PORTLAND—Longfellow Books was the place to be on September 20 for an author talk amongst Maine writers Chris Holm, Bruce Robert Coffin, and Richard Cass with an enthusiastic audience of 20-25 people on the floor.

The topic: Author Stephen King and how each person in the audience had a personal connection to the man, his books, his movies, and his legacy in Maine.

Portland Downtown kicked off its inaugural week-long Stephen King Week event from September 18 to 22, in honor of King’s 76th birthday, which was on September 21.

Holm, one of the speakers who led the lively discussion, had his own story about King:

“Stephen King’s novel ‘The Tommyknockers’ was the first adult novel I’d ever read,” he said. “I was 10 years old at my grandmother’s house and after driving her up the wall, she told me to go distract myself and find a book in my aunt’s room. The first one I picked up was ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ and I knew I wasn’t the target audience for that book. Then I saw a book on the nightstand of ‘The Tommyknockers’ and the cover was so eerie with this farmhouse emitting this creepy, green-yellow light, I knew that was a book I wanted to read. I brought it home and read it under the bed—not even under the covers, it was so scary. Just in case anything came for me.”

Holm’s story didn’t end there. “When I was 13, Stephen King came to Syracuse to a ticketed event where I grew up, and even though he wasn’t supposed to be signing books at this event, he made an exception for an incredibly dorky, superfan,” said Holm. Imagine the delight then, when Holm’s book garnered unsolicited praise from King. “To be able to tell Stephen King a story he liked was a thrill. I’m forever grateful.”

Holm’s story echoed many of the same stories people in the audience relayed: that Stephen King was the first adult author they ever read at a young age that just made sense.

“We all touched on our first experiences with Stephen King,” said Holm. “Bruce said he was around 10 or 11 when he first read ‘Salem’s Lot,’ which is what inspired him to become an author. He said he was terrified, but couldn’t put it down. He said, ‘I didn’t know people could write about things like this.’ When you’re talking about someone like Stephen King who is so beloved, we tried to make it more of a conversation with the audience as they had just as much of a connection to his work as we do. I talked to a young King fan and aspiring writer who had his own encounter with King a few weeks ago and got a book signed.  I thought, ‘It’s wild to see this full circle moment and to see his generosity.’ It’s been a through line with pretty much anyone who has ever interacted with him.

“We talked about his influence on our own writing; on his short stories, on his film adaptations, and took a poll of the audience to see which films resonated the most. Films like ‘Stand By Me,’ The Green Mile,’ and ‘Shawshank Redemption.’ The other thing we touched on was King’s generosity, particularly in the writing community. There are a lot of authors he has championed over the years.”

Holm mentioned a few writers King has shone a spotlight on, including Michael McDowell. “McDowell was an openly queer writer of mysteries and southern Gothic novels and was not accepted in the mainstream when King described him as ‘the finest writer of paperback originals today.’ I think he just sets the bar ...and he certainly inspires me and certainly anyone else who has been lucky enough to interact with him. If a guy like that can keep paying it forward—76 years old—and take the time to lift up other struggling writers, it’s up to us to do the same.”

Happy birthday Stephen King.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com 

The latest report from the National Weather Service regarding Hurricane Lee is calling for tropical storm conditions tonight into tomorrow in the Midcoast with high surf, and rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches with gusts predicted up to 50 m.p.h. With the excessive rain we’ve had this summer causing root stress in trees, there is a major potential for falling trees and power outages. Today, residents still have time to get prepared.

Following is the National Weather Service forecast for the weekend.

Friday —Mostly cloudy, with a high near 71. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph. A 30-percent chance of showers, mainly after 3 a.m. Cloudy, with a low around 59. Breezy, with a north wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Saturday—Showers likely, mainly between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Cloudy, with a high near 68. Windy, with a northwest wind 25 to 30 mph, with gusts as high as 50 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

To listen to live NOAA Weather Radio, visit wunderground.com.

Car

• Move your car to a location where it is less likely to be hit by falling trees or power lines
• Prepare an evacuation route and get a full tank of gas.
• Store a basic disaster kit or emergency supply kit in your trunk.
• Ensure windshield wipers are in good shape and that you inflate your tires properly.
• Place all important documents in a waterproof bag and take them with you.
• Charge your cell phone and plan to bring it if you evacuate.
• If you expect to leave your car behind, be sure it’s not in a flood-prone area. Rising water can seep in and damage your vehicle.

Pets

• Choose a safe place where your pets can go if you need to evacuate or seek shelters such as a friend or family member’s home, a pet-friendly hotel, or a boarding facility.
• Choose a safe room for riding out the storm—an interior room without windows – and take your entire family there, including your pets.
• Stay with pets. If crated, they depend on you for food and water. Don’t leave pets in vehicles.
• Know your pet’s hiding places. That’s where they may run, so make sure to keep them with you.
• Secure exits and cat doors so pets can’t escape into the storm.Double-check emergency supplies – including, medications, bowls, water, and food
• Do not tranquilize your pets. They’ll need their survival instincts, should the storm require that.

Maine EMA has provided the following tips:

Steps people can take to prepare for the storm include:

• Check that your emergency kit includes supplies needed for several days without power, including food, water, and hand sanitizer. Also consider medications, pet food or other special needs.
• Get the latest alerts and warnings on your smartphone by downloading the free FEMA app or National Weather Service website.
• Ensure cell phones are enabled to receive National Weather Service Wireless Emergency Alerts for tornadoes, flash flooding and other emergency situations.
• Charge cell phones and other electronic devices.
• Determine local evacuation routes.
• Bring in all outdoor furniture, decorations, garbage cans and anything else that is not tied down.
• Remove boats and other watercraft from the water and secure them.
• Ensure generators are properly installed, fueled, and in good working order.

