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.

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)!

Aspiring Innkeeper Seminars: GET INNSPIRED

Do you think you would like to run an Inn? Is the concept of owning a business that can also serve as your residence sound attractive in today's economic climate? Innkeeping is a very attractive business and lifestyle to many people who want to be in charge of their own destiny.

To be successful you need to have the tools to apply today's methods and to realize that this is truly a lifestyle, a job, a home and an investment.

This two day seminar will explore these topics and more. You will see if innkeeping is the right fit for you.

Join us and decide if innkeeping is in YOUR future. Our next seminar will be hosted by the eclectic Pomegranate Inn on Portland's beautiful West End. Dates are May 3-5th, 2009. Rates are $525/couple and $275/single. This reasonable rate includes everything! Sunday and Monday nights at the Inn, Monday and Tuesday breakfasts, Monday lunch, Sunday and Monday dinners and all the seminar materials.

For more information email: getinspired@swanagency.com

There will be a fall session hosted by the Brunswick Inn on Park Row, September 14-16.

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.

Welcome From the Pomegranate Inn

Greetings from the kitchen of the warm and cozy Pomegranate Inn. We have tossed the idea of a blog around for a very long time. Unfortunately it kept getting shuffled to the background by other things...like starting a new events and catering management group! After just having a conversation with a guest this morning about Portland and all the really wonderful things there are to do here....even now....deep in the icy winter months....I decided there was no better time than the present to kick off a blog to accompany our web site. Here you will find not only what is happening here at the Pomegranate, but what is happening all around the Portland area. This will be a great place to subscribe to, or to visit as you are planning your trip to the area. Feel free to email me with things you would like to see highlighted here as well. As many of you already know, we have begun an events and catering management company called Pomegranate Parties. This is business we put together to share the beautiful surroundings here at the Pomegranate and also at the West End Inn and the Brunswick Inn on Park Row with people that are looking for a very special place to throw a spectacular, yet intimate event. Pomegranate Parties has its very own blog as well, and a great place to check out what is happening in the events and entertaining world. I am excited about a new avenue for talking up this great town of Portland which I adopted as my home town just a few short months ago. I felt right at home from the first week here, and am really enjoying getting to it better each day. I hope you will enjoy the ride right along with me!