Portland’s Most Hotly Anticipated Restaurants for Spring 2025

April 27, 2025 footballmedia24 Uncategorized 0

Portland’s Most Hotly Anticipated Restaurants for Spring 2025

Neo-Neapolitan pizza, Vietnamese pastries, and French bistro dining come to Portland.

If this list of anticipated openings looks a little familiar, you’re not alone. Spring 2025’s lineup of “new” restaurants is more of a parade of reopenings, expansions, and that old Portland chestnut, pop-ups opening brick-and-mortars. But hotly anticipated they remain—we’re talking nationally celebrated sushi, wacky pizzas from a Chopped alum, bacon-egg-and-cheese bánh cuốn. All of them exude a warm and breezy approach to hospitality, even when tackling caviar service and tasting menus. As the city pulls itself out of its winter slump and sun-starved Portlanders rush to crowded patios, it’s time to look forward.

Tipsy Scoop

Boise | May 2

Ever dreamed of getting buzzed off ice cream? Weird, but relatable enough. And good news: That’s exactly what Tipsy Scoop promises, a New York–based chain of shops selling boozy ice cream and sorbets like a real bourbon vanilla, mango margarita sorbet, creme de menthe–chocolate chip, and a fairly repellant–sounding cake batter vodka martini. Tipsy Scoop’s Portland branch, located on N Mississippi Avenue, will open May 2 and feature flavors that utilize local spirits, like a Wild Roots marionberry vodka ice cream that sounds a lot dreamier than the cake batter ’tini.

Okta Farm and Kitchen

Mcminnville | may 3

At McMinnville’s Tributary Hotel, Okta attracted a wave of media attention for chef Matthew Lightner’s ambitious farm-to-table tasting menu—until it closed suddenly last September. This next iteration is a second chance for the restaurant, with chef Christy Smith running the kitchen. Smith has been cooking in Willamette Valley restaurants for 20 years, most recently at Silverton’s now-shuttered Italian restaurant Guerra’s. Rather than the dozen or so courses that defined Lightner’s menu, Okta Farm and Kitchen will be pared down to a lower-priced four courses, still sourcing many of its ingredients from the connected regenerative agriculture farm, larder, and fermentation lab.

Yum’s of PDX

buckman | early may

Miriam Weiskind’s professional pizza journey began back in the early days of the pandemic, when she served Neapolitan-style pies out of her Brooklyn apartment. She soon transitioned to a formal pop-up, the Za Report, which caught the attention of then–New York Times critic Pete Wells. After an appearance on Kelly Clarkson’s NBC talk show, a cross-country move, and over a year of Portland pop-ups, Weiskind is primed to open Yum’s of PDX, serving cold-fermented, char-kissed “Neo-Neapolitan” pies and thick, wood-fired Sicilian style pizzas on SE Eighth Avenue. Expect classics like pepperoni and margherita, as well as Weiskind’s take on a cheeseburger pizza, the Italian Big Mac. A rotating dessert menu will include black-and-white cookies, tiramisu, and always some kind of ice cream. Is Portland primed to make room for yet another pizza shop–ice creamery? The crowds that lined up for Weiskind’s pop-ups would make it seem so.
 

Living Room Coffee

University Park | May 10

Living Room Wines filled a hole in the University Park neighborhood’s drink scene when it opened just six months ago: Until then, the closest wine bar was St. Johns’ 44th Parallel. With affordable and smartly curated wines, queer social events, and charming atmosphere, the bar has juiced up the neighborhood’s evenings; now it’s looking to do the same to its mornings. The shop will open daily at 7am as Living Room Coffee before transitioning back to wine service at 3pm. The café will be one of the only specialty coffee shops in the area, serving Dear Francis coffee and espresso drinks with housemade syrups, along with breakfast sandwiches, burritos, oatmeal, and chia pudding. In a city where hybrid coffee shop–bars have become vanishingly rare, it’s sure to attract more than just University of Portland students and neighbors.

Berlu Bakery

buckman | may

Entirely gluten-free, Vince Nguyen’s take on contemporary Vietnamese pastries began as something of a pandemic pivot from his minimalist fine-dining restaurant of the same name. In the intervening years, the bakery has popped up and disappeared a few times, but now it will be a permanent fixture around the corner from its original restaurant space. Fans will find plenty of familiar favorites, including the vivid green pandan waffles, layered sponge cakes, and creamy coconut egg tarts. But new treasures abound: think fun takes on bánh cuốn and a cured salmon- and cream cheese–topped bánh tiêu.]

 

Nodoguro

downtown | spring

Elena and Ryan Roadhouse’s inimitable omakase restaurant has taken many forms in many locations over the years, but this next move feels somehow conclusive. Nodoguro will take over the mezzanine dining room at Morgan’s Alley, adding more life to the recovering downtown scene. With a prix fixe kaiseki-style menu, Nodo 3.0 (or is it 4.0?) will keep doing what it does best—serving superlative Japanese small plates with house-party vibes and pop culture references. Expect nigiri and sashimi flown in from Japan’s top fish markets, Dungeness crab soba, composed rice and fish bowls, uni rice, Wagyu, caviar service, and a legendary sake program. Its current location in Kerns will continue as Peter Cat, a private event space and reservation-only izakaya-style bar.