In the event of flooding, do not walk, swim, or drive through flood waters. Turn Around. Don't Drown! Just six inches of fast-moving water can knock you down, and one food of moving water can sweep your vehicle away.

Prepare for a power outage:

• Find Alternate Power Sources. Plan for batteries and alternative power sources to meet your needs when the power goes out, such as a portable charger or power bank. Have flashlights for every household member. Remember, never use a generator indoors.
• Appliances. Disconnect appliances and electronics to avoid damage from electrical surges. Install carbon monoxide detectors with battery backup in central locations on every level of your home to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Food Storage. Keep freezers and refrigerators closed. A refrigerator will keep cold for four hours. A full freezer will keep the temperature for about 48 hours. If you are in doubt, monitor temperatures with a thermometer and throw out food if the temperature is 40 degrees or higher.
• Know Your Medical Needs. If you rely on electricity for any medical needs, make a power outage plan for medical devices or refrigerated medicines. Find out how long medication can be stored at higher temperatures and get specific guidance for any medications that are critical for life.
• Cleanup. After power and other utilities have been restored, you might face the issue of what to do with storm-damaged trees. Maine Forest Service offers tips and helpful guidance for those faced with questions about what to do with downed trees, limbs, and branches.

Hurricane season runs June 1 - November 30. Please visit Maine Emergency Management Agency on Facebook or Twitter.

CAMDEN—The way PenBay Pilot has historically covered the Camden International Film Festival (September 14 -17) is to focus on films that local residents would be willing to take time out of their schedules to see. We talked with Cam Howard, the program coordinator at CIFF about the overall program this year about some staff picks in “Best of Fest” and a few blocks of “Shorts” films to check out.

“I think this year’s program came together in a very interesting way,” said Howard. CIFF which is known for sleecting boundary-pushing documentaries across the world, is now in its 19th year.

“People have come to expect from CIFF that there will be films to watch that are a little more out-of-the-box,” said Howard. “We’ve got some films coming right out of the Toronto Film Festival, some distributors like National Geographic, and a lot of films that we love that have already been playing at film festivals around the world.”

Best of Fest

See all films here.

Howard suggested two films that would resonate with Mainers: Joonam and Arc of Oblivion .

Joonam

Sunday, September. 17, 10 a.m. Journey’s End, Rockland

In this documentary memoir, debut director Sierra Ulrich “feels her way through her relationships with her mother, Mitra, and grandmother, Behjat, who emigrated from Iran to Vermont, USA.”

“The daughter Sierra is the first generation of her family to be born in the United States and the film is all about her trying to learn Persian so she can communicate with her grandmother,” said Howard. “And in trying to learn the language, she comes up against all of these significant roadblocks about what it means to be politically displaced.”

The Arc of Oblivion

Sunday, September. 17, 4 p.m. Camden Opera House

Filmmaker Ian Cheney explores “life’s most existential questions: what it means to be human on this planet, whether anything really lasts; life and death and our place within the universe and in the arc of history.”

“Ian Cheney has really grown up with CIFF and we’ve really grown up with his career,” said Howard. “It’s all about him thinking through why humans have such an impulse to leave something behind when we die and the lengths we go to in order to leave some kind of archive or trace of ourselves. And the framing device he uses to build that arc is reminiscent of Noah’s Ark out in Waldoboro.”

CIFF Shorts

See all short films here.

The Shorts Program features blocks of short curated films, which have been historically free to the public with the exception of the Maine-themed Dirigo Docs. Howard chose two blocks that would appeal to locals: Where the Mountains Meet The Sea and the Dirigo Docs.

Where the Mountains Meet The Sea

Friday, September 15, 10 a.m. Camden Opera House

There are three shorts in this program, All That is Sacred, Camp Courage, and What The Hands Do.

“The films in that block are all world premieres, focusing on relationships with the outdoors,” said Howard. “Bing Liu’s film, What The Hands Do, is all about rock climbing and social justice. Max Lowe’s Camp Courage is about displaced Ukrainian refugees who travel to a summer mountaineering camp in the Alps and the third film in that block is so timely. Scott Ballew’s All That is Sacred is all about an arts community that sprung up in the 1960s in Florida and Jimmy Buffet was part of that community. “

Dirigo Docs

Sunday, September 17, 1 p.m., The Strand Theatre

There are seven short films in this block. You can see all of them here.

“These are all of our Maine-based films and this year we really took to the woods,” said Howard. “Many of these films are about the cycle of life, birth, and a couple of projects that deal with grief in beautiful ways. For example, Eat Flowers is really going to resonate with locals. It’s about local photographer Cig Harvey who was grappling with the death of a dear friend and the film is a celebration of her life.”

Tickets for individual feature-length films and Dirigo Docs are $15.  Visit CIFF for more info on the rest of the Festival’s various events and programs.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

A pay-it-forward initiative that started in the Boston area during the pandemic offering one of Italy’s most iconic comfort dishes to anyone in need has expanded nationally and is now solidly in Maine.

Lasagna Love, now boasting 45,000 volunteers around the country, was started by a Massachusetts woman, Rhiannon Menn, in 2020. Prompted by the COVID-19-related struggles of families in her community, she founded Lasagna Love, delivering lasagnas to her friends and community. This home initiative kept growing, going national, until Menn turned it into a nonprofit.

The premise is simple: someone signs up for a lasagna for a home delivery. A volunteer in that community makes the dish from scratch and does a contactless drop-off. There is no money exchanged. The purpose is to provide comfort to anyone in need—no questions asked.

In little over three years, Lasagna Love has delivered more than 350,000 lasagnas to families and has now expanded to three countries.

Angie Madore is the regional director for the state of Maine. Having moved from Massachusetts to Maine a year ago, she got involved as a lasagna chef, delivering meals as a volunteer herself.

