The 10 businesses looked up most often during the month of April were:
The numbers in parentheses indicates their rank last month.
Tivi Design has posted photos of the new bar they’ve built and installed at Grace. The circular bar has a canopy of glass that echoes the window design of the historic Chestnut Street Church. Grace is still under construction, they plan on opening for business this summer. Eric Simeon is coming on board as their Executive Chef.
PeRx-U-Up Cafe received 4 stars from the Eat & Run column in today’s Portland Press Herald.
The cafe is not a big place – just a couple of small tables, some counter seating and, now that the weather has improved, some outdoor tables. The bottom line: The food is fresh, good and reasonably priced.
This week’s Portland Phoenix provides guidance for cooking up your own Eggs Benedict at home for those times when “it might have been better for your constitution (and reputation) to stay home in your bathrobe.” If you still want to venture out check the Sunday Brunch List for your options.
There are several terrific places where this brunch might go down in Greater Portland, but they are all likely to share one ingredient: a line stretching out the door. Your arrival in last night’s party clothes and disheveled hair barely elicits a nod from your equally hung-over companions, already there staking out a place on the waiting list.
The new print issue of Port City Life includes a profile of Paciarino along with co-owner Fabiana DeSavino’s tiramasu recipe, a look at local food distribution networks, and an article about Local Sprouts, Portland’s community supported kitchen.
The Boston Globe has a report on kelp noodles, “seaweed in long, green strips cut to the rough dimensions of linguine” produced here in Portland by Ocean Approved. The noodles are available at Browne Trading, Harbor Fish Market and Whole Foods.
Like pasta noodles, kelp is a submissive plate-mate, wrapping neatly around the tender mussels on a fork and bending nicely to their sweet, meaty flavor. Hot, simple food has a tendency to make you smile after a few hours on a cold ocean, and we slip into port a happy crew. The ocean provides – noodles and all.
The Maine Switch has reviewed North Star.
Once in a while when a restaurant opens, the stars and the moon align and the crowds descend. Such was the case when Kim Anderson and Anna Maria Tocci opened North Star Music Café two years ago at the base of Munjoy Hill. A packed entertainment schedule, the simply prepared food and the free wi-fi quickly solidified its status as one of the city’s most popular gathering spots and eateries.
The Portland Daily Sun ran an article this weekend about Maine-based cheese production and the Maine Cheese Guild.
The group provides education around cheesemaking and is trying to encourage new cheesemakers. “We aren’t making enough cheese to meet demand,” noted current guild president Eric Rector, “we still need more cheesemakers making high quality cheese to meet demand before we start marketing outside the state.”
Bar Lola is holding a wine dinner Tuesday evening contrasting wines of the same varietal from the Old World and the New. The Slow Food Book Group is meeting Wednesday, they’ll be discussing Down and Out in Paris by George Orwell. There are four classes scheduled this week: cooking clases at Piatto per Tutti on Monday and Black Tie Bistro on Wednesday; as well as Maine Ambassadors of Food and Drink classes on Tuesday and Thursday. There are two wine tasting: at the West End Grocery on Friday and Leroux Kitchen on Saturday. Sunday evening the next movie in the Food Film Series, Tampopo, will be screened at One Longfellow Square with dinner sourced from Miyake. Farmers’ Markets are being held in Monument Square on Wednesday and at Deering Oaks Park on Saturday. If you’re up for a road trip, Ruth Reichl, the Editor in Chief of Gourmet magazine, will be speaking in Portsmouth on Friday night. For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.