A Great Way to See Portland

Gorham Bike And Ski located at 693 Congress Street is a convenient location to the Pomegranate Inn and a terrific resource for a new way to experience Portland's downtown and beyond.

I had a visit by one of their employees the other day on a very fun and retro Comfort Bike to let me know about their rental services.

Here's just a sampling of what they offer:

Comfort Bikes

Pro Road Bikes

Tandem Bikes (What fun!)

Car Racks

I love the fact that all their bike rentals include a helmet, lock, waterbottleholder and platform pedals.

Consider a bike tour during your next trip to the Pomegranate Inn!

Portland Flower Show

The Portland Flower Show has begun! A sure sign of spring...thank goodness....is the annual Portland Flower Show. This year promises to be a great one since other New England Flower Shows have begun to go by the wayside due to our flailing economy. Saturday there will even be a special appearance by Bob Crowley, the "Survivor" winner. Shuttles are being offered that will be going up and down Commercial Street until 30 minutes after the Show each day.
The Show is being held at the Portland company Complex which is located at 58 Fore Street. The hours are 10am-6pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sunday the hours will be 10 am-5 pm. At the Cafe you will be able to attend daily lectures and there is also a Children's Discovery Garden. Tickets at the door are $15pp with free admission to Children under 12.

Maine Restaurant Week

Yesterday kicked off a ten-day marathon with Restaurants across Maine to promote eating out. It is a simple, and great premise....three course price fixe menus with beverage and tip not included. What a great opportunity to try a new restaurant that you have been thinking about...but just haven't gotten to. We are so rich in great culinary experiences in Portland, that it can be a challenge to work your way around to even just the best ones! Maine Restaurant Week answers that challenge with an affordable and creative approach. The list of participating restaurants will also show the price range and clicking through to the restaurant will for most of the particpators, show the menu that is highlighted for the week. Some restaurants are changing their menu daily. This opportunity ends on March 10, so call early for reservations and often! Please remember to show some special love to the hard working servers that are helping to make this week possible. We dined at Twenty Milk Street last evening, and had one of the most delightful servers I can remember for quite some time. So cheers to our server, Chris! Thank you for a wonderful evening out, you truly made it special.

Ten Great Reasons to Visit Portland, Maine and Pomegranate Inn in March

1) First Friday Artwalk March 6, 2009 Downtown Portland.
(more to be posted on this soon.)

2) Restaurant Week Maine
Sunday March 1 through Tuesday March 10.
The concept is simple...A price fixe menu, three course meals at special pricing, featuring wonderful local restaurants. A great opportunity to try something new, and support local businesses.

3) Maine Maritime Museum Exhibition: The Sea Within Us This is an exhibit of Inconically Maritime Fashion and Design.

4) Out of Sterno at the Portland Stage Company
March 3-22. "Wide eyed innocence and perfect pedicures collide in this zany new comedy about life, self-image and the pursuit of a hunky man to call your own."...see website for the entire description and show times.

5) Portland Symphony Orchestra presenting: Revel, Schubert and Poulenc March 15, 2009 at 2:30 pm., and Pathetique March 24 at 7:30

6) Moonlight Madness in Bath March 13, 6-9 p.m.
Celebrate the end of winter with music, entertainment, art exhibits, and stores staying open late with lots of fun sales. This kicks off a weekend of events in the historical city of Bath, Maine. 207-442-7291

7) Maine Boatbuilders Show
March 20-22. 207-774-1067. This is the finest fiberglass and wooden custom boats builders show on the East Coast. You will find sail, power,canoe, and kayak boats here. Peter Spectre of Wooden Boat Magazine says, "The word on the waterfront was that this show was different, and it sure was...the exhibits were real boats, and the parts for real boats. and service for real people, and the folks in attendance were real boat enthusiasts.

8) St Patrick's Day Celebration March 14th in Ogunquit, Maine 207-646-6170
Sponsored by the Ogunquit Performing Arts, there will be Irish step-dancers and Irish Music with Traditional Instruments.

9) Spring Fling Shawnee Peak
The 24th annual Spring Fling is a celebration of Spring with soft snow, live entertainment, great bbq, and the annual Slush Cup!

The Slush Cup (starts at 1:30pm) pits skiers and snowboarders against A 60-foot-long man-made pond of ice cold water. Skim along as far as you can go, before falling victim to the laws of gravity! Register (for free) in the Base Lodge from 10am-11:30am

The Pomegranate Inn has a number of return guests that love to make us part of the ski weekend. Some like to come before, and some like to come after, but all agree that the Pomegranate is a great way to add some romance to a ski weekend!