“Personally, I love the opportunity to give back to the community or just to make someone’s day or week,” said Madore. “I love to cook and I also love the flexibility of it with two school-age children of my own.” 

Madore said the nonprofit currently has 103 volunteers in the state of Maine with most of them in the southern part of the state. They are looking to grow their volunteer base in coastal, central, and northern Maine so that they can accommodate the growing number of requests in these areas as our outreach extends further into these communities.

“Any volunteer in any part of Maine can sign up to cook,” she said.

Home chefs can put any spin they want on their own recipes and choose to cook only once, once a week, once a month, or however it fits into their schedules. Sometimes, instead of using a disposable aluminum pan, some chefs will go to Goodwill and pick up a ceramic pan for the same price and include that with the delivery. All home chefs agree to front the cost of ingredients and drive to the recipient’s house, determining how far they are willing to deliver.

As for recipients, the website also allows you to request a lasagna for someone else who might be going through a hard time.

Madore said they often get requests from single moms, working parents who might be overwhelmed, teachers, medical workers, people who have experienced tragedies, medical issues, or simply might be temporarily sick, as well as those experiencing food insecurity.

“We’re a kindness initiative and everyone is in need of kindness,” she said. “We don’t ask intake questions to determine need.”

Madore said she often gets asked why the recipe is only lasagna. When initially created in Naples during the 14th century, the dish was mainly brought out for special events and holidays. ‘It’s the ultimate comfort food and made with a lot of care and attention.” she said. “And it’s a hearty meal that can be stretched out over a number of days.”

For more information on Lasagna Love including how to be a volunteer or how to sign up as a recipient visit: https://lasagnalove.org

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Die-hard craft beer lovers who have followed Maine fests like they were Grateful Dead concerts have had a rough couple of years navigating the COVID-19 pandemic when many festivals were largely called off. And it doesn’t help when an opinion piece this summer in Beer Advocate states that the craft brew festival industry is currently in a doom loop. But tell that to Maine beer festival goers and they’re likely to raise their four-ounce glass and say, “Have a sip. It’s good for what ails you.”

September and October are raging months for craft brew fests in Maine and their popularity isn’t going away. Here is a rundown of seven festivals to catch.

Pints on the Pier

September 9, 2023

Maine Maritime Museum, Bath

This late summer sunset event along the Kennebec River features 11 vendors serving up some of Maine’s best beers, ciders, and more. Food trucks will be on-site plus, live music, featuring Dead Gowns and Darksoft, cornhole, other lawn games, and more.  Online ticket sales will end at noon on Saturday, September 9. A limited number of tickets will then be available at the door.

Visit this page for more details and to see which breweries are participating.

Maine Brew Fest

September 16-17, 2023

Sunday River Resort, Newry

With 100 craft beer and cider samples from more than 30 Maine breweries, this is one of the ultimate fall festivals to attend to take in the beauty of the mountains in the Sugarloaf area. Take a chairlift ride. Brand new for this year, they have added a Sunday session in addition to the normal Saturday tasting. The band Skosh is playing live music during the festival, an outstanding fun band to dance to.

Visit this page for more details and to see which breweries are participating

Oktoberfest Beer & Food Festival

September 23, 2023

Footbridge Brewery, Boothbay Harbor

Dress up in your best lederhosen or dirndl and enjoy the lively celebration of Bavarian culture with Footbridge Brewery, along with four other breweries. This small, but hyperlocal Oktoberfest event promises beer, food, games, and music.

Visit their Facebook page for more details on the food and beer offerings.

Sanford Brew Fest

September 23, 2023

Sanford Regional Airport at Pilots Cove, Sanford

This off-the-beaten-path event featuring around 12 to 15 breweries is a bit more pricy than the others but includes a pint glass, a koozie, food, and live music.

Visit this page for more details including the the benefits of the VIP package

Maine Lakes Brew Fest

September 30, 2023

Ham Recreation Complex, Bridgeton

If you’re looking for a medium-sized adults-only venue and want to combine it with a weekend on Sebago or Long Lake, this event features more than 40 brewers and 15 food vendors with live music by Carbon 14 and Wintry Mix. Online ticket sales only; no sales at the gates.

Visit this page for more details and to see which breweries are participating.

Acadia Oktoberfest

October 7, 2023

Archie’s Lobster, Bass Harbor

This lovely waterfront venue includes wine tastings, ciders, as well as traditional Maine brews with more than 12 vendors and six food trucks.  Entertainment includes corn hole, a keg toss, and a stein hoisting tournament with multiple live bands playing throughout the day. Bonus: There is a free shuttle service between the village of Southwest Harbor and Archie's Lobster.

Visit this page for more details and to see which breweries are participating.

Swine & Stine Brewfest

October 7, 2023

Water Street, Downtown Gardiner

For the ultimate in tastings and a party in the street, this popular event features 20 craft beverage producers from across Maine serving samples of beers, wines, ciders, rums, meads, and more. There will be live music, entertainment, and food vendors. Not forgetting the swine, an array of food trucks and local restaurants will be serving up incredible pork varieties.

Visit this page for more details and to see which breweries are participating.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

After “The Summer That Never Was,” September sure has been producing a lot of nice, hot, summery days. Make the most of them with these three Maine activities:

Pick Your Own Flowers at Half Hitch Farm

Calyx Farm, in Morrill, is an organic MOFGA-certified organic mixed vegetable farm, which is not only bursting with end-of-the-summer produce right now, but on Wednesday evenings from 5 to 7 p.m., the public is invited to wander through the farm and pick their own flowers. The idea came about from neighbors, Ellen Sabina and Catherine Durkin, who is the co-owner of Calyx Farm with her husband, Alex McCaffree. Take your own snips and a container to hold them. For more information visit: Half Hitch Flowers

Charter out an entire schooner for your pals

Recently, a group of my friends decided to do a staycation in our own hometown, and on a whim, hired The Lazy Jack II out of Camden for a private afternoon sail with Captain Gus Kodros at the helm.

Kodros, a new owner of the schooner, who was profiled by Pen Bay Pilot in a recent story, was as amiable as could be, allowing our group of 21 friends to take our own picnic foods, beer, and wine, and play whatever music we wanted for the two-hour excursion.

There’s nothing like having an entire schooner to yourselves, as you enjoy the spray of the ocean, the mountains, islands, lobster boats, and lighthouses under full sail. The Maine Windjammer Association is another website to check out other Midcoast schooners, each with its own heritage, and excursion schedules.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, the Country Inn Maine has written a summary of what to expect from each one. Some do happy hour cruises; some offer longer trips with food and wine included; some will even take you to an island for a private lobster bake.

Check out a fall festival

It’s not even close to peak foliage season, but instead, that lingering season in between. A host of renowned Midcoast fall festivals in September are making the most of the great weather before the season officially changes including the Camden International Film Festival (Sept. 14 -17), the Owls Head Transportation Museum’s Vintage Motorcycle Festival (Sept. 16), Stone Tree Farm & Cider in Union’s Food Truck and Live Music Festival (Sept. 22-24), and The Common Ground Country Fair (Sept. 22 - 24).

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Two carved wooden benches grace downtown Belfast, both nautical-themed. One is a whale with sailboats and one is a mermaid. Both works of functional art were made by chainsaw artist Pasco Grove, of Winterport. The benches, carved during the All Roads Music Festival as a live event several years ago, now permanently remain.

For Grove, it is no big deal to pick up a chainsaw and begin hacking at a large snag —or a dead, broken tree— and fashion a face or a sculpture out of it.

He works through an interesting art form called chainsaw carving that combines the modern technology of chainsaw carving either on ice or wood with the ancient art of woodcarving.

“I grew up on a farm around a bunch of machinery and my dad is a woodcutter,” said Grove. “I used a chainsaw at a fairly young age and helped him cut wood. As I got older, I started running a chainsaw and my dad influenced me a little bit to try chainsaw art. He got me my first carving bar, which is a smaller bar you put on a chainsaw, and that’s how I started carving little things out of wood like faces and human figurines. It just grew from there.”

Grove always had an artistic bent, whether it was drawing or painting as a kid or pottery-making and sculpting in high school.

“I was always making things out of junk and whittling with a knife,” he said.

Self-taught, his first commission was a large Viking carving for his high school.

His day job consists of working for G.E. in Bangor, but his hobby and avocation, which takes about three or four hours a week, is turning decrepit stumps into anthropomorphic works of art. 

“It is like my stress relief and I get lost in it,” he said.

Besides carving functional art, such as large statues, and even a lifesize Big Foot, he is hired to transform dead tree stumps on homeowners’ properties into interesting sculptures.

His artistic tools have a bite, so he has to take special care to the point of putting up caution tape around public areas where he works.

“Mostly it is for the little kids who love to come running up,” said Grove. “There have been a few times I’ve turned around and someone surprised me by being way too close and I had to shut off the chainsaw.

“It is dangerous,” he admitted, “but I just have to keep in mind certain aspects of using the saw, making sure it doesn’t kick back. There are certain cuts that can become pretty tricky.”

For more of Grove’s work, visit facebook.com/Chainsawmainah

AUGUSTA—On Saturday, September 2, and Sunday, September 3, the weirder you are, the more you’ll find your people in the second year of the Maine Odd & Unusual Show held at the Augusta Civic Center.

Founder and organizer Misty Lane is running the show with her husband, Christopher Bishop. Their home-based taxidermy business, called Hillbilly Furniture and Furs, operates out of Fairfield. Lane grew up in Fairfield but moved away for a number of years. She and her husband bought land and moved back to her hometown.

The show tends toward the supernatural, the occult, metaphysical nature-based gifts, and home goods that are on the darker side with more than 100 vendors

An example of vendors includes artists who make art out of insects, moss, and mushrooms, crafters who sell crystals and apothecary items, sword swallowers, and people who sell curiosity antiques, such as caskets.

“Pretty much if you can find it in nature, you’ll find some kind of art with it at the show,” said Lane. “It’s basically anything that people would turn their nose up at if they were at a regular craft fair.”

She said: “We sell weird stuff ourselves. We sell animal skulls, bones, wet specimens, and crystals, among other things.  We used to travel the country with a big oddities show, but decided we wanted to just stay in Maine, find our own niche, and organize  our own show.”

A wet specimen, for the uninitiated, is a dead animal preserved in formaldehyde and preserved in a jar.

“Anything from the hearts of animals to the whole animal, such as a snake” she explained.

Lane who hunted with her father, grandfather, and family as a kid, was interested in taxidermy at a young age, where she collected the bones, hides, and antlers of animals.

“I always liked the idea of preserving the other parts of what you hunted so not anything went to waste,” she said. “Whatever weird things I’d find in the woods would come home with me. It was just another way to memorialize the animal.”

Turns out more people around the country share this same love for items odd and unusual.

Hillbilly Furniture and Furs has more than 12,000 likes and nearly 260 reviews.

“I already knew there were people in Maine who liked what we did because they were buying stuff from us, but we found, through our own networks, there are a lot of vendors all over the country who share the same interests,” said Lane.

“We call ourselves the merry band of weirdos,” she added. “It’s not for everyone, but once you get into that niche or group, you find a lot more people who are into the same kind of things you’re into.”

The show will also feature a haunted house people can walk through and a special scavenger hunt for the kids.

According to Lane, the Odd & Unusual Show will take place every Memorial Day weekend and every Labor Day weekend in August.

