Dean’s Sweets Profile

| Posted in Profiles

Mainebiz has published an interview with Dean Bingham, owner of Dean’s Sweets.

Owner Dean Bingham attributes success to his persistent use of local products. His seasonal special, for instance, consists of fresh Maine blueberries covered in rich chocolate. His popular “Chocolate Stout” features Maine-made beer Allagash Black, a Belgian-style stout brewed by Allagash Brewing Co. in Portland. Bingham also uses vodka distilled from Maine potatoes made by Freeport-based Cold River Vodka to make the “Needham Coconut.”

Review of Micucci's

| Posted in Reviews

1840 Farm has published a review of the pizza at Micucci Grocery Company.

Five minutes can seem like a lifetime when you’re left to stand there staring at an empty stainless steel shelf smelling pizza this good.  Once the slabs hit the window, you’ll notice that they come on simple, white paper plates.  You can either box each slab up to take home or walk it back through the maze of grocery items to the cashier.  Once you’ve paid for your slab, you can return to the back room and sit at one of the two patio tables and finally dig in with your plastic knife and fork.  Welcome to pizza nirvana.  Now you know the secret handshake.

Review of Micucci’s

| Posted in Reviews

1840 Farm has published a review of the pizza at Micucci Grocery Company.

Five minutes can seem like a lifetime when you’re left to stand there staring at an empty stainless steel shelf smelling pizza this good.  Once the slabs hit the window, you’ll notice that they come on simple, white paper plates.  You can either box each slab up to take home or walk it back through the maze of grocery items to the cashier.  Once you’ve paid for your slab, you can return to the back room and sit at one of the two patio tables and finally dig in with your plastic knife and fork.  Welcome to pizza nirvana.  Now you know the secret handshake.

This Week's Events

| Posted in Events

Wednesday — Wine Wise is teaching a class on Merlot at The Wine Bar.
Thursday — there will be wine tastings at Kitchen & Cork in Scarborough and Leavitt & Sons in Falmouth, and Cultivating Community is holding one of their biweekly Twilight Dinners.
Friday — an Italian wine tasting is scheduled to take place at the Rosemont Market on Munjoy Hill.
Saturday — there will be a wine tasting at the Black Cherry Provisions.
Sunday — the next 20/20 wine tasting/charity event is being held at the Snow Squall in South Portland, Wine Wise is coordinating a sailing wine class aboard the Casablanca, and Cinque Terre is holding their 3rd Annual Eco Appetito to raise funds for the Ferry Beach Ecology School.
Farmer’s Markets — the traditional series of Farmer’s Markets are taking place Monday (Monument Square), Wednesday (Monument Square) and Saturday (Deering Oaks Park). Cultivating Community is running their new series of markets Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at various locations around the city.
For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.
If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

This Week’s Events

| Posted in Events

Wednesday — Wine Wise is teaching a class on Merlot at The Wine Bar.

Thursday — there will be wine tastings at Kitchen & Cork in Scarborough and Leavitt & Sons in Falmouth, and Cultivating Community is holding one of their biweekly Twilight Dinners.

Friday — an Italian wine tasting is scheduled to take place at the Rosemont Market on Munjoy Hill.

Saturday — there will be a wine tasting at the Black Cherry Provisions.

Sunday — the next 20/20 wine tasting/charity event is being held at the Snow Squall in South Portland, Wine Wise is coordinating a sailing wine class aboard the Casablanca, and Cinque Terre is holding their 3rd Annual Eco Appetito to raise funds for the Ferry Beach Ecology School.

Farmer’s Markets — the traditional series of Farmer’s Markets are taking place Monday (Monument Square), Wednesday (Monument Square) and Saturday (Deering Oaks Park). Cultivating Community is running their new series of markets Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at various locations around the city.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

Portland Farmers Market

| Posted in General News

The Maine Observer has published a piece about the Portland Farmers Market.

Located directly across from the Portland Public Library and surrounded by the high-standing buildings of corporate offices, the market is hard to miss. You know you’ve entered it when you see the reusable shopping bags decorated with cheerful images of trees and animals. Stamped messages like “I am a plastic bottle” or “I am earth-wise” gloss over the underlying goal of buying and grown locally: to personally meet your food’s producer and to pollute less.

The weekend market is taking place this morning in Deering-Oaks Park and will be there until noon. For more information on the market, visit their website.

Review of Local Sprouts

| Posted in Reviews

The Portland Phoenix has published a review of Local Sprouts.

…So perhaps I should not have been surprised that the food at the Local Sprouts Café, worker-owned and democratically run by the Local Sprouts Cooperative, was so very good.

But I was surprised, and very pleasantly so. One gets nervous about group-think, and it is worrisome that the cooperative’s first decision was to call itself “local sprouts.” And perhaps the big, curving bird-themed earthen bench that dominates the dining room, as well as the dormitory-style couch occupying prime territory near the window, reflect iffy decision-making. But when it comes to food, Local Sprouts is making all the right calls — from ingredients, to preparation, to price.

Fall Maine Restaurant Week

| Posted in Events

Maine Restaurant Week has expanded their calendar to include a Fall series which will take place October 24-31. The standard MRW in the Spring is scheduled March 1-12, 2011.
At both the Fall and Spring series, participating restaurants will offer 3-course dinners for $20, $30, or $40, and some are planning $15 lunches. Menus and a list of participating restaurants will be published in October on www.mainerestaurantweek.com.

Twilight Dinners

| Posted in Events

Tuesday’s Locavore column in the Portland Daily Sun was about the work done by Cultivating Community and the biweekly Twilight Dinners they run throughout the Summer at their farm in Cape Elizabeth.

For the fourth year running, area chefs will display their locavore prowess by preparing dishes using produce grown, meat raised and fish landed within 20 miles of the farm. No chocolate. No olive oil. Yes delicious.

Eating outdoors is rare these days but for most of history and throughout much of the world beyond these shores, it has been the norm.