The Portland Press Herald / The Maine Sunday Telegram

What's cooking?

By Meredith Goad mgoad@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

 PORTLAND — The new year is bringing lots of changes to the Portland food and restaurant scene.

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20100104_PoBoyNPickle

Gordon Chibroski

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Gordon Chibroski

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New restaurants, believe it or not, are still opening here, cementing the city's reputation as ''the foodiest small town in America.'' Established restaurants are transforming themselves with extensive renovations and menu changes. And there are more food choices than ever.

Below, you'll find details on some of the new arrivals and changes on the horizon. This is by no means a complete list, just a taste of what's to come.

BRESCA

Krista Desjarlais, the chef-owner of Bresca, 111 Middle St., has a lot of changes coming to her restaurant -- and to her life -- in the new year.

Desjarlais and her husband, Chef Erik Desjarlais of the restaurant Evangeline, are expecting their first child in May. Bresca will remain open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday even after the arrival of the little one, but Desjarlais plans to adjust her schedule to make it more flexible. She'll work early mornings and offer pastries at Bresca, as well as a light cafe-style lunch ''if I have the strength.''

Before Bresca, Desjarlais was best known as a pastry chef, so this should be a welcome addition to Portland's food scene. Desjarlais says she'll be making European and classic American pastries and tarts to sell, and for special order, starting in early summer. And yes, she'll still be working nights too.

By the way, it's a girl.

PO' BOYS & PICKLES

Talk about an unfilled niche in the local restaurant scene: Peter Zinn is bringing a taste of the Big Easy to Portland with his new sandwich shop at 1124 Forest Ave.

Zinn is a Portland native who has worked in restaurants in Italy and New York City, including Alain Ducasse and Veritas. When his girlfriend got a teaching job in New Orleans, he hung up his pastry tools and followed her, getting work as a landscaper -- and falling in love with the food.

His menu at Po' Boys & Pickles includes Louisiana gumbo and an array of made-to-order, New Orleans-style sandwiches, including Golden Fried Oyster and Creole Sausage. Sides include praline bacon, which Zinn describes as thick-cut bacon dredged in brown sugar, pecans and cayenne. For dessert, there's sticky toffee pudding.

''I kept it as true to New Orleans as I could for a couple of reasons,'' Zinn said. ''One, because I like that food. Two, because I wanted it to be authentic, and I felt like those people in New Orleans have a good thing going. Why change it?''

Zinn uses all local fish, and pickles and sauerkraut from Morse's in Waldoboro. But many other ingredients are shipped in from Louisiana.

''Our sausage po' boy is made from a sausage company called Comeaux's, which is in Cajun country,'' Zinn said. ''They're a family-run sausage producer, and they ship up to us. We sell Zapp's potato chips. They come in all kinds of flavors like tabasco, tomato potato chips, and sweet onion and all kinds of cool things.''

Zinn's new place had a soft opening a couple of weeks ago, and will only be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. the first few weeks to get the lunch service going as smoothly as possible. Eventually, it will stay open until midnight.

EL RAYO TAQUERIA

With just 30 seats, El Rayo, 101 York St., already has plenty of take-away business. As much as 25 percent of its sales come from take-out orders.

So the Mexican restaurant has decided to launch a delivery service to the Portland peninsula beginning in mid-January. It will start with weekday lunch delivery from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and if all goes well, nights and weekends will be added later.

HAVANA SOUTH

Michael Boland already has five restaurants in Bar Harbor, so why open a new place in Portland, where there is so much competition?

It's complicated, says Boland, owner of Havana in Bar Harbor and the new Havana South, which will open in Portland sometime in April.

''Part of it is simply because Portland is the biggest market in Maine, and along with that, the prospect of year-round revenue as opposed to the very seasonal nature of our cash flow right now,'' he said via an e-mail interview. ''Additionally, it is a challenge to compete in the 'big leagues' and also inspiring to be in such a food-centric restaurant community.''

Boland and his business partner, Cassady Pappas, have been looking seriously for a space in Portland for two years. They settled on 42-50 Wharf St. in Portland's Old Port. The huge brick building has been gutted and rebuilt, and features a new bar, kitchen, wine cellar and a facade that retains the historic character of the place.

Like its sister restaurant in Bar Harbor, Havana South will offer ''American fine dining with a Latin flair.''