Tickets can be purchased here. Stay tuned to their Facebook page for more information.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penaypilot.com

WARREN—“Creative.”

That’s Chef Derek Ronspies one-word descriptor of how The Black Goat approaches food.

“We always try to do something that’s not the norm, but some kind of play on comfort food,” he said.

He clearly likes a personal challenge and approaches each day with an open mind to the menu. 

“It’s probably self-punishment that I don’t do the same menu twice,” he said with a laugh. “I like it when people come in they’ll always know there is something new to try.”

Ronspies and his partner, Cat Biggar, both from Seattle, have only been in Midcoast Maine for two months. They have completely transformed the interior of the St. George Café right next to the St. George River into farm-to-table casual fine dining that heralds creativity as its central theme.

“We get fresh items from the local farms each week and that inspires what’s going to be on the menu that day,” said Biggar.

Ronspies, who owned a restaurant in Seattle before the pandemic, was doing underground supper clubs with Biggar in their home when they began looking at the East Coast as a place to start over. “We knew we wanted to be in the northeast; so we took a leap of faith, sold what we had, and drove cross-country until we found a place. The couple, which is renting the space for the next 18 months, is feeling out the area, from what customers want to the local produce, proteins, and seafood available.

The chalkboard handwritten menu changes frequently, depending on what Ronspies feels will spark his imagination.

Last week, the grand opening menu featured a variety of vegetarian dishes sourced from multiple local farms and a popular Asian BBQ doughnut appetizer. “We shredded up some of the ribs, hooked it up with a homemade Asian BBQ sauce then wrapped it in a donut,” said Ronspies.

The black walls, farmhouse tables, new pub area, and elegant wine bookcase give the former country café an updated urban feel. Each day the menu features specialties such as the Korn Dog—their spin on a “Korean Korn dog,” a hotdog and mozzarella cheese wrapped in dough, deep fried, and then rolled in crushed-up goldfish crackers.

During the weekdays, the Black Goat serves as a grab-and-go gourmet local market and wine bar with small plates from 1 to 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday, Ronspies and Biggar spend their days prepping for the grab-and-go cooler, which contains: dips, spreads, salads, soups, wine, beer, and specialty cocktails. To go with that, they also offer bread, granola, and protein balls with almost everything made in-house or produced locally.

“We’re also going to start preparing ‘picnic baskets’ so that people can come in and grab items to take out for the day,” said Biggar. “Things like chicken salad sandwiches, something easy to take on a hike or on a boat trip down the St. George River,” added Ronspies.

But it’s their Maine supper clubs, with communal dining that pairs up neighbors and strangers, that they’re both going to throw their creative energy into. “This is the part we love the best,” he said.

“It’s more than five courses and you will definitely be fed,” said Biggar.

Brunch will also be on their calendar going forward with a fun twist on eggs Benedict, such as a poached egg on a duck fat masa cake, Greener Days Farm crispy skin pork belly with an orange-tomato Hollandaise sauce, Chimichurri, and Syrian spice, za'atar collard greens.

They’ve been open nearly a month and report great support from the community. “A lot of locals came in and shared some love,” said Ronspies.

Stay tuned to their Facebook and Instagram pages the daily menu and upcoming supper clubs.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

LINCOLNVILLE BEACH—Anyone familiar with A Little Free Library, a free book exchange in the form of a glass-enclosed box where people can take or leave books, can now find a Little Free Toy Library at Lincolnville Beach, courtesy of the Lincolnville Improvement Association.

“I saw a picture of a toy library on Facebook that another town had done years ago and it stuck in my mind,” said Christine Leary, a member of LIA. “I happened to be working on the Heart & Soul Project [a community study on what people think matters most in Lincolnville] and one of the kids wrote that he or she wanted to see more toys at the beach. Life told me that this needed to happen.”

Leary said LIA wrote a proposal, took it to the Select Board, which approved the project. Leary said the Little Free Toy Library was custom-constructed and hand-built by carpenter Will Hardy, a brother of one of LIA’s members. It officially launched in mid-July.

The project, completely funded by the LIA, started off with donated toys.

The library has been well-loved this summer with a lot of the original toys and donated kids’ sunscreen now gone, but others, mostly sandbox toys, replaced.

“It’s a work in progress,” she said. “We’re hoping the community will kick in with more donations; just drop off a small toy in good condition that would otherwise go to a donation center or a landfill,” she said.

The toy library is located behind the Porta Potty shelter on the beachside. The Little Free Library for books is on the other side of the shelter facing the parking lot.

If anyone wishes to get in touch with the Lincolnville Improvement Association for more information or donations, visit their Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

LIBERTY—A casual bar and restaurant has come back to anchor the tiny town of Liberty once again. Isaiah Pottle and his older sister Amy Smith are Maine born and raised and are bringing their homey, quirky aesthetic to the house and tavern that once belonged to 51 Main, the restaurant.

Pottle, 35, grew up working in kitchens, starting with making pizzas and baked mac and cheese at age 15 at Center General Store in Lincolnville Center, now Lincolnville General Store.

With their grandmother Ruth’s pickle recipes and the family’s historic coleslaw, the siblings aim to offer a simple comfort-food menu along with a mini tavern that feels like a U.K. snug.

The menu is deliberately pared down to feature lunch and dinner of mac and cheese, chicken and biscuit, Shepherd’s Pie, or a pulled pork sandwich with a side of the famous slaw and two sides.

“The food we’re serving reminds me of family gatherings or going to Grammy’s house,” he said.  “It’s just going to be hot food and cold salads and we’re prepping everything ahead of time so it’ll be quick. People will get their food in five minutes.”

The house, built in 1850, will remind longtime Midcoast restaurant patrons of the old Ingraham’s in Rockport with its partitioned rooms, exposed old beams, a decommissioned fireplace, and a piano in the corner.

