Travel Site Calls Portland, Maine, One of the Best Foodie Cities in America

More praise is being poured onto Maine's largest city for its incredible food scene. In other news, water is wet.

The folks over at the popular travel site Capture the Atlas have ranked Portland as one of the country's best foodie cities. That is quite the honor for the small, venerable city. In fact, it was the only city included that has a population under 100,000. Talk about being able to hang with the big boys.

It should be no surprise to see Portland on this list. The city has turned into quite the culinary oasis. Over the last two decades, we have seen tremendous growth in the industry, from fine dining to craft breweries and everything in between.

The rise of the food and beverage industry has also completely evolved entire neighborhoods. Just look at what has happened in the Bayside neighborhood. It has completely transformed into a foodie go-to, loaded with restaurants, breweries, cafes, and bars. It's completely unrecognizable from what it was just a generation ago.

Other neighborhoods, like the West End and Eastern Prom, have also benefitted from this culinary cultural revolution, giving locals and tourists more options than just heading down to the Old Port.

It's also been a huge benefit to see the growth in cuisine diversity. It feels like nearly every culinary hot spot on the globe is now represented and celebrated. Heck, in just the last few weeks, I have enjoyed cuisine from the Balkans, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, and Burundi. Talk about a cornucopia of world delights.

While growth is nice, it doesn't mean anything if the food and drink is subpar. Fortunately, Portland is not lacking in that department, and it has the receipts to back it up. The city is loaded with James Beard winners, and it only takes about 30 seconds online to find 1,000 articles about how incredible the scene is.

But don't just take my word for it. Here is a little from Capture the Atlas about why it chose Portland for its list.

Portland is a fantastic place to have seafood, oysters, and lobster rolls. The city also boasts an exciting food scene that has drawn in lots of talented, creative chefs. The farm-to-table movement is huge here, so be prepared to enjoy lots of fresh, local ingredients.

It certainly helps that Portland is situated between two major food sources, the Atlantic Ocean and a swath of Maine farms. As Capture the Atlas correctly points out, a ton of restaurants take advantage of these fresh, homegrown ingredients to make creative and tasty dishes for their patrons. Farm and sea-to-table truly makes a difference.

The word has long been out about Portland's incredible foodie scene, and that word has really started to spread. Heck, just look at the number of hotels that have opened in the Greater Portland area to accommodate all the foodies rolling in to town.

Congrats to Portland on the publicity. It is well-deserved. Plus, who doesn't love supporting a ton of great small Maine businesses?

Happy dining.