Midcoast Entrepreneurs: Bright Ideas, Creativity and Enterprise

Nature has a palette, and artist Gabrielle Benzie is the paintbrush. 

When Benzie was a little girl playing outside in her backyard in Camden, she would often gravitate toward the neighbor's field.

"As a kid, we would spend hours back there, playing and exploring, making play houses, and collecting things," she said.

Those carefree childhood moments stuck with her while she went on to study graphic design and digital media at the Savannah College of Art and Design…

ROCKLAND — Roasty's, Portland's roast beef sandwich shop, quietly made an appearance in Main Street Markets' kitchen last week for two days, delighting locals.

It seemed like a random collaboration until the connection was revealed. Co-owner Jenn Rockwell is also the owner of Roasty's, the casual eatery she founded quietly last year.

"We had a very niche, very regionally specific concept of what a roast beef sandwich should be," said Rockwell, "We make sure it's perfectly,…

ROCKLAND—Rockland’s creative economy just got a zesty boost with the arrival of Lemon Bar, a stylish yet comfortably down-to-earth new spot at 305 Main Street.

Owners Carly and Wesley Summers made the permanent move to Maine from Nashville, Tennessee, a year and a half ago after Wesley completed a three-month class at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. Having both worked in restaurants—often together, most of their careers—the time and place felt right to…

BELFAST—Sadie Samuels, a young lobsterman who got her start in the restaurant industry in 2019 with a food truck in Belfast  named Must Be Nice Lobster, has expanded her enterprise into the former Dockside Restaurant space just up the street. They held the grand opening Wednesday, November 5.

Belfast doesn't have a lot of zones for restaurant spaces that aren't already in use, so when Jeff and Lisa Mosher, owners of Dockside Restaurant, told Samuels that they wanted to spend more…

CAMDEN —This past June, a quiet little candy shop opened at 27 Washington Street in Camden, owned by Amanda Murray and Ian Cheney, and it all started from a whim.

The couple, who owns the business next door, Other Media Other, had an additional adjacent space that was unused.

"Last December, we opened the space up as a pop-up shop for holiday movies and people loved it," said Cheney. "We love the holidays, and after doing a film shoot at a maple sugar shack and driving home, I…

PORT CLYDE — Michael Mastronardi, owner of North Beacon Oyster in Rockland, launched a new food truck this month featuring high-quality beef burgers and hot dogs as its stars.

Named QP Burger, the new business features quarter-pound smash burgers with all-natural chuck from Pineland Farms and red snapper hotdogs from W.A. Bean & Sons. The burgers and dogs concept is "Build your own" with a variety of handmade toppings and…

Gartley & Dorsky Engineering & Surveying, Inc., a firm with offices in Camden and Damariscotta, as well as Epping, New Hampshire, has formed an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), officially making its employees beneficial owners of the company.

"This exciting milestone underscores the firm's long-standing commitment…

ROCKLAND — Like most Gen Xers, Justin Miller remembers his first vinyl record, The Germs. Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, before cassette tapes became overwhelmingly the popular choice for playing music, vinyl was king.

Private Press, a 200-square foot space on 385 Main Street, which opened June 13, has been Miller's dream business for some time. A private collector of vinyl records for more than 30 years, he began buying and selling records online before deciding to move the…

MIDCOAST—Maine authors, particularly those who would rather write than wear a sales and marketing hat, are finding community and collaboration with a new authors' collective called No Shelf-Control. 

Midcoast authors and friends Danielle Bannister and Carley Packard were socializing through an informal breakfast club held at Bell The Cat in Belfast one morning in 2024 when they discussed how hard it was to set up bookstore events as authors. They shared the struggles that many…

THOMASTON — Town officials and community members gathered on Tuesday, June 10 to celebrate the ribbon cutting for YOIKI Japanese Express, a new food truck offering Japanese cuisine at 218 New County Road in Thomaston. The location, formerly home to Plants Unlimited’s Big Tree Lot, is now a destination for fresh hibachi, sushi, and boba tea.

YOIKI Japanese Express is owned and operated by Chef Rei…

Most of us have played a number of board and card games in our lives. A standard pack of cards, the Monopoly box on the hall shelf. Maybe Risk or Clue, if you’re feeling up for something a bit more complex.

You may not be aware just how much games have changed over the last few decades. They go so far beyond the relatively simple competitive games most are familiar with. Cooperative games, games developed for all ages, games with mindbogglingly in depth rules for immersive play…

Leigh Barry Watercolors and Gifts recently opened a new shop on Route 1 in Camden at 94 Elm Street. The shop offers a variety of beautiful gifts, featuring her artwork, such as original and fine art prints, each hand signed by the artist.

She and her husband also print her artwork on stoneware mugs, tea towels and ceramic ornaments.

There is a wide variety of art and gifts to choose from, including many scenes of Midcoast Maine.  In addition to the coastal…

ROCKPORT — Inside Kelly Hokkanen's pocket-sized used bookstore measuring only 120 square feet, there are vast worlds — and the public is just starting to hear about it.

The Tiny Bookshop, sitting at 163 Union Street, is in a little outbuilding on the property she owns with her husband. Having opened on March 15, it is an inviting spot for anyone who loves books and bookstores. While a vast, big-box store gives off cavernous impersonal vibes, Hokkanen's minuscule shop is precisely the…

In a sign that summer is imminent, the garbage bins have arrived at the Beach, and my family’s hereditary duty has begun. Well, the summer job my then-teenage brother passed on to my parents, which my wife, and to a lesser extent I, is taking over.

For the last 35 years or so, we have been cleaning the Beach every morning from May to October — emptying the garbage bins at the shore and the wharf, picking up what detritus has settled on the sand and parking lot and…

ROCKLAND—Sebastian and Coral Crissey, both 25, just launched the state's first virtual Maine Lobster Museum this week.

The venture took the couple eight months of planning, designing, researching, and building to bring the virtual museum to life. For $10 for a day pass, visitors can browse a virtual experience dedicated to the rich culture, history, and sustainability of Maine's iconic lobster industry…

MIDCOAST—This year, we are consolidating our annual “Welcome back” article to acquaint those who haven’t been around this winter with what’s open, what’s closed, what's new, and what's happening in the Midcoast.

…

ROCKLAND—Midcoast Sports Exchange, a center for used and new sports equipment and recreational gear, recently moved  from the former KeyBank building in Camden Market Square to the vacant sporting goods store, Olympia Sports in Rockland's Harbor Plaza.

Justin Hovey, the store's owner, said the new location has more than doubled the store's inventory space.

"In the last space, we were constantly moving seasonal inventory up and down the…

PORTLAND—A new Maine-based film and TV streaming service just launched this month. If the creators achieve their goal, the platform will be a curated "Netflix for Maine" with immersive documentaries, feature films, TV programs, live events, and cultural deep dives.

Rory Strunk, his business partner, Tristan Noyes, and media Director Ken Hess from O'Maine Studios launched StreamState on February 1 with a platform of Maine-focused movie features,…

ROCKLAND — Almost one month ago, the Board of Directors governing the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce announced that organization's dissolution following its financial collapse. It came as shock to the Rockland-Camden region, where the chamber, once the fourth largest chamber of commerce in the state, had been considered a stalwart fixture.

That Dec. 12 announcement was accompanied by a message that a plan was evolving to create a new structure — not to replace the chamber…

ROCKLAND — Six friends, homebrewers themselves, launched their dream job last month. Taking over after Liberator Brewing Company closed, Shawn and Andrea Wilcox, Jill Mitchell, Brandon Allen, and Tara and Todd Boynton launched Stone Alley Brewing at 218 South Main Street in Rockland.

Like most great stories, their entrepreneurial venture began over pints of home brew with their buddies.

"We got the crazy idea we should start a brewery together," said Todd Boynton. "When Richard…

SEARSPORT—At the site of the old Captain Tinkham's Emporium, a new brewery has quietly opened, becoming a new "third place" for locals and visitors to sit down at the wooden benches, talk, and enjoy a craft brew. 

Rob and Paula Martell opened Maineport Brewing on 34 E. Main Street in June, after relocating to Searsport from Los Angeles during the pandemic.

The brewery offers four brews on tap, all special recipes crafted by Rob Martell, who honed his home brewing skills…

LINCOLNVILLE—It’s always exciting to see someone’s hobby bloom into a full entrepreneurial business as we’ve seen in past PenBay Pilot stories, from The Scone Goddess in Northport and Sunflour Meals…

ROCKLAND—It was Anthony Bourdain’s first book, Kitchen Confidential that first introduced me to the chef’s term, mise en place, a French expression for having all your ingredients measured, cut, and prepared and all your tools all aligned before you start cooking.

For Eileen Gaughan, the owner of the new kitchen store Mise En Place that just opened in May on 425 Main Street, the term was apropos of her entire store concept.

“I love to cook and I…

CAMDEN – Albatross is a new restaurant opening at 115 Elm Street in Camden, on the same property as the Cedar Crest Inn. Owners Maggie and Jeffrey Harris have a rich history in the food service industry and this is their first foray into restaurant ownership.

Maggie is from Austin, Texas, and Jeffrey is from Fairfield, Iowa. Maggie said her mom has always loved Maine.

“Jeffrey and I met each other in college in the art department of Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa,”…

MIDCOAST—It’s been five years since Rockport native Davis Saltonstall and his partner Tessa Rosenberry started ScrapDogs Community Compost, an innovative business to collect food waste from subscriber restaurants and Midcoast households, keeping it out of the landfills.

“When we first started, it really felt more like a project than a business,” said Rosenberry.

That was in 2018: they only had between 80 and 100 customers and no facilities.

“We were composting at…

JEFFERSON—In a rural corner of Maine, a sanctuary for farm animals has quietly taken shape for pigs, goats, equines, and birds who’ve been abandoned or dumped by their owners. Or, who grew too big to be “pets.”

Amanda Glenn and Andy Theriault bought the 50 acre-property in 2018, not knowing at the time, that a draft horse named Jay would change the course of their lives.

The couple both grew up in Maine.

“I quit teaching to start a pet care business,” said Glenn,…

Cody Wilson, of Camden, was one of eight recent graduates from the Downeast School of Massage. The school held commencement exercises for the new massage therapists as the 71st graduation class July 15, at the school in Waldoboro. 

As an LMT and Fitness Trainer, Wilson runs On Point Massage at a private studio five minutes from downtown Camden. He enjoys helping people with chronic stress, orthopedic challenges, sports injuries, acute…

CAMDEN  - Captain Gus Kodros is originally from Alton, Illinois When asked what brought him to Camden, he says with a wry smile, “a boat.” Kodros recently purchased the Schooner Lazy Jack II from its builder Sean O’Connor, of Thomaston. O’Connor operated the Lazy Jack out of Camden Harbor for many years, offering day sails to locals and tourists.

Kodros said it was the Nina and…

CAMDEN—A favorite Rockland store has reemerged in Camden on the Lyman-Morse waterfront boardwalk this summer. Motifs, a boutique specializing in coastal-inspired wares, men’s and women’s fashion, home décor, vintage, and antiques, reopened Memorial Day weekend.

The store is run by Paula Jalbert, who has the same exuberant style as she did when we first covered her Rockland location in a …

After the pandemic left a dearth of empty storefronts in Camden around 2022, as reported in our annual Welcome Back Snow Birds series, the town has gotten a shot in the arm with a number of new restaurants.

Here’s what’s popping this summer:

Goods —A Fun Food Shop & Bar

Even though Goods, a specialty market on 31 Elm Street in Camden, has technically been open for a year, owners Megs…

LIBERTY— From 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Nicole Moore, a first-generation Liberty farmer, does not stop working. Most farmers understand that lifestyle already, but Moore has more on her plate than just growing produce.

This past January, Moore founded Maine Produce Alliance, an online and offline network of nearly 50 farmers throughout the state of Maine. With 38 restaurant accounts, natural food stores, farmer’s markets, wholesale accounts, and individual customers, Moore and her team…

WALDOBORO – The faces of Waldoboro are changing and we mean that literally; heads, too, for that matter. Dark Harbor Barber Company has established a shop at 904 Main Street.

Sam Weldon, (owner/barber, opened the original barber shop in Rockland, currently at 436 Main Street. Bringing on D.J. Jones as a partner/barber, the two enjoyed immediate success in the Rockland area.

Something exclusive about the barber shop is that it does not sport the traditional red and white barber…

OWLS HEAD—Though the Knox County Regional Airport may be far away from the downtown Rockland dining scene, the fast-casual eatery called The Apron at Terminal A located inside the terminal is hoping to cement itself as a social and cultural hub in the coming months.

Matthew Stilphen, owner of The Apron, is a one-man operation with a simple philosophy: Make good food at prices working people can afford. The space is designed to be a food truck without wheels.

A former reporter…

SEARSPORT—A new, independent bookshop has opened in Searsport to the delight of Midcoast book lovers. The grand opening of Anodyne at 33 East Main Street, took place April 8.

Owner Elly Burnett, a former attorney, saw the bookstore as a way to shift toward the meaningful and personal, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic.

She estimated that more than 100 people came through the shop for the opening.

“It was just phenomenal,” she said. “We had people from the Midcoast…

CAMDEN—A cold-brew coffee shop has just opened on the quiet side of the Camden harbor this spring. Tom and Holly Griffin opened their first Camden-based business in the Lyman-Morse Marina April 5 serving cold brewed coffee and home-baked goods.

“We’re not a traditional coffee shop,” he explained. “We’re on the edge of being a brewery. Cold-brewed coffee means no heat is applied to the coffee. We brew in five seven-gallon S.S. Brewtech brewers designed for the coffee industry; it’…

CAMDEN—Wolfpeach, a Camden restaurant at 50 Elm Street, has undergone some pivotal changes since it opened in 2021. First, it opened as a pop-up to meet the community’s needs while renovating the restaurant’s interior; then, as a full-scale restaurant, which was named as a semi-finalist for the James Beard awards. And it is now, as what owners Gabriela Acero and Derek Richard call “wolfpeach 2.0,”—a more casual, neighborhood establishment.

“We’re still the same name, same team, same…

THOMASTON—A Thomaston couple has plans to open a community tavern and restaurant in the spring with the aim of serving lunch and dinner as well as give late-night workers—such as restaurant staff and second-shift workers— a place to grab a bite and a sip past 9 p.m.

The old Weymouth Grange Hall, formerly Billy’s Tavern, and most recently, a second location for Thresher’s Brewing Company, is named Hot Hill Tavern, after co-owner Nate Miller’s “Hot Hill” sauces, a recipe he perfected as…

ROCKLAND—With fewer than 200 square feet on 497 Main Street, Dana Ruth, a self-taught metalsmith and studio jeweler, has everything she needs to make her art and she couldn’t be any more pleased to be in Rockland, Maine.

At the height of the pandemic, she packed her dog in her car and traveled to Maine from Atlanta, Georgia, where she lived for the last 22 years. She drove with her sights set on Acadia, and along the winding, small-town roads leading up north, she fell in love with…

CAMDEN – A new private car service has been established in Camden. Called Wollfie’s Wheels, it is a collaboration of Chris Wolf and Joe Harris. The Camden cab company offers private car service around the immediate region,  as well as to state airports and transportation hubs.  

Wollfie’s Wheels quick cab service for trips in town and outlying areas.  Car service to restaurants is a specialty with pick up and a return trip tailored to reservation times.…

ROCKPORT – Street Food 330, where southwest meets southeast. But what does that mean?

This new small eatery, at 330 Commercial Street (Route 1) in Rockport, is a collaboration between two women, each with a particular culinary expertise. They are serving delectable and eclectic food to the general public. 

Well-known interior designer Michael Hampton, who has led projects all over the United States, is opening a shop in Rockport Village under the name of Hampton & Co.  The shop, at 25 Main Street in the heart of Rockport Village, will feature antiques, collectibles, fine art, and other objects of beauty from national and international sources.  It will also serve as the office of…

Steel-Pro Incorporated, currently based in Rockland, has purchased approximately 12 acres in Union and intends to relocate its manufacturing business there for increased production space.

“We are excited to bring our company and employee-owners to the town of Union and look forward to building our new, state-of-the-art, facility in the near future,” said Steel-Pro President…

ROCKPORT—Put together a rich, dark chocolate gelato in a handmade waffle cone and a beyond beautiful deckside view of Rockport Harbor and you’ve got yourself a sweet little business.

Entrepreneur Therese Inman and her husband, Garett Reppenhagen, moved to Maine from Colorado last year, had a vision that Maine would be the place for their dream job.

In Colorado, Inman worked as a CNA in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) but baked on the side.

When they got to Maine…

CAMDEN—It has been a twisty, tumultuous path for Blue Barren Distillery’s owners Andrew Stewart and Jeremy Howard. When they first opened on the “quiet side” of Camden in 2019, little did they know the business’s direction would be anything but quiet.

After a June 2020 fire that partially destroyed buildings in the Lyman-Morse boatyard, which forced the distillery to move its operations to a Hope blueberry barren in August 2021, Stewart and Howard had their sights set on eventually…

BELFAST—She barely remembers it, but nearly 47 years ago Sierra Dietz, the owner of The Grasshopper Shop,  used to play in a playpen in the window of The Grasshopper Shop’s original Belfast location on High Street.

“I don’t remember anything about the first store, but I definitely remember being in the store’s second location where Chase’s Daily is now,” she said.

Dietz, whose parents, Johanna Strassberg and Ken Schweikert, founded The Grasshopper Shop in 1975, is the…

BELFAST—Matt Burke and Jim Thompson, who moved to Midcoast Maine four years ago, have been working toward taking their cookie and granola company, Sweet Monkey Business to its fullest potential—and now they’ve done it with a production facility on Main Street in Belfast.

“I’ve always been a contractor/builder, but I was looking to do something different,” said Thompson. “We’d always wanted to do some kind of small business around food, maybe a café or something. We loved to bake and…

CAMDEN—In little more than a year and a half, Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding, Inc has transformed the east side of Camden Harbor into a modernized marina. On Tuesday, June 12, Lyman-Morse celebrated its re-introduction to the community with the launch of its anchor restaurant, Salt Wharf.

Five hours before showtime, the finishing touches of construction in and around the restaurant were taking place as the general manager was busy making calls and the chefs prepped in the kitchen. The …

THOMASTON – Laurel Cristopher is business owner, baker, dishwasher, and as it turns out, she’s a good carpenter to boot. Christopher is from Winthrop; she was scouting places where a small specialty bakery would fit in. That’s when she found an old firehouse at 350 Main Street  in Thomaston, right next to the Prison Showroom. 

“I was originally looking for a house in Rockland,” said Christopher. “I drove by this place and there was a for-sale sign out. I checked and found I…

ROCKPORT−Brother Shucker is a new fixture in Rockport and beyond the cheeky name, the food truck offers something no other food truck in the Midcoast has ever offered: fresh, raw oysters shucked on site.

Zak Kuras moved to Maine in 2016 and started oyster farming on the Damariscotta River, first with Glidden Point Oyster Farm in Edgecomb. After that,  he managed Community Shellfish’s Oyster Farm in Bremen.

“I decided after that, I’d like to run my own business with my…

ROCKLAND—Nate Luce and his partner Justine Kablack have a little spot on Main Street that’s probably going to be Rockland’s hippest joint this summer.

They quietly opened Luce Distillery last October and have kept it fairly under the radar while perfecting their nano-distilled spirits, which are brewed in 25-gallon batches in the back.

“We’re both New Englanders,” said Luce. “My Dad lived part of his life in Maine, from Presque Isle to Kittery, and I always loved visiting…

UNION—After three years of successfully running the Sterlingtown Public House in Union, owners Jillian Lary and Brian Fickett decided to open a new business this winter under the Sterlingtown name. In early February, the couple opened the Sterlingtown Bakehouse across the street from the restaurant at 30 Burkett Road.

“We decided it was time the town needed some coffee and some baked goods,” said Fickett.

The couple polled the town beforehand to find out what the community…

ROCKPORT—Lobsterman Sadie Samuels, whom Penobscot Bay Pilot interviewed multiple times over the years, is the subject of filmmaker Greg Kohs’ seven-minute film The Captain, playing at The Waldo Theatre in Waldoboro April 13.

The documentary is part of more than 20 films that will be screening at the Mountainfilm On Tour festival, which started in Telluride, Colorado…

BELFAST—Belfast will soon have a new Thai restaurant named Fon’s Kitchen at 132 High Street, opening March 31.

Fon, which means falling rain in the Thai language, just so happens to be co-owner, Sarunya Rock’s nickname.

Sarunya, who grew up in Bangkok, felt she needed a change and moved to the U.S. 

“I found an opportunity to come to the states, working in hospitality for a year, so I applied without knowing where I end up,” she said. “I didn’t even know Maine when…