Photo: Erin Little In the fall of 2022, I developed a stomach ulcer. It started out as an innocent stomachache that turned into debilitating pain after eating seemingly anything. I don’t have a particularly overindulgent diet, but at the time I was drinking alcohol every day—something many of us in the alcohol industry can relate to. It wasn’t too much, never more than a glass or a cocktail a night, but it was every night. I didn’t think anything of it. In my twenties, I could really hold my weight. Working in a bar five nights a week, I was drinking much more than the daily glass. I went to t ..read more

I remember my first Allen’s Coffee Flavored Brandy sighting. We were in northern Maine, and the snow was slowly starting to melt as the spring sun thawed out the terrain. On a hike along the side of a snowmobile track, I saw the neck and cap of a bottle that would soon become iconic in my mind. Without realizing it then, I had seen my very first “lily of the tundra,” the term used for Allen’s bottles that have been thrown out on the trails over the winter and emerge as the snow melts in spring. Allen’s Coffee Flavored Brandy has had a stronghold on the Maine spirits market for decades. In 201 ..read more

Bored of your medium-regular-with-cream-and-sugar? Craving a caffeine concoction you’ve never tasted before? Maine coffee pioneers are here to help you expand your cappuccino catalogue with some menu options you won’t find anywhere else. Photo: Julie K. Gray / Artwork: Hannah Hirsch Pistachio Cream Latte: espresso, homemade pistachio cream Time & Tide, Biddeford Inspired by a consulting trip to the Middle East, this latte combines espresso, milk, and a secret recipe of pistachio cream to create a latte that is equally sweet and nutty. Hot or iced, this popular menu item is a Biddeford stap ..read more

Photo courtesy of Hardshore Distilling Between the pandemic era shift to at-home cocktail hours and the recent boom in new distilleries across the state, this holiday season is the perfect time to upgrade your bar cart selection. Whether you’re a novice entertainer or a professional mixologist, we’d like to offer a 2-0-7 twist that will make your inventory deliciously one-of-a-kind. Try one of the recipes below—or concoct your own—snap a picture, and tag @themainemag on social media! Tree Spirits Knotted Maple While there are a few micro-distillers producing maple-flavored spirits, Tree Spiri ..read more

These potato candies were originally invented in Auburn, Maine, in the 1870s when a cook who worked for confectioner John Seavey at Seavey’s Sweets came up with a recipe for coconut creams—with a spud-based twist. The potato has long been one of Maine’s top agricultural products, and this confection was one of many industrious ways to use the versatile tuber. The candies, which are always cut into squares, became an instant hit. Seavey reportedly named the candies after a popular preacher of the time, George C. Needham, but I can’t help but think the name stuck due to its obvious marketing ap ..read more

The pairing of sauteed mushrooms and creamy polenta creates a satisfying vegetarian entree. The Danforth’s bartenders begin pour-ing drinks at 4 p.m., so I arrive at the Portland cocktail bar at 4 o’clock on the dot for an early happy hour. As I step through the restaurant’s front door toward the host stand, the afternoon sun is streaming through several large windows, illuminating the space that has been recently renovated into a posh, modern lounge. One wall of the bar area is lined with three plush, dark red velvet booths, while 12 backless barstools provide seating at the blond wooden coun ..read more

When the flames began to die back a little bit, I stuck the sticks holding the Pioneer Drumsticks firmly into the ground at an angle over the fire. We sat around watching them as they shimmered and dripped and finally began to brown. Our stomachs made pre-dinner conversation. Unable to wait until they were really cooked, we each took one of them, stuck it in a roll, and yanked the hot stick out of the center. They were charred outside, raw inside, and totally delicious. We wolfed them down and wiped the grease from our mouths with our bare arms. “The Body” in Different Seasons by Stephen King ..read more

Before the doors even open, there is a crowd forming outside. A sea of pop-punk fans donning Blink 182, Paramore, and fittingly, Jimmy Eats World T-shirts wait patiently. Inside, Hayley and Zack Wilson, the founders of Jimmy Drinks World, complete last-minute tasks and touches. When four o’clock rolls around, it’s time to let everyone in. Immediately the bar runs 15 people deep, each ordering two or three drinks at a time. Bartenders from Portland and Boston are posted up, shaking cocktails as quickly as humanly possible. From the first song on the playlist, everyone is singing along inside t ..read more

When Steve and Michelle Corry opened their fine-dining restaurant at 555 Congress Street in 2003, it was part of an emerging cadre of Port-land date-night destinations, such as Fore Street, Street and Co., Rob Evans’s Hugo’s, and Walter’s on Exchange Street. Five Fifty-Five became known for its elevated American cuisine and impeccable service just as chefs across the country were embracing the farm-to-table movement. Chef Steve Corry was the first in Portland to serve truffled lobster mac and cheese, a now-classic comfort food mash-up that became the restaurant’s signature dish. In the nearly ..read more

Its glamorous and vaguely sinister-sounding name notwithstanding, the nightshade family boasts several of my favorite fruits and vegetables, including bell peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants, which hit peak ripeness during the hot and humid late summer months. Keen eggplant spotters at farmers’ markets will discover alternate colors—white, green, and orange, for example—as well as shapes and sizes that run the gamut beyond the familiar aubergine oblong. The great thing about eggplant is that its mild flavors and satisfying texture take on aspects of whatever you do to or put with it. Here, that ..read more