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brian duff

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Triple shot

Visiting three new Portland cafés
As a sign of difficult economic times, a turnover in cafés is a noisy indicator but a significant one.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  November 04, 2009
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Brave new world

Styxx’s management sets an oddly pleasant menu
How many marriages are born or nursed in our city’s bars?
By BRIAN DUFF  |  October 28, 2009
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Solid food, found

Hang on to your dosh -- visit the Lost Coin Café
The Lost Coin Café is unlike any other restaurant in Portland.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  October 07, 2009
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Gustation junction

Flavors mingle at The Corner Room
Since all three of Harding Lee Smith's restaurants are on corners, one wonders why he chose to name his newest one The Corner Room.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  September 30, 2009
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Community appeal

The Café at Pat's is a classic local spot
It is tricky to manage the transition from cult of personality to a rationalized institution.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  September 16, 2009
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Amazing Grace

Sweet tastes, beautiful building, heavenly reward
Few of us bother to go to church, so Mainers must find ways to reuse our houses of worship, just as we do our riverside mills in this post-industrial age. While several restaurants have put mothballed mill buildings to use, Grace Restaurant's repurposing of the Chestnut Street Methodist Church is the most impressive reclamation project yet.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  September 02, 2009
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Outdoor retreat

Twenty Milk's excellent lawn-dining experience
Portland's Old Port is most beautiful just when it is least hospitable — in the bitter cold of winter when the crowds dissipate and Pandora LaCasse's whimsical lights decorate the streets. Recently the Portland Regency Hotel has endeavored to capture some of the charms of winter in warmer months.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  August 12, 2009
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For serious kids

The Salt Exchange experiments with food
In last week's New York Times , David Brooks suggested that for people who are not parents there are "no grand designs..., no high ambitions. Politics becomes insignificant. Even words like justice lose meaning."
By BRIAN DUFF  |  August 05, 2009
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A beam of light

El Rayo lets the ingredients shine
We live in an era in which we are grateful when people get the big things right, even if the details are off. Too often these days we find the opposite: well-titled books with little insight, an economy that "grows" but produces nothing of actual value, clever people who lack the deeper qualities of character.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  July 08, 2009

Letters to the Portland editor: June 19, 2009

Warning: Salad may kill you
In a recent issue, Brian Duff reviewed GRO Grassroots Organic Café, in Portland (see  "In the Raw,"  May 22). I've never read anything on the topic of food and nutrition more arrogant or opinionated.
By PHOENIX STAFF  |  June 17, 2009
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Ahead of the curve

Rockland's Primo finds the future in past traditions
Popular tastes wax, wane, and wander about, but over the long run people most appreciate those things that are timelessly simple, elegant, and right: Roger Federer's backhand, German-expressionist art, cotton, and the summer here in Maine.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  June 10, 2009

Letters to the Portland editor: June 5, 2009

In praise of Pfeifle
I can't tell you how much it means to have such a thoughtful, well written review of my new CD.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS  |  June 03, 2009
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In the raw

Exploring GRO Café's uncooked cuisine
The new GRO Café offers a vegan menu on which (almost) nothing has been heated beyond 112 degrees. This is supposed to preserve something raw-foodists call "living enzymes," which they imagine to be important to our health. Technically that is nonsense.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  May 20, 2009
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Tried and true

Where to go for the ultimate summertime burgers
The greasy, informal meals of summer lead to lots of uncouth mouth-cramming and finger-licking. It is best not to look. For this reason, many purveyors of the quintessential summertime burger are set up for shoulder-to-shoulder eating.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  May 13, 2009
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Somali equality

Barava's appetizer basket is a glorious find
In trading up for the romantic notoriety of piracy from the ignored tragedy of famine and civil war, Somalis have pulled off the PR coup of the millennium.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  April 22, 2009
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Simpler, but not too much

The Farmer's Table brings comforting cuisine to Commercial Street
In taking over the space recently occupied by Mim's, one of Portland's prissiest restaurants, the owners of the Farmer's Table were wise to choose a name designed to set customers at ease.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  April 15, 2009
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Growing pains

Stick with the beer at the Run of the Mill brewpub
I hardly need to remind you of the dangers of expanding liberalism. While conservatives will screw you if they can, liberals will track you down to stick it to you.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  March 25, 2009
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Really remarkable

Indulge in the truffles at Dean's Sweets
Dean's Sweets, with its Americana name and its modest storefront, does not prepare you for the sophisticated chocolates you find there.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  March 18, 2009
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Review: Happy Teriyaki

Japanese and Chinese cuisines take second place at Happy Teriyaki
There is little that is hard about Happy Teriyaki, which is Korean-owned despite the Japanese name and the Japanese-style cute bear logo in the window.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  February 25, 2009
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How to do prix-fixe

In anticipation of Restaurant Week, we find a great model
In anticipation of Restaurant Week, we find a great model
By BRIAN DUFF  |  February 18, 2009
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A good kind of corny

Loco Pollo gets tamales right
To have been stuck with corn was the great curse of this continent.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  January 28, 2009
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Olive Café

Thin but strong
Solid tastes at Olive Café
By BRIAN DUFF  |  January 21, 2009
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Stimulants galore

Arabica offers a bright spot for a dark year
The next 12 months will offer obsession with stimulus and stimulation.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  December 31, 2008
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Eating like tourists

Are Portland restaurants captive to visitors' dollars?
This year Portland's restaurant "scene" seemed to nudge its way into the consciousness of the national food media
By BRIAN DUFF  |  December 23, 2008
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Waterfront hangout

Andy's Old Port Pub has a comfy feel
It's a bar whose dinner menu seems to reflect the simple idea that when you have a pleasant place to hang out, drink, and socialize, people get hungry.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  December 03, 2008
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Luxurious loneliness

Thanksgiving's is just like home after the holiday
There are the moments when the solitary life is unbearable, but Thanksgiving is not one of them. No matter how distant you have grown from family or friends, you find a home to arrive at with a dish in hand.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  November 26, 2008
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Timing is everything

Experimenting pays off at Solo Bistro
Solo Bistro is a good place to sit out the suspense of this passing of the torch.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  November 05, 2008
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Sweet genius

The Vietnamese bánh mì — created to please
While the charms of Kim’s are ineffable, we can explain why the occupied Vietnamese invented such a delicious sandwich.
By BRIAN DUFF  |  October 29, 2008
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Classic retro

The Back Bay Grill offers stability
Opened 20 years ago on an odd bayside corner, the Back Bay Grill looks seasoned rather than old.  
By BRIAN DUFF  |  October 09, 2008
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Escape clause

Don’t bail out — dine out at Steve & Renee’s!
A visit to Steve and Renee’s diner for the Saturday night all-you-can-eat turkey dinner (for $8.50!) is enough to convince you that things will be all right while we wait this one out.  
By BRIAN DUFF  |  October 02, 2008

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