No Free Milk

| Posted in General News

A Maine state law regarding Milk pricing has forced Shaws to retract a promotion that would have given shoppers a free gallon of milk if they bought 6 gallons in a 2 month period.

Maine sets a minimum price for milk. The law is decades old, designed to prevent large retailers from offering milk from out of state as a loss leader, at prices that are below the cost of production for Maine dairy farms. The current minimum price is $3.55 a gallon for whole milk.

Giving away a gallon for every six purchased violates the law by dragging the average price below the minimum, Drake said.

Portland Chop Suey

| Posted in General News

A feature article in the new issue of Portland magazine makes the case for a Portland restaurant as the inspiration for Edward Hopper’s classic painting Chop Suey.

“A few weeks later, I told my brother, a painter in Seattle, what Scott had found. He said he’d just helped with a show on Edward Hopper at Seattle Art Museum. The show’s catalog described Hopper’s New York influences at length. We contacted the curator, Patti Junker, and Scott sent her the permits, the photos, and an article by [Maine historian] Gary Libby about Chinese restaurants in Portland. She emailed back: ‘I admit I was skeptical, but after seeing the image, I am absolutely convinced. I think it was this chop-suey restaurant that he had in mind, although the picture was conceived in his studio
in NYC.’”

Review of Chebeague Island Inn

| Posted in Reviews

Portland magazine has published a review of the Chebeague Island Inn.

I chose the duck, a dish I find to be amateurishly prepared in most restaurants. Rowe’s version turned out to be a professional slam dunk. Tender, glossy, and almost silky, the pan-seared Long Island duck breast ($32), ordered medium rare, practically melted in my mouth. The caramel-brown breast rested on a fluffy bed of nutty black rice and rich duck reduction sauce, with bright green spears of al dente asparagus draped over top.

NYT: 36 Hours in Portland, Maine

| Posted in Reviews

A New York Times travel article plugs several of our city’s restaurants, bars and markets: Bayside Bowl, Caiola’s, El Rayo, Farmer’s Table, Grace, Kamasouptra, Local Sprouts, Maine Mead Works, Novare Res, Peanut Butter and Jelly Time, Rosemont Market, Scratch Baking and Sonny’s.

PORTLAND, Me., is known for three L’s: lobster, lighthouses and L. L. Bean (O.K., make that four L’s). Here’s another: local. In recent years, this city on the coast of Maine has welcomed a wave of locavore restaurants, urban farms and galleries that feature local artists. Abandoned brick warehouses are being repurposed as eco-friendly boutiques. In the main square, a 19th-century building has been refashioned into a farmers’ market. And everywhere you look, this once-sleepy industrial town is showing signs of rejuvenation — usually by keeping things local.

For commentary on the piece from the New York Times read the article that appeared in the Portland Daily Sun.

Fed Official at Boyd Street Urban Farm

| Posted in General News

According to a report from the Munjoy Hill News,

Yesterday afternoon Under Secretary Kevin W. Concannon cut a ribbon at the Boyd Street Urban Farm at Kennedy Park.  His appearance here in Portland which began with a press conference at the city hall in the morning, was part of a visit to farmers’ markets all over Maine.  “We are encouraging farmers’ markets all over to use a Double Voucher,” he said holding up a blue plastic card – like a credit card.

Under Construction: Rosemont

| Posted in Under Construction

The Portland Phoenix has published an article about the new Rosemont Market retail space that’s under construction on Brighton Ave.

In September, that will change. Rosemont is expanding its bakery by opening a new retail store just across the street from its non-peninsula location, at the corner of Brighton Avenue and Colonial Road. The current (soon-to-be former) retail location will be dedicated to the bakery, doubling the size of its existing work area.