Hot Suppa is a Congress Street gem, serving breakfast and lunch 7 days a week and dinner Tuesday through Saturday. Locals know to get here early or expect to wait on weekends, but try this place mid-week and you can often be seated right away. Look at the menus and you will see updated traditional diner food with a touch of southern flair. Good stuff!
On this particular visit I had grits with black bean chili, cheddar, poached eggs, and warm perfect puffy tortilla chips. So creamy/crunchy/rich/good! I also love that they not only make good coffee, but also have giant pitchers of cream for the table. This makes me happy, happy!
Category Archives: Portland
Pre-Show for the New East Ender
Last night My wife and I attended the combination 1st birthday party for my favorite restaurant Central Provisions/ guest chef night for the soon to reopen East Ender.
A large crowd of area foodies and kitchen luminaries turned out to support chef owners Karl Deuben and Bill Leavy, formerly of the out of this world Small Axe Truck. Most prominently, Chefs Rob Evans of Duckfat, Jason Loring of Slab and Sean Wilkinson of Might &Main all showed up to show support.
The dishes on the East Ender side of the showed great promise for their upcoming opening. I loved,loved, Loved the Pastrami cured salmon I had. It was some of the best salmon I have had in recent memory. Topped with mustard seed and accompanied by roasted root vegetables the dish was good enough that I briefly considered ordering a second.
Fans of the former Small Axe will be happy to know that a small plate version of their famous burger was on the menu. During our hour and and half dinner I saw dozens of these perfect little beauties head out of the open kitchen making it the clear favorite of the night. Also very popular and more daring were the chicken fried sweet breads. These were so good that the couple sitting next to us, did order a second order. This despite it being one of the larger dishes served. Happy,happy!
Highlights on the Central Provisions side of the menu were: a fantastic La Luisiane cocktail made with New England Distilling’s Gunpowder Rye, sweet vermouth, Benadictine and then Barell aged.
A wonderful carnitas apparently made with Crispy Suckling Pig! So gooood!
I also was blown away by the seared Maine scallops with peridots black truffles and cognac cream sauce. It was so good I unfortunately devoured it before thinking to take a photo.
Yummy in my tummy!
Overall a perfect night, I can’t wait for the New East Ender.
Ten Ten Pie
What a great addition to Portland! Ten Ten Pie is a great little neighborhood bakery, restaurant, and market specializing in Asian inspired foods.
On this my first visit I picked up some amazing treats to put together for a weekday brunch with my sweetie.
Starting with the savory I picked up the Chinese sausage croissant, a Nikuman steamed bun with pork and Kimchee and a savory pastry filled with kale and goat cheese. For the sweet I bought the chocolate pudding with miso caramel cream, double chocolate sake cake, and a yummy pop tart like creation topped with almonds and honey.
Everything was really,really good. The chocolate sake cake was amazing! I will definitely be back again.
Happy, Joy, Burger Time!
We started out our Friday night by stopping in for a drink at LFK, home of some of our favorite drinks and one of my favorite burgers-the LFK burger with pimento cheese.
After settling in to enjoy our cocktails, we encountered our friend Wayne. He asked us if we had ever tried the burger next door at Petite Jacqueline. In the pursuit of yumminess, my wife and I agreed we should try it out.
Friday night in Portland means art appreciation, so we stopped along the way at the fabulous Maine Street Design to check out Tanja Alexia Hollander’s art installation.
For any who have never been to Petite Jacqueline, they do a fantastic job of cooking everything French. Burgers being an iconic American dish made me slightly hesitant to try their version. In order to offset any potential risk, we began with some charcuterie: super rich duck liver pate, fantastic deviled eggs and some yummy cheese. Their list of things to taste was extensive. The board was served with crispy toasted crackers and a small house made baguette. delicious!
When our burgers arrived topped generously with perfectly melted cheese and accompanied by a large pile of fries, I knew that our friend had not lead us astray. The burger was perfectly cooked, and had the dense yet chewy texture that only comes from high quality house ground meat. I loved the choice of using gruyere and the addition of caramelized onions. The sandwich was rich with fat and cheese, but not greasy. Definitely worth trying.
My verdict is to add it to my list of favorite burgers: LFK,Blue Spoon, Bramhall Pub, Petite Jacqueline, and Nosh
