Simply amazing!
What a year for Portland restaurants. At last count nearly 25 new establishments opened for business in 2014 with a veritable whirlwind of talented chefs commandeering professional ranges all over town.
Notable debuts included Central Provisions, Lolita, Sur-Lie, Bao Bao, Slab, Ebb and Flow, Tandem Bakery, Bramhall, Timber Steak House, the French renaissance at Petite Jacqueline under chef Fred Eliot and the controversial Vinland, which I’ve included in this list because it opened at the end of 2013. Adding to the diversity were a host of new openings in the prior year including Empire Chinese, which maintains the high standard for Chinese food in Portland.
And the momentum continues unabated into 2015. The upcoming restaurant, for example, in the highly anticipated Press Hotel is being run by star chefs Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier who sold their famed restaurant, Arrows, several months ago.
Clockwise, left, Boda, Hugo’s, Fore Street kitchen and the mystery lady
And another intriguing candidate is Tempo Dulu, a Southeast Asian restaurant that will be done to the nines of luxury in the fabulous Danforth owned by hoteliers Raymond Brunyanszki and Oscar Verest whose Camden Harbour Inn was anointed this year as a Relais and Chateaux.
What’s also intriguing is the new restaurant, Isa, which is under construction at 79 Portland St., boasting a moderately priced menu of bistro fare. It’s located right next to Portland favorite, the venerable Back Bay Grill.
What’s astounding is Portland’s ability to absorb all of these restaurants in which the best are always busy. The established all-stars like Fore Street, Back Bay Grill, and Five Fifty-Five are pretty packed nightly. And such relative newcomers as Eventide, Hugo’s, Central Provisions, Lolita and Sur-Lie are hardly running on hype but fill up too because the food is so good. Hugo’s, however, remains the most expensive where the average tab hovers at $150 per person.
In the last week I’ve had the good fortune to have dinner at two of our core dining haunts, Fore Street and Five Fifty-Five, and featured here. Then to cap off the holiday, Christmas dinner took place at Empire Chinese where a gala feast was had by all.
Off the radar, without announcement or press fanfare, Empire Chinese was packed for Christmas dinner
Fore Street dinner December 2014. Served by best bartender Greg Aruda, dinner included chilled seafood platter with Penobscot Bay sea urchin roe with broiled duck egg mayonnaise and grilled sugar kelp, Casco Bay sea scallop ceviche with gin and citrus, Machias and Bang’s Island pickled periwinkles and smoked mussels with rocket pistachio pesto; Atlantic wolfish filet, celeriac, parsnip and turnip hash, grilled leeks, beef chive butter.
Bartender Greg Aruda and the Fore St. open kitchen
Christmas Eve dinner 2014 at Five Fifty-Five, clockwise, torchon, duck with chestnuts and sweet potatoes, xmas eve diners, pepper-crusted diver scallops, vanilla emulsion; guest and 555 kitchen
Empire Christmas dinner: shitake chive dumplings, curried beef shumai, lobster lo mein, szechuan lobster lo mein, Chinatown roast pork, the Empire kitchen
Beyond that here’s a look back at some of the best dishes I’ve had all year in the photo montage that follows.
Panzanella salad, 555; halibut, Earth at Hidden Pond; lardo Back Bay Grill
Cucumber salad and dessert buns, Bao Bao; quail eggs and Miam Kum-Som-oh, Boda
Funky Bow Beer at Funky Bow bash; bologna sandwich with egg at the East Ender,”Simpsons” burger Linda Bean’s Topside Tavern, Freeport
Bao Bao cabbage slaw; Boda bar, tuna melt at the Palace Diner, Biddeford
Mussels in cider, Caiola’s; halibut and tuna poke, Earth’ turkey platter with all the fixings, Miss Portland Diner
First dinner at Ebb and Flow, hummus, pita bread and langoustines
Fritters, El Rayo Scarborough; braised short ribs, In’finiti; perogi, Hugo’s; ice box cake, Palace Diner
Central Provisions, rillettes, smoked carrots
Bucatini with ramp pesto, Lolita; smelts, Pai Men, Downeast Breakfast: smoked pork chop, baked beans, eggs, Marcy’s Diner
Tuna crostini, crabs, Salt Water Farm, Little Big’s faux cronuts, Brant Dadaleares dessert, Fore Street, chicken breast with gnocchi at Back Bay Grill, roast pork buns at Empire
“Pig”, Central Provisions; vegetable buns, Miyake Diner; lobster roll, Eventide; turnip soup and beet chips, Vinland; blueberry glazed pork chop, Timber
Bone marrow, LFK’ pizza Calderwood Hall, North Haven; old-fashioned buttermilk, farmer’s market; sticky duck legs, Fog Bar, Rockland; my caramel apple pie and lemon meringue pie; swordfish, Natalie’s, Camden Harbor Inn; swordfish, Salt Water Farm, Rockport; torchon, Petite Jacqueline
Chocolate Chips, Tandem Bakery; donuts, Urban Sugar; branzino in black bean sauce, Boone’s; shitake and chive dumplings, Empire Chinese
All photographs by John Golden