The pub side of the restaurant, now repainted a deep Inchyra Blue that is reminiscent of Scottish skies, will offer several local brews from nearby St. George Brewing Co., as well as Heineken (one of their father’s favorite beers) and a cheap PBR.

On the mixology side, Pottle will sling a couple of not-so-fancy drinks with fancy names such as “Wicked Pissah,” a Long Island iced tea made with Moxie, and Mosquito Mojito made with blueberry lemonade and rum.

The deck offers additional outside space with a newly stained deck and bright, red umbrellas.

The main entrance to the restaurant off the deck will become a grab-and-go space for breakfast items such as coffee, quiche of the day, and muffins, as well as soft-serve ice cream. A cooler will contain heat-and-eat portions of the regular menu.

With their father’s recent passing, Pottle decided it was time to come home again to Maine and when 51 Main came on the market, he took one look at the house with living space on the second floor and knew that was it.

“As soon as I saw this place, I immediately went home and began drawing the restaurant sign and logo,” he said.

With a light-hearted free-spirit approach to the bar and restaurant and along with vintage paintings and touches, Pottle has added his own quirky playful style to the decorations, such as a working rotary wall phone in the bar, vintage TVs, and toy VW buses that his father used to own.

Pottle’s is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and closed on Wednesdays.

Stay tuned to their Instagram page for more details @pottles.pub

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

PORT CLYDE—The lighthouse made famous by Forrest Gump has hit a setback.

On a rainy evening last week, Diane Heath, the publicity coordinator for Marshall Point Lighthouse was inside the keeper’s house when she noticed a squall kick up around the property.

“The wind started blowing, the flagpole was sort of bent over; which is unusual to see in the summertime–you see that more often in the winter. I went out to take some video in the side garden and then I got a bad feeling and knew I had to get inside,” she said.

Soon after, she witnessed a flash of light with a crack of thunder immediately on top of it and she ran to the front window and saw the light was out in the lighthouse tower.

The lightning strike “fried” the LED lens in the lighthouse lens surrounding it, foghorn, and all associated circuit breakers, according to Heath in a story initially published by Penobscot Bay Pilot last week.

“There is a lightning rod on top of the lighthouse,” she said, noting that the Lighthouse museum also possesses an old lightning rod with a crack in it, due to a previous lightning strike to the keeper’s house in 1895.

“The entire keeper’s house burned down in 1895 and had to be rebuilt,” said Nat Lyon, the Museum Director. “It was replaced by the current keeper’s house that you see today.”

The Coast Guard was summoned as they service Maine’s lighthouses and foghorns. Bob Trapani, a local photographer and Coast Guard reservist, and a crew from Navigation Team Southwest Harbor arrived to investigate, and ultimately remove the light, said Lyon.

“We understand the light would have to be replaced if it can’t be repaired,” said Lyon.

Chase Miller of USCG Aids to Navigation Team Southwest Harbor has an update on what is next for the light.

“The light, was in fact, destroyed from the lightning strike, along with the foghorn and all of the controlling circuits,” he explained. “When we went up to the tower, we removed all of the damaged equipment and replaced it with partial equipment with a controller for the foghorn temporarily. The actual light itself has been ordered last week and is en route.”

Miller noted that lightning strikes to lighthouses aren’t as rare as you think, particularly given the rainy weather Maine has experienced this summer.

“Lightning strikes are pretty common this time of year and ground moisture has a lot to do with it,” said Miller. “It was just an unfortunate event.”

On August 7, National Lighthouse Day, the Lighthouse staff always allows tours of the tower, where four people can fit up in the tiny circular room at a time. This time, given the time restraints of replacing the light, it will be empty.

The Marshall Point Lighthouse staff asks volunteers for a donation for the annual tour as their events and operations, apart from the gift shop, are volunteer-led.

“It’s an opportunity for people to come out and view the lighthouse in a way they have never seen before,” said Heath.

“We’re going to have the light back for Maine Lighthouse Day in September,” said Lyon. “We’ll open the tower on August 7 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.”

For more information about Marshall Point Lighthouse & Museum visit: https://www.marshallpoint.org/

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

MIDCOAST—The weather may or may not cooperate this weekend for the third annual Wild Blueberry Weekend, August 5 and 6, 2023, but Maine’s iconic blueberry farms will be open to the public.

The Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine invites the public to make the trek all over the state to see and experience the working farms. With nearly 70 farms, eateries, and drink establishments spanning from Kittery in southern Maine to Pembroke and Robbinston in Downeast Maine, this weekend celebrates wild blueberries during their peak harvest.

Here are two local Midcoast blueberry farms within a 30 mile driving distance.

Brodis Blueberries

Hope

128 Jones Hill Road
Hope, ME 04847
207-975-4413

Google Map

Brodis Blueberries sells blueberries and value-added products, and happens to be integral in the formation of the Midcoast’s only distillery: Blue Barren Distillery! At their farm this weekend, people can purchase fresh or frozen wild blueberries, jams, and other products. For food, along with their own blueberry offerings, Brother Shuckers food truck will be there specializing in seafood delicacies and other options along with The Wyman’s “Bee Wild” truck and Mimi’s Kitchen wild blueberry pie tastings. Blue Barren Distillery will be offering its award-winning spirits including several wild blueberry-inspired favorites. Cocktails will be available for purchase each evening from 4:00-7:00 p.m. For activities, the farm welcomes visitors to take a hike around the farm grounds and handpicking some sample blueberries.

One new thing the farm has, which is in the processing packing room, so, unfortunately, the public won’t be able to see it, is a new Optical Sorter, which is a state-of-the-art piece of equipment with two cameras attached that “study” the blueberries rolling down the belt and with pneumatic air jets, picking out anything that’s not a good blueberry.

