Upcoming Food and Dining Events

| Posted in Events

Tuesday – The Maine Farm & Sea to Institution Summit is taking place at Colby College.

Thursday – Vessel & Vine in Brunswick is teaching a class on the wine from the Italian region Le Marche.

Saturday – Friends with Forks is holding their next meet-up at Nom Cafe. McDougal’s Orchard in Springvale will be holding their 6th Annual Apple Tasting.

Sunday – En-Noble and the Portland Pottery Cafe are putting on a chutney cooking class. The Great Maine Apple Day is taking place in Unity.

October 21 – Cherie will be holding a pop-up at Hunt and Alpine.

October 23 – Twelve is holding their annual Harvest Dinner.

October 28 – Luncheonette is holding a reprise of their Korean dinner.

October 30 – November 1 – Harvest on the Harbor is taking place.

October 31 – November 2 – The Black Point Inn is holding an Epicurean Weekend focused on Nordic and Alpine cuisine.

November 1 – The Maine Fermentation Festival is taking place in Waterville.

November 1-9 – 207 Beer Week is taking place at breweries across the state.

November 10-16 – Brunswick Wine Week is taking place.

November 21 – The deadline to submit a recommendation to the James Beard Foundation for the 2026 Awards.

November 26 – The last day of the outdoor Portland Farmers’ Market in Deering Oaks Park.

December 6 – The first day of the indoor Portland Farmers’ Market at Stevens Square Community Center (631 Stevens Ave).

Planning a wedding, holding a business event, or hosting visitors from away? Our printed guides are a great resource to help your guests explore the Maine restaurant scene.

The Portland and Midcoast pocket guides are now for sale in packs of 25 on our online store.

Maine Food & Dining News: Bangor, Palermo, Falmouth, Brunswick, Kittery, Norway, Milo, Kennebunk

| Posted in Maine

New food and dining developments are taking place all across Maine. Here are some recent updates to keep you in the know:

  • Buena Vista Filipino Food Market has leased space at 1012 Stillwater Avenue in Bangor where they’ll be opening a second location. Buena Vista opened their first market in South Portland in 2022.
  • The Wall Street Journal has published an article about Maine’s ‘apple renaissance’. “Walking past the Galas and Fujis at McDougal Orchards in Springvale, Maine, I slipped past a fence to find the apples I’d come for: Black Oxfords glossy as new shoes, yellow-fleshed Esopus Spitzenburgs and Blue Pearmains stippled with green dots. The orchard’s 16 heirloom varieties, older cultivars passed down by generations of farmers, are fenced to keep out the crowd. Sold only in the farm store, they star at annual tastings that draw aficionados.”
  • The October issue of Down East magazine includes an article about Maine’s preeminent apple expert John Bunker. “Today, Bunker’s Palermo orchards are a living library of more than 500 rare and historic apple types, collected over a half century scouring the state for antique specimens he preserves by grafting twigs from heritage trees onto rootstock, and working with breeders to create new cultivars. Often, he’s searching for surviving examples of cultivars named in old fair records or pomological reports. Other times, he’s working to identify the name of an old tree through research or DNA analysis.”
  • The new Falmouth Mornings in Paris has opened. It’s located at 240 US Route One and is open daily 7 am – 5 pm.
  • The Harpswell Anchor reports that Morning Glory Natural Foods is planning to open a second location at Brunswick Landing. “The new space will include a butcher counter and a seafood counter, he said. It will have a bigger produce department and more refrigeration than the downtown store, but prices and “everything else” will stay the same.”
  • Warren’s Lobster House has relaunched in Kittery under new management with the name Warren’s Seafood and More (website, facebook, instagram) has re-opened in Kittery. Warren’s was opened by Warren “Pete” Wurm in the 1940s. The menu includes a range of lobster dinners, fried seafood, sandwiches and appetizers like clam chowder, steamers and shrimp cocktail. They’re located at 11 Water Street.
  • Dolce Amici in Norway has hired Clinton Jones as their new chef.
  • Rail Yard Brewing and the Rusty Rail restaurant are under development in Milo in the space formerly occupied by Bissell Brothers Three Rivers.
  • The Maine Sunday Telegram has given Rosella KPT in Kennebunk a 4 star rating.

For a statewide guide to eating and drinking see the Maine Food Map—a growing list of coffee shops, bars, restaurants, bakeries, cafes, plus other food and dining businesses in all of Maine’s 16 counties.

Bar Futo to Close in November

| Posted in Closings

The owners of Bar Futo have announced the closure of their Fore Street restaurant. Their last day in business will be November 1st.