''We will have dishes and sauces straight out of Tierra del Fuego, in Argentina, where I and my partner have just returned from,'' Boland said. ''And dishes and sauces from Central America, the Yucatan, and Chiapas in Mexico, where my family and I have spent the last several winters. We have also spent quite a bit of time in Bahia, Brazil, over the last 10 years, and have found that we have been influenced by the cuisine and culture of that area more than anywhere else.''

That means Havana South will serve dishes such as Moqueca, a seafood stew from Bahia that is easy to adapt to Maine.

There will be a large bar and lounge area for smaller meals, and the covered patio area will be expanded to add outdoor seating. Boland said he had hoped to feature live jazz, but current city regulations won't allow it, because the adjacent nightclub Oasis already has an entertainment permit.

WALTER'S

Everyone knows by now that Walter's has reopened in a new space at 2 Portland Square.

But Chef Jeff Buerhaus and his wife, Cheryl, aren't finished transforming their restaurant just yet. Look for a new bar, Gingko Blue, to open in the same building in the spring.

''Many times, customers would come in over at the old location and say, 'Where's a great place we can go after our meal that will be quiet, loungey, maybe some acoustic jazz, someplace where we could really relax?' '' Buerhaus said. ''My wife and I could never really come up with a good answer, except possibly the Regency. So we just felt the city was missing a place like that.''

The bar will target a slightly older crowd; professionals who are into jazz and blues. The name comes from the fact that there are gingko trees in the area around Union and Fore streets.

For regulars who haven't checked out the new Walter's yet, never fear: Buerhaus has kept longtime customer favorites, such as the calamari (also known as ''crack-a-mari'') on the menu. And he still makes those crispy Asian raviolis.

''I think if I had gotten rid of that, I would have been run out of town,'' Buerhaus said.

BODA

Bangkok Thai, 671 Congress St., has been closed since Nov. 1. When it re-opens at the end of the month, it will be known as Boda.

This will not be your ordinary Thai restaurant, with three- or four-page menus offering a dizzying array of choices. Boda will feature homestyle Thai cooking and Thai street-vendor specialties that are unlike anything else offered in Portland.

Owners Bob Wongsaichua and Dan Sriprasert, the creative minds behind the Green Elephant restaurant at 608 Congress St., will be emphasizing quality and authenticity over quantity.

''The food's going to be quite different,'' says manager Katie Boone. ''It's still going to be Thai food, but they're basing it off a different kind of concept. They wanted to, first of all, design a smaller menu that's going to change more regularly. We're also putting in a bar, so the larger concept of the restaurant's changing. They're going to be open later, serving food until midnight. We're not going to do lunch anymore.''

There will be lots of meat and fish, including small plates and lots of grilled meat skewers. There will be some vegetarian options too.

The name ''Boda'' sounds Asian, but it's actually just a melding of the two owners' names -- Bob and Dan. The restaurant will be open daily from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.

''I think if you're interested in food, you'll like it,'' Boone said. ''There will be more unique things.''

SHRIMP, ANYONE?

Port Clyde Fresh Catch is offering its first Maine shrimp community-supported fisheries subscriptions in Portland and Freeport beginning Saturday.

Subscribers to CSF programs purchase a share of a fisherman's catch, and in return get fresh seafood delivered to them regularly. There will be six biweekly deliveries in Portland and Freeport -- on Saturday and Jan. 23, Feb. 6 and 20, and March 6 and 20.

Customers can sign up for either three pounds or five pounds of peeled shrimp, according to Jessica Libby, the CSF manager at Port Clyde Fresh Catch. The cost is $5 per pound for raw shrimp and $6 per pound for cooked.

''If you sign up for the full share, that will give you 12 weeks' worth of product,'' Libby said. ''Where we'll be delivering six times, you'll get two weeks' worth each delivery. If you signed up for the three-pound-a-week share, you would be getting six pounds per delivery.''

Anyone, whether they subscribe to the CSF or not, can custom-order deliveries of other seafood, including lobster, crab and whole shrimp (raw or cooked), as long as they call 48 hours ahead.

The pick-up spot in Portland will be El Rayo, 101 York St., between 3 and 4 p.m. In Freeport, deliveries will be made to Royal River Natural Foods, 443 Route 1, between 1 and 2 p.m.

Port Clyde Fresh Catch will also be making the rounds of Portland restaurants this winter. Peeled shrimp, shrimp tails and whole shrimp will be available, either raw or cooked.

For more information or to sign up, call Libby at 975-2191, or e-mail her at jessica@ midcoastfishermen.org.

Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:

mgoad@pressherald.com