The Wrap: Desserts downtown, barbecue in Deering Center and Bay Bowls in Biddeford
Apr. 24—A new bakery is expected to open on Spring Street in Portland early this fall in the former Stars and Stripes Brewing Co. tasting room.
Co-owner Daewon Kim said he and his wife, Eunjee Park, will run the bakery — called Yuri's Desserts — along with bakers Yuri Kim and Gunsang Park.
Yuri's Desserts will specialize in cakes, tarts and macarons, and will also offer croissants, doughnuts and milk-based shaved ice treats. Kim said the bakers have extensive experience working at bakeries like Paris Baguette, a South Korean multinational chain of bakery-cafés, both in South Korea and the United States.
Kim said he expects the bakery to launch sometime in September.
NOBLE BARBECUE MOVING, REBRANDING
Noble Barbecue plans to move this summer from outer Forest Avenue to the former Deering Center home of Elsmere BBQ and is rebranding to feature New York-style pizza, in addition to barbecue.
Noble founder Ryan Carey said Friday that he recently closed on the property at 476 Stevens Ave. and expects to relaunch there in early or mid-July as Noble Pizzeria & Barbecue. He said the Forest Avenue location will stay open until about two weeks before the move.
"We're going on seven years at our Forest Ave. location," Carey said. "Last year was the best year we've ever had, but I feel the brand has outgrown the location. So, when I heard 14 months ago that Elsmere was no longer going to be operating there, I thought it would be a great opportunity."
Carey said he'll be dropping barbecue platters from Noble's menu but will keep barbecue sandwiches — the restaurant's top-sellers — and sides like mac and cheese, corn muffins and fries, along with salads.
"Adding pizza to the menu, I think, will be really appealing for the neighborhood," Carey said. "The goal is for someone to come in on Monday and get a barbecue sandwich, and then on Friday come back and get a pizza.
"Pizza is nothing new to our team or me," he added, noting that he's been making pizza through his catering company, Fire & Co., since 2014, and specialized in wood-fired pizza for festivals through his concession company, Pizza Pie on the Fly, for three years before that. "I love the mass appeal of it and what we do with it, and it's the reason I'm injecting it into the rebrand."
Carey said Noble's pizza will be New York-style, 16-inch pies with thin, crispy crust. The restaurant will offer a lunchtime slice bar from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The new location represents a massive space upgrade for Noble, which now has 18 seats in a 1,500-square-foot space on outer Forest Avenue. The new 4,000-square-foot location has an 18-seat bar, 64 seats in the dining room and patio seating for 50.
Noble Pizzeria & Barbecue plans to be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
PAPI NOMINATED FOR SPIRITED AWARD
Old Port Puerto Rican restaurant Papi was recently nominated for the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation's annual Spirited Awards, an international competition considered to be among the alcohol industry's most prestigious prizes.
Papi was one of 10 semifinalists for the Best New Cocktail Bars — U.S. East category, including Superbueno and four other New York City-based bars, and Equal Measure in Boston, the only other New England contender.
Last year, two Portland bars were semifinalists for the Spirited Awards: Hunt + Alpine, for Best Cocktail Bar — U.S. East, and the now-closed The Danforth, for Best New Cocktail Bar — U.S. East category. Neither advanced in the competition.
Spirited Awards finalists will be named May 29, and winners will be announced at the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation conference in New Orleans on July 25.
BAY BOWLS FOR BIDDEFORD
Popular fruit-and-granola bowl eatery Bay Bowls will open a third location in Biddeford this spring.
Founder Sal Matari said Bay Bowls will launch in early May at 288 Main St. The location previously housed Alhadidi Market, which moved to Alfred Street earlier this year.
Matari and his wife, Soraia, started Bay Bowls in Brunswick in 2020. They opened a second location in The Black Box on Washington Avenue in Portland two years ago, which is now owned and operated by Matari's former employee, Luis Arroyo. The Biddeford store will be owned and operated by Essa Gassab.
The Biddeford location is about 600 square feet and will be the first Bay Bowls to offer indoor seating, with room for about 10 customers, Matari said
Bay Bowls specializes in fresh fruit smoothies and fruit-and-granola bowls featuring granola from Grandy Organics in Hiram along with coconut, mango, acai berries and pitaya, also known as dragon fruit.
