PORTLAND

Warm up with a nip of liqueur or whisky at Gorgeous Gelato

If you need help staying warm this winter, pop into one of Portland’s local gelato shops.

Sound crazy? Not if you get a nip of an Italian liqueur to go with your scoop of panna cotta gelato.

Donato Giovine, owner of Gorgeous Gelato at 434 Fore St., recently received a license from the city of Portland to serve six types of Italian liqueur at his gelato shop, making the experience of eating there feel more like an Italian cafe. Giovine also sells paninis, cannolis and tarts, and in the winter his hot chocolate is a treat to warm the bones.

The liqueurs will be served as an accompaniment to these foods, or combined with espresso as a “corretto.”

The liqueurs are almond-flavored Amaretto di Saronno, anise-flavored Sambuca Molinari, bittersweet and herbal Amaro Montenegro, bitter Fernet Branca, lemon-flavored Limoncello and the grape-based Grappa di Barbera, as well as Crown Royal Canadian whiskey and Woodford Reserve Kentucky bourbon.

Name of restaurant at new hotel revealed: M.C. Union

The name of the new restaurant at The Press Hotel, opening this spring at 119 Exchange St., will be M.C. Union.

(Funny, when the Press Herald lived there the address was 390 Congress St.)

Chefs Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier quietly posted the name on their MC Perkins Facebook page over the holidays, when everyone was too busy to notice. The portlandfoodmap.com blog saw it this week and shared the name with the world Monday. We like to think it’s a shout-out to the former employees of the newspaper, who are represented by a union.

ROCKLAND

Pies on Parade: Try tasty pies and help the midcoast community, too

If it’s January, they’re thinking about pie in Rockland.

The 11th annual Pies on Parade tour, which celebrates National Pie Day and raises money for charity, will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Jan. 25. Tickets go fast, so don’t delay, call 596-6611 for tickets, or visit one of the “Historic Inns of Rockland”: the Berry Manor Inn, the Lime Rock Inn or the Granite Inn.

The pie tour stops at local inns, restaurants and other businesses, where guests can sample pies ranging from traditional options to shepherd’s pie and whoopie pies. Each venue offers its own pies, usually one sweet and one savory.

Proceeds benefit the Area Interfaith Outreach Food Pantry and Fuel Assistance Program. Over the past 10 years, Pies on Parade has donated more than $85,500 to the food pantry, which helps provide food for midcoast families.

This year, there will be collection cans at each venue, where visitors can buy a gallon of oil with a donation. Maritime Energy will match each donation with oil, up to $2,000.

For more information, go to historicinnsofrockland.com.

YORK

Tickets still available for dinner cooked on traditional hearths

Just a few seats remain for a traditional hearth dinner Jan. 16 to benefit the Museums of Old York.

Justin Walker, executive chef at Earth at Hidden Pond in Kennebunkport, will be preparing a four-course, contemporary “tavern dinner” using the museum’s traditional hearths. Seating is limited, so guests will sit in the historic Jefferds Tavern or at a long communal table in the adjoining Parsons Center. The dinner is BYOB.

Tickets cost $65, or $60 for museum members, and are available by calling Eileen Sewall at 363-4974.

– Compiled by Meredith Goad,

Staff Writer

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