Ron Howard is the Farm Manager and a committee member of the Wild Blueberry Commission. He and two committee members came up with the concept of Wild Blueberry Weekend three years ago.

“Our hope was to connect people with farms and wild blueberries from the beginning and it has far exceeded our expectations,” he said. “I think people who attend these events walk away with a much better understanding of wild blueberries and their importance to Maine agriculture and their own health and nutrition.”

Blue Barren Distillery will also be in operation Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Ridgeway Farm

Appleton

1005 Appleton Ridge Rd
Appleton, ME 04862
207-542-9302

Google Map

Activities for Wild Blueberry Day include a “hay wagon” ride around a field (if harvest allows) to see views from Appleton Ridge. There will be demonstrations on what the a wild blueberry “picking line” looks like, and people will be able to sample wild blueberries.

Tours will be held between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. From 12 to 3 p.m., Gun Slingers BBQ will be grilling pulled pork sandwiches and brisket quesadillas with a specially made Ridgeberry Farm Blueberry BBQ Sauce. Fresh wild blueberries will be available for purchase (single, four- and eight-quart boxes), with freezer-ready options. They ask that you please leave your pets at home.

“The biggest thing people have been most interested in is our barbeque and our tractor tours, where I pull people around in a hay wagon up in the blueberry fields where the machines are working,” said Harvest Manager Tim Davis. “We also have special areas where people can pick their own blueberries while I am talking about the harvest process.”

Note: the farm will not be open on Saturday, August 5 and only open on Sunday, August 6, starting at 10 a.m.

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 2014 story.

Jalbert has been in retail for 40 years having opened her first store in 1981, a card shop in Portland’s Old Port called Communiqué.

Motifs in Portland was around for a few years before the Rockland store opened.

“Then the pandemic hit and we had to close the Portland store for several months and when we re-opened it was clear to me it was going to be difficult to sell clothing,” she said.

Jalbert said people were fearful to try on clothing at that time.

“We had to steam the clothing after they tried it on and had to put it aside for 24 hours,” she said.

At that time, she and her husband had permanently relocated to South Thomaston.

“So, then we had to make some decisions of whether to keep staff once stores could reopen and commute down to Portland,” she said. “And we made the decision to permanently close.”

After taking some time to herself to reassess her priorities, Jalbert decided to link up with a good friend, Brenda Garrand, owner of a the Portland marketing firm, Garrand and Company. Garrand had also moved to Rockland, and the friends decided to become business partners for the new store in Camden.

“Brenda and I have been friends for 40 years,” said Jalbert. “We thought the Midcoast had a lot of potential and is going to be the next ‘it’ place. We both felt very strongly about positioning ourselves here. With a lot of retail stores that had left for various reasons after the pandemic, there was a great opportunity here to bring Motifs back.”

Just like her Rockland store, Jalbert is keen on appealing to the locals in the community.

“My intention around buying [items for the store] is a year-round commitment to the local population in terms of price points and clothing and I’ve been getting a huge response from my former customers saying they’re happy I’m back,” she said/.

This store, based on where it is, on the east side of Camden Harbor in a modernized marina, has more of a nautical aesthetic, a place for men and women to shop for themselves, their home, and their boat. For more information visit: https://www.motifsmaine.com/

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

UNION—A new Midcoast Farmers Union site at the former Coastal Blueberry Services facility at 61 Common Road is now open to farmers to set up pop-up retail markets and to use the space for storage and/or other functions.

The Midcoast Farmers Alliance (MFA) was formed by farmers in 2015 with the support of Maine Coast Heritage Trust, which operates Aldermere Farm and Erickson Fields, two working educational farms in the Midcoast.

The goal of MFA is to increase the shared supports available to farmers in the area. MFA was formed by farmers in 2015 with the support of Maine Coast Heritage Trust. Maine Farmland Trust partnered with the MFA and MCHT to establish the Midcoast Farmers Union site by purchasing the property in 2022, with the intention to facilitate its resale to the MFA as the Midcoast Farmers Union site grows.

On July 18,  the Midcoast Farmers Alliance and Maine Coast Heritage Trust held an open house for farmers and the community as a way to see the space and generate ideas about how the space could benefit the farming community.

Emily Gherman-Lad, assistant director of Engagement for Maine Farmland Trust, estimated about 35-40 farmers and members of the community showed up to the event.

“It was great to meet so many farmers and community members who came to see the space and share their ideas on its potential,” said Adam Bishop, Maine Farmland Trust’s Director of Farmland Protection and Farmland Access.

Maine Farmland Trust felt it was really important to give the facility, with its history of supporting agriculture, a new life.

“The space is going to be used for pop-up farmer’s markets throughout the season,” said Carly Williams, project coordinator of Midcoast Farmers Alliance. “We have an herbalist market planned for October, and we’re hoping to have a Harvest Fest in the fall. Another idea that came out of the open house was to hold an evening farmer’s market for people who have daytime jobs. We’re hoping to use the space to support farmers and agriculture in the Midcoast and these markets seem like a great place to start.”

In a news release from Maine Coast Heritage Trust, other possibilities have been laid out: “Farmers can set up the pop-up markets on their own schedule or combine efforts with other farmers to host markets at the same time. The site also offers storage space for farmers to keep excess dry goods or equipment safe and secure.”

“At Maine Farmland Trust, we are really excited to see how the Midcoast Farmers Alliance and Maine Coast Heritage Trust are developing this space to meet the needs of farmers in this community,” said Bishop. “When this former wild blueberry processing facility went up for sale last year, we all saw the opportunity that its buildings and infrastructure could offer to area farms. MFT is thrilled to have brought our land transfer experience to this partnership by purchasing the facility, with the plan to resell it to the MFA as they continue to develop and grow.”

