Fitness can include great food and wine – honestly.

Portland’s inaugural "Wine Flight 5k Run" will take place on Saturday, October 25th, beginning and ending at the Maine State Pier (Franklin Arterial Way & Commercial Street). The race is modeled after France’s Marathon du Medoc, an annual run which combines fitness with festive stops for light food, beer and wine. The emphasis is on having fun and completing the run at one’s own pace – not blazing through the course. If people want to linger at one of the food and drink stops, that’s part of the fun! Maine event organizers doubt there’s another event quite like this yet in the country.

"Practicing" combining running with a love of food and wine:
A summer series of Wine Flight training jogs will kick off on Tuesday, June 3rd. Every other Tuesday from June 3rd through October 21st, attendees can meet for training jogs at The Bay Club (One City Center) at 6 pm, take a very casual jog in downtown Portland, and wrap up at a different, great restaurant or food-related destination in town. Experienced runners will lead the runs – and nobody will be left behind. This is about FUN.

At food destinations following each training jog, participants will enjoy delicious light tapas treats and drinks – an earned reward for a little bit of fitness! The venues include such favorites as Local 188, Cinque Terre, Walter’s, Rabelais, The Grill Room, Vignola, Novare Res Bier Garden, Gritty McDuff’s, Old Port Wine Merchants, Public Market House – and a special training run wrap-up event at Addo Novo on October 21st.

All for a good cause! The details:
People can register for all ten runs every other Tuesday along with the October 25th Wine Flight 5k. They can also choose just five of the runs along with the October 25th Wine Flight, or, simply register for the October 25th Wine Flight 5k.

Online registration, and additional information, are available at www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1594195 .

All profits from the race will benefit “GoGirlGo!,” a Women’s Sports Foundation effort which uses sports and physical activity to support girls’ health and wellness in childhood and early womanhood. This one-of-a-kind event is produced by Tri-Maine, a premier event management company in Portland which designs and executes fitness- and lifestyle-related events.

For additional information, contact:
Thom Householder
Front Burner PR
Portland
Ph: (207) 699-5501
thom@frontburnerpr.com

Come all ye bier drinkers

Monastery-inspired Novare Res Bier Cafe is barely a week old, but it already feels like home to locals in the know (who likewise have a penchant for good beer).

Drinkers will find over 200 beers in house, hailing from the U.S., U.K., Belgium, Germany, Italy Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Canada and Japan. And with prices ranging from $4 to $45, this joint isn't intended for binging amateurs (though beer-appreciating folks are always encouraged to try something new off the extensive beer list).

Try all 200 beers and gain a key to the gated mug room. It's a privilege many will seek, but few, in the end, will secure.

Take a gander at the
draught list, bottles, spirits and wine.

There's a food menu as well, if you're into that sort of thing.

Tucked into the former Black Tie location, Novare Res can be a bit hard to find if you're not paying attention. They've mapped the bar's exact location on the web site, in case you're a stickler for precision...or you have a tendency to get lost (and then get hostile about being lost). Or just keep your eyes peeled for the black sign just across the street from Java Net.

Find them open Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m to 1 a.m., Friday 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. and Saturday and Sunday noon to 1 a.m.

FREE Iced Coffee Day. Yep, FREE!

Dunkin’ Donuts Iced Coffee and warm weather go together like, well, like Dunkin’ Donuts Iced Coffee and breakfast sandwiches—it’s a perfect match.

So, what better way to kick off the start of Iced Coffee season than with the second annual Dunkin’ Donuts “Free Iced Coffee Day”?

On Thursday, May 15, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., customers can walk into any of the nearly 150 Dunkin’ Donuts shops in Maine and receive a free 16-ounce cup of Dunkin’s famous double-brewed Iced Coffee.

Dunkin’ will offer customers all nine of its flavored Iced Coffees—hazelnut, blueberry, raspberry, French vanilla, toasted almond, coconut, caramel, cinnamon and chocolate—as well original and de-caffeinated.

“We look forward to treating our loyal customers in Maine to a free cup of our delicious, freshly brewed Iced Coffee to celebrate the arrival of spring,” said Cathy Ducey, Dunkin’ spokesperson. “Last year, we helped put winter on ice with our giant Iced Coffee cup ice sculptures. This year we’re helping our customers kick off Iced Coffee season with a sandy celebration of Dunkin’s wide variety of flavors.”

10 tons of sand to be transformed into 10-foot tall Iced Coffee shrine

To help recognize the HUGE variety of Iced Coffee flavors available, Dunkin’ Donuts has hired famed Maine sand and ice sculptor Ed Jarrett and his partner, Greg Grady, to erect HUGE Iced Coffee cup sand sculptures at three locations throughout the state.

The carvings will take place at One City Center in Portland; at 800 Minot Ave. in Auburn; and at 17 Schilling Drive in Brewer.

