Breakfast at Lenora, a new Mexican road foods cafe that opened Monday in Outdated Port. Courtesy of Lenora
Lenora, a taco bar specializing in Mexican-impressed road food items, opened this 7 days in Previous Port.
Just after extensive renovations, the 115-seat cafe released Monday at 2 Portland Square, in the house previously occupied by Walter’s, which shut in 2019. Co-owner Jen Wyllie explained that when she and her partner, Chef Rian Wyllie, initial moved to Maine from Boston 5 several years ago they recognized that Portland’s Mexican foods scene seemed missing.
Wyllie and her partner – previous chef at Little Large and Maine Beer Enterprise – wanted to open up a restaurant serving leading-high-quality agave-based mostly beverages, some Mexican-model little plates like avenue corn and tostadas, and a wide range of tacos served on dwelling-made corn tortillas.
“Once you have tacos on handmade corn tortillas, it is a whole distinct ball game,” Wyllie claimed, noting that Lenora will also give eight salsas in several models to pair with the tacos.
Rian Wyllie experienced been chef-companion at the Lone Star Taco Bar and Deep Ellum, extremely regarded Mexican restaurants in Boston. The Wyllies partnered with 3 Boston-centered co-entrepreneurs from those dining establishments to open up Lenora.
For now, Lenora is open for breakfast from 7 a.m. until eventually 11 a.m. 7 times a week, providing items like grab-and-go breakfast tacos and bodega sandwiches, pastries, fruit-and-curd parfaits and a complete espresso bar. Jen Wyllie reported Lenora will roll out its lunch and meal menus by the close of the thirty day period, and keep open up until eventually midnight.
“I adore that Portland appears to be to be a big morning city. But there are no breakfast tacos or bodega sandwiches in the town,” Wyllie claimed. “I believed for the Outdated Port, breakfast could seriously serve that local community and be that issue that is dependable for every person.”
BREA LU Shift SCUTTLED
Breakfast warm place Brea Lu Cafe is eyeing a new area on Key Road in Westbrook immediately after their programs to move to Larrabee Highway this spring fell by.
Brea Lu operator Christian DeLuca mentioned they had prepared to relocate to 100 Larrabee Street by May. The new location would have seated up to 170 people today, a large enhance from the cafe’s present 45-particular person potential. But late previous year the Brea Lu team acquired that the assets, originally a tire warehouse, experienced no basement stage in the again 50 percent of the making, making it impossible to install effective cafe plumbing.
“It was a nightmare. Sadly, we figured that out the hard way,” DeLuca claimed.
DeLuca mentioned he then thought of yet another place on Larrabee Highway, but found about two weeks back that the zoning would not allow Brea Lu the driveway obtain it necessary.
DeLuca mentioned Tuesday he’s at present in negotiations for a area on Primary Avenue. He explained it’s nevertheless way too early to disclose particulars about the area, but he hopes to learn as soon as this 7 days no matter if that new venue will function.
The Most important Street place, like the Larrabee Road areas, will demand a total build out, and DeLuca claimed he hears the clock ticking louder all the time now: Brea Lu’s lease on their current area at 9 Cumberland St. runs out in 80 times, and the building operate by itself will choose for a longer time than 80 times.
“We’re going to have to close for a even though (just before reopening in a new room), we’re just seeking to hold that time to a minimal,” DeLuca claimed. “We have 10 personnel who depend on us. We’re in a actual terrible place, and we’re attempting to get out of it.
“We’ve been in a challenging location in advance of and we designed it via that,” he added, noting that Brea Lu was pressured to shift from its original spot at 428 Forest Ave. since of a hearth in their setting up in 2016.
“I do not treatment if we have to hold out three months to open up, we will open up. It’s nothing at all we can not work out,” DeLuca claimed.
NEW FARMERS Market place FOR WOODFORDS CORNER
Many thanks to the efforts of a nonprofit community group, a new farmers market place is scheduled to launch in Woodfords Corner this June.
The market place is slated to open June 1 and run by Thursday, Oct. 5, according to Marketplace Supervisor Martha Lefebvre. She said about fifty percent of the envisioned 8 suppliers have currently signed on for the time.
The sellers will present deliver, eggs, cheese, meat and poultry, Lefebvre claimed, when function organizers strategy to give live new music and further enticements to make the market place as family-welcoming as achievable. The market will be dependent in a non-public parking large amount in Woodfords Corner, the exact spot even now to be finalized.
Lefebvre is a member of Pals of Woodfords Corner, the nonprofit organization behind the sector that aims to make the space a “sustainable, thriving village hub.”
Lefebvre claimed about 9,000 individuals reside within fifty percent a mile of Woodfords Corner, and 20,000 men and women push via the intersection each individual day.
“Woodfords Corner is the size of a little city,” she stated. “We want this to be a spot, not just someplace people today go by means of.”
LINDEMANN ON ‘TALKING FOOD’ Collection
Mary Allen Lindemann Ben McCanna/Staff members Photographer
Mary Allen Lindemann, co-founder of Portland’s Espresso By Layout, is the showcased guest for the Feb. 16 installment of “Talking Foods in Maine: Personal Conversations at the Lincoln Theater in Damariscotta.”
Coffee By Design, a neighborhood mainstay since 1994, has very long had a determination to running a sustainable small business focused to social improve. Lindemann will be speaking with Conversing Food collection host, Cherie Scott.
Lindemann has been a founding member of numerous corporations, including Portland Obtain Community, Women of all ages Standing Collectively, and the Olympia Snowe Leadership Institute. Most not long ago, her emphasis has been on asylum seekers and immigration rights in Maine.
The 7 p.m. celebration is open to the community, and no tickets or reservations are demanded. Find extra details on the Chatting Foods sequence at lincolntheater.internet.
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