The owners of Bake Maine Pottery Cafe on Washington Avenue are launching a second location in Wells this week.

Bake Maine Wells will officially open Friday, according to Kristen Perry, baker and co-owner with chef and husband Doug.

The new breakfast and lunch shop is situated at 2178 Post Road, the former home of A Cafe & Bakery, which Perry and her husband previously managed and operated. The couple also managed 1690 House Bakeshop and Cafe from 2017 to 2020.

“We were here (in Wells) for six years running small bakeries, so people knew us. We had a following. It’s nice to come home,” Perry said, noting that she and her husband grew up in Wells and live there now. The Perrys launched Bake Maine Pottery Cafe in the former home of Portland Pottery Cafe in January 2023.

The Wells location of Bake Maine has 40 seats inside, with another 40 patio seats. Perry said the Wells menu will be very similar to the Portland menu, featuring a variety of breakfast sandwiches, wraps and toasts featuring house-baked bread ($7-$13). The all-day lunch menu offers a selection of sandwiches ($12-$15) like Curried Chicken Salad, Turkey Avocado and Korean Beef.

Bake Maine Wells will be open Friday through Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to start, though Perry said she expects to expand the hours by this summer. The store will be open year-round.

At the soft opening last weekend, the Perry said she could tell how much their previous Wells customers had missed them. “They’re so excited. On Sunday, I opened the door to a parking lot full of people waiting for us to open, and they all applauded,” Perry said. “It was so nice and very endearing.”

SWELL OPENS IN SACO

Swell Nitro Coffee, specializing in nitro cold brews, opened in downtown Saco last weekend.

Swell co-owner Pater Vacca said the new shop launched Saturday at 200 Main St., which previously housed Everything Zen clothing and gift shop. The 850-square-foot space can seat about 25 customers, with outdoor bistro tables coming soon, Vacca said.

Swell’s beverage menu includes five flavored iced lattes: maple sea salt, mocha oat, brown sugar, banana bread and dirty chai. The shop also sells nitro cold brew coffee on tap – a preparation method that gives the coffee a creamy head and smooths out any bitterness – along with hot coffees, nitro matcha and hot teas. Swell sources its beans from Carrabassett Coffee Company in Kingfield.

Swell also offers a rotating selection of pastries from Little Spruce Baking Co. in Biddeford, including croissants, cinnamon buns, scones, biscuits and doughnuts. The shop also serves granola bars, yogurt and snack packs.

“We’ve been swamped. We’ve had a great turnout so far,” Vacca said. “People have been complimenting the speed. Because everything is on tap for us, we’re able to get drinks out fairly quickly.”

Swell is open from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily.

GOOD FOOD AWARDS FOR THREE MAINE MAKERS 

Three Maine beverage makers were named winners at the 2024 Good Food Awards ceremony Monday in Portland, Oregon.

They were, in the coffee category, Portland’s Coffee By Design for its Costa Rica Danilo Salazar Finca San Cristobal Natural, and Speckled Ax for Guatemala La Bonita and Costa Rica La Guaca Natural and, in the beer category, Freeport’s Maine Beer Company for its Woods & Waters IPA.

The West Coast-based awards program reviewed more than 1,700 products submitted for its 14th annual event, to arrive at 428 finalists in 18 categories.

Seven Maine finalists, announced in January, also included Deer Isle-based 44 North for its Honduras-honey process COMSA in the coffee category; Allagash Brewing Co. for its Surf House lager in the beer category; Bixby Chocolate’s organic Haiti 70% dark chocolate bar in the chocolate category; and Turtle Rock Farm’s Strawberry Champagne Mignonette in the pantry category.

ESAAN CLOSES

After shutting its doors for more than a month this winter because of a medical emergency, Thai restaurant Esaan closed for good Sunday.

The owner of the Portland restaurant announced the closing Friday in a Facebook post.

“This decision was a difficult one to make with our journey from our small takeout place that thrived through the pandemic and a few obstacles along the way,” the post said. “We want to thank all of our wonderful guests that have chosen us to be a part of their family through the years. We are extremely humbled that so many embraced our restaurant and that we were able to succeed as long as we had.”

