Leslie Bridgers

Portland

Features Editor at The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram

Native Connecticutian, Bowdoinite, Woodfords Cornerer, editor of @MaineToday, features editor for @PressHerald

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Articles

What your Maine summer beverage says about you

2 weeks ago | pressherald.com | Leslie Bridgers

The Porthole Restaurant and Pub in Portland. Jill Brady/Staff Photographer Farmers markets are in full force. Decks and patios are open for business. Tourists are dropping Benjamins on lobster rolls without batting an eyelash. If this is when Maine’s food scene shines brightest, what is everyone washing it down with? Locally made beverages have been multiplying as the craft beer industry diversifies its offerings to include hard seltzers, canned cocktails, nonalcoholic options and THC-infused drinks.
Maine has a world-ranked mini golfer. Here are his favorite courses

3 weeks ago | sunjournal.com | Leslie Bridgers

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Maine has a world-ranked mini golfer. Here are his favorite courses

3 weeks ago | sports.yahoo.com | Leslie Bridgers

Jun. 2—Kyle Courcy was living in Massachusetts in 2022 when he and a friend decided they wanted to try to play every mini golf course in the state. Just three years later, Courcy placed among the top 16 of the 42 mini golfers who qualified for the World Adventure Golf Final in Portugal in May. AdvertisementNow, Courcy, who grew up in Norway and moved to back to Maine last year, is ranked 53rd in the world.
Chez Rosa to move to larger space in Kennebunk

1 month ago | pressherald.com | Leslie Bridgers

After five years, Chez Rosa, a French bistro in Kennebunkport, is moving across the bridge to a new space in Kennebunk. The new location will allow the restaurant to expand, open a patio and provide parking for both its customers and employees, said Yazmin Saraya, a pastry chef who owns the restaurant with her husband, Chef Kyle Robinson. The space, at 173 Port Road, is the former home of Old Vines Wine Bar, which closed after 10 years on May 3.
As Portland’s gotten cooler, are more Maine college grads staying? | Column

1 month ago | pressherald.com | Leslie Bridgers

From what Jack Selig saw of Maine on a family vacation to Bar Harbor as a teenager, it was both similar to his home state of Arkansas in ways he liked — the natural beauty and access to the outdoors — and different enough that going to college here would offer something new. As a student at Bowdoin, Maine only grew on him, and by his junior year, he was already thinking it would be fun to move to Portland after graduation.
You don’t have to like soccer to enjoy the Hearts of Pine | Column

1 month ago | pressherald.com | Leslie Bridgers

I’ll admit, since retiring my shin guards in sixth grade, I’ve been in the “soccer is boring” camp — an increasingly unpopular group of close-minded sports fans who, at least in my case, may have some unresolved issues from being ridiculed for their love of baseball. What can I say, hurt people hurt people. But seeing the enthusiasm surrounding the Hearts of Pine’s inaugural season has inspired me to reconsider my stance and give The Beautiful Game another shot, if for no other reason than FOMO.
Roadwork ahead: Use caution heading to these Maine summer hot spots | Column

1 month ago | pressherald.com | Leslie Bridgers

How cruel a joke it is that, just as the weather starts cooperating enough for construction crews to get to work fixing our roads and bridges, tourists start flocking to our state, swelling traffic counts and compounding backups. We need to get places, people! Whether it’s work or camp or our own in-state travel destinations.
I’m a birder now (and other signs of aging) | Column

1 month ago | pressherald.com | Leslie Bridgers

It was about this time last year that I noticed it or, I should say, noticed them: blue jays and bluebirds, cardinals and robins and — well, that was about all the species I could identify. But I wanted to learn more. I asked a friend who’s a birder to help get me started, and we went for a walk around the Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth, binoculars around our necks, looking for feathers and listening for chirps, which, I learned, is pretty much the extent of birding.
The biggest difference between Miss Maine’s 2 high-profile contestants

1 month ago | pressherald.com | Leslie Bridgers

Beauty pageants aren’t something we report on regularly in this newspaper, only when someone noteworthy is competing. The last time we covered the Miss Maine USA pageant, as far as I can tell, was in 2017, when the first Muslim contestant entered the competition, wearing a hijab with her evening gown and a “burkini” as her swimsuit. This year, we’ve had two occasions to write about contestants in the upcoming pageant, for very different reasons: One is the to compete for the Miss Maine title.
Want to visit Maine’s children’s museum? You’ll need a kid with you

2 months ago | pressherald.com | Leslie Bridgers

Ever since I saw the first colorful photos from inside the impressive new Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine when it relocated to Thompson’s Point in 2021, I figured someday I’d find a reason to check it out in person, even though I don’t have kids. There have been opportunities I’ve let pass, like when friends have been with their families, but I didn’t want to have to go at their pace or wind up watching their children.