Co-owners Jim Brookins and E Brookins sit in their recently opened Black Bloc BBQ in downtown Winthrop. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Black Bloc BBQ opens in Winthrop

WINTHROP — An empty downtown storefront was filled last weekend with Black Bloc BBQ, a comfort food restaurant featuring pulled pork, smoked chicken salad and other Southern classics.

E Brookins and her husband, Jimmy, the owners of Black Bloc BBQ, moved from Texas — where they grew up and met each other 50 years ago — to Maine, right before the pandemic. When they started having Maine neighbors over for dinner, E Brookins said, they started getting private orders from friends who loved their Southern cooking. So when the high school sweetheart couple saw a “for lease” sign outside the former Winthrop Roast Beef location at 123 Main St., they jumped at the chance.

The restaurant will be open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday to Sunday, and E Brookins said she hopes to eventually expand hours and open during the week.

The menu is filled with classic Southern comfort food, and the meats are smoked with Jimmy Brookins’ choice of hard cherry wood.

“We just went to our roots of what we grew up eating,” E Brookins said. “There’s different barbecue around the country, but Texas barbecue is that slow, oaky, mesquite, smoked.”

—Ethan Horton, Kennebec Journal 

Pho Appetite opens in Oakland 

Pho Appetite, a restaurant and bubble tea shop, opened in October in Oakland and is consistently busy with takeout orders, owner Lam Pat said. Pat is from Vietnam and wanted to bring the cuisine of his native country to his new home. 

“Well, we needed Vietnamese cuisine in the Waterville area,” Pat said. “Pho is my favorite Vietnamese dish, and I want everyone to try it.” 

Pho is a soup made with broth and rice noodles with various additions. Pat recommends the Pho Special or Pho Chicken for those who have never tried the popular soup dish. Also popular at the restaurant is bubble tea, a sweet Vietnamese tea with “bubbles” that are tapioca pearls, that is freshly brewed in house. 

Pho Appetite is located at 886A Kennedy Memorial Drive in Oakland and open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.  

—Emily Duggan, Kennebec Journal

Editor’s note: Central Maine Eats will appear Wednesdays in the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel.  

Got a restaurant or eatery tip? Email us at news@centralmaine.com.