Originally “Food for Thought” was created as a food diary–a blog with daily entries about my personal focus on local food, farms and restaurants in Portland when the term locavore was new to the lexicon and blogging was a quirky endeavor. It first appeared online at Downeast Magazine in around 2001 and later commissioned by an enterprising editor at the Portland Press Herald where it ran for years until it morphed into the Golden Dish.
For better or worse, the space quickly became focused on restaurant reviews, a shaky moment for some or a stellar time for others.
It was exciting to eat my way through Portland’s restaurant renaissance. Suddenly it was no longer just Back Bay Grill and Fore Street as keepers of the flame but rather newcomers like Five Fifty Five, Bandol, Caiola’s, Hugo’s, Cinque Terre, Vignola and Duck Fat joined the group if only to make the old guard strive to be better.
Below are some photos from the past of dining in Portland, most around 2015-2016, as far back as my current Photoshop catalogue goes.
Five-fifty Five back in the day 2015 and much earlier in the early aughts
