On a nondescript part of Cumberland Avenue, a block away from Maine Historical Society, you’ll find what some people argue is the best pizza in the entire world. Not just in Portland or the northeast.

Pizzaiolo means a pizza maker in Italian. “It means ‘pizza guy’” explains owner Patrick Scally, aka Pat. (A female pizza maker is called a pizzaiola.) Pat is quick to point out that the pizza his team creates has its roots in the Big Apple.

“This isn’t New York-style pizza,” he says when we sit down to talk. “This is New York pizza.”

It’s certainly a busy spot. Kids from nearby Portland High School are sitting at two of the three tables. Two men holding hard hats stand in line for slices, while a DoorDash delivery person walks out holding a tower of about ten pizza cartons.

“We sell more types of pizza than anywhere else,” Pat explains. “We have anywhere from 15-24 different kinds each day. We also use fresh ingredients—fresh beef, fresh mushrooms. Our meatballs are the best in the city.”

He points to a wall where a series of reviews are framed in glass. These are the accounts of various journalists and food writers who have stumbled in and discovered pizza perfection.

Pat is an intriguing character. He was born in Area 51, New Mexico, to a father who worked in the military. He was then raised between Downeast and Portland. Fresh out of school, he got a job at Papa Ginos. His can-do attitude got him promoted to general manager within 18 months. It was in San Diego that he got his big break, landing a job at the award-winning and world-renowned Bronx Pizza.

“I probably threw over a million pizza doughs into the air while I was there,” he muses.

When he came back home, he set up his own store and began teaching a new generation of Portlanders how to make sublime pizza.

“It’s all about the love in the dough,” he says, smiling. I look behind the counter to watch store manager Mitch Harmon toss fresh dough into the air. “It’s what my mom always used to say. If someone isn’t feeling right, you’ll know it in the dough.”

Pizzaiolo, 360 Cumberland Avenue, Portland, ME, https://pizzaioloportland.com/ 

Photo courtesy Sharyn Peavey Photography

Step into The Spice & Tea Exchange® of Freeport on the hill below Main Street and you’ll first be met by the smell. Aromas drift from hundreds of glass jars filled with over 100 types of blended spices, 80+ full leaf teas, and countless salts, sugars, and honeys.

If you’re lucky, you’ll also meet Joel Elliot, the new owner of this Freeport franchise. You’ll know him by his sheer friendliness; he’ll get you talking, and before you know it, he’ll be whipping out a jar and recommending a particular type of tea for you to taste.

Joel is new to Freeport. He relocated from Rochester, New York to Maine with his wife in late 2025. They moved to be close to his son, daughter-in-law, and young grandson. Not long after arriving, Joel discovered an opportunity to take over The Spice & Tea Exchange of Freeport from its previous owners.

“I like to say I bought myself a job,” he says with a laugh.

The Spice & Tea Exchange has its roots in St. Augustine, Florida, where its founders transformed a small spice shop into a national franchise. Today, there are nearly 100 locations across the country, each independently owned and operated.

“They’ve built a magnificent system,” he says. “My job is to bring it to life here—to execute it well and further build a great team.”

Joel is building connections across the Freeport business community and wider food industry in Maine. He’s also booking bands for his new monthly concert series in the shop. He’s quick to credit CORE for supporting the swift transition of the store. “They’ve been great landlords—responsive, thoughtful, easy to work with,” he says. “When you’re starting something new, that kind of partnership really matters.”

He also points out that the product itself is impressive: “We’re not pulling products off a factory line. We’re zesting citrus, dehydrating ingredients, and blending spices by hand. It’s as close as we can get to what nature produces.”

CORE acquired 6 Mill Street several years ago; the building was vacant at the time. Since then, in addition to the Spice and Tea Exchange, the acclaimed Maine brand Sea Love has opened a gorgeous space on the upper floor. CORE has played a major role in bringing businesses back into Freeport’s downtown in the years since the Covid pandemic, and the town is currently seeing significant development interest as a result.

From his side, Joel has decades of leadership experience to draw on in his new venture; he spent 20 years in the travel industry and has worked for various nonprofit organizations in healthcare, food systems, and workforce development.

But in many ways, this new chapter is a return to something far more personal.

Back in the early 1980s, Joel launched a small coffee and tea concept in his friend’s bookstore in San Francisco. It was called Tradewind Coffee and Tea.

“It was just a little nook,” he says smiling. “But it planted the seed.”

More than 40 years later, that seed has sprouted, crossed the country, and taken root in Freeport, Maine.

The Spice & Tea Exchange of Freeport celebrates its grand re-opening on May 1-3. You can find it at 6 Mill Street, Freeport

Marc Feldman is known to some people as the "unofficial goodwill ambassador of Biddeford." For over a decade, this enigmatic business leader has been running Biddeford Coworking, one of the most successful coworking spaces in southern Maine. He’s friends with pretty much everyone in the city.

You’ll find Biddeford Coworking in Pepperrell Mill, just inside the main entrance at 40 Main Street. It’s a bright space with high ceilings and funky colors. There are all the things you’d expect in an office—desks, plants, and quiet corners for focused work—but there’s also conversation, laughter and the sense that people truly know one another.

This sense of community starts with Marc, who has spent more than a decade building a space where people want to come and work.

“I engage everybody,” Marc says. “I welcome everybody. The goal is to make people feel like they’re part of the community.”

Marc’s path to coworking wasn’t a straight one. Originally from Florida, he moved to Maine in 1984 and opened an Italian restaurant in Kennebunkport. After several years, he transitioned into the wholesale grocery trade, a business he still operates today—from his desk inside the coworking space.

“I’ve been a remote worker since 1991,” explains Marc. “I worked out of my house for decades.” But when his children left for college in the early 2010s, Marc realized that it was time to make a change. “You start becoming a basement troll,” he says with a laugh. “You don’t go anywhere, you don’t see people! I realized I needed to get out of the house.”

At the same time, the Pepperell Mill campus in Biddeford was beginning to come alive with new businesses and creative energy. Inspired by the growing coworking movement, Marc partnered with a Portland coworking founder to open the original space in 2015. In 2024, he purchased the business outright and rebranded it as Biddeford Coworking.

Today, the space is home to a wide range of professionals—from software developers and data scientists to real estate professionals, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and coaches. Many members are remote employees working for companies across the country.

“We have people who’ve been members here for nine years,” Marc says. “That says a lot about the relationships people build here.”

It’s also a time of new growth in the Pepperell Mill. With new owners CORE-Finard investing in the commercial spaces and a renewed focus on community, Marc is optimistic about the future.

“They are really trying to build the mill back into a vibrant center for the town,” he says. “An active community where businesses support each other.”

As Biddeford continues to grow and evolve, Marc plans to keep doing what he’s always done: creating a welcoming place where people can come to work and thrive in community.

“I didn’t want this to be a place where people just sit in an office,” he says. “People need other people. That’s what makes it work.”

Biddeford Coworking, 40 Main St., Suite 13-140, Biddeford, ME