Ring in the New Year with Classic Jazz Stylings of Rob Schreiber’s Standard Issue

If you know The Daniel and Coast Bar + Bistro, you know how much we love the pairing of great food, great drink, great friends and great music, and you can bet we have lined up a killer event to celebrate First Night in Brunswick.

So get ready for the savory jazz skills of Rob Schreiber’s Standard Issue. A silky piano trio, featuring Rob Schreiber on drums, Emmett Harrity on piano and Nick Merriam on bass, Rob Schreiber’s Standard Issue delivers a wonderful set list of classic jazz from the Great American Songbook. 

Expect to hear some of the iconic greats from the golden era of American popular song, including Duke Ellington, George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, Rogers & Hammerstein and Rogers & Hart.

The trio will also feature some bossa nova and other Latin music from legends such as Antonio Carlos Jobim.

The group’s influences stem from the great jazz piano trios of Ahmad Jamal, Teddy Wilson, Erroll Garner, Red Garland and Nat King Cole.

Bandleader Rob Schreiber has been carry the beat on jazz standards for over 35 years and credits listening to his mother’s Duke Ellington records when he was a kid with starting him on a jazz music odyssey that began in the late 1970s and continues to this day.

He has studied music at a number of schools such as DePaul University in Chicago, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Goucher College in Baltimore. He spent years immersed in the Baltimore/Washington jazz scene until moving to Maine in 1997.

He has led several groups that include Darkwood and Labor Intensive and has played with such jazz luminaries as Shirley Horn, Drew Gress, Kirk Lightsey, Gary Thomas, Steve Novosel, Slide Hampton, Carl Grubbs, Butch Warren, Mike Carrick, Derek Day, Larry Camp and Mike Cerri.

Rob Schreiber’s Standard Issue is based out of Greater Portland and has been building a strong reputation in Maine for their dedication to the classics, but also the flexibility to please the crowd at any kind of event or show.

Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram columnist Aimsel Ponti praised the trio, saying: “This band is the real deal.”

Tony Boffa, owner of Tony Boffa Music, leveled quick praise as well saying: “I have had the pleasure of hearing Rob and Standard Issue on more than a few occasions. Rob is a bright, talented and reliable entertainer/musician. Standard Issue was polished and appropriate.”

Sample the songs from the latest CD from Rob Schreiber’s Standard Issue: The Very Thought of You.

Click for some VIDEO of the band performing as well.

On New Year’s Eve, Coast Bar + Bistro is offering its regular menu as well as a special Prix Fixe Menu. All dinner guests will be treated to the live music from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and then entrance to our new event space for a variety of games and prizes, beginning at 8 p.m. And, of course, we will have the traditional champagne toast at midnight.

The Prix Fixe Menu is going to be hard to turn down with the mouthwatering choice of Mixed Green Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette or Vichyssoise or Classic Shrimp Cocktail to kick things off, followed by Prime Rib with Pancetta Rosemary Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus and Au Jus or Potato Crusted Haddock with Sauteed Garlic Kale and Parsnip Puree or Pasta Primavera, finished off with New York Cheese Cake with Mixed Berry Coulis or Chocolate Roulade.

For all the info, click HERE.

The Daniel also has a special New Year’s Eve Package for those that want a room for two for the night, including all the great entertainment planned. 

Reserved tickets are not required for the New Year’s Eve food, music and events, so come on down to The Daniel on Dec. 31. We hope to make your first memory of 2015 a great one with us!

With a Record-Breaking Holiday Travel Season on the Horizon, The Daniel Opens its Doors for Holiday Cheer

The holidays are a special time for most families and this time of year usually means parties, dinners and gift-giving all around. But the holidays also mean travel, because for many the most cherished family and friends are not that close. At The Daniel we are prepped for a great holiday season for our guests and looking forward to what promises to be one of the busiest holidays in years.

AAA projects that 98.6 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more from home during the year-end holiday season, a four percent hike over last year. This represents the biggest year-on-year jump in travel and predicts the most travelers for a holiday period since the travel giant started keeping track of such things, all the way back to 2001.

At The Daniel, we have lined up a number of events for this year-end holiday period, which is defined as Dec. 23 to Jan. 4.

First, we celebrate the holidays with what is always the main center piece of any true holiday event — food.

Coast Bar + Bistro has two great meal options for Christmas.

Christmas Eve dinner will run from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Dec. 24 and Christmas day dinner will run from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Dec. 25.

Our kitchen has dreamed up a mouth-watering menu for the holiday dinners.

Start off with mixed greens with goat cheese, cranberries and toasted hazelnuts with a rosemary red wine vinaigrette or French Onion Soup.

Then delve into brown sugar glazed ham with mashed turnips and roasted asparagus with cashew butter or roast beef with roasted red bliss potatoes, green beans and a horseradish cream sauce.

Top it off with your choice of Eggnog Trifle or peppermint Needhams with house-made hot chocolate.

We guaranteed our dinner will put you in the holiday mood and fill the belly! Also, you can’t go wrong with all that delicious food on the holiday menu for just $36 per adult and $18 for children.

Click HERE for all the details on the Christmas dinner. 

Reservations are required for both dinners, with seating every 20 minutes. Call 207-373-1824.

But we aren’t done there on the holiday front!

We have lined up some killer entertainment and packaged it into a great New Year’s Eve event, featuring the live jazz music of Rob Schreiber’s Standard Issue, hors d’oeuvres, a dinner and dessert buffet, a glass of champagne at midnight and a bunch of other games and prizes to celebrate the start of 2015.

Check out the info for New Year’s Eve HERE. 

We also have a special New Year’s Eve Package for those that want a room for the night on top of all the great entertainment planned. 

