Radishes, rhubarb & tomatoes fill farmers' market

It's a gray, drizzly day but lots of people are out in Monument Square looking for the first and freshest vegetables of the season. The Portland Farmers' Market sets up here every Wednesday from 7 am-2 pm, and on Saturdays you can find them from 7 am-noon in Deering Oaks Park.

This year, market-goers have been psyched that we don't have to wait until August for tomatoes. These hothouse beauties come from the folks at Olivia's Garden. The greenhouses are located at Pineland Farms, and you can find their veggies in many local supermarkets. Olivia's also has baby cucumbers for sale.

A couple stands have radishes. I bought a bunch and can't wait to enjoy their spicy goodness with tonight's dinner.

Here's something else I'll be eating tonight: Baby pac choi. Also known as bok choy, it makes an awesome addition to a stir fry.

The farmers tell me that sales are way up for vegetable seedlings. This is obviously a result of all the new veggie gardens being planted this year.

And if you're looking to start an herb garden, these mix-and-match six packs seem like a great place to start.

El Rayo Taqueria opens with lines & Watermelon Refresco

The much anticipated El Rayo Taqueria opened Friday at the corner of York & High, and today Adam and I headed over for lunch. What did we find? A former gas station transformed into an instant foodie hotspot.

With all the buzz about this California-influenced Mexican joint, Adam and I waited until almost 2 pm to show up. It didn't matter. The place was slammed. As we stood in line, more people piled up behind us until the line stretched out the door. According to Erin of Type A Diversions, the queue was out the door yesterday as well.

The restaurant is the work of a group of local foodies, including Tod Dana. His wife, Lorie, was busy busing tables and chatting with customers, but indulged me in a quick photo. She says they plan to start serving dinner next week and will soon reseal and stripe the parking lot, which will force them to close for a couple days. Right now they are just doing lunch.

Adam and I enjoyed everything we ordered. This drink is the non-alcoholic Watermelon Refresco. It was crisp and tangy, and not at all cloying. The vegetarian rice and beans at left and the Verduras taco with roasted vegetables at right were both delicious. Adam ordered a Dos Equis and a Pollo burrito, which he said was one of the best chicken burritos he's eaten.

Frozen margaritas will come soon, and there's a decent selection of tequila and rum drinks, plus a series of tequila flights. We both were impressed with the delicate, warm tortillas, the bold sauces, the harbor view and the prompt service. It won't be long before we jump back in line at this exciting addition to Portland's fabulous food scene.

Indie Biz Awards celebrate Portland's unique style

The Portland Indie Biz Awards gala took place last night at Empire Dine & Dance. The upstairs bar was packed with tons of folks who run or work for the city's many independently-owned businesses. Now in its second year, the party was a fun-filled event with free food and lots of amazing silent auction items.

Kathy Palmer of Fetch (left) organized last night's party. I snapped this photo while she was chatting with Nancy Lawrence of Portmanteau. Both ladies serve on the Portland Buy Local board.

A great group of volunteers helped put the party together, including Alisa Conroy (left) of the SOAP Group and Kristen Smith of Planet Dog.

Here are a few of the party-goers: From left to right they are photographer Sam Cousins, Hilly Town blogger Bryan Bruchman and Portland Arts & Cultural Alliance Director Cathy Valenza.

There will be lots more photos from the party coming soon. MaineToday Seen photographer Cara Slifka (at left) was snapping a bunch, which will be uploaded to the Seen section.

And now for the winners ...

The always popular Coffee by Design (represented by owners Alan Spear and Mary Allen Lindemann) took home the Community Hero award, presented by Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self Reliance.

The award for the Business With No Front was won by Emilie Sommer of Emilie Inc. Photography. It was presented to her by Elise Loschiavo of Portland's Downtown District.

Here are the rest of the winning businesses:

Soul of Portland: Portland Farmers' Market
Flavor of Portland: Fore Street
Environmental Hero: Portland Trails
Portland's Best Kept Secret: Micucci's Grocery Store
Portland Totem: Becky's Dinner
Global Hero: Portland Museum of Art
Wild Card Award: Longfellow Books

Congratulations to all the winners and to all the people who support these awesome locally-owned businesses! Without them, Portland would be a very different place.