For more history and background about the space, visit: “Open house to allow farmers, community to check out new Midcoast Farmers Union site”

To learn more about the space and how to get involved, contact Aaron Englander at aenglander@mcht.org or 207-236-2739. 

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

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 Senk and George Korsnick have developed a new offering in the little market—a bar with snacks starting at 3 p.m., every Thursday through Saturday.

Senk describes their market as “a fun food shop” with three main categories: Food and pantry items, vintage cookbooks, and wine and beer. 

“It’s all under the umbrella of food, with a focus on small-batch vendors,” she said. “For example, we have a chili crisp from a company in London—and we were their first retailer in America—and we also have a Little Brother chili crip from Portland. No matter how far we source the food items, we want to be able to offer things you just can’t find around here and tell the story of who makes it.”

The bar stems from Senk’s own background. Originally from Vermont, she has worked with food and design, has been a restaurant server, and has a lot of friends in the restaurant industry. Started a month ago, they will offer classic cocktails such as a margarita featuring a woman-owned tequila, as fun bar snacks like dusted popcorn and marinated olives.

“We want to be more of a pre- or post-dinner situation,” she said. “There are obviously a lot of good restaurants in town; we just want to provide a space where people can meet up before or after for a snack and a drink. We also have a big non-alcoholic section.”

In addition to the bar, they plan to offer made-to-order classic sandwiches including a BLT with local ingredients, a chickpea salad sandwich, and a tuna melt, plus wine and beer during lunch hours starting at 11 a.m.

Find a sample menu here.

Find out more at goodsmaine.com

Mosaic

Hannah Scott grew up in Camden, and having lived here most of her life, opened a new restaurant with her husband, Troy Scott, and their family on May 4.

“We decided it would be a great opportunity for us as a family to do this together,” she said.

As a private chef and a previous server for Long Grain, which used to be housed in the same space, Hannah Scott decided to use what she learned in the restaurant industry and create a Latin-inspired and farm-fresh menu with an emphasis on making dishes from seasonal, local ingredients.

“We have tacos, burritos, and bowls, but we also do paella, Korean barbeque, hence the name Mosiac—an amalgamation of different flavors with different ideas, concepts, and community,” she said. “We just like to put whatever’s fun, fresh, and exciting on the menu and aren’t limiting ourselves to any one genre.”

Tacos and tequila are a sure hit with any crowd, and Mosiac’s tacos are constructed with handmade tortillas, both vegetarian and with proteins such as chicken tinga, fish, shrimp, and carnitas.

“Everything on the menu is homemade, including the tortilla chips, salsas, and house barbeque and we source all local pork, fish, and chicken,” she said.

The space seats 30 people and is open from lunch to dinner (11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.) six days a week, excluding Wednesdays.

Scott’s oldest ons host a Taco & Tequila Tuesday from 9 to 11 p.m. for the late-night crowd and for other servers just getting off their shifts. 

“That’s kind of nice because there aren’t a lot of options open at that hour,” she said. “It’s a limited taco menu and people are really enjoying a snack and hang out.”

The margaritas going out the door are made with higher-end tequilas and mezcals and customers are interested in learning more about them, she said. They’ve got some spicy margs, house marg, and one called the Naked and Famous: made with either tequila or mezcal, yellow chartreuse, aperol, and lime.

“We have gotten really good feedback; people seem very happy with what we’re creating and putting out,” she said. “We’re seeing a lot of local regulars come back week after week.

Find their menu here.

Follow them on Facebook or Instagram

Paper Plane

The newest cocktail/wine bar to anchor the Lyman-Morse wharf boardwalk on the opposite side of Camden Harbor is Paper Plane, just recently opened.

Locals will remember owner Clementina Senatore, former co-owner of Meanwhile In Belfast, a gourmet wood-fired pizza place that had to close in 2022 due to the pandemic. Her newest venture uses many of the same flavors she incorporated with Meanwhile in Belfast, having been born and raised in Italy.

“The food philosophy is the same as Meanwhile in Belfast, only instead of pizza, it’s small plates,” she said. “We also apply, simply fresh ingredients. It’s a casual place, no reservation, first come first serve, just come in to have a cocktail, a glass of wine, or a snack or a dessert. We’ll be offering small plates such as a rotating offering of cheese and meats for charcuterie, a special salad, or my Italian take on the Japanese dish itameshi, which is rice, shrimp, and fresh mozzarella and nori, a sushi dish with Italian ingredients.”

For our wine list, they have a rotating list for every taste, from a $10 glass of rose to a $70 glass, from simple to sophisticated. The cocktail list will also be rotating; for example, they are offering a margaritas, a wasabi martini, a chocolate espresso martini, and a Negroni Reposado.

Find their sample menu here.

Follow them on Instagram

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BATH—Captain Angus McGregor Crosby was a lobsterman since he was 14 on Georgetown Island before he died unexpectedly in 2021. His daughters, Lauren Crosby, 29, and Sadia Crosby, 28, each had her own vocation at the time: Lauren worked as a  traveling musician and teacher, and Sadia owned an oyster farm called OysHERS Sea Farm.

After he died, the sisters felt drawn even closer together and wanted to open a business that had been a long-held dream —a raw bar with sparkling wines and beverages to honor their father and all of the fishermen and oyster farmers whom they’d grown up around.

“He was definitely a classic Maine fisherman, very hard-working, very stubborn and smart; a classic Scotsman and he never let us forget it,” said Lauren, laughing, while she recalled. “He played a massive role in our lives to become entrepreneurs and to do things your own way. Sadia asked me a couple of months ago, ‘Do you think Dad would be proud that we started this business?’ And I answered ‘I don’t care what Dad would think–we’re doing it anyway!’”

The sisters opened Oysters Raw Bar & Bubbly June 17.  

“With the passing of our dