Fore Street Restaurant in downtown Portland, shown last July. Founder Dana Street won a James Beard Award on Monday. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)
The founder of several popular Portland restaurants won a James Beard Award on Monday.
Dana Street, the founder of Fore Street, Scales, Standard Baking Co. and Street and Co., all in Portland, took home the honor of Outstanding Restaurateur. He was among five finalists from around the country for the award.
Thomas Takashi Cooke of Izakaya Minato in Portland was one of five finalists for the Best Chef: Northeast award, which was ultimately awarded to Evan Hennessey of Stages in Dover, New Hampshire.
The James Beard Award winners were announced Monday night at a ceremony in Chicago.
In his acceptance speech, Street quickly singled out the dedication of his general managers, many of whom have worked with him decades. But he said the award was truly a testament to their employees back home.
“Without the 340 people that work for us very hard every day, we wouldn’t be here,” Street said. “We’re here to accept the award for those 340 people.”
Street said he appreciated the word being “outstanding” in the award’s title, rather than “best.”
“I don’t think we beat anybody,” he said. “We’re very proud to have joined all the people in this audience who do excellent work, and we’re proud to be among you.”
Like a number of other speakers at the ceremony Monday, Street also took a moment to put a spotlight on the Trump administration’s policies and rehetoric on immigration enforcement and the impact they’ve had on the restaurant industry, calling it “despicable,” to lengthy applause.
He said many of his restaurants’ employees come from other countries.
“These people are the best of our people,” he said. “They left, traveled here under duress to make a better life for themselves and for their people they left behind.”
Street also acknowledged Victor Leon, his business partner and “oldest friend,” who died a few years ago.
“He would’ve been very happy — much happier than me — to receive this,” Street said.
Street was vying against Srijith Gopinathan and Ayesha Thapar and their Northern California restaurant group Cal-India Collective; Meherwan Irani and Molly Irani, of Asheville, North Carolina’s Chai Pani Restaurant Group; Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski of the Link Restaurant Group in New Orleans; and Hugo Ortega and Tracy Vaught of H Town Restaurant Group in Houston, Texas.
In the Best Chef: Northeast category, Cooke competed against David DiStasi of Materia Ristorante in Bantam, Connecticut, who was also a semifinalist in 2024; Paul Trombly of Fancy’s in Burlington, Vermont; Derek Wagner of Nicks on Broadway in Providence, Rhode Island, a finalist in 2025 and two-time nominee for the Rising Star Chef Award; and the eventual winner Hennessey, of Stages in Dover, New Hampshire, a three-time winner on the cooking competition show “Chopped,” who was also nominated in this category in 2014.
Cooke and his partner Elaine Alden opened Izakaya Minato in 2017. Their casual Japanese-style gastropub offers a selection of small plates often spotlighting Maine ingredients.
The 2026 Beard awards had seven Maine semifinalists. Night Moves Bread of South Portland was a semifinalist in the national category of Outstanding Bakery. Others included Jeremy Broucek of Bread & Friends, Portland; Chris Gould of Central Provisions, in Portland; Sara Jenkins of Nina June, in Rockport; and Jake Stevens of Leeward, in Portland, all of them vying for Best Chef: Northeast.
In 2025, none of Maine’s nine semifinalists became finalists, the first time since 2014 that nobody advanced to the last nomination round.
Other Mainers who have received James Beard Awards include Atsuko Fujimoto (Norimoto Bakery), Barak Olins (ZUBakery), Sam Hayward (Fore Street), Rob Evans (Hugo’s), Melissa Kelly (Primo), Rob Tod (Allagash Brewing), Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier (Arrows), and Mike Wiley and Andrew Taylor (Eventide, Honey Paw).
