Flash Allen will play the baby grand piano one last time Friday at Grand Central Wine Bar in Gorham. Then the business will close for good, a victim of the pandemic. It’s “the saddest thing ever,” said owner Karen Nason, who strove to bring “a real New York experience” to Mainers.

The wine bar, which also served food, opened in November 2019 – making it too young to qualify for any sizable grants offered during the pandemic to struggling bars and restaurants; much of the government aid required a restaurant to submit the previous year’s tax return to qualify. (Nason said she did receive some financial aid, but nothing big enough to save the business.)

Nason was hanging her hopes on the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which she applied for as soon as applications opened. But she never heard anything, and on Friday the U.S. Small Business Administration announced it was closing the $28.6 billion program after doling out all of the funds to 101,000 restaurants and bars. The agency said it had received more than 278,000 eligible applications representing more than $72.2 billion in requested funds.

Nason said her wine bar had many loyal customers who traveled from places like Portland, Falmouth and Kennebunkport, but her clientele was mostly an older crowd who liked jazz.

“I think that crowd was more in tune to staying home (during the pandemic) until they really felt comfortable enough to come out,” she said. “That’s unfortunate for me, but that’s the truth.”

Nason has also put her takeout-and-delivery-only business, Ghost Karen’s Kitchens in Gorham, on pause until September as she waits to see what happens to the local food scene once the busy tourism season is over.

“Definitely I’ll be doing something” with it, she said. “I just don’t know how to reinvent this wheel again until I see how this is all gonna come out this summer. This is quite frightening, actually.”

Nason said she lost six of her eight ghost kitchen cooks to better-paying summer restaurant jobs. The remaining two have since found new positions, she said, at restaurants that are paying $20 to $25 an hour, which she couldn’t match. “I don’t blame them,” she said. “They need to feed their family, too.” (Short-staffed restaurant owners tell me that cooks and dishwashers are the hardest positions to fill right now.)

She does have one bit of good news. Nason partnered with Sebago Lake Distillery to create a canned sangria infused with rum. It’s called Sin-Gria, and she said it’s now in about 30 Hannaford stores, “so that’s exciting.”

Meanwhile, if you’d like to raise a final glass to Grand Central Wine Bar, it will open at 4 p.m. Friday and close – for good – at 11 p.m.

“I think we’ll have a packed house of people coming to say goodbye. And if somebody wants to walk in with a big fat check and save us, great,” Nason said, laughing.

We’ll believe it when we see it

It appears Gordon Ramsay enjoyed his time in Maine so much last fall that he may consider opening a restaurant here in Portland.

The renowned British chef, who visited our state to film an episode of his National Geographic show “Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted,” told The Boston Globe last week that he was impressed with Portland’s restaurant scene and hinted that “it’s the perfect place to bring more concepts to.”

Ramsay told the Globe that he is expanding his restaurant footprint in the United States, which includes opening his first Ramsay’s Kitchen in Back Bay’s Mandarin Oriental hotel on Boylston Street, a space that was occupied by Bar Boulud, a branch of a famous restaurant that originated in New York City, until it closed last year because of the pandemic.

Gluten-free fans rejoice

Tina Cromwell, owner of Bam Bam Bakery, has confirmed she finally has a new location for her gluten-free business. She got her permit from the city of Portland on Friday for 1054 Brighton Ave., she said, but the bakery is “not even close to being open.”

The bakery’s original home on Commercial Street closed last year after Cromwell decided she needed to find a place with better rent and a better kitchen. The new location is in the small shopping center next to Lowe’s and is the former home of Cakes Extraordinaire, which has moved to Yarmouth.

Cafe Louis opens in South Portland

Cafe Louis, a new restaurant from chef Evan Richardson, opened last Thursday at 173 Ocean St. in South Portland.

The cafe serves brunch from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. It’s closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Richardson said he’s not taking reservations, and is working on offering takeout.

