Blaze Comes to Bangor; First Thai Restaurant for Gray

Bar Harbor restaurateur Matt Haskell will make over the former Whig & Courier pub space in downtown Bangor into his second Blaze, with a "wood-fired kitchen" and big craft beer list, reports Emily Burnham on the Culture Shock blog.

We’ll have specialty tacos, like pork belly and duck confit. We’ll have venison steaks on the menu. All our seafood is sustainable,” said Haskell. I’m really committed to getting as much of our ingredients from Maine and New England as possible. We’re also going to have 50 draftlines, up from the 34 we have in Bar Harbor. We’re going to have an extremely extensive selection of craft beers.

The Lakes Region Weekly says the town of Gray is enthused about the transformation of a "key piece of downtown real estate" from an empty former gas station to Manee Thai Restaurant by a family of experienced restaurant owners. Kwone Sanasy, who will run Manee with her sister and brother-in-law, also owns Siam Orchid in Bar Harbor and Thai 9 in Scarborough. A June launch is planned for the Gray restaurant; a fourth Sanasy project, Bodhi Thai Bistro in Portsmouth, N.H., is also opening soon.

· Blaze To Open In Former Whig & Courier Space [Culture Shock]
· A New Lease On Life [Lakes Region Weekly]

[Photo: Culture Shock]