In honor of what is expected to be a record-breaking holiday season, The Daniel offers some of the top travel trends for the end of 2014:

• Low gas prices are triggering more travel with the national average price of gasoline at the lowest level in five years and 69 cents lower than last year.
• The rise in the average Americans’ disposable income 3.5 percent over last year’s levels is prompting more travel.
• Low-cost airlines are driving down prices, with the average discounted round-trip airfares across 40 top domestic routes expected to fall seven percent this year, to $186.
•  According to TripCase, Hawaii (Kahului, Keohole and Honolulu), Florida (Palm Beach), California (Palm Springs) and New York (JFK International airport) are some of the top destinations this holiday season.

At The Daniel, of course, we are the top destination for our guests, but whether we see you this holiday season or not, we wish you all Happy Holidays!

The Joy of Giving through the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Program

At The Daniel we know that the spirit of the holidays is really about giving. With our guests in mind, we are always thinking about what we can give to them to make their stay with us the best experience. But at this time of year, we also recognize the need to turn our hearts and minds elsewhere, which is why we are so proud to be once again participating in the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Program. 

The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program provides new clothing or toys for children of needy families through the support of donors. Found in local companies and corporations, Angel Trees are decorated with numbered paper angel tags with the first name, age and gender of a child in need of presents. To take part, all you need to do is remove one or more tags from the trees (leaving the top part attached to the tree) and purchase appropriate gifts for the child or children described on the tags (leave gifts unwrapped).

All the trees at The Daniel have been turned into Angel Trees and are filled with the angel tags. With this holiday season fast upon us, we are making one last call for help to ensure that all those children in need of presents receive one this year.

We are asking for all gifts to be returned to The Daniel by Dec. 17, so we can distribute them in time.

A long-time source of donations worldwide, The Salvation Army has put a special emphasis in recent years on the Angel Tree program, pointing to the devastating impact of the Great Recession on many Americans, who are still struggling to recover from lost jobs, lost savings and lost homes.

With the day-to-day struggle for food and shelter often overwhelming, most families can spend little time on worries about how they can provide a gift or two for their children during the holidays.

The Salvation Army believes every child deserves to experience the joy of gifts during the holiday season — and we at The Daniel agree!

Thanks to the Angel Tree program thousands of children will find gifts waiting for them this year.

At The Daniel we hope we can make this number bigger and are asking all our guests and our local neighbors and friends to pitch in and make this happen.

Lastly, have no fear, if you can’t make it out to The Daniel in time for our Dec. 17 present deadline — but think the Angel Tree is a tremendous idea just as we do — you can still take part and help make children smile this holiday season. All you have to do is visit the Salvation Army online and support a child in need in your area: Donate.

Volunteers are also needed to help distribute gifts from Angel Tree efforts across the country, as well as holiday meals from the Salvation Army. Visit www.salvationarmyusa.org to find out how you can help where you live.

All the holiday trees at The Daniel look great and create a festive and warm holiday atmosphere for staff and guests, but there is no doubt the decorations take on a new meaning and fill us with hope that each tag represents one “angel” that we all could help in some way. Happy Holidays!

Getting in the Holiday Mood with Ugly Sweaters All Around

The Ugly Sweater and Wine Tasting Party 2013

Here at The Daniel we love the holidays and nothing says this time of year like breaking out the ugly sweaters for some seasonal laughs and fun!

Following up on last year’s aesthetically challenged, outerwear success, we are back again with the second annual Ugly Sweater and Wine Tasting Party on Thursday, Dec. 11 from 6-9 p.m. at Coast Bar + Bistro.

For those that enjoyed the event last year, we know your beautifully ugly holiday sweater has just been sitting there waiting to get back out into the public for another fun evening assaulting the notions of good taste and just daring you to find some sort of jeans/pants/skirt/leggings option that can even come close to matching the absurd patterns and characters that grace that wooly holiday monstrosity!

So, in other words, now is pretty much the only time you can take the ugly sweater out of the closet and wear it with pride.

For just $25, a ticket to the Ugly Sweater and Wine Tasting Party unleashes your sweater on the world and also gets you your fill out great wine samples and savory hors d’oeuvres that only Coast Bar + Bistro can serve up.

Please call ahead to reserve your tickets (they will be available at the door as well): 207-373-1824. For more details: Ugly Sweater and Wine Tasting Party.

If you still have doubts about whether or not to ugly sweater it up, just listen to what last’s year’s ugliest sweaters had to say about the event:

“The Ugly Sweater and Wine Tasting Party is my favorite time of the year, nothing highlights my ugly pride better than a night full wine, food and a room full of my friends … but I am still the ugliest!”

“Every other night of the year, all the sweaters in the draw next to me make fun of me for my absolute ugliness, but this is the one night those single-color, drab, poor excuses for warm clothing bite their tongues and I am unleashed in all my full glory.”

“Ugly sweaters are taking over the world and it all starts with The Daniel’s Ugly Sweater and Wine Tasting Party!”

So believe us or believe the ugly sweaters themselves, but believe this — Dec. 11 there is no other place to be but the Ugly Sweater and Wine Tasting Party. We hope to see your ugly sweater there!

Paint Nite Perfection!

The Daniel welcomed Paint Nite Maine for the first time with a jammed packed event on Dec. 2 at The Coast Bar + Bistro.

Led by local artist Melinda Campbell, attendees were encouraged to “drink creatively” and all polished off some of The Coast Bar + Bistro’s signature cocktails, as well as their very own versions of the painting “Winter Snow Tree.”

The budding artists also sampled some great menu fare, including some lobster dish favorites.

A great time was had by all and Paint Nite Maine organizers were thrilled to kick off the ever popular event at their newest venue The Coast Bar + Bistro.

Paint Nite will be back at The Daniel again in the New Year with another event on Jan. 27 at 6:30 p.m. For details and to get your tickets click here.