L’Echelle

richmond | Spring

L’Echelle may be the most hotly anticipated restaurant in years, but excitement around its arrival is colored by the tragic loss of its founding chef and culinary icon, Naomi Pomeroy. Her presence was tangible when L’Echelle popped up last year next door to its permanent location on Division, serving crispy chickpea panisse, steak frites topped with freeze-dried green peppercorns, lightly poached albacore with thick slices of heirloom tomato, and glasses of elegant European and Oregon natural wines. The pop-up served as a preview of sorts—Pomeroy’s business partner Luke Dirks describes it being a “sketch of things to come,” with the final version a seasonal, local take on French bistro dining. Mika Paredes, a longtime collaborator and close friend of Pomeroy, will helm the kitchen as executive chef, bringing her own experience and connections to local farms.

These 11 Greater Portland restaurants and bars are slated to open in 2025

Here’s what you need to know about the new wave of venues opening in the coming months.

It’s safesay 2024 wasn’t exactly a banner year for the local food and beverage industry.

Operational costs have become increasingly onerous for restaurateurs since the pandemic. When you combine those growing expenses with a lackluster summer for Maine tourism and the fact that many potential customers are cash-strapped and dining and drinking out less often, you end up with the fall we experienced in Southern Maine, where 19 restaurants, bars and cafés closed in three months.

Since September, we’ve lost area favorites like South Portland’s Elsmere BBQ; Gritty McDuff’s in Freeport; Local 188 and its sister restaurant, Salvage BBQ; 48-year-old Muddy Rudder in Yarmouth, Ohno Café; and Slab Sicilian Street Food.

But we also gained plenty of quality eateries like Finestkind in Saco; fish-and-chips shop Lil Chippy; Lucky Cheetah; Deering Center’s Noble Pizzeria & Barbecue; Off Track Pizza; Cambodian/Chinese-inspired Oun Lido’s; Roasty’s and more. Meanwhile, Portland bakeries racked up some major national acclaim at the James Beard Awards this year: ZUBakery won in the Outstanding Bakery category, and Atsuko Fujimoto of Norimoto Bakery won for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker.

Now a new wave of Southern Maine restaurants and bars are gearing up to open in the months to come (nearly 20 at last count). Food at these venues runs the geographic gamut from mid-Atlantic, Italian-American cuisine, to global flavors from Portugal, Spain and Sicily, to some fun-loving Middle Earth specialties at Brunswick’s hobbit-themed café.

Here are some of the spots we’re looking forward to in 2025. The restaurants are in Portland unless otherwise noted.

Benny’s

Josh Sobel, owner of the Philly-style sandwich shop Ramona’s on Washington Avenue, is offering Portland another taste of his hometown with Benny’s on Congress Street.

Benny’s — located at 545 Congress St., former home to Broken Arrow — will serve Philadelphia-inspired hot sandwiches during the day. At night, the venue switches from counter service to table service for a menu of Italian-American classics including small plates, pastas, Parmesan-style dishes (chicken parm, etc.) and composed salads.

Sobel said he and his team are still testing some distinctive dishes like soft pretzel garlic knots that will be baked in-house daily, and a vegan cheesesteak made with shaved seitan. Benny’s bar program spotlights classic, simple cocktails and some fun riffs like a dirty martini with giardiniera, and a Fernet-Branca and birch beer cocktail.

Though Benny’s won’t be a sports bar, TV screens behind the bar will feature Philadelphia sports teams. Sobel plans to be open six days for lunch and dinner, and hopes to open toward the end of March, just in time for the Phillies’ opening day.

Cuties 

A team of local hospitality professionals saw the need for an all-day bar in Old Port.

“We all definitely feel there is a space needed for those daytime hours to get together with friends, especially with the bright, lively aesthetic we’re picturing,” said Bryce Summers, who is partnering with Ryan Nielsen, Nick Coffin, Garrett Lenderman and Arvid Brown to open Cuties in March in the former Petite Jacqueline space on Market Street.

Cuties will offer coffee beverages and pastries in the morning and happy hour specials in the afternoon before transitioning in the evening to a casual wine and cocktail bar. The ownership team is working with friends and local purveyors to develop some proprietary beer, wine and coffee blends that will be available only at Cuties.

Summers said Nielsen, the chef, has developed a seafood-focused menu of snacky, sharable plates for the wine bar, including Latin-inspired dishes like aguachile and tostadas.

The Cuties team plans ultimately to be open six days from 8 a.m. to midnight. But they’ll likely start with evening service, before introducing their daytime offerings by early summer.

Douro 

Buzz has been building about Douro since last winter, when the Prentice Hospitality Group first announced plans to open a sister restaurant to acclaimed fine-dining venues Twelve and Evo Kitchen + Bar.

