Blue Lobster Urban Winery launched last weekend in its new Anderson Street home, a venue that triples the number of customers it can serve.

Blue Lobster’s new 4,200-square-foot production facility and tasting room at 200 Anderson St. offers seating for 165 customers, including 59 outdoor seats. The previous tasting room at 219 Anderson St. had just 49 seats.

Blue Lobster Sales Director Jason Kroot said the company has already started to put the extra room to use by booking larger groups for special events.

“We’re also excited to be in an area where we have a lot more foot traffic,” Kroot said. “We were starting to paint in April, and there were more people looking through the windows in April than there were (at the previous location) in August at the height of the season. We were the last stop in East Bayside, from a food and drink perspective, but now we’re really centrally located.”

In East Bayside, Blue Lobster counts among its neighbors Austin Street Brewery, Belleflower Brewing Company, Lone Pine Brewing Company and Rising Tide Brewing Company. “We’re kind of the only winery in a sea of breweries there,” Kroot said, adding that the Blue Lobster leadership team expects the distinction will help them attract customers.

Blue Lobster also secured a Class A lounge license, allowing it to serve beer, cocktails and mocktails in addition to wine. Kroot said he expects by July 4 the tasting room will also start selling a customizable “grab and go” charcuterie and local cheese board.

Blue Lobster Urban Winery is open seven days from noon until 8 p.m., though Kroot said the space  may eventually open later in the day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR MAINE CHEESE GUILD

The Maine Cheese Guild has hired a new executive director who aims to raise the profile of Maine cheese and cheesemakers.

Maine native Irene Burgess started work this month as the guild’s second executive director. The groups’ first executive director, Ron Dyer, was hired in 2022 and is now “pursuing other opportunities,” according to the guild.

As a teenager, Burgess worked on her brother’s dairy farm in Newport, the former Burgess Farm. She earned an undergraduate degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University, and her career has largely been spent in higher education and with nonprofit organizations in the Midwest and South.

Burgess said she sees her role in the part-time position as “promoting the interests of cheese producers and lovers in Maine,” noting that she hopes to attract more attention to the guild’s 80 licensed cheesemakers and their products.

“They do a lot of good work, but if you’re by yourself and you have 80 goats to take care of, it’s difficult to spend time doing the promotion you need in today’s social media atmosphere,” Burgess said.

Burgess also plans to build the guild’s professional network, help prepare for its annual Maine Cheese Festival (this year on Sept. 8 in Pittsfield), disseminate grant money for professional development of its members and look for opportunities to secure new grant funds.

“My first year on the job is going to look like getting to know people, visiting them at their production sites and farms and finding out where good partnerships can be developed to promote what we need and what the people of Maine should get in terms of the Maine Cheese Guild,” Burgess said.

Burgess called Maine’s cheese scene “very robust and vigorous” compared to other states around the country, though it’s not always recognized as such.

“I don’t think Maine has the natural association to cheese that, say, Vermont or Wisconsin does,” Burgess said. “There are all these producers making high-quality goat cheeses and water buffalo cheese and cow cheese, and it should be recognized. We should be a place people go to for the best cheese they can find.”

GEORGE + LEON’S LOSES FOOD AFTER STORM DAMAGE

George + Leon’s, the Westbrook restaurant specializing in North Shore-style roast beef sandwiches, lost thousands of dollars of food inventory last week after a lightning strike to the building caused a walk-in refrigerator malfunction.

Owner Logan Abbey said that during a storm late last Thursday night, lightning apparently struck the building that houses his restaurant, at 9 Cumberland St. The intense zap caused George + Leon’s walk-in refrigerator to switch to defrost mode.

“When we came in Friday morning, we had to throw everything in the walk-in away pretty much,” Abbey said. “We’re talking thousands of dollars of product.”

Abbey scrambled to restock his food inventory and filed an insurance claim, though he said he wasn’t confident his insurers would cover much of the loss. He said his restaurant experienced a walk-in malfunction last November and also lost all the food inside, though the insurance company only paid out a few hundred dollars. “And it was like pulling teeth to get money out of them,” he added.

Abbey wrote a post on social media about the incident last Saturday morning. “And Saturday we were jam-packed,” he said. “We had a really good night. It was just really good the town wanted to come out and help us. Westbrook has been a great community to us.”

LOCAL 188 TURNS 25

The West End’s Latin-inspired restaurant Local 188 is marking its 25th year in business this month by featuring food and drinks from its original 1999 menu and donating 25% of June profits to charity.

Local 188 launched in 1999 at 188 State St., before moving to 685 Congress St. in 2007. Originally, the venue was a hybrid restaurant/art gallery. “The name ‘Local 188’ and the brand imagery (created by local artist and muralist Pat Corrigan) not only references the original street address of the restaurant and gallery and our community focus, but was also meant to evoke labor unions and their tradition of celebrating dignity, hard work, and comradery among their members, characteristics shared by the local artist community, then and now,” said chef and co-owner Jay Villani.

Villani noted that the restaurant’s name has led to a few amusing misunderstandings over the years, including a pipefitter who showed up looking for plumbing work (confusing the business with Local Union 716), and an exotic dancer who applied for a job after mishearing a reference to the “tapas” bar as a “topless” bar.

The Portland dining scene has changed significantly in the years since Local 188 launched. “We opened with a lot of sweat equity and very limited funds,” Villani said. “Cheap space was pretty easy to come by, and the neighborhood really welcomed us with open arms. It is tougher these days to get established. We are grateful to our customers, friends, and neighbors and consider ourselves very fortunate.”

Local 188 is donating one quarter of its profits this month to support Wayside Food Programs in their efforts to eliminate food insecurity.

NATIONAL LOVE FOR PORTLAND

As peak tourist season nears, Portland’s food scene has been praised in recent travel profile pieces in The New York Times and CNN.

The Times last Thursday featured Portland in its 36 Hours series, offering suggestions for visitors who have just a day and a half to spend in the city. Food and drink-related recommendations included Anoche, Bar Futo, Bite into Maine, Cong Tu Bot, Hot Suppa, Il Leone, Izakaya Minato, Luke’s Lobster, Oxbow Blending & Bottling, Onggi, Rabelais, Strata, The Shop by Island Creek Oysters, Terlingua and Ugly Duckling.

“Maine’s largest city has long been nationally known as a top food destination, and just this year two Portland bakers won James Beard Awards,” the Times piece reads, referring to Atsuko Fujimoto of Norimoto Bakery and Barak Olins of Zu Bakery. “To host travelers, culinary or otherwise, five boutique hotels have opened since 2020. The hotel construction, new high-end condo development and rising coastal real estate prices have exacerbated a housing crisis here. But the elements that make this New England city such an attractive place to visit – a dynamic creative economy, juxtaposition of the old and the new, and the distinctive character of a working waterfront – endure.”

CNN on Monday published a Portland profile because it’s number four on its list of the 10 communities in America to visit this year. Providence, Rhode Island, is the only other New England location on CNN’s list.

The CNN story mentions Allagash Brewing Company, Bar Futo, Belleflower Brewing Company, Eventide, Fore Street, Il Leone, Mr. Tuna and Shipyard Brewing Company.

WAVY DAYS BEER FEST BACK FOR A THIRD YEAR

Mast Landing Brewing Company’s third annual Wavy Days Beer Fest is set for Saturday afternoon, July 29, at Thompson’s Point.

Attendees at the event can sample beer from more than 55 breweries around the country. More than nine vendors will supply food for the fest, which also features live music.

Wavy Days runs from noon until 4 p.m. Tickets cost $12-$75, available online at Eventbrite.

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