10) Maine Maple Sunday March 22
Always the fourth Sunday In March, sugar makers around the state open their Sugar Shack doors to the public for a great opportunity to experience Maple Syrup and Sugar in the making. Most also offer free tastings and other products for sale featuring Maple Syrup. Interestingly enough...I always associate Maine Maple Sunday with a headache. Maine Maple Sunday follows a previous night in "the old days" with lots of fun loving people crammed into Gary Pitcher's sugar house enjoying a pot luck and Gary's famous Rock Maple Splinters...delicious, but deadly. A more safe and equally delicious early spring treat is freshly made syrup over shaved ice (or snow to be true to its roots)!

There's Plenty to do Inn Portland this week!

Our very own Ellen Domingos is starring in a one woman cabaret-style show, "Is There Fat in That?" at the St. Lawrence Arts and community Center in Portland, presented by the Good Theater, starting February 18, and running through the 22. Ellen developed this biographical show with Brian Allen, the good Theater's artistic director. It is all about her experiences as an actress and model in New York City, but has it's beginnings with Ellen as an 8-year-old prodigy making her stage debut with the Maine State Theatre in Brunswick.
Through the keeping of journals throughout her experiences in New York, both on the stage and as a model for Levi Strass, Sears and other retailers, she compiled a number of stories that are about real life in an industry that is demanding and unforgiving. Allen says, "Ellen took the gloves off, and this is no-holds-barred. It's the truth, and the truth is funny."
Ellen has been accepted into NYU's master's program for theater education and plans to return to New York. She states that she didn't do this show with any particular agenda, that she had a story and wanted to share it. Tickets are available at 207-885-5883.

Maine Maritime Museum opens its latest exhibit, "The Sea Within Us: Iconically Maritime in Fashion & Design" and is on view athrough April 19th . This exhibition explores our long standing love affair with anything related to the maritime world and the role of maritime icon in our culture. It takes us through how these nautical artifacts serve as symbols in our daily lives, even if we have never had a personal connection with the item itself. Also included is a display of apparel from naval uniforms and the 19th century women and children's clothing that was inspired from those uniforms to our present day fashion trends that can trace their look back to the maritime world. Midcoast residents have submitted images of their own versions of the classic mariner's motif, the tattoo. Iconic maritime figures from popular culture such as movies and books are also part of the display.

Elsewhere in Portland this week:
Peter Gynt Portland Stage Company, Portland.
Portland String Quartet: Woodfords Congregational Church, Portland 761-1522. 2 p.m. Feb.22
Boris Garcia: One Longfellow Square, Portland. 761-1757. 8 p.m. Feb. 22
Nature Walks: Wolfe's Neck Farm, Freeport. 10-11 am Thursday, $10.
An Evening with Renee Fleming: Merrill Auditorium Thursday, Feb. 17 at 7:30 p.m.

Benefit for the PSO Endowment Fund

Tuesday, February 17, at 7:30 P.M., Robert Moody will be conducting the Portland Symphony Orchestra in an evening with the World Renowned Renee Fleming in her Maine debut.

All proceeds from this wonderful event will benefit the Portland Symphony Orchestra Endowment Fund.

Renee Fleming has been called "America's Beautiful Voice" which perhaps came from her Grammy in 1999 for her Decca Recording of The Beautiful Voice. Just a few of the delights awaiting her audience will be "So in Love" from Kiss Me Kate and "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess.

Please call Portix at 207-842-0800 or visit them online.

Theatre This Week Inn Portland

Mad Horse Theatre concludes its run today of Sarah Ruhl's award-winning play "The Clean House" at 2 p.m., in the Studio Theatre at the Portland Stage Company. Tickets may be purchased at the door for $20.

At St. Lawrence Arts and Community Center at 76 Congress Street you will find "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" presented by the Good Theatre. Featuring a cast of 17, led by Actor Tony Reilly from South Portland. Tickets are $20-$28 and available at 207-885-5883.

Portland Stage Company at 25A Forest Avenue is home to a great run with "Peer Gynt", Henrik Ibsen's classic Norwegian Tale. This is on stage until February 22. The lead is held by Noah Brady who is a newcomer to Portland State and receiving great praise. Tickets are from $16-$36 and available at 207-774-0465 or at www.portlandstage.com

Opening February 18 at the St. Lawrence by the Good Theatre will be a one-woman show by a woman near and dear to our hearts at the Pomegranate, Ellen Domingos from Brunswick. This is a one-woman cabaret show about her experiences in New York as an actor and model. Don't miss this show running Feb. 18-22. Tickets are $15 and $19 and available at 207-885-5883. Stay tuned for more information!

