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

It’s safe to say 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 Benny’s is to open in the former Broken Arrow space in Portland, Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer 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. The floor plan for Cuties, an all-day bar slated to open in March in the former Petite Jacqueline space on Market Street. Courtesy of Cuties 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, 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. “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. 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 The dining room at Elda in Biddeford, which closed in early 2024. Elda is relaunching in Portland this summer.

Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer 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.” 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. “We’re hoping people will travel to this place and that it’ll be kind of a destination,” she said. “A third space for people locally, and a good place to stop if you’re passing through.

” Luncheonette Union Bagel Co. will become salad-focused restaurant Luncheonette. Photo courtesy of Alex LeBlanc Co-owners Angela Lee and Alex LeBlanc are renovating the former Union Bagel space on Cumberland Avenue into a counter-service, salad-centric eatery.

The core of Luncheonette’s menu will feature salads ($8), such as celery and fennel with mozzarella and sherry vinaigrette; shredded beetroot with yogurt, dill and pistachio; and mushrooms with wilted chicories and sesame dressing. Customers can add proteins, such as tinned tuna, smoked salmon or roasted chicken for $6, and prepared salads will be available in a deli case for convenient to-go orders. The inspiration for Luncheonette came in part from Lee’s travels abroad, where she visited such well-known eateries as La Buvette bistro in Paris and Kiki’s Tavern in Mykonos; Kiki’s gave her the idea for the deli case.

Luncheonette’s morning menu includes toasts, granola and house-baked pastries, with bread by the loaf available daily. They’ll also offer some sandwiches ($10) such as fried eggplant, baba ganoush and cabbage slaw on milk bread or sourdough. A South Portland native, LeBlanc was sous chef at acclaimed chef April Bloomfield’s Sailor in Brooklyn, New York.

He also cooked at the former Underbelly in Houston, and for Matt Ginn at Evo Kitchen + Bar in Portland. Lee’s culinary training includes working in New York City as a whole animal butcher at The Meat Hook, a fish butcher at Osakana and a baker at Petee’s Pie Co. Lee and LeBlanc are working to restore the facade of the 100-year-old building at 147 Cumberland Ave.

, among other renovations. They hope to launch by early June. Paolo’s will go into the former Nomad pizza space, pictured here.

Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer Paolo’s This new restaurant in Brunswick’s Fort Andross Mill complex will pay homage to New Jersey and the Italian-American eateries owners Jeremy and Marina Kratzer frequented before they left the Garden State for Maine in 2018. “We really want this to be a place where people can come with people they love and sit and put their phones away and have a conversation over great food with a great atmosphere and great hospitality,” said Jeremy Kratzer, who hopes to launch Paolo’s by early March. “Marina and I have waited a long time to be able to show the world what our vision of hospitality is.

” Paolo’s is replacing the wood-fired pizzeria Nomad, which closed in November. The Kratzers also own Dutchman’s wood-fired bagels, which occupied a café space inside Nomad; Jeremy Kratzer has always baked his bagels in Nomad’s wood-fired oven (Kratzer also previously worked at Nomad’s Brunswick and New Jersey locations). Kratzer said the Skowhegan-built oven will continue to be “the focal point of the dining room, and the heartbeat of the restaurant.

” Paolo’s menu will feature Italian standards such as lasagna al forno (finished in the oven for an alluring touch of smoke), along with chicken parmesan, marsala and saltimbocca; sharable charcoal-grilled entrees such as steaks or chops for two; wood-fired pizzas including a Margherita with buffalo mozzarella and a Jersey-style white clam pie; and appetizers such as crispy calamari with pickled pepper fritto misto and salt-and-vinegar aioli . Named for Kratzer’s late grandfather, Paul Macher, Paolo’s seats about 70 with a 10-seat bar and a private dining room for up to 15. The Kratzers aren’t planning many aesthetic changes to the interior, just some tweaks to enhance functionality.

Kratzer said Paolo’s will be open for dinner at least from Thursday through Sunday, and they may also add a fifth day. Over the next few years, he also hopes to turn an adjacent theater space — part of the former Nomad property and currently rented out for special events — into a speakeasy cocktail bar. “We’re looking to turn this space in to a true hospitality destination,” Kratzer said.

Pomelia Midcoast restaurateurs Chelsea and Tony Bickford have taken over the former Scarlet Begonias space in Brunswick, where they aim to open a Sicilian restaurant by late January. “We wanted to do something a bit different, especially for Brunswick, because there are other traditional Italian restaurants,” Chelsea Bickford explained. “The Sicilian-Italian leans more into some other cultures, including some warmer Mediterranean and North African flavors.

” Pomelia’s menu features four variations of Sicilian focaccia-style pizza and a selection of salads and southern Italian pastas. Sandwiches include the cucina povera classic, pane cunzato, while Sicilian street food classics like arancini and chickpea fritters panelle are among the appetizer offerings. Bickford said they’ve brightened and opened up the space’s interior, but kept some cozy nooks in place.

“It still has that casual feel of what Scarlet Begonias was, but it will be very different,” she said. Bickford also said “warm” hospitality will be a top priority at Pomelia. “We want to create a great experience for the people who are in here, both guests and employees,” she said.

“After COVID, I think a lot of places have gotten away from creating that connection with the customer.” Ram & Bull Joshua’s Tavern on Main St. in Brunswick back in the day.

Restaurateurs Khristine and Zac Leeman plan to open Ram & Bull in the space. Doug Jones/Staff photographer Khristine and Zac Leeman opened the upscale bistro Linden + Front in Bath in February 2024. They also own Sundrenched, a seasonal eatery on Harpswell’s Bailey Island.

The couple decided this fall to open a third venue because a prime Brunswick location opened up when Joshua’s Restaurant & Tavern closed after 30 years. The Leemans expect to launch Ram & Bull, a “modern tavern,” later this winter in the 4,500-square-foot space at 123 Maine St. They’re overhauling the space, which can seat about 200 customers between two floors and a patio area.

“The building needed a lot more work than we thought,” said Khristine Leeman, noting that they hope to launch Ram & Bull by the beginning of March. Named for the couple’s astrological signs, Ram & Bull will feature a variety of casual fare like gluten-free fried chicken, a vegan bánh mì bowl and a Juicy Lucy, the cheese-stuffed burger specialty from Leeman’s home state of Minnesota. While they’re still finalizing opening hours, the Leemans aim for Ram & Bull to be open Thursday through Tuesday from 11 a.

m. to 9 p.m.

Supper Club Cocktail Lounge The team behind the queer craft bar Cocktail Mary are launching this casual restaurant and bar at 441 Congress St., where they hope to ride the momentum from coming hotel and residential build-outs. “That particular area of Portland is about to see a lot of growth, so we’re just excited to get rooted and established in the heart of downtown Portland,” said co-owner Isaac MacDougal, noting that they hope to open by March.

“It seems like that area is ripe for rebirth, and it feels we’re getting in there at the right time.” MacDougal said the menu will reflect a “modern take” on classic New England fare. “We’re going real simple,” he said.

“Our hope is to provide an affordable place for people to go out to eat with simple, delicious, nourishing food.” Think roasted fish, sheet-pan chicken and pasta. Supper Club will likely start out offering dinner Thursday through Monday from 5 p.

m. until midnight, MacDougal said, before expanding to a seven-day schedule in the summer. MacDougal has partnered on Supper Club with his sister and operations manager Brecken MacDougal, beverage director Jake Bosma and facilities manager Zach Myers.

The co-owners have made affordability a priority at Supper Club, aiming to keep meals under $30 per person (not including drinks). “Because of Portland’s reputation as a food destination city, a lot of the restaurants are not necessarily geared toward the local community in terms of concept and price point,” MacDougal said. “We’re trying to fill that gap and crate a place where people can casually pop out and grab a bite to eat and not feel like they have to cut expenses elsewhere.

You’ll have the atmosphere of a nicer restaurant, but the price point of pub fare.” We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website.

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