Matari said he expects the concept will do well in a food-centric town like Biddeford. "In Brunswick, the community was great for us and came out and supported us, and I have a feeling Biddeford is going to be the same," he said.
Bay Bowls will be open seven days from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
NEW RESTAURANT FOR DENNETT'S WHARF
Dennett's Wharf restaurant in the Down East town of Castine will not reopen for the coming season, but plans are in place for a new eatery to take its place in July.
Restaurateur Max Katzenberg, who had run Dennett's Wharf for the past two seasons, said Monday that he and his leadership team had decided not to open for 2024, largely for family reasons.
"That was such a special project, and the community was so supportive," Katzenberg said. "My family had an amazing experience living in Maine, but it was time for us to move back home to New York."
In 2022, when COVID and other circumstances left Castine in danger of having practically no full-service restaurants, Katzenberg assembled a leadership team from his New York restaurant contacts and took over the space. Katzenberg had been general manager of multiple Michelin-rated restaurants in Manhattan and moved with his wife to Deer Isle in 2020.
Dennett's Wharf closed shortly after Labor Day last season. Over the winter, three waterfront operations in Castine — the town dock, a boat yard and the restaurant — were slammed by three storms, and the decks for all three properties were destroyed.
Kip Oberting, who owns the Dennett's Wharf property, said the deck will be rebuilt for the 2025 season. In the meantime, his son, Miles, is heading up a team that will operate a restaurant in the space — tentatively named Dennett's Wharf at Sea Street — from July 1 to mid- or late-August, depending on staff availability. The restaurant can seat about 50 and will likely have an abridged service format, where customers place orders at a counter and have food delivered to their table by a staff runner.
The new team hasn't yet finalized food plans, but the limited menu will likely offer casual fare like burgers, tacos, sandwiches, salads and lobster rolls. "It'll be about half the menu of last (season)," Oberting said. "We've got to keep it simple."
Dennett's Wharf aims to be open at least five days a week for lunch and dinner. Oberting said they're currently hiring, though a core staff is already in place.
The venue will also serve as an event space this season, Oberting said, and is already scheduled to host live music performances.
WINE AND COCKTAIL BAR FOR OGUNQUIT
Coastal Wine in Ogunquit has rebranded and relaunched as Coastal Alchemist, a wine-forward craft cocktail bar and lounge.
Owner Scott Vogel, who also owns The Front Porch and Crew in Ogunquit, bought Coastal Wine — a wine shop and tasting room that first opened in early 2020 — in late 2023 and started renovations in February. Coastal Alchemist opened in early April.
Vogel said the venue remains wine-focused — and the menu offers a selection of curated, four-pour wine flights ($28-$34) — but now also offers a variety of craft cocktails. While the previous tasting room offered only a charcuterie board, Coastal Alchemist has a menu with eight shareable dishes ($15-$28), including hummus and crudités, smoked salmon crostini, Cuban panini bites and Mexican street corn dip.
The interior design has been updated with new furnishings and fixtures to give the venue more of an upscale cocktail lounge vibe, Vogel said.
"It's been received really well," Vogel said. "People have been happy about the food menu and the space. I think a lot of people felt Ogunquit needed something like this that was wine-forward and a little more upscale. And it's a little quieter than most of the bars around here."
The venue has seating for 28 inside and outdoor seating for an additional 22 customers. Coastal Alchemist is open Wednesday through Friday from 3-10 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
PROFENNO'S WINS PIZZA CONTEST
Profenno's Pizzeria & Pub of Westbrook won the recent Westbrook-Gorham Pizza Challenge for the second year in a row.
The second annual challenge, hosted Thursday by the Westbrook-Gorham Rotary Club, featured 10 local pizzerias competing for awards. Profenno's took the competition's Best Tasting Pizza award, while Westbrook House of Pizza won the Most Creative Pizza award with its Cowboy pie, topped with shaved steak, bacon, jalapeños, onion rings and barbecue sauce.
The People's Choice Award went to Amato's of Westbrook, which introduced a new Italian Sandwich pizza that the chain may be adding to its menus across the region, according to an event spokesperson.
More than 750 people attended the second annual pizza challenge, which raised nearly $15,000 for local food insecurity, homelessness and student scholarships, among other Rotary programs.
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