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Bon Appetit salutes Portland as top food city in the U.S.

BY MAINEBIZ STAFF

Bon Appetit magazine, which recently praised Portland’s Rose Foods and Drifters Wife, now names it “City of the Year.”

The September issue, which will hit the newsstands Aug. 14, says Portland is by far its smallest honoree, following a three-year stretch where Bon Appetit honored Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

“Full disclosure: I’ve got a thing for Maine. I went to college there, I got married there, I regularly vacation there. And I’ve always believed that Portland has one of the more vibrant, compelling food scenes, thanks in no small part to all that pristine seafood and craft beer,” Andrew Knowlton wrote in the September issue.

Knowlton says while the city is known for “Instagram-worthy” lobster rolls and local oysters, Portland gets attention for the “sheer number of outstanding openings.” Without naming them he says the city earns praise for a place selling “killer pho” and “the guy selling hand rolls out of a Yeti cooler.”

He goes ahead to name more than two dozen places: Tandem Coffee, Morphos, the Shop at Island Creek Oysters, Izakaya Minato, the Francis Hotel, Ruski’s Tavern, Rose Foods (which is also on the magazine’s Top 50 list), Cong Tu Bot, Chaval, Little Giant, Portland Hunt + Alpine Club, Drifters Wife (also recently named to the Top 50), Mr. Tuna, Public Market House, Maiz, Fore Street, Hugo’s, Back Bay Grill, Ten Ten Pie, Rabelais, Little Spruce Baking Co., Elda, Palace Diner, Belleville, Portland Trading Co., Maps, Baharat’s and DiMillo’s on the Waterfront.

Knowlton also cites breweries Allagash, Foundation, Oxbow, Austin Street and Bissell Bros.

Bon Appetit is a Conde Nast publication.