Online lunch dates in Eatland

I was walking down Congress Street past the Eastland Park Hotel the other night when I snapped this shot. Broadcasting Eatland into the dark night sky, it looks like it could be intentional. A neon homage to our James Beard awarding-winning chefs and our culture of sustainable, organic food.

Because it's required for residents of Eatland, I spend a lot of time eating in restaurants. But the past two days have been different, because I've made my lunch dates online. Here I am with the Maine Vegan Meetup group at Silly's for lunch on Saturday. Silly's has a huge vegan menu, vegan desserts, vegan beers and daily vegan specials. The eatery also whips up Soy Silkshakes, and I ordered one with chocolate, peanut butter and coffee. It was rich and oh so delicious.

There are other Maine Meetups dedicated to dining out, including the Portland Dine and Wine Meetup and the Portland Out and About Meetup. It's free to join, and once you're a member the group's organizer will email you info about upcoming get togethers that you can opt to attend or not.

Another way to meet new people and explore Portland's restaurant scene is by signing up for Green Lunches. This off-shoot of the wildly popular Greendrinks parties allows you to sign up for social networking lunches with other people who are nearby at noontime.

I had the pleasure of joining these fun folks for a Green Lunch at the Dry Dock on Friday. It was a beautiful day, and we got to be among the first people to break in the restaurant's lower deck for the season. As we ate, we talked about all the excellent green initiatives moving forward in Maine right now. It was a good time, and a great example of how food and technology can bring people together. Especially here in Eatland.

Thrift shopping at Greendrinks

Because I had another event to attend, I only managed to be there for the first 20 minutes of last night's Greendrinks at SPACE Gallery. Here's a shot I took on my way out the door, and as you can see the place was already packed. Later on, Adam and I ran into a couple regular Greendrinkers who said they couldn't get in because the venue was over capacity. So I guess it's safe to say the monthly event was another success.

For the first time in its short history, Greendrinks charged attendees $1 per beer. These brews came from the fine folks at Peak Organic and Sebago. For an extra $6, Greendrinkers could pick up one of the limited edition SPACE Gallery pint glasses you can see on the table.

The other cool feature of last night's party was the specially curated boutique of clothing and accessories put together by Goodwill. Here Katie Gallagher checks out the handbag selection.

Even though we were only there for such a short time, we still ran into lots of fun local people, including Charlie Rowe and Alison LePage.

Here's Jesse Baines, one of the wonderful people who coordinates these networking events. She and the other Greendrinks organizers have a new offering for those of us looking to connect with other green-minded people. It's called Greendrinks Lunches, and it's an online tool that sets up group lunch dates for the Friday after Greendrinks. The next one is this Friday, May 15. So hop on and sign up, and maybe we'll get to have lunch together.

Bayside Neighborhood tackles Chapel Street

Here's how the public right of way on Chapel Street looked this morning. With an overgrown, abandoned sidewalk, this cobblestone street near Merrill Auditorium in Portland's Bayside neighborhood has long been neglected. But today was the Bayside Neighborhood Association's Spring Clean-Up Day, and neighbors joined staff from the city's Public Services department to embrace the street and make it a more attractive part of our downtown community.

After three hours and lots of helping hands, here's the result. Isn't it amazing! Everyone did such a wonderful job.

There's still more to be done, and ideas being floated include adding trees, planting flowers, installing more lighting, uncovering the brick sidewalk, putting in a mountain bike trail and building raised beds for a community garden. It will be interesting to see what we're able to accomplish.

Plans under consideration by the Portland City Council for they Bayside Trail call for designating Chapel Street as a pedestrian street and service alley. After today's volunteers removed much of the overgrowth and mulched the elms, it's much easier to envision this street being part of the urban trail.

In addition to sprucing up Chapel Street, dozens of volunteers picked up hundreds of pounds of trash across the neighborhood, which stretches from Congress Street to Marginal Way and from Franklin Arterial to Forest Avenue. A number of elected representatives lent a hand, including Senator Justin Alfond (left), who's standing with Deb Locke, the head of the group organizing this year's Bayside World Market & Fair, and Alex Landry, who's chair of the Bayside Neighborhood Association.

