Contemporaries heed Call of the Coast

Last night the Portland Museum of Art's young professional membership group, The Contemporaries, hosted its annual summer garden party. As usual, it was a stellar event, featuring excellent art, cool drinks and tasty eats. The party offered members a private opportunity to check out the impressionist & modernist works in the Call of the Coast show, on view in the main gallery. This was followed by a cocktail party in the garden between the McLellan and Clapp houses on Spring Street.

Because there was such a fun group of people at the party, I spent most of my time gabbing and forget to snap many pics. However, if you're Facebook friends with Aucocisco gallery owner Andy Versoza, you can see a whole bunch of really great shots.

The theme of the party was Taste of the Midcoast, and it featured food and drink from the Camden-Rockland area. Among those serving up free drinks were these lovely ladies from Cellardoor Vineyards. The winery is located in Lincolnville with a separate tasting room in Rockport. I really enjoyed their Vino DiVine wine.

For the lobster lovers at the party, the rolls from Boothbay Loster Wharf were a treat. The state's first seafood CSF, Port Clyde Fresh Catch, also was there with info about how to get connected to their sustainably harvested fish and shrimp.

Lorie Dana, who's at the microphone, was one of the co-hosts of the party and thanked everyone for coming. Others sharing the stage with her included (left to right) Chris Robinson, co-chair of The Contemporaries Steering Committee, Hilary Robbins, the other co-chair of the Steering Committee, Sharon Kitchens, who owns SK Public Relations and helped coordinate most of the food and drink, and Maggie Robinson, the party's other fabulous co-host. The crowd was excited to hear that the ranks of this popular membership group have swelled to 230.

The party officially ended at 8 pm, but with perfect weather and excellent company the crowd was slow to leave. But we won't have to wait long to get together again. The next party is July 31 at the June Fitzpatrick Gallery at MECA, where we'll get a preview of paintings by Carl Gordon Cutler & William E. Thon.

Hope you can join us!

2 restaurant owners want fluoride out of water

Restaurant owners Igor Rakuz, left, who owns GRO Cafe, and Oliver Outerbridge, who owns Bonobo, today kicked off a petition campaign to force a referendum in the towns served by the Portland Water District that would ask voters if they want to remove fluoride from the water system. The grassroots group they're heading is called Fluoride Leave Our Water, or FLOW.

The press conference took place at GRO and and was attended by a number of local reporters. Here Oliver tells the cameras that he learned the local water was fluoridated after he joined the Take Back the Tap campaign, which advocates against serving bottled water in restaurants. He called ending fluoridation the "real way to take back the tap."

Fluoride was first added to the water in 1997, after residents voted to do so. The practice remains controversial, with the Maine community of Bar Harbor recently opting to remove fluoride from its public water.

Oliver cited the link between fluoride in drinking water and diseases such as cancer and thyroid problems.

"It's a form of mass medication," he said. "We do not feel mass medication is constitutional or ethical."

He added "fluoride only works topically, not when you ingest it."

This campaign is sure to attract a lot of attention, with natural food moms on one side and medical doctors on the other. It's interesting that these two restaurant owners, both of whom are known for emphasizing sustainable food in in their eateries, have joined the fight. Look for FLOW volunteers with petitions when you go to the polls tomorrow.

Fortune Cookie Museum at Wok-Inn

When you've exhausted the Maine Museum Trail and are looking for a quirky bit of culture closer to home, you may want to check out the Fortune Cookie Museum on permanent display at the Wok-Inn on outer Forest Ave.

I snapped these pics the other night when Adam and I stopped in for a quick bite to eat at this fast-food restaurant. (The food is really tasty. Just ignore the fact you're eating off a Styrofoam plate.) A few weeks before, I'd been tipped off to the existence of this unusual display by local foodie maven Margo Mallar.

