PORTLAND, Maine — We may never know just how many dim-lit, cozy drinking establishments, highlighted by sweaty glass-bedazzled social media accounts, this city can support.
But we may be getting closer to finding out.
Two new upscale pubs added their names to Portland’s filled-to-the-brim list in the past two weeks.
One occupies a familiar Middle Street address that was home to two other longtime food and beverage establishments. The other sits on a busy thoroughfare off the peninsula in a former convenience store and sports a near-mythical city watering hole feature: a parking lot.
Henry’s Public House opened on the last day of July at 375 Fore St. The address previously housed Bull Feeney’s for more than two decades and the Seamen’s Club before that.
Whereas Feeney’s was named after legendary Hollywood western director and Portland native John Ford, Henry’s borrows its moniker from the city’s most famous poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Both men are memorialized, in bronze statue form, within walking distance of the pub, but neither historic figure was ever known to run a bar.
The new establishment’s website described itself as, “A place where H.W.L himself may have sidled up to the bar with some literary peers to celebrate the publishing of a new poem, some momentous life milestone or just an easy excuse to gather with friends over good, simple food and sturdy spirits.”
Like Ford, Longfellow didn’t live in Portland after finishing school, thus it’s unknown where, if anywhere, he liked to quaff a pint in town. Longfellow only wrote one poem about drinking, in particular. It’s rather dense and incomprehensible to anyone without deep knowledge of Greek or Roman mythology. In it, he urges the reader to fill a wine pitcher with water instead.
Henry’s food menu includes coconut shrimp appetizers, a selection of sandwiches and surf-and-turf mains.
According to the Portland Food Map, the pub’s beverage program has a strong focus on cocktails. The 16 house cocktails are divided into categories titled “Dead Poets Society,” “From the Cannon” and “Writer’s Block,” among others.
The Miranda Group owns Henry’s, along with Blyth & Burrows and Papi on Exchange Street, and Via Vecchia on Dana Street.
The Continental, located at the corner of St. John Street and Brighton Avenue, opened on Thursday. The building used to house a 2,200-square-foot 7-11 store and then an Asian grocery. It has parking for several cars out front.
Calling itself a “laid back neighborhood pub serving European fare,” the Continental is the brainchild of Michael Barbuto and Kevin Doyle, who also co-owner CBG and Nosh Kitchen Bar on Congress Street.
“The concept is inspired by English and Irish pubs,” states the Portland Food Map. “The dining room features dark wood along the bar and booths, blue and gold wall paper throughout and a polished and painted concrete floor.”
The draft beer list features Euro-standards including Guinness stout, Carlsberg lager and Reissdorf kolsch at $8 per pint. The food menu has matching dishes such as fish and chips, shepherd’s pie and bangers and mash.
On a historic side note, it’s not the first city establishment to bear the Continental moniker. According to Portland Public Library historic records, the Graymore Hotel at 21 Preble St. had a bar called the same thing prior to 1966.
The Continental was later known as the Penguin Lounge in the early 1970s. It was renamed The Downtown Lounge in December 1979. The building was demolished in 1985, after a 1981 fire, but the Downtown Lounge is still operating, at a different address on Congress Street.
