Demolition of Red’s Dairy Freeze with Video

| Posted in General News

Articles on yesterday’s demolition of the old Red’s Dairy Freeze building in South Portland appeared on the front page of the Press Herald,

Chris Bolling stood in the crowd outside Red’s Dairy Freeze in South Portland early Monday and watched the demolition of his popular ice cream stand.

“It was tough,” he said. “It’s a lot of memories, but it’s a new beginning and we will have a new building.”

and on The Forecaster website. Both newspapers also published video of the demolition.

It took 50 years for Red’s Dairy Freeze to build a fanatical following for its frozen soft-serve treats.

But it only took a matter of minutes on Monday for demolition crews to reduce the building at the corner of Cottage Road and Highland Avenue to a pile of rubble.

“It’s sad,” said Mercedes Vance, who lives a few houses up the street. “It has such a long history and tradition. I just look at all these kids out here sobbing and it makes me sad.”

Maine at Work: Farmer

| Posted in Farming

Press Herald reporter Ray Routhier spends the day at Snell Family Farm picking squash destined for the Portland Farmers Market in the latest article for his Maine at Work column.

Then, as Snell instructed me, I picked the shriveled blossom off the vegetable and laid the zucchini in a handmade wooden box so it would be “nice and pretty” for customers the next day at farmers markets in Portland and Saco.

This Week's Events

| Posted in Events

Wednesday — Wine Wise is teaching a class at The Wine Bar.
Thursday — wine tastings at Leavitt & Sons and Kitchen & Cork, Cultivating Community is hosting the next in their series of Twilight Dinners, and PortlandTaps.com is holding their monthly Third Thursday event at Brian Boru.
Friday — a 100-Mile Meal is taking place at BiBo’s, and Novare Res is holding their 3rd Annual Roguepalooza – 30 Rogue beers on tap.
Saturday — the 2nd day of Roguepalooza at Novare Res.
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 at The Wine Bar.

Thursday — wine tastings at Leavitt & Sons and Kitchen & Cork, Cultivating Community is hosting the next in their series of Twilight Dinners, and PortlandTaps.com is holding their monthly Third Thursday event at Brian Boru.

Friday — a 100-Mile Meal is taking place at BiBo’s, and Novare Res is holding their 3rd Annual Roguepalooza – 30 Rogue beers on tap.

Saturday — the 2nd day of Roguepalooza at Novare Res.

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.

Review of Miyake

| Posted in Reviews

pArts has published a review of Miyake.

When I placed my order, Joe Ricchio – waitron extraordinaire – recommended instead the five course omakase tasting menu, adding “trust me.” I know Joe so trust was not an issue and I promptly changed my order. I’m glad I did (thanks, Joe!) At 50 bucks this is quite simply one of the best deals in town for fine dining – and it doesn’t get much finer than this – anywhere.

Trader Joe's Commentary

| Posted in Under Construction

Friday’s Portland Daily Sun includes an update on Trader Joe’s new store—the latest word is their aiming for a November 1 opening. The newspaper’s editor also looks at how Trader Joe’s fits with a Buy Local philosophy.

Heaven knows I’ll be there, no doubt fighting for a parking spot. But I’ll take some comfort in an interview we did a while back with Doug Fuss, the Bull Feeney’s operator who served on the city’s Task Force on Business Diversity … that’s the anti-chain gang.

I asked “does embracing “Trader’s” make us traitors to our buy-local, down-with-chains creed?

“The quick answer is ‘yes,'” responded Fuss, “but the longer answer is ‘no.'”