The luxury-lifestyle magazine Robb Report listed Douro among their 18 most anticipated restaurants of 2024. Restaurant projects often run into delays, and Douro’s timeline shifted because of construction holdups. There may not be a Robb Report follow-up forthcoming, but plenty of onlookers nationwide are still eagerly awaiting the Portuguese- and Spanish-inspired seafood restaurant, now expected to open in late April.

Twelve Chef Colin Wyatt — who came to Portland by way of New York City, where he cooked at haute cuisine meccas Eleven Madison Park and Daniel — will head up the kitchen. Unlike Twelve, Douro won’t have a prix-fixe menu, just lunch and dinner à la carte offerings that run from $8-$20 for appetizers and $22-$50 for entrees.

Luke’s Lobster founder and CEO Luke Holden said they plan to expand the deck and build an addition for a new kitchen and bathrooms, but will preserve Dry Dock’s interior aesthetic. “The old architecture and exposed beams and brick are really quite magnificent,” he said.

It’s still too early in the process for specific menu details. But Holden’s team has been canvassing longtime Dry Dock fans to learn what they loved most, so they can be sure to serve plenty of old favorites.

Elda  

Elda isn’t a new restaurant, but a relaunch of the fine-dining, prix-fixe restaurant that had been located in Biddeford from 2017 until last winter.

Elda’s innovative cuisine — which melds Maine ingredients with Japanese and New Nordic influences and techniques — racked up plenty of critical praise locally and nationally, including a rare four-and-a-half star review from Press Herald food critic Andrew Ross, who called it “one of the very best restaurants in New England.

 

“We want the menu to be flexible for however guests want to dine,” Wyatt said. “If you want to come in and just have a few glasses of wine and a couple of snacks, you can do that. If you want to come in with a group and share a lot of items, you can do that. And if you want to have a more traditional à la carte experience with an appetizer, entrée and dessert, we’re going to offer that as well.”

Located near Twelve at 110 Thames St., Douro will have a bright, Mediterranean-style interior aesthetic featuring blue- and white-tiled tables, high ceilings and a centerpiece bar. The bar program will offer non-alcoholic versions of all its featured cocktails, and the 20-30 wines on Douro’s list will all be available by the glass, and in different size pours.

“We’re trying to reach out to diners who may not want the more formal experience of Twelve,” Wyatt said.

Dry Dock 

This fall, the Luke’s Lobster ownership team announced plans to reopen the long-vacant Dry Dock Restaurant and Tavern on Commercial Street.

The revived seafood restaurant is expected to open by early summer, and will be a separate concept, not branded by Luke’s. In the meantime, there’s plenty of renovation work to be done on the 84 Commercial St. building: The space has been unused since 2018, when Dry Dock closed after 35 years.

So when chef and co-owner Bowman Brown announced in February that Elda would be moving to Portland, it was apparent that Biddeford’s loss would be Portland’s gain. And having Bowman’s talents on display for a larger audience can only be a good thing.

Bowman had initially hoped to relaunch this past summer. But he and his wife, Anna, chose to expand their buildout of the space at 34 Portland St. to include residential units on the second floor, so they pushed back the opening. They now aim to reopen Elda this summer, and the intensely creative chef has been spending much of the interim time tinkering and refining dishes for the new menu.

For a glimpse of what’s to come at the intimate, 22-seat venue, consider that Bowman has been gathering more acorns than a squirrel this fall, literally. “This tree nut from the oak tree has a tremendous amount of flavor, and it’s completely overlooked by most folks in terms of its potential,” said Bowman, who has been developing a cake made from acorn flour and an accompanying sauce made from roasted acorn shells that lend the dish flavors of chestnut, hazelnut and toffee.

We really focus on ingredients that are the best in any given time in Maine and the surrounding region,” Bowman said. “That includes a lot of wild, indigenous ingredients. We’re constantly turning out new and delicious ways to use the stuff that’s always around and weave that through the menu.”

Elevenses

Elevenses plans to serve currant scones with clotted cream and jam on its Hobbit-friendly menu. Courtesy of Elevenses

This all-day, brunch-focused café is due to launch — as numerologists might have guessed — Jan. 11.

Named for the late-morning snack enjoyed by hobbits, Elevenses is themed after J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings series.

“The source material lends itself to a full-blown menu if you know it, and if you don’t you can still enjoy it,” explained co-owner Nicole Juntura. “Hobbits are foodies. Tolkein modeled them after himself and what he likes.”

Located at 50 Maine St. in Brunswick, Elevenses will offer classic brunch dishes such as eggs Benedict, along with British staples such as Scotch eggs and a full English breakfast. The menu will also feature plenty of dishes and beverages with Tolkien-based, punny names, like Desolation of Smaug for its artisanal hot chocolate.

“We want to have a strong emphasis on presentation and surprising and delighting people,” Juntura said. “We want to take the quality very seriously, but we want it to feel very fun.”

Juntura plans for Elevenses to be open seven days, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

 

 

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