Just like last year, when Jarrett and his team worked through the night to create giant Iced Coffee cup ice sculpture for the first-ever Free Iced Coffee Day, Grady and the rest of his team are planning to work around the clock to transform a 10-ton pile of sand into a 10-foot tall Iced Coffee shrine. Grady has plenty of experience—he has been running the Hampton Beach Masters Sand Sculpting competition for eight years.

Iced Coffee is taking Maine—and the rest of the nation—by storm

Iced Coffee is fast becoming as “hot” as the classic cup at Dunkin’ Donuts. It is the second-most frequently sold product after hot coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts. According to a 2007 survey, nearly 50 percent of Mainers drink iced coffee at least once a week when the weather turns warm.

It’s not just a regional phenomenon. According to NPD CREST data, Americans drank nearly 600 million servings of iced coffee in restaurants in 2007, a 37 percent increase from 2006. Dunkin’ Donuts sold more than 190 million servings of iced coffee in 2007, and is the No. 1 retailer of iced coffee in America.

Millions of iced coffee lovers turn to Dunkin’ because they recognize the quality of its iced coffee. Dunkin’ Donuts has been at the forefront in developing an innovative process for brewing iced coffee, which has set the standard for the industry. The unique process, called double brewing, uses twice the amount of coffee when making the beverage to achieve consistent flavor and freshness that are never compromised at the expense of serving it cold. The result is a smooth, rich taste sensation—iced coffee that is never bitter or watered down.

Going that extra mile pays off: More than 50 percent of Mainers polled agreed that the right balance of ice, coffee and other ingredients is the biggest factor when choosing a good cup of iced coffee.

THE BRITISH INCLINE WINS ROCK-OFF 24

Monday, May 12, 2008
ATTN: A & E / Lifestyles / Local Music / Assignment Editors
"THE BRITISH INCLINE WINS ROCK-OFF 24"
***** for immediate release *****

THE BRITISH INCLINE, an alternative rock trio representing Falmouth High School, earned the title of Best Young Band in the State of Maine Sunday as Reindeer Records' 24th Annual Rock-Off competition came to a close for another year. The band also won $1,000 along with recording studio time donated by Tonezone Studios of Scarborough.

The Finals kicked off with a showcase performance by CATO STREET CONSPIRACY from North Yarmouth Academy, this year's MaineToday.com Wildcard entry. The Mother's Day theme continued with crowd-pleasing performances from SKÖSH (Buckfield HS), EGO TRIP (York HS), INTRODUCING... (Windham HS), and THE BLUE STREAM BAND (Sanford HS).

Rock-Off Emcees Colin Kolmar and Tony Polumbo, seniors from Thornton Academy, kept the show flowing, bringing on guest band FASTER! FASTER!, winners of Rock-Off 23 from Greely and Cape Elizabeth HS, who delivered a great set of award-winning originals.

The Annual Rock-Off Awards Presentation provided an opportunity to recognize many bands and individual musicians for outstanding efforts in various categories. [Complete list follows].

Band members include Jesse Aicher on guitar/vocals, Josh Hogan on bass/vocals and Ben Jones on drums.

Complete details about this year's event can be found at http://entertainment.mainetoday.com/rockoff.


###

Hudson E
Assistant Producer
Reindeer Group Inc.
"Making History Creating Futures"
P. O. Box 8238, Portland, ME 04104
www.reindeergroup.org
Phone: 207/857-9002 AIM: ReindeerGI

Corry Pelsor of Portland is the winner of the Comedy Connection's Portland's Funniest Professional contest.

In the 15th edition of the contest, Pelsor, 25, bested five other competitors Thursday night (May 1) for the title and $1,000 cash prize. A panel of judges rated performers on originality of material, stage presence and audience response.

The 2008 funniest professional is currently unemployed. He begins work next month at Fish Camp in South Portland, and plans to move to Boston at the end of the summer to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. Pelsor grew up in South Portland, attended South Portland High School for a year and graduated from Maranacook Community High School in Readfield. He holds a degree in social science from Flagler College, St. Augustine, Fla.

"I've wanted to do this since I was a little kid," said Pelsor, who made it to the finals of the contest four years ago, the first time he entered. Since then, he entered twice more, and got as far as the semifinals on one of those tries.

"My material is fairly dry. It's based on misdirection – trying to get people to make assumptions and then pulling the rug out and taking them in a different direction," he said.

He listed Bob Marley, George Hamm, Ellen DeGeneres and New York-based comic Mike Vecchione as his comedy idols.

The other contest finalists "were all great, amazing," he said. "But hopefully, I won because I had some good jokes. And I had a lot of supportive friends and family in the audience."

The finalists also included Bill Picard, 37, Lewiston, a motivational speaker; Ryan Waning, 31, Old Town, a stay-at-home dad and student; Dustin Beckelman, 24, Cumberland, house renovator; Rocco (Wayne MacDonald), 30, Portland, sales; and Christopher King, 34, Auburn, student. The weekly contest, open to anyone not a professional comic, began Feb. 21. Each week, a different panel of judges chose the best comics from among six to eight performers to advance in the competition. The last of the six finalists were chosen April 24.