The Portland Phoenix has published a review of Cafe at Pat’s.

As it should be at a neighborhood restaurant, the service was pleasantly casual in tone and professional in execution. Most important of all, the bill is reasonable. Thanks to the affordable wine and the many entrees $20 and under, you can get out of a nice meal at Pat’s for about $50 less than what we spent at Grace recently (a place I still recommend for a splurge). Nothing disperses the heady magic of charisma, as Obama is learning, than worrying about spending and the bottom line. But such matters are central to the sustainability of institutions, and to the persistence of Pat’s appeal.

The New York Times has published a celebration of food in Portland.

In the last decade, Portland has undergone a controlled fermentation for culinary ideas — combining young chefs in a hard climate with few rules, no European tradition to answer to, and relatively low economic pressure — and has become one of the best places to eat in the Northeast. The most interesting chefs here cook up and down the spectrum, from Erik Desjarlais’s classically pressed roast ducks at Evangeline, to the renegade baker Stephen Lanzalotta’s gorgeously caramelized sfogliatelle (sold out of the back of Micucci Grocery, an Italian-imports shop), to Mr. Potocki’s simple but brilliant chili-garlic cream cheese and handmade bagels.