The Wrap: In Portland, Lucky Cheetah to launch and Tiqa reopens

Jul. 31—Lucky Cheetah, the specialty dumpling restaurant going into the former Old Port Tavern space on Moulton Street, is set to launch next week.

Co-owners Wills Dowd and Jared Dinsmore, who also own the taco restaurant Bird & Co. in Woodfords Corner, said they plan to open Lucky Cheetah on Tuesday. Dinsmore called Old Port Tavern, which closed in 2022 after 50 years, "an institution."

"(Former tavern owners) Charlie McGee and Richard Herrera have left really big shoes to fill," Dinsmore said.

Dowd said Lucky Cheetah's menu will feature Cantonese dim sum classics such as soup dumplings, char siu bao and siu mai, along with innovative riffs such as dumplings with foie gras, duck confit and blackberry jam; lobster, chive and black garlic dumplings with scallion sabayon; and an elevated crab rangoon with a mix of lobster and crab.

"Traditionally crab rangoon is, like, 90 percent cream cheese," Dinsmore said. "But if somebody were to dare to make the majority of the filling seafood, man does that dish get better."

The restaurant's chef, Zach Johnson, was one of the original employees of Bird & Co., which opened in 2019, and he also has worked at Central Provisions. Bar manager Ben Bozeman, formerly of The Honey Paw and Goodfire Brewing Company, has developed a cocktail list with drinks that spotlight Asian influences, like sesame oil, fat-washed vodka martinis.

The pairing of dumplings and Champagne are a big part of the Lucky Cheetah concept, and the bar menu offers 12 sparkling wines by the glass. The beer list will rotate, featuring a variety of beers from a different Maine brewer each month.

"We're trying to do a lot of things differently from what you usually see," Dowd said.

Lucky Cheetah seats 110 customers, including a 16-seat private event room. Dinsmore said they gave the nearly 5,000-square-foot space a "full overhaul," with help from interior designer Susie Smith Coughlin.

"Maximalist is the only word for it," Dinsmore said. "We couldn't be more proud of this absolutely gorgeous design."

Lucky Cheetah will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 5-10 p.m.

TIQA REOPENS ON COMMERCIAL STREET

Old Port pan-Mediterranean restaurant Tiqa, which closed in 2023 because of lingering pandemic issues, is having a soft reopening this week.

Deen Haleem, who owns Tiqa with his wife, Carol Mitchell, said Tiqa is relaunching on a limited basis this week to help staff get up to speed. The restaurant will be open this week through Saturday from 4:30-9 p.m. They will not be accepting reservations yet, only walk-ins, and will seat one table every 15 minutes to start.

Haleem said staffing shortages were the biggest factor behind their decision to close Tiqa last year. "When we closed the restaurant, we did not feel we could provide the service and the food we wanted to provide for guests in almost a 300-seat restaurant," he said, noting that they needed to turn away about 50% of walk-in customers because they didn't have enough employees to handle them.

"Seating in restaurants stopped being driven by the number of tables you had, and became about the number of (staffers) you had," Haleem said.

Haleem said he and Mitchell figured they would reopen Tiqa if the labor market improved. Earlier this summer, they deemed that it had sufficiently rebounded. "It felt closer to normal than it had been since COVID," he said.

Tiqa, which opened in 2015, features a mix of cuisines from southern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, though it had previously been heavier on dishes from the latter two regions. Haleem said the new menu offers more southern European dishes, so the mix feels more even. It also will have more seafood dishes, like Spanish Garlic Shrimp with white beans, and Italian Scallop Crudo. The new chef, Philip Sokolowski, has worked with a restaurant group in Maryland for about 20 years.

Haleem hopes Tiqa will open for its full schedule next week: Thursday through Monday for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 4:30-9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday brunch will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

BREW OPENING IN EAST BAYSIDE

A new all-day café/bar concept is in the works for Washington Avenue.