Esaan had to close in early February when Siwaporn Roberts, owner Ben Boonseng’s mother and the restaurant’s only chef, was taken to the Northern Light Mercy Hospital emergency room with abdominal pain.

Roberts underwent gallbladder surgery. She was released from the hospital but returned just days later because she had started to suffer acute pancreatitis, for which she was also treated.

By March, Boonseng had found a cook to work the kitchen while his mother recuperated. A friend of the family launched a GoFundMe page to help Esaan cover bills, rent and food costs until Roberts was fully ready to return to work, but the site only raised $900 of its $10,000 goal as of Tuesday.

The restaurant first launched as Thai Esaan on Forest Avenue in 2016, though a fire damaged that building in late 2021, forcing it to close. It reopened at 65 Portland St. in the former home of Back Bay Grill in March 2023.

Boonseng did not return a phone call or emails seeking an interview.

SCALLOP DELEGATION VISITS FRANCE

A group of Maine aquaculture experts, chefs and others traveled to France in mid-April to learn about the French scallop fishery and how they can help popularize whole scallops in Maine.

“The scallop fishery in France is extremely well managed,” said delegate Rob Dumas, a University of Maine food science innovation coordinator who helped spearhead the educational trip. “It’s one of the more sustainable fisheries in the world, and it’s something we can learn lessons from as we look at how we manage the Gulf of Maine.”

Some other members of the trip included Downeast Dayboat owner Togue Brawn; Hugh Cowperthwaite, senior program director of fisheries and aquaculture for Coastal Enterprises Inc.; chef and Fore Street co-owner Sam Hayward; Maine Sea Grant aquaculture lead Dana Morse; Vertical Bay Maine owner Andrew Peters; and Ocean’s Balance co-owner Lisa Scali.

Dumas explained that, in the United States, what we know as a scallop is just the cylinder-shaped adductor muscle. In France, scallops are almost always sold whole, including roe sacs and other edible portions, like the mantle.

Dumas said the Gulf of Maine has some toxic algaes that don’t affect the adductor muscle but could accumulate in other parts, so whole wild scallops aren’t currently a safe option. But Maine aquaculture companies like Vertical Bay in Belfast and PenBay in Stonington are raising whole scallops that are free from such toxins.

“I don’t know that there has been a positive test yet, so the opportunity to eat the entire scallop and the roe is on the table,” Dumas said. “It’s very appealing because it doubles the edible portion of the scallop. It’s a lucrative opportunity for the scallop farmers and a neat opportunity for chefs to show guests something they’ve never gotten to try before and to use more of the edible portion of the animal.”

Dumas said Vertical Bay and PenBay already sell whole scallops to Maine chefs like Erin French of the Lost Kitchen and Devin Finigan of Aragosta at Goose Cove. But the delegation hopes to get more Maine chefs and markets using and selling whole scallops this summer.

To that end, they plan to catalog their findings on a website that will offer resources for chefs, like educational videos, tutorials on scallop shucking and usage, recipes and other instruction. “The idea would be to create a kind of database of information for chefs to tap into and learn more about this ‘new’ kid on the block,” said Dumas.

Dumas said the group also plans to do some “chef-facing events” like a presentation at Rhode Island’s Johnson & Wales this fall and perhaps a similar Portland-based event.

WHOLE FOODS HONORS ATLANTIC SEA FARMS

Whole Foods Market recently named Biddeford-based Atlantic Sea Farms among 16 national winners of the company’s 2024 Supplier All-Star Awards.

The award recognizes “excellence through quality, innovation, value, and sustainability, while enhancing the shopping experience in stores across the country,” according to the company’s website. “This year’s awardees represent a diverse array of brands that have left an incredible mark on Whole Foods Market’s aisles, ranging from 4 to 40 years on the retailer’s shelves.”

“We are proud to shine a spotlight on this committed group of suppliers and the remarkable contributions they’ve made to enriching our customer’s shopping experiences, advancing our purpose, and pushing the boundaries of excellence within the industry,” Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, chief merchandising and marketing officer at Whole Foods Market, said in a news release.

A team of Whole Foods Market leaders, category experts and merchants picked winners for the 12th annual Supplier All-Star Awards. Other awardees included brands like Dr. Bronner’s, Lundberg Family Farms, Pacific Seafood and Rainer Fruit Co.

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