Visiting Portland

A few weeks ago we headed north to Maine. I’m excited to share more about visiting Portland!

This trip was a business trip for the New England Made Wholesale Show – our first big wholesale conference. I’ll share more about that in a separate post, but many of you said you wanted to hear more about Portland – where we stayed, restaurants and shops!

So this post is for you! I never know how much you want to hear about the “business” side of the blog.

This trip was big for us. We were in Maine for four days. Most of the time was spent at the market but were able to do some site seeing because the show ended at 4pm each day.

More About Portland

Portland is such a fun and vibrant port city filled with wonderful restaurants, lovely shops, and lots of hotels and B&Bs. The art scene is huge. Portland sits on the Casco Bay. Portland Head Light is very popular but we didn’t get chance to see it this trip. Portland is just under a 2 hour drive from Boston.

This was the view from our hotel window:

Where Did We Stay?

We stayed at the Hyatt Place Old Port. It was the perfect location, right in the heart of Portland! We could walk out the door and walk EVERYWHERE.

The rooms were so beautiful and zen like! I loved the neutral walls, bamboo furniture, and the beautiful light in all the indoor spaces.

This was our room:

I loved that our room included a comfy couch to sit on.

The bathroom was very spacious and clean. It had a spa feel:

The views from our hotel were beautiful! As you can see we were in the center of it all!

Included with our stay was complimentary cocktails on arrival and breakfast every day. The breakfast was wonderful – buffet with hot options and loads of fresh fruit, yogurt, cereals, and breads.

The hotel has a pretty comprehensive guide of places to eat and what to do whilst in Portland.

Where to Eat

Okay, we were NOT good tourists. We loved one restaurant and actually we went back there again! The other spot is a favorite, but Portland has such a big food scene.

My friend Alyssa who owns Locally, Yours recommended EVO and their chickpea fries. I know what you’re thinking it sounds so underwhelming right? BUT these chickpea fries are like heaven and EVO ended up being right next door to the hotel. I’m so sorry for all the food photos but I can’t help sharing them!

EVO Kitchen + Bar

EVO is known for farm to table and very fresh ingredients with Mediterranean flavors. We sat right up at the bar on our first time there. It was wonderful to see the energy of the kitchen!

We started with a drink.

After the drive up and spending the day setting up our booth – the drink went down very easily.

We loved the potato hummus:

The chickpea fries were like heaven and we ordered them both times we enjoyed dinner there. They are crispy on the outside and so creamy on the inside almost like a croquette potato but only lighter. My photo doesn’t do this dish justice.

We also loved the chili potatoes. They were unbelieveable:

We also loved the scallops and lamb kebab.

Our last night in Portland (a Sunday) we returned and got an intimate table upstairs. It was lovely. We decided to only order vegetarian that night and it didn’t disappoint.

We loved the artichoke dip:

The endive salad had wonderful flavor:

The pineapple pavlova tasted like heavenly clouds so light and airy:

Flatbread Co.

Flatbread Co. is known for it’s wood fired pizzas. We first discovered Flatbread Co. in NH and it’s always a favorite. They have several locations and one in Massachusetts, but it’s not very close to us. I told Luke after the first day of the show I wanted Flatbread.

The only problem with Flatbread is you can’t make reservations so on Saturday night there was an hour and half wait. We walked around Portland while we waited for our table but it was worth the wait.

We started with the organic salad which is topped with sea kelp and a homemade tamari-ginger vignerette.

We love how light the pizza is – the crust is so thin – we ordered our favorite Jay’s Heart and also their homemade sausage pizza. We ate it ALL! YUM!!!!

Alyssa also recommended Holy Donut but we didn’t make it there.

Shopping

Many of the shops were shut while we were walking around but we did manage to get in and see a few.

Seabags

Seabags has their flag ship store here and also their factory. It was closed but fun peeking in the window. They make bags out of sails.

Blanche and Mimi

Blanche and Mimi is a lovely shop filled with antiques and lovely accessories and home decor. I loved how the shop was decorated.

This little nook made me wish my kids were younger:

I loved seeing all the old nautical lighting. I’m thinking one of these might work for our back door:

LeRoux Kitchen

LeRoux Kitchen is a beautiful kitchen shop for the foodie! It is spread across two floors and has an amazing array of Le Creuset and Staub plus loads of kitchen tools and beautiful ingredients.

Suger

I’m delighted to share you’ll now find Finding Silver Pennies products at Suger in Portland and Biddeford. Roxi Suger, owner and fashion designer of AngelRox was also at NEM. It is a lovely shop with beautiful home decor, accessories and clothing.

Why You’ll Love Portland

• loads of great restaurants and bars
• it’s very walkable
• great shops
• a wonderful art scene!

We just had so much fun being out in the city exploring a completely new place! I love traveling because it’s just so inspiring. I know many of you have visited Portland before and would love you to add your recommendations in the comments below because it will help other readers.

If you enjoy this post you might also like these

• Discovering Maine’s Hidden Gems
• Antiquing in Maine
• Visiting Newport
• Green Animals

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