Mayor Jill Duson came out to help, shown here flexing some muscle with neighbor Tom Trott.

We also had help from Bayside's City Councilor Kevin Donoghue (left), shown here with neighbors Rob Sylvain and Alex Landry.

Finally here are some of the people who did the heavy lifting on Chapel Street. If you're in the area, you really should take a stroll down Chapel Street and check out their handiwork.

Compositions opens with flowers, art & jewelry

The Compositions boutique opened only two days ago, but it's already filling orders for local celebrities. This gorgeous arrangement is being sent by a friend to Rob Evans, who owns Hugo's and Duckfat. Monday night Rob won the James Beard Foundation's award for best chef of the Northeast region, which is the foodie equivalent of an Oscar.

The guys creating such sleek floral designs are James McBride (left) and John McVeigh. According to John (who's both a renowned opera singer and a fantastic jewelry designer), the full service florist service aims to create floral design in an "upscale, European style."

The shop also offers a few gift items, artwork and jewelry. Right now, a number of Shoshannah White's encaustic flower photographs are on display, and the plan is to change out the art ever other month ahead of the First Friday Art Walk.

John's nature-inspired jewelry is for sale in the shop too. These pieces include lovely earrings, brooches and necklaces. He creates a number of designs for men as well, and says his jewelry designs grew out of his opera work, where colleagues would often ask him to create cuff links and other masculine accessories. For brides and grooms, John offers a custom wedding ring design service.

Should you want to check out the space, stop by this Thursday night, May 7, from 5-8 pm for the grand opening celebration. You can find it at 13 Free Street or access it from the Monument Way indoor mini-mall that connects to Monument Square. The shop is open Monday-Friday from 10 am-6 pm and Saturday from 9 am-2 pm. You can call in your floral orders at 899-2211.

Art Walk packs Congress Street

This weekend started off with an extremely well-attended First Friday Art Walk. The Arts District and Congress Street in particular, shown here, were so crowded with art lovers it was tough to walk down the sidewalk. This festive atmosphere was heightened by a variety of street performers (yes I did see a cat dancer, no I didn't get a picture) and the music coming from the Tower of Song. Students from the Maine College of Art offered up their wares flea-market style outside of the Porteous Building, and many of the galleries were so packed it was almost impossible to get inside.

I did get the chance to check out a pair of new galleries on Congress Street, Two Point Gallery and Bridge Gallery. Both had some really fascinating work on view. We also ran into a bunch of people headed for the Blue Hammer dinner theater at Whitney Art Works.

After we finished art walking, ate dinner and had some drinks, Adam and I just happened to walk by the new GRO Cafe, which had transformed itself into a pulsating nightclub for the monthly event. Here we checked out some street dance moves and sampled a gingery-tasting drink made from the medicinal plant kava. It proved a perfect nightcap for an evening overflowing with our city's unbounded creative energy.

Portland welcomes new police chief

Portland gained a new police chief this morning when City Clerk Linda Cohen swore in James Craig. Once he was sworn in, he received a standing ovation. In his remarks to the crowd, Craig cracked jokes, emphasized the professionalism of the force he will oversee and even got choked up when thanking his family members. I'm pretty sure everyone in the room became a little teary eyed at that moment.

Craig hails from Los Angeles, where he worked in the police department for the past 28 years, most recently as a captain. Press Herald writer David Hench has an excellent story in today's paper that talks about Craig's background and the importance he places on community policing efforts, such as having officers walk neighborhood beats on foot.

The State of Maine room at City Hall was filled to capacity with members of Craig's family, police officers, city officials, well-wishers and the media. Everyone was excited to welcome and meet the city's 18th police chief.

Here's Chief Craig with his wife, Mary (at left), daughter Erica and mother Eleanor. Mayor Jill Duson is standing behind them. During her remarks, Mayor Duson referenced a recent honor bestowed by Forbes magazine when she said: "Let me congratulate you on becoming chief of police of the most livable city in the nation. That may come as some comfort to you during the city's first snowstorm."

After the ceremony ended, a line formed and one person after another stepped forward to welcome Craig to his new home, which I, and I'm sure many others, hope he will enjoy for a long time to come.