Dear friends — we have some news to share. After three years of service, we have made the difficult decision to close our doors next month. Our last night of service will be November 1st. We are beyond grateful to our hardworking, dedicated, and creative team who brought Bar Futo to life. We have had a lot of fun in this space, hosted many pop-ups, and learned a lot along the way. We have just over three weeks left to serve you all the kakigori, crispy eggplant, big mac skewers and sake your heart desires. We hope you will send us out with the same love and enthusiasm you welcomed us with when we first opened.

The announcement does give a hint that there’s something new in the works for that space, “Although this chapter has come to an end, we are not finished with this space” and that more news on that will be released this winter.

Bar Futo was launched in December 2022 by Jordan and Marissa Rubin.

A New Brewery and Restaurant for Milo

| Posted in Under Construction, Beer, Maine

John Riitano and Tracy Bonney-Corson have taken over the former Bissell Brothers location in Milo where they plan to launch Rail Yard Brewing (facebook) and the Rusty Rail restaurant. Corson has extensive experience in the healthcare field and will be leading operations. Riitano is the brewer and co-owner of Two Knights Brewing in Sangerville and will head-up brewing at Rail Yard as well. They hope to launch the business by the end of year.

They shared this vision in a post on Facebook,

The railroad industry played a significant role in connecting the great state of Maine and its lumber industry to the rest of America. Rail Yard Brewing and the Rusty Rail tap room will do the same for the breweries, wineries, and distilleries of Central and Northern Maine. Highlighting some of the best beverages from the Maine Highlands and beyond. Join us in the tap room for a true taste of Maine.

The tap list is expected to include their own beer, a tap for Two Knights as well as beer and cider from other producers in rural Maine like Turning Page Farm in Monson, Stone Tree Farm in Unity, Knife Edge in Millinocket, and Gordon’s Grog in St Albans. In a nod to the space’s previous occupant there will also be a tap for Bissell Brothers beer. Riitano shared that he’s looking forward to using the larger 10-barrel system and hopes to use the Milo brewery to experiment with new techniques like coolship open fermentation. His goal is to add a canning line in the next year or two and eventually branch out to producing beverages like cider and gluten-free beer. The larger Milo system will also expand production capacity for Two Knights through a contract brewing relationship.

The food menu the Rusty Rail is still under development but expected to feature elevated pub/comfort food with seasonal specials and a focus on local sourcing. Seth Ostrosky is joining the team as the general manager for the Rusty Rail. Ostrosky was the chef/owner of the Nor’easter in Dover-Foxcroft earlier in his career had run Flatlanders in Greenville.

Crispy Gai in Providence

| Posted in Under Construction

Crispy Gai is looking to open a second location in Providence, Rhode Island reports Alexa Gargosz, in her weekly Food Club newsletter for The Boston Globe,

“There’s a lot of opportunity,” said [Crispy Gai co-owner Jordan] Rubin, who said they are currently looking at Providence locations and hope to open by spring 2026. “There’s a lot of hungry chefs doing really exciting things, and a community and camaraderie of chefs gravitating toward it.”

The article goes on to report that Crispy Gai chef/co-owner Cyle Reynolds would head up the new Providence location, “Reynolds, however, is willing to relocate to Providence. And he’s planning to bring Victor Toj, who previously cooked at Oberlin and Durk’s BBQ in Providence, to be his opening sous chef.”

Reynolds, Sasha Brouillard, Rubin and Marisa Lewiecki launched the Portland Crispy Gai in June 2021.

This is the second Portland restaurant that’s recently announced plans to open a second location further south. Peaks Island pizzeria Il Leone will be opening a second location in Park Slope.

Paak Salad and Smoothie Cafe

| Posted in Under Construction

Praewpran Yiamjanya and Patrick Udomsay, the owners of the Sook Thai Mobile Kitchen food truck, have leased space at 650 Congress Street where they plan to open a salad and smoothie cafe called Paak (instagram).

At Paak they’ll be serving appetizers and smaller bites like fried pork dumpling. However center stage for the menu will be the salad section. Customers will have their choice of a variety of house designed special salads and dressings with the option to add-on proteins like braised caramelized pork belly, tofu, and chicken teriyaki. Customers can also build their own salads; rice and noodle bowls will be available too. For drinks Paak will offer both cold-pressed juice drinks and fruit smoothies. They shared they’re aiming to produce beverages that provide a sense of freshness and that are also rich in nutrients. Stay tuned for more details on the menu as they work towards a hoped for opening day in the spring.

Paak—which means vegetable in Thai—will have room to seat 12-13 people. Udomsay and Yiamjanya want to make it “chill place to hang out” and enjoy a snack or a meal. They plan to continue to operating the Sook Thai food truck after the launch of Paak.