Sur-Lie

Weekend grazing: from tapas, to haute fare to one of the best lobster rolls, Maine remains the splendid table everywhere

August 17, 2025 / / Restaurants

Grazing is a great way to experience several restaurants in one fell swoop, torching your testbeds into fiery submission as you go from one to the other for splendid dining. This was the course I followed starting on Friday evening. What ensued was the progression of two dining establishments to create the evening meal in which the new world met the old and a weekend to follow with multiple ports of call in the offing.

Sur-Lie presents an inventive but very approachable modern-day menu of small plates done with utter creativity and style. The second stop was Back Bay Grill, where more traditional techniques and fare—done superbly—offered great counterpoint.

The respective bar rooms for dining at Sur Lie and Back Bay Grill

First order of business was to order a drink made by Sur-Lie’s great bartender, Sam Babcock. I proceeded to have my favorite dish at Sur Lie- the sweet pea hummus. It’s presented in a big white bowl that contains the brightest puree, almost blindingly green from the freshness of the peas rendered into a luxuriously silken dip. Chef Emil Rivera—whose cooking gets better and better to be, at times, absolutely wonderful- floats the flavors of lemon and mint that capture the sublime texture and flavor of the sabayon, which tops the hummus like whipped cream on a sundae.

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Where to eat now, where to go next and a few dining conundrums in Portland

August 10, 2025 / / Discoveries, Restaurants

After a scintillating dinner at Tempo Dulu Saturday night, one of nearly bacchanalian proportions, everywhere else I ate last week was so tame (though pretty good) by comparison. (Shown on the intro page is mixologist’s Trevin Hutchins Wayang Cocktail)

A trio of desserts at Tempo Dulu

Last night’s options, however, were a mixed bag of where to eat since many favorite places are closed on Sundays, a mistake perhaps if restaurateurs are looking for the big dollars from the brigade of tourists now everywhere in Portland.

I considered going to Sur-Lie, but they close down for Sunday dinner after serving their very popular brunch earlier in the day.

Chef Matt Ginn’s terrific lamp preparation at Evo enjoyed on earlier occasionis

Ebb and Flow, on teeming Commercial Street, is also closed on Sundays and I haven’t been there in a long while. Same for Tiqa. Keeping with the growing Mediterranean theme gaining popularity, I considered stopping at Evo but parking anywhere in the congested Old Port that night was difficult.

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Sunday brunch carries on vividly at many Portland restaurants-but there’s one that’s a real standout!

July 20, 2025 / / Restaurants

The finest culinary minds take the art of cooking to new levels even when the dialectic of simple versus grand is a basic conundrum. But consider another possibility in our flavor domain: weird—or deliciously weird. It’s one thing to spiral high over an incredibly flavorful dish when the sum of its ingredients are unique. But then there’s the far-out mother of invention taking hold and you, as a diner, encounter something so completely different. These revelations don’t often occur at brunch, the superciliousness of a meal that occurs mostly on Sundays. The progression of mimosas and bloody’s, all kinds of eggs Benedict and omelets, pancakes and French toast or just plain old bagels and “lox” (as it’s still known in Manhattan circles) are often mundane and predictable even if comfort-food good.

An old Caiola’s favorite, The Hot Brown

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