The cafe will serve dishes based on Richardson’s Costa Rican and Honduran heritage. This week’s menu has included bison carne asada with papas fritas, Costa Rican chimichurri and ramp salt; medianoche – a type of Cuban sandwich made with mojo pork, ham, pickles and Swiss cheese served on housemade pressed pan suave (Cuban sweet bread); and chorreadas (Costa Rican pancakes) with Nutella and maduro brittle (made from sweet fried plantains).

Richardson told me that he still plans to reopen Eaux, his New Orleans-style restaurant in Portland that closed in November. He said he had found a new location, but it fell through just two days ago.

Mast Landing to open July 12

Mast Landing Brewing Co. will open its new 11,000-square-foot brewery and tasting room at Freeport Crossing on Monday. Last week, the brewery announced that its culinary partner will be Nighthawk’s Kitchen, owned by chef Christian “Nighthawk” Noe, who has catered meals for the likes of Bobby Flay, Seth Rogen, Kristen Bell, Mindy Kaling and Spike Lee.

Nighthawk’s Kitchen will launch as a food truck and plans to expand later into a full-service restaurant with both indoor and outdoor dining. The restaurant will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, and there will be a catering menu for private events held on the second floor.

The opening menu will feature burgers, such as a BBQ burger with smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, barbecue sauce and crispy onions; sandwiches, such as a meatball melt with beef-and-pork meatballs, Sunday sauce and mozzarella on grilled garlic bread; and salads and sides. When the restaurant opens, menu items will include a Nashville Hot Turkey Schnitzel Egg and Cheese served on a breakfast roll; a Miso-Soy Salmon Rice Bowl served with beer-braised collard greens; and Popcorn Lobster – fried lobster served with a Calabrian chili sauce.

Chef Noe moved to Yarmouth from New York City in 2020.

Oh say can you see … Casco Bay?

In case you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t yet heard the news, the Canopy by Hilton Portland Waterfront hotel (the name is a mouthful, but it reassures tourists browsing the internet that they’ll be able to see Casco Bay from their rooms) has opened at the corner of Commercial and Center streets, along with its rooftop bar Luna and a restaurant called Salt Yard.

Luna has a raw bar and snack menu featuring dishes such as lobster rolls, clam dip and ricotta lavender fritters. The Salt Yard is located at street level and serves dishes such as New England fish chowder and masala baked beans, and small plates such as honey-ginger cauliflower and roasted mushroom salad.

Delayed reopening

In the bad news/good news department: Christian Hayes, owner of The Garrison in Yarmouth, has pushed back the reopening of his restaurant from July 1 to July 15. The good news is that online reservations are now open. Go to thegarrisonmaine.com.

The restaurant has been closed since March 2020.

Summer is selling out fast

The Wolfe’s Neck Center in Freeport has announced its summer lineup of farm-to-table events, including a roster of tastings called Sip & Savor.

New England Distilling will host a cocktail class from 5:30 to 7 p.m. July 15 and Aug. 12. The classes cost $50. A tomato tasting will be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Sept. 12 and costs $25. Go to wolfesneck.org for tickets. The other two events – an oyster shucking and tasting in August, and Fall Cocktails with Luna and Salt Yard in October – are sold out, but you can add your name to a wait list by emailing mmastors@wolfesneck.org.

A wait list is also available for the sold-out farm-to-table dinners in July (Chaval) and September (Gather).

Bixby wins big

Bixby & Co., a Rockland-based maker of artisanal chocolates, has won the sixth season of Greenlight Maine and the $25,000 first prize.

The company was founded in 2011 by Kate McAleer, the creator of Bixby Bars made from organic chocolate, nuts, dried fruits and spices. Other food-and-drink companies that competed this season included American Unagi, Blue Ox Malthouse, Box of Maine, Eighteen Twenty, and Zen Bear Honey Tea, but Bixby & Co. was the only one to land in the top three.

Wine winners

Ten Maine restaurants have won 2021 Restaurant Awards from Wine Spectator.

