On Middle Street, a culinary hub embodies an industry under siege A microcosm of the Portland food scene, the block of restaurants made bold decisions and banded together to stay in business. Share Middle Street, between Franklin Street and India Street, is a culinary hotspot in a city with a national reputation for food and drink. The owners of many of the restaurants there have collaborated to help one another weather the pandemic. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer This is the second of five parts in our series on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Portland’s restaurants. Andrew Taylor remembers the realities of the pandemic slowly dawning on him in February 2020 as he watched the news from around the country.