CAMDEN – After 41 years in business, Camden’s beloved breakfast and lunch spot, Marriner’s Restaurant at 35 Main Street, is changing hands. Dan and Becki Gabriele have sold the business to Suzanne Vizethann formally of Atlanta, Georgia, and now a resident of Rockport.

Suzanne and her husband, Ryan, originally arrived in the Midcoast to invest in a bed and breakfast.

“We came up here and fell in love with the area,” she said. “No B&Bs were available and I own a restaurant in Atlanta. When I told my team, they said ‘we want to open a restaurant up there,’ so we started looking and found Marriner’s.”

Her restaurant in Atlanta is called Buttermilk Kitchen, and like Marriner’s it serves breakfast and lunch. The focus is on southern regional cooking.

“We’re known for our biscuits and chicken,” she said. “Biscuits and gravy, and pancakes. We’re known for mixing the old with the new.”

And then there is their fried chicken.

“We take the chicken and we brine it in sweet tea overnight,” she said. “We fry it at a low temperature, 275, and then we take our day-old pancake batter and thin it out with a little milk and essentially that’s our breading. Then we have a spicier flour dredge.”

Chicken is placed on a large freshly made biscuit with house-made red pepper jelly and house-made pickles.

Vizethann authored a cookbook and competed on an episode of the Food Network’s “Guy Fieri’s Grocery Games: Dinners, Drive Ins and Dives Tournament,” during which she competed against 16 chefs from across the nation.

Vizethann appreciates the rich history of Marriner’s, and has become fond of the restaurant’s owners Becki and Dan Gabriele.

“I love the location in the heart of Camden,” she said. “They made a life here for 41 years. I’ve had my restaurant in Atlanta for 11 years; 41 years? I guess we’ll see.”

Vizethann said the Atlanta restaurant will continue to operate. She has an excellent management team there, and will return once every quarter to check on the business.

“My team is more like partners,” she said. “There’s so much you can do virtually. I used to be more involved with the operations. I was the chef, cooking every day and working 90-hour weeks. Covid came along and I decided I need a good team under me to grow. I’m very fortunate. They take good care of my baby.”

For Becki Gabriele, the time had come.  

“It’s been a long road,” she said.

When she was at full-term pregnancy, she worked on Friday and delivered her baby Saturday morning.

Dan put a sign up that said, “’closed due to labor negotiations.’”

Marriner’s has been a family business, with all four of Gabriele children funding their way through college by working at the restaurant. Dan’s parents were with them from the very beginning.

“It was just our life as a family,” Becki said.

Dan called it Marriner’s mission.

“That’s what we’ve done here,” said Becki, who taught special education at the Camden-Rockport Middle School for 27 years.

“With my field of teaching, I could hire students who probably could not have a job or get a job otherwise and they were able to work at Marriner’s because we had a relationship with the school,” she said.

Over the  41 years, they have never had to run an ad or put a help-wanted sign in the window.

Becki’s colleagues and fellow teachers enjoyed working at the restaurant on the weekends and summer vacations.

“And we always tried to accommodate the single mom who could put her kids in school in the morning, come here and work, and be home by the afternoon,” she said.

For many years, the Gabrieles ran what was called, “The Spot,” in the restaurant, which was a place where high school and middle school kids could hang out and play games, instead of heading for the park.

“It is the relationship-building with our customers that has been huge for me,” Becki said. “Generally, I’ve been out in the front waiting tables so I’ve built a lot of firm relationships here.”

The Gabrieles have watched children grow and grow old, and then not show up anymore, while new ones take their place.

“And that has really been our legacy,” she said. “Building those relationships with people. That’s what makes it a joyful time, but a heartfelt sad time because we are leaving. We have so much to be thankful for.”

Becki said this is her first year of retirement from the school system, “and I’ve been in the kitchen every day since.”

Vizethann had said the first time she met the Gabrieles she had a good feeling about them and the restaurant.

Becki said they had that same sense.    

“We encountered a lot of interest,” she said. “And once we met her we knew this was real. She’s somebody who gets it and has done it and desires to do it. We feel very comfortable.”

Becki said she feels Vizethann will serve the community well.

“We’re thankful it will be another breakfast/lunch place and not another dinner spot,” she said. “So we feel really, really happy about that.”

As far as restaurants go, only the Waterfront Restaurant has been in continuous operation longer than Marriner’s, but only by five years. And to be technical, Marriner’s has been on the falls since 1942.

One of Dan’s favorite pastimes has been to look out the window onto the falls.

“I watched a young boy fishing off the dam one day,” he said. “I saw it as such an important part of youth. I felt so grateful that we, as a town, could come together to save a landmark.”

A lot has changed, but there’s a lot that has not, he said

There is French and Brawn, which has  been in business for 125 years. P.G. Willey for 100 years. Need a tool?  Head to Rankin’s, which has been around for 75 years. The Allen Agency has been helping people with insurance for 100 years.

“The same banking institutions have been serving this town for centuries,” he said. ”In a town considered affluent and tourist-oriented, there are people who are working hard providing for this community, some the second and third generations.”

The Boston Globe once said of Marriner’s: “Where the millionaire is sitting next to the mill worker and each is treated like the most important person in the dining room.”

With retirement, Becki and Dan plan to stay in Maine, the place they love. They will be moving their belongings from their Camden home to a farm in Union, and its 45 acres.

“Thatt will be our final resting place,” she said.

Both Becki and Dan expressed heartfelt thanks to all their faithful customers.

“For helping us create a very safe, comfortable atmosphere that I have always called God’s place,” said Becki,. “There’s a sense here when you come walking in the door so I’m very appreciative of people helping us create this very comfortable atmosphere.”  

December 31, 2023 is when Dan and Becki Gabriele leave and turn out the lights and lock the door. The community will miss them. 

As for Marriner’s, it will close for a short period before reopening under new ownership.