According to the info in this mini-exhibition, the earliest Chinese fortunes were discovered in 1899 on fossilized ox and tortoise bones. Markings on these bones were made during the Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 BC). It's pretty common knowledge that fortune cookies are a Western invention, but according to this display they claim a colorful place in history.

While I was in the restaurant, I asked about the source of the display but no one working the counter knew much about it. A call to the Wok-Inn didn't shed any more light on the matter. So with no real, hard facts to pass along, I'll share the love from my fortune cookie: "Good luck bestows upon you. You will get what your heart desires." (Of course, that message is much better when you add the required "in bed.")

Chocolate pours into foodie enclave

Portland's East End restaurant district, which is home to such delicious eateries as Hugo's, Micucci's, Duckfat and Ribollita, just gained a new foodie storefront. Dean's Sweets opened up shop on Saturday. Located between Rabelais books and the Pepperclub, the chocolatier is offering up 18 flavors of hand-dipped, Belgian dark chocolate goodness.

These include flavors such as cinnamon, coffee and blueberry. I had the thrill of trying the cayenne variety, which was a perfect blend of sweet and hot. People who really like the heat will want to try the super cayenne, which I hear has three times the amount of cayenne.

"Super cayenne started out as a mistake," owner Dean Bingham tells me. "It's nice to be able to eat your mistakes."

Sounds like a sweet job, indeed.

For those of us who like a little booze with our chocolate, we can't go wrong with the brandy, rum, scotch or tequila lime flavors. And if anyone on your shopping list has a nut allergy or sensitivity, you'll be happy to know Dean's Sweets never uses any nuts or nut extracts in its chocolates.

Should you need a gift in a hurry, just pop in and grab one of the pre-packaged gift boxes. The 8-packs sell for $17.50 and the 16-packs go for $27.50. Sounds like a sweet gift to me.

Dean's Sweets is located at 82 Middle St. It's open Mon.-Fri. 11 am-8 pm, Sat. 10 am-8 pm and Sun. 10 am-6 pm. FMI call 774-7779.

October means tasty market eats

It's damp and it's October, but the Portland Farmers' Market remains in full swing. In fact, most of the vendors plan on showing up until Thanksgiving. Today I loaded up on lots of fall goodies, including Brussels sprouts, beets, fingerling potatoes, rainbow chard and apples. I went early to make sure I could get my hands on some of the season's last high-bush blueberries. I was told this may be the end of them, but then again I heard the same last week. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more at Saturday's market.

The market was full of kids this morning. While I was there, a bus rolled up and dropped off the K-1 classes from Waynflete School. The students were there searching out specific vegetables and planned to set up their own market once they got back to school.

As I mentioned last week in my post about all the artists at the market, there's much more to this event than raw veggies, fresh eggs and frozen meats. Here my sister is picking up some baked goods from Elise Richer at Cream & Sugar Bakery.

Mike from Lakonia is at the market every Wednesday. He's there representing his family's business, which owns olive groves in Greece, imports the olives to its facility in Saco and presses them into the most exquisite, unfiltered extra virgin olive oil. It's a little pricey, but well worth every penny.

And for those of us with a sweet tooth, Tom's Honey offers a natural fix.

Get your garden on

Portland has a stellar network of parks and hiking trails for city dwellers looking to swap out pavement for greenery. Another great resource for those of us looking to commune with nature can be found in our community gardens. Of course the real purpose of these plots is to give urbanities an opportunity to grow their own food, but I like to enjoy them as a pleasant walking path.

Last night I strolled through the Bayside Community Garden. It was a relaxing walk, and it was great to see all the vibrant flowers and the about to ripen tomatoes.

Unlike the other gardens in the city, this one is a bit of a maverick. Because it is on privately owned land, it is managed outside of the city's community garden network and plots are generally reserved for people who live in Bayside.

However, the rest of the gardens in the city are open to any resident. If you're thinking about doing some of your own gardening next year, now is the time to get on the list. The wait is generally more than a year. FMI call 874-8793.