This year, nearly 3,000 restaurants in all 50 states and 72 other countries made the list of winners. The awards have three levels: the Award of Excellence, the Best of Award of Excellence, and the Grand Award. Award of Excellence winners typically offer 90 or more options on their wine lists that the magazine calls “thoughtfully chosen selections appropriate for the cuisine and representative of a range of regions and styles.” The Best of Award of Excellence winners offer more than 300 selections of “both vintage depth and regional breadth, with most wine territories represented.” Top honors go to the Grand Award winners with world-class wine lists that include 1,000 or more options. (Winners in this category this year included Brennan’s in New Orleans and Le Bernardin in New York City.)

Maine Winners of the Award of Excellence are Meanwhile in Belfast, Natalie’s in Camden, The Balance Rock Inn Veranda Bar in Bar Harbor, Modern Barn in Bethel, Coastal Prime in Boothbay Harbor, Back Bay Grill in Portland, Sea Glass at the Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth, and Hurricane in Kennebunkport. Winners of the Best of Award of Excellence are Primo in Rockland and Havana in Bar Harbor.

Wine Spectator’s 40th Anniversary Restaurant Awards issue will go on sale Tuesday and feature tributes to past winners that have since closed.

Local food writer nominated for award

Maine food writer Kathy Gunst has been nominated for an IACP award in the Radio Show category for her regular cooking segments on NPR’s Here and Now.

The prestigious awards are given out annually by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Winners will be announced at the group’s annual conference, which will be held this year on Oct. 23 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Other nominees in Gunst’s category are Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio and The Splendid Table, hosted by Francis Lam on American Public Media.

Ghosts of restaurants – and teahouses – past

Summer tourists love to visit the restaurants and other food-related businesses in Ogunquit’s Perkins Cove. Now the Ogunquit Heritage Museum is offering an opportunity to learn more about the history of the area, including the restaurants and its historic teahouses.

This week ,the museum launched a Perkins Cove Walking Tour that will be held from 10 to 11 a.m. every Monday and Wednesday through the summer. The tours will cover the histories of two well-known teahouses, The Dan Sing Fan and the Whistling Oyster (not to be confused with the gift shop of the same name). And you’ll learn that Barnacle Billy’s – which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year – was a fish shack before 1908, when the building was purchased by American artist Hamilton Easter Field. Field used the space as a garage and as a place to hold Thursday night talks.

Reservations are required. Email the museum at info@ogunquitheritagemuseum.com, or call (207) 646-0296.

Cookbook signings

Kate Shaffer, owner of Ragged Coast Chocolates in Westbrook and author of The Maine Farm Table Cookbook, will do a book signing from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at Two Fat Cats’ Lancaster Street location. The book includes Two Fat Cat’s lemon zucchini blueberry whoopie pies.

Shaffer and Derek Bissonnette, who took the photos for the book, will also appear in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at 6 p.m. Aug. 12 as part of the Live Under the Arch outdoor series sponsored by The Music Hall at 28 Chestnut St. Bissonnette is a food photographer and former executive chef at the White Barn Inn in Kennebunk. Tickets for the event include a reserved table and signed books, an author discussion, and an audience Q&A. Ticket packages cost $60 for a small table with two books, $120 for a medium table with four books, and $180 for a large table with six books. Buy tickets online at TheMusicHall.org, or call (603) 436-2400.

Dessert for a cause

Bakes for Breast Cancer, a New England-based nonprofit that raises awareness and funds for breast cancer research, is expanding to Maine.

The first Maine event will take place Aug. 2-8. All week, restaurants, bakeries, chocolatiers – or any business that makes a dessert – can sell an item and donate 100 percent of the proceeds to Bake for Breast Cancer, or include their entire menu in the program and donate 50 percent of the proceeds. Businesses interested in participating can register at bakesforbreastcancer.org.

Bakes for Breast Cancer has raised more than $2 million for breast cancer research since it was founded in 1999. Maine is its fourth location, joining Massachusetts, the Cape & Islands, and Rhode Island.

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