Owner Meagan Waldron said she aims to open Brew at 34 Washington Ave. in Portland in early September. The 848-square-foot space was formerly occupied by the film production company Picture Maine.

"My hope and dream for Brew is to become a neighborhood, East Bayside place where people on the (Munjoy) hill or in East Bayside can stop in the morning and have a gathering place that is not right in the heart of Portland," Waldron said. "The main goal is to have a welcoming, cozy environment for people."

Waldron said the café operation at Brew will feature coffee from Crossroads Coffee in Rockland and pastries from a local bakery. In the evenings from Thursday through Saturday, Brew will become a bar serving wine and Maine beers, as well as some snacky plates like meat and cheese boards.

Including its eight-seat bar, Brew can seat about 21 customers. Waldron has worked a variety of positions at her family's pizzeria on the outskirts of Burlington, Vermont, where she grew up, and also at LB Kitchen and Terlingua in Portland.

She said her family's pizzeria served as a neighborhood hangout. "I wanted to bring something like that to my current neighborhood, because I also live in East Bayside," Waldron said.

Brew will be open Thursday through Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and from 5-10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

ASIAN FUSION COMES TO FREEPORT

Aki Japanese Fusion is opening this week, aiming to boost Freeport's limited restaurant scene.

Aki is launching at 10 School St., former home to Mediterranean Grill. Aki manager and co-owner Laura Cigri explained that Aki had been a sushi and hibachi restaurant in Brunswick for 12 years, but chose not renew its lease last year.

Aki's owners also owned Mediterranean Grill and its building, so they decided to move the Japanese restaurant to Freeport and tweak the concept. "We know that Freeport needs a good Asian restaurant," Cigri said. "There isn't much competition."

Aki will still offer sushi. Its hibachi dishes will be cooked in the kitchen, not tableside. Cigri said the menu will include new items like poke bowls, lobster buns, boba tea and Asian-style tapas from Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Japanese cuisines. Aki will even offer some Turkish items, which were one of the owner's specialties at Mediterranean Grill.

"We're very excited to be in Freeport," Cigri said. "We've had so many people tell us how happy they are that we're back open. They're looking forward to what they've missed, and also to what is new on the menu."

Aki is holding a soft opening Thursday. The restaurant will be open Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday and Monday from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

COWIN SPEAKS AT ALLAGASH

Former longtime Food & Wine magazine editor-in-chief Dana Cowin will speak about the power of local food systems at Allagash Brewing Company's Sip & Learn series in August.

Joined by Allagash brewmaster Jason Perkins and Maine Grain Alliance Executive Director Tristan Noyes, Cowin will discuss the ways that locally sourced food and food systems can bring joy, connection and positive transformation. She also will be talking about her new platform, Progressive Hedonist.

The event is set for Tuesday, Aug. 6 at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $45, and include wood-fired pizza using Maine-grown grain pizza dough from The Good Crust, as well as a pour of Allagash beer, wine, cider, or N/A beverage.

Find more information or purchase tickets online at Allagash.

ST. PETER'S ITALIAN BAZAAR RETURNS

The 98th annual St. Peter's Italian Festival and Bazaar is set for early August.

The street festival is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Aug. 9-10, outside the church at 72 Federal St. in Portland from 5-9:30 p.m. The event, which is free, features food and pastries, games and live music from the Jim Ciampi Band and other artists.

VEGGIES TO TABLE BENEFIT

Newcastle-based nonprofit organization Veggies to Table is hosting a French food and travel-themed benefit auction in August in East Boothbay.

The event, called "Diner en Blanc" is set for Sunday, Aug. 11 at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. Participants are invited to dress in white and enjoy French food and pastries, oysters, and an open bar with French Champagne, wine and local beer.

The centerpiece of the evening is a live auction featuring trips to Paris, Provence, the Swiss Alps and more. Tickets for the auction cost $100. More event info and tickets are available online.

Veggies to Table aims to raise $300,000 to fight hunger in Maine.

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