turkey, cheddar cheese, pickles and BBQ aioli. There were some pretty strong flavors in there, yet no single one shone above the rest.
It was crispy, buttery, chewy, crunchy, tangy, sour and creamy, all at the same time. It was like a blockbuster Broadway musical, dancing in my mouth.
The Portland Phoenix has reviewed the sandwiches at the Otherside Delicatessen, Dutch’s and The Muthah Truckah.
As [Otherside’s] corned beef sandwich reveals, they do it well. The meat is on the lean side, and tender enough but not melty soft. The slight chew lets you appreciate the meat’s richness and subtle spice — which stand up to the sharp flavors of sauerkraut and mustard, as well as a thick cut of rye. A pork schnitzel sandwich was served on a soft white puff of a roll, swirled like a cloud. It contrasted with the chew of the pounded meat, thick-breaded and fried. It was topped with an appealingly complex bitter-sour slaw — a finely diced mélange of egg, caper and cabbage.
Today’s Press Herald includes an update on Evo, the new Eastern Mediterranean restaurant opening on June 7,
The tight space offered significant design challenges. Just 1,000 square feet, which was increased to 1,400 with the addition of the mezzanine, Evo has floor-to-ceiling glass walls on two sides with sharp corner angles. The design makes the most of this by wrapping the inside of the walls with a dining counter.
and an article on food editor Peggy Grodonsky’s relationship with her cookbook collection.
But this spring, unpacking and re-shelving my cookbooks for the fourth time in just 10 years, I decided to count them, and I came up with 334 cookbooks, more or less, plus another 160 books about food. In the latter category, such items as memoirs by Betty Fussell, histories of the spice trade and the no-nonsense “The Maple Sugar Book” by Helen and Scott Nearing. That last entered my household long before I lived in Maine, and I’m tickled that it has found its way home.