Sebago Brewing owners receive Maine honors
The partners of Sebago Brewing Co. – Brad Monarch, Kai Adams and Tim Haines – have been awarded the Maine Restaurant Association’s 2015 Restaurateur of the Year Award.
The trio started their restaurant enterprise in 1998 in the early days of Maine’s then still-burgeoning craft brew revolution. Their first venture was a brewpub near the Maine Mall in South Portland, which has since relocated to nearby Scarborough. Over the years, they’ve grown their business to include three additional brewpubs, in downtown Portland, Gorham and Kennebunk, and a brewery in Gorham. Longtime members of the Maine Restaurant Association, Adams, Haines and Monarch are well-established figures in Maine’s restaurant community.
The recipient of the association’s new Rising Star Award, which acknowledges newcomers to the industry and the association for their early achievements, is Chris Tyll, owner of Pat’s Pizza – Old Port in Portland and Easy Day Family Food & Fun in South Portland. A combat veteran and Navy SEAL, Tyll has spent the past five years translating his military skills into foodservice entrepreneurship and has met with early success. After just four years into his initial venture as a Pat’s Pizza franchisee, he opened the family recreation-style restaurant concept in South Portland.
The 2015 Allied Member of the Year is Micucci Wholesale Foods of Portland. The 2015 Chef of the Year, Christopher Bassett, is the executive chef at Azure Cafe? in Freeport. The 2015 recipients of the industry’s highest honor, the “Bill Zoidis” Lifetime Achievement Award, are Scott and Claudia Cunningham of Warren’s Lobster House in Kittery.
A banquet will be held to honor the award recipients on March 31, at the Holiday Inn By the Bay, Portland.
Winter West ends with pub crawl, 5K
As the prolonged, snow-covered winter begins to subside, Westbrook will celebrate with the final installment of its Winter West festival, highlighted by a pub crawl and 5K roadrace this weekend.
Organized by Westbrook Community Services and the Downtown Westbrook Coalition, the two events will close out the festival, which had been orchestrated through a weekend of events in each of the last three months.
On Friday, March 13, from 5-10 p.m., a pub crawl organized by the coalition will offer happy-hour food and drink specials for participants. Participating restaurants include Profenno’s, Portland Pie, The Frog & Turtle, Dancing Elephant, Mister Bagel, Casa Novello, The Stockhouse, and Thatcher’s. All the participating restaurants will offer official pub crawl “passports” and buttons. For each place visited, passports will be signed. Anyone who completes a majority of the passport will be entered to win one of five prizes.
The Winter West “Happy Go Lucky” 5K, starts at 8 a.m. on Sunday in Riverbank Park.
It will take a 3.1-mile path, beginning and ending in the park. Runners will head west on Main Street to Bridge Street, run past the Dana Warp Mill and wind all the way down Bridge, turning right at the intersection of Cumberland Street. The final push will bring runners down through Cumberland Mills, the roundabout and back on Main Street, completing the loop.
Registration is $15, and a portion of the proceeds benefit the Westbrook Firefighters Association. A registration event and packet pickup for those already entered, is taking place from 6-8 p.m. Friday at Stockhouse. Participants can also still sign up the day of the race in the park, between 7-7:45 a.m. The first 100 registrants will receive a free “Happy Go Lucky 5K” dry-fit T-shirt.
Concert to aid human trafficking victims
Country music star Steve Azar will perform a special benefit concert at the Westbrook Performing Arts center to help combat human trafficking. The concert on Wednesday, March 18, will also feature local bands Motor Booty Affair, North of Nashville and a silent auction. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the benefit will start at 6:30. Tickets are $20, and are available at the door and on online at www.enditmaine.com.
The singer recently released a track called “The Sky Is Falling,” and an accompanying video was produced by Waynflete student Mike Rodway and Steve Webster, a South Portland police officer and Westbrook resident. Azar is known for his hits, “I Don’t Have to Be Me (‘Til Monday) and “Waitin’ on Joe,” from his 2002 hit record of the same name.
The event will raise money for the Saint Andre Home, a facility in Biddeford whose mission is to serve young women and children in need, and to serve those who have been rescued from human trafficking.
– Andrew Rice
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