SOUP TO NUTS: Meredith Goad

A new hang for lounge lovers

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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	Staff photo by Derek Davis Cori Kahn makes her jukebox selections while waiting for a table at the White Heart.
	Staff photo by Derek Davis Candy Carlson, right, serves a drink to a customer at the newly opened White Heart cocktail lounge on Congress Street.
	Staff photo by Derek Davis Mary Hodge, right, shares a toast with Jay Davis and Beth Michaud of Portland. Hodge and her husband, Tony, opened the lounge recently with the hope that it would become "the kind of place where everybody felt comfortable," she said.

I was meeting some friends for dinner at five-fifty five a couple of weeks ago, and we noticed a crowd of people having some cocktails in an art-deco style lounge at the corner of Oak and Congress streets.

A guy standing outside smoking was overheard to say: "I kind of like that fact that it doesn't have a name."

Well, it does. There just wasn't a sign out for the soft opening that night of the White Heart, a new bar and cocktail lounge at 551 Congress that has since had a big official opening and lots of buzz in the blogosphere.

I walked down later to meet with one of the owners and get the backstory on this place that caters to both the sparkling wine and Pabst Blue Ribbon crowd.

Mary Hodge and her husband, Tony, have an apartment building here in Portland but also live in Meredith, N.H. The couple opened The White Heart in honor of an old family friend named Dennis Fletcher, who recently passed away. Fletcher used to tell them stories about his mother's bar in Southhampton, England, and how much fun it was. That English bar was named the White Hart, as in the stag.

Inside Portland's White Heart, there is seating for 64 - black leather banquettes, a bar as long as winter with lots of red leather barstools, and a seating area filled with sea-green love seats, arm chairs, and a zebra-patterned ottoman. Italian lights change color on the ceiling.

The restored, 1930s-era ornamental plaster ceiling and the huge art deco mirror behind the bar add a touch of elegance. The cocktail menu echoes this theme, with offerings such as a classic champagne cocktail, circa 1935: A sugar cube topped with Henry Varney sparkling wine and a few drops of Angostura bitters.

Or how about a "Corpse Reviver No. 2," circa 1934? That's Bombay Sapphire gin, orange liquer, French vermouth and two drops of Pernod.

Flip the menu over for a list of beers and wines. If champagne cocktails aren't your style, you can always order a Miller High Life.

This mixing of tastes and styles is exactly what the family wanted, said Lauren Wayne, a Hodge family friend who is doing the marketing for the place.

"It was something that was kind of needed" in Portland, she said. "I don't think there was any kind of venue or restaurant or bar that really incorporated everybody. We don't want to say that people are segregated here, but Una has this definite crowd, and people from the Skinny aren't going to Una and vice versa. We wanted the kind of place where everybody felt comfortable."

There's live entertainment once or twice a week, and a jukebox - three plays for $1, or 18 for $5 - for the rest of the time. Dancing is encouraged, and there's no cover charge.

The menu, which has an island theme and contains about a dozen items, was designed by a consultant. The chef, Greg Conley, is self-trained and working here while he studies to be an architect.

"We spent a long time the our cocktail menu, trying to match up food items that would complement each other, and I think we found a really nice mix of seasonings and sauces," Mary Hodge said.

The $8 White Heart Burgers are three mini teriyaki burgers with lettuce, grilled pineapple, caramelized red onion, and chipotle catsup. The burgers come with sweet potato wedges. There's grilled garlic chili shrimp for $8, Bangs Island mussels in a coconut curry sauce for $9, and a crab and avocado spread served warm with a baguette for $7.

I decided to look up the history of the building the White Heart is located in, after Hodge told me it used to the a turn-of-the-century theater called the Dreamland. Hodge said she's heard that John Ford, the famous movie director, was once an usher here.

I couldn't find anything about that in our newspaper archives. But that building has indeed had an interesting life.

It turns out the Dreamland Theater was only open for two years, from 1907 to 1909, but it claimed many "firsts." It was the first movie theater in Maine to show only motion pictures (admission 10 cents). It had the first cement sidewalk on Congress Street. And it spelled out "Dreamland" in Portland's first electrically-lighted sign.

After that, it went through many incarnations, including a jewelry store and Bentley's restaurant. Most recently, it was the Magic Muffin and the Clay City Monroe Salt Works.

The White Heart is a family operation. The Hodges' daughter, Alyson, manages the place and her husband, John Althoff, books the entertainment. The Hodges' son, Akasha, is the business' Web designer. Another daughter, Catherine, bartends when she's in town.

The lounge is open seven days a week from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. In summer, it will open an hour earlier and have some outdoor seating.

Look for the sign over the door - a simple white neon sign shaped like a heart.

CINQUE TERRE BRANCHING OUT

The owners of Cinque Terre on Wharf Street are planning to open a sister restaurant next door called "Vignola Food and Wine."

The new place, at 10 Dana St., will open in early summer and be in the tradition of the wine bar and osteria culture in Italian villages - places where the locals go to relax, enjoy a glass of wine and sample some antipasti.

Vignola will feature Italian wines, panini, Italian cheeses and cured meats, and wood-fired pizza. The plan is to serve lunch and dinner seven days a week.

LADLE OPENS; WALTER'S REOPENS

A couple of small notes: