We already know Mainers are a hardy bunch, but ordering ice cream during snowstorms? Salli Wason proved once again that Mainers have ice in their veins when she delivered her handmade pints of butterscotch ripple and cookies ‘n’ cream to Portland residents’ doors, no matter what the weather.
Wason’s business, Rosanna’s Ice Cream (named, oddly enough, after Toto’s popular song about Africa) was the first to offer ice cream delivery in the city. Now the nearly 2-year-old business is closing, Wason says, because “the toll Rosanna’s has been taking on my physical health is unjustifiable. I’m ready to let go, get healthy, and try something new before diabetes gets more of a toehold (which it’s threatening to do).”
In a phone interview, Wason, who is in her 40s, said she doesn’t actually have diabetes, but the disease runs in her family. She tastes her ice cream constantly for quality control, and worries she’s increasing her chances of developing the disease. “I have a terrible sweet tooth,” she added.
Other factors are also making her hang up her ice cream scoop. Wason’s lease at 953 Congress St. is up, “and I really didn’t want to take out a big business loan and do a high-priced downtown Portland lease,” she said.
“I just decided that I like doing this, but it’s more fun than it is practical, and I don’t want it to stop being fun,” Wason explained. “So I’m going to go back to school.”
She will study to get her medical assistant’s certificate.
Wason plans to shutter the business around the third week of February. Customers craving one last pint of Coffee Oreo – Rosanna’s most popular flavor – or wanting to stock up while they still can should check the company’s Facebook page for updates.
WINTER RENOVATIONS
Winter is when many Maine restaurants close temporarily to remodel, projects that can’t be done during the busy summer tourist season.
David’s 388, on Cottage Road in South Portland, closed Monday for what chef/owner David Turin described as a “long overdue renovation.”
“We’re giving our dining room an update with new seating, tables, and service area, adding new kitchen tile and enhancing the lighting,” Turin told customers in a notice posted on his restaurant’s website. “We’re also making a big upgrade to a more environmentally friendly HVAC system that will make life warmer in the winter and cooler during the summer months.”
Turin plans to reopen the restaurant during the first week of February.
Two other popular Portland-area spots also are remodeling, but they’re not just updating – they’re expanding.
The Little Giant market, at 81 Clark St. in Portland’s West End, will close in February and reopen on March 1 as an all-day café and wine bar to be called Giant.
Owners Andrew and Briana Volk and Ian and Kate Malin, who also own the adjacent Little Giant restaurant, announced the changes last week.
The new space, which will seat 25, will offer breakfast, baked goods, soups, salads and sandwiches, and host weekly evening pop-ups with changing menus. The café will be open every day from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Customers also will be able to buy wine, beer, and heat-and-eat meals at Giant, and to sit outside on a patio in the summer.
The Volks also own the Portland Hunt + Alpine Club, a bar on Market Street in Portland.
Tandem Coffee + Bakery in Portland will close for three weeks later this winter to expand its kitchen and add equipment.
Tandem Coffee + Bakery at 742 Congress St. in Portland will close for three weeks beginning Feb. 18 so the bakery can expand its kitchen and add equipment. The goal is to produce more baked goods more efficiently, perhaps shortening the long lines that often form during the summer tourist season.
“We’ll be able to respond to the line a little bit better,” said Will Pratt, co-owner of the business. “Typically, I think there will be some space in one of the ovens at all times with four (ovens) instead of two.”
The bakery also is buying a bigger mixer, replacing its induction burners with a gas range, adding a sheeter and a sandwich prep station, and more than doubling the size of the walk-in refrigerator.
“We will be able to make sandwiches to order,” Pratt said. “There won’t be any waste, and we will be able to make more.”
Briana Holt, Tandem’s head baker, said the updates will give the staff more breathing room and help maintain quality, but it’s “mostly about expanding space for customers and expanding the kitchen to do more volume.” The staff will be able to make twice as many biscuits at 5 a.m., Holt said, so as not to have to worry about running out by 7 a.m.
“Sometimes there’s things we make that we only do on Wednesdays,” she said, “and it will be a lot easier to have these things available all the time.”
Holt said the renovations also will make it easier for Tandem to cater weddings and other events.
The bakery is scheduled to reopen on March 9.
PLAT DU JOUR NO MORE
Brace yourself for bad news, Brunswick diners. Tuesday will be the final Plat du Jour night at the Brunswick Inn.
These popular nights, which featured a different theme every week, are ending because executive chef Ali Waks-Adams is moving after three years at the inn to become executive chef at Enoteca Athena, 97 Maine St. – just down the street from the inn.
Replacing Waks-Adams at the inn will be Lindsey Seibel, who most recently worked as sous chef at Nebo Lodge on North Haven Island. Seibel grew up on a dairy farm in Vermont, and began her culinary career at Pane e Salute in Woodstock, Vermont.
KUNO A-COMING
We usually think of summer as food truck season, but Nick Yee hopes to launch his new truck, called Kuno, in February.
The truck will feature Peranakan cuisine, a mix of traditional Chinese and Malaysian dishes that also use some Thai ingredients. Yee, a Malaysian native and former cook at Boda in Portland, bought the restaurant’s Thainy Boda food truck two months ago. He renamed the business Kuno and plans to cook his family’s Peranakan recipes. Typical dishes include curry laksa, a noodle soup made with coconut milk, chicken broth, rice and egg noodles, chicken, shrimp, tofu and egg, served with sambal chili paste; and Mee Siam, a spicy stir-fried rice vermicelli with chili paste, chives, shrimp, egg, fried shallots and lime. The prices will range from $5 to $12, Yee said.
Watch for the truck’s opening date @kunomaine on Instagram.
Aaron Peet, the wine maker at Cellardoor Winery in Lincolnville, tends to a batch of wine.
TOP HONORS FOR CELLARDOOR
Cellardoor Winery won 10 gold medals, including two Best of Class and three Double Gold awards, at the 2019 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition this month. It’s the largest wine competition in North America.
The winery’s Best of Class winners are a 2017 Riesling and a 2017 Chenin Blanc. You can view the Double Gold winners on the winery’s website, mainewine.com, or taste them at the Cellardoor tasting room at Thompson’s Point in Portland or in the winery’s tasting barn in Lincolnville.
This year’s competition attracted more than 6,800 entries that were judged over three days by 65 professional judges.
“Our winemaker, Aaron Peet, and his team are proving that great winemaking doesn’t only happen close to where the grapes grow,” Cellardoor owner Bettina Doulton said in a statement announcing the awards. “I’m proud that we’re using Washington, California, and New York grapes to make American, award-winning, food friendly wine in Maine.”
INSIDER NETWORK
When chef Daron Goldstein opened Provender Kitchen + Bar in Ellsworth, he had to put another food-related project on the back burner.
Now he’s turned his attention back to what he hopes will be his second business – a website and app that will serve as an insiders’ network for news about Maine chefs and restaurants. Called chefsofmaine.com, the site will profile Maine restaurants and chefs, feature restaurant news and list upcoming events. Goldstein is partnering on the project with Nick Saro, a designer from Ellsworth.
Here’s the kicker: Restaurants will have to pay a monthly fee of about $60 to be included on the site.
Goldstein hopes to launch the website and app in March.
Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:
mgoad@pressherald.com
Twitter: MeredithGoad
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