An ice cream company specializing in gluten-free, organic ice cream opened a scoop shop and new production facility in Portland’s West End last weekend.

Maine Flavor launched its store last Friday at 175 Spring St., in the former Mercy Hospital building. Maine Flavor is located next to award-winning chocolatier Chocolats Passion. A Two Fat Cats Bakery location is expected to open soon in the same building.

The scoop shop at Maine Flavor, which launched last weekend on Spring Street. Courtesy of Maine Flavor

The 1,100 square-foot-space offers Maine Flavor a larger commercial kitchen than it’s ever had before. Co-owner Susan Purcell said she and her business partner Andrew Applegate aim to get the production kitchen certified as a gluten-free facility. “There’s no way we can get cross-contamination here. We’re completely safe,” Purcell said.

Maine Flavor’s scoop shop in the front of the space offers grab-and-go pints and ice cream sandwiches as well as scoops of five dairy-based flavors and three vegan flavors, available in waffle cookie bowls. Maine Flavor’s perennial top sellers include its vegan Coffee Crunch, made with coffee from Wicked Joe Organic Coffee in Topsham, and its dairy-based Maine Wild Blueberry Crisp (also available in a vegan version), made with blueberries from Blue Barrens Farm in Cherryfield.

Maine Flavor, which was established in 2016, operates an ice cream cart for events and at farmers markets, but is mostly a wholesale company. The business sells its ice cream in about 50 stores, mostly in Maine, but also reaching into Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Maine Flavor’s scoop shop is open Friday through Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m. Purcell said the shop may also open for odd days now and then “on the spur of the moment,” announcing the openings on social media. She expects Maine Flavor will expand its days and hours of operation next summer.

RABELAIS EXTENDS WASHINGTON AVENUE STAY

Rabelais Books in the Black Box on Washington Avenue. Courtesy of Rabelais Books

The three-month pop-up this summer of Rabelais Books in the Black Box on Washington Avenue in Portland was successful enough that the renowned culinary books and ephemera store has extended its lease for another 15 months.

Owner Don Lindgren said Rabelais will stay at the 93 Washington Ave. location through December 2025. While he’d initially planned for Rabelais to vacate at the end of September, the response from the public was strong enough to stay.

“There’s a broader range of customers who have an interest in what we do, and that makes it easier for a specialized business like mine to exist,” Lindgren said. “The range of stuff we’re selling is broader.

“It turned out to be really good business-wise, but also just fun,” he added. “My assistant and I have had a lot of fun being there and reconnecting with some Portland friends we hadn’t seen since we’d moved, and meeting lots of new people.”

Rabelais – which offers one of the country’s largest collections of rare cookbooks, along with culinary ephemera like historic menus – was located on Middle Street from 2007 to 2012 before moving to the Pepperell Mill Campus in Biddeford. Lindgren closed that Biddeford shop in September 2023 and moved the business online before launching his Black Box pop-up.

Moving from his 3,500-square-foot Biddeford store to 320 square feet in the Black Box forced Lindgren to dramatically condense his offerings. But he said the way his goods are laid out now “really pushes people to browse as opposed to search. Browsing is this really rich experience people don’t have very often anymore.

“People get to see new books and older books right next to each other, a big fancy chef book right next to some counterculture hippie cookbook from the 1970s,” Lindgren continued. “In a tiny space you get, I think, a better big view of what the world of food can be.”

Rabelais is open six days a week this fall, closed Tuesdays. Lindgren said the hours will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. “most days,” and from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

NEW DOWNTOWN RESTAURANT FROM RAMONA’S OWNER

The owner of East Bayside sandwich shop Ramona’s plans to open a lunch and dinner restaurant on Congress Street this spring where he’ll feature Philadelphia-style hot sandwiches and classic Italian-American fare.

Josh Sobel said he expects the new restaurant, Benny’s, at 545 Congress St. – previously home to Broken Arrow – will open by April. “Benny’s is the natural evolution of Ramona’s,” he said. “I think it’s what our customers have been looking for. It was more their idea than it was mine.”

Ramona’s also specializes in Philly-style sandwiches, but because its tiny kitchen doesn’t have an exhaust hood, it can’t produce some of the iconic hot sandwiches Sobel’s customers have been requesting, like cheesesteaks and meatball parm and chicken cutlet subs.

Sobel said Benny’s lunch menu will be sandwich-focused, also including vegetarian options with fried eggplant or mixed roasted veggies, along with salads.

The evening menu will spotlight classic Italian-American dishes “with a little bit of Philly flavor,” Sobel said, like pretzel garlic knots, a mashup of a Philly soft pretzel with the classic pizzeria-style bread appetizer. Other dinner options will include house-made mozzarella sticks, fried calamari, pasta alla vodka, linguine with clam sauce, and chicken and eggplant parmesan, with smaller versions of the main dishes for kids and some sandwiches available as well. Dessert items will include cannoli and tiramisu.

Benny’s will have a full bar offering beer, wine and about five house cocktails. Sobel said TV screens behind the bar will play Philly sports games, though he noted Benny’s isn’t meant to be a sports bar, and the screens won’t be on all the time.

“I have young kids, and it’s important to me to have a place that’s open for dinner earlier, like around 4 o’clock, so people can come after they pick their kids up from school or after work. I also want it to be one of those places you can come to a couple times a day or a week,” Sobel said, noting that he expects Benny’s will be open six days – closed Tuesdays – serving lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 4-10 p.m.

Sobel emphasized that Ramona’s is not closing or moving, and that he recently signed a new lease on its Washington Avenue space for another five years.

“We plan to be there for as long as we possibly can,” he said. “It’s my goal to keep both places open.”

LOCAL 188 AND SALVAGE BBQ CLOSE

A sign on the door at Salvage BBQ indicates that it has closed. Photo by Peggy Grodinsky

Spanish-influenced landmark restaurant Local 188 and Salvage BBQ, two Congress Street venues owned by local restaurateur and chef Jay Villani, have closed, the latest in a cluster of Portland-area shutdowns in the past several weeks.

Villani did not respond to multiple requests for confirmation or comment on the closures – which have been the subject of conversation and fond farewell messages in online forums for a week – and has not announced the shutterings on either venue’s website or social media accounts. But a sign posted in the Salvage window states succinctly that it has indeed closed for good, thanking patrons for more than a decade of business.

There was no such sign at Local 188 Monday, but the closure has been reported by local news outlets, including Portland Food Map and News Center Maine, which cite information from Villani and his staff.

Known for its creative tapas and other Spanish- and Mediterranean-influenced dishes, as well as its shabby chic, mix-and-match decor, Local 188 opened in 1999 at 188 State St. – the address accounting for the restaurant’s name – before moving to Congress Street in 2007.

Earlier this year, Villani told the Press Herald that, since COVID, he has had difficulty adequately staffing Local 188. Last fall, he hired his son Jackson “Sonny” Villani as chef de cuisine there. “I don’t want to tell him he saved his father’s business, but that’s the reality of it,” Jay Villani said in June.

Salvage BBQ opened in August 2013 at 919 Congress St.

Citing financial challenges, Salvage went on hiatus for the first several months of 2024. “While the first three full winter months of every year have always been relatively slow in the local restaurant industry, over the last couple of years, the impact of inflation to the cost of goods, the labor shortage and subsequent wage increases, and the ongoing construction at Maine Medical Center have made the post-holiday season particularly challenging at Salvage BBQ,” the restaurant stated in a social media post at the time.

Salvage BBQ reopened in June with a renovated dining room and a new, expanded menu. Villani also co-owns Black Cow Burgers & Fries at 83 Exchange St., which opened in 2018.

Local 188 and Salvage BBQ join a growing list of more than eight Portland area restaurants that have announced closures this fall, including Yarmouth’s 48-year-old Muddy Rudder, the West End’s Ohno Cafe, Thistle & Grouse and The North Point in the Old Port, and downtown Chinese restaurant Golden Lotus.

EVENTS FOR APPLE FANS

McDougal Orchards in Springvale is holding its fifth annual apple tasting on Saturday.

The event features more than 25 apple varieties. Attendees can sample the apples and learn about their histories, as well as the history of the eight-generation family farm. A local wine, hard cider and cheese pairing will be offered by Downhill Wine Bar.

Tickets for the tasting, which takes place from 5-7 p.m., are $15, while tickets to the local beverage and cheese pairing are $35. Find event and ticket information on the orchard’s website.

Also, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association is hosting its annual Great Maine Apple Day on Sunday.

Taking place at the Common Ground Education Center in Unity from 12-4 p.m., the event features guided tours of the MOFGA orchards, workshops on caring for fruit trees, and apple cider pressing. Apple experts will be on hand to help attendees identify mystery apples from their yards.

The day also features a local hard cider tasting, and about 10 vendors – including B & T Baked Goods, Fedco Seeds and Spark Bagel – selling food, beverages, gardening supplies and more.

Great Maine Apple Day is free to attend, although donations are accepted at the door. More event details are available online at MOFGA’s website.

SACO PUMPKIN FESTIVAL

Saco Maine Street is holding the town’s 23rd annual Pumpkin Harvest Festival on Saturday.

Scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in downtown Saco, the event features a “pumpkin patch,” with pumpkins decorated by local K-8 students, a pie-eating contest and performances by dancers from Steppin’ Out, Collective Motion Arts Center, and the Maine Baton Twirling Council.

Local vendors and businesses will offer handmade goods, food, seasonal crafts and family-friendly activities at the festival. The event also includes pony rides, a carnival area, and an appearance by T-Bone, a 29-foot-long dinosaur.

More festival information is available at sacomainstreet.org.