Inn and Around Portland....it's February!

With January behind us, we are looking forward to a new month here in Portland. Now we start to notice the light lasting just a wee bit longer in the afternoons and the sun having a little more warmth. Here at the Pomegranate, we will have a long time before our high banks of snow completely disappear, but maybe the bulk of dramatic winter weather will be behind us now.

And always, the best part of new month, is First Friday Artwalk. Enter here for this month's participating venues. There is more good news...we are expecting highs in the 30's Friday and clear skies. Sounds like happy walking weather to me!

The Syliva Kania Gallery at 148 High Street is home to a cooperative of 18 artists in a setting that provides 360 degrees of dynamic artwork. They will be having live music and tell us that they are not just "another" gallery. Definitely worth a visit.

The Cygnet Gallery at 568 Congress Street will be sharing with us what their artists feel most passionate about. This energy filled contemporary gallery is host to a rotating selection of original paintings, sculpture and fine art furniture.

Acoustic Artisans at 1 Forest Avenue is a must see for the music lover and in particular, the stringed music lover. Here you can visit a collaborative string instrument workshop and actually see the work in progress. They make violins, violas and cellos, and also guitars and mandolins.
They will be featuring live music and light refreshments.

The Pomegranate has two rooms available for this Friday night, if you would like to come into town to soak up some art , have a great dinner while you are here and make a night of it! Please give the Pomegranate Inn a call at 207-772-1006 or as always, you may book online.

Bye Bye Midwinter Blahs thanks to a Roomful of Blues

Thanks to the talent and high energy of the members of Roomful of Blues for a fantastic Concert at the Morse High School in Bath on behalf of the Chocolate Church.

Once again, Chris Vachon was spot on fabulous with his mesmerizing mastery of the guitar, having a blast all along the way. He has produced the band's last six albums and is a talented songwriter as well. He has a gracious nature in his presence on stage and shares the spotlight with each member of the band. Dave Howard on vocals draws in the audience with his gritty, soulful voice. Ephraim on drums always seems to be the kid playing along with the band, just having a good time. He's talented and strong, but always gives the appearance that he is just jamming with the guys. I'm continually more impressed with Travis on keyboard every time I hear him. Doug Wolverton on trumpet is cool and hot...jazzy and blue. Mark on bari and tenor sax always knocks my socks off, he is so breezy and easy in style, but he is a true master of his instrument. Rich Lattaille who has been with the band from the very beginning is always a bit of surprise because he looks so cool....the straight arrow of the band from demeanor, but when he plays you see right down to his soul with his warm sultry tones, just full of heart. And how much fun is Bryan Rizzuto on the upright bass to watch. He is the perfect addition to the band with his playful energy and incredible execution of style.

Roomful has gone through a number of personnel changes through the years, and I have enjoyed them at every stage. Right now their mix of talent and personalities is taking them to a new level of artistic excellence which translates to fun, fun, fun for their audiences.

They will not be back in the area again for sometime, but when they do, if you appreciate blues and jazz, you owe it yourself to become a follower of the Roomful of Blues. Stay tuned here for information regarding their next appearance in the area.

What's Happening this Week Inn and Around Portland

I'm already excited about what's happening this week. I anxiously await the return of Roomful of Blues every time they have a visit to Maine on their exhausting touring schedule. This Saturday they will be performing live at the Montgomery Theatre at 826 High Street, Bath at 7:30 pm. Tickets can be purchased through The Chocolate Church. If you haven't had the opportunity to enjoy these guys live, you are missing out on a great time.

Portland State Company is offering previews of "Peer Gynt" by Henrik Isben starting on Tuesday evening, with the opening slated for Friday night. Tickets run $13-$36. Mad Horse Theatre Company has ended it's brief break and is now performing in the studio theatre at the Portland Stage presenting "The Clean House" through February 8th. The Good Theatre 76 Congress Street, Portland is helping us shake away with winter blues with "A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum" through February 15.

We are just a little more than a week away from February's First Friday Art Walk which will be no less magical just because we are in a deep freeze! We have two vacancies left for February 6th at the Pomegranate. This would make a great getaway just before Valentine's Day, and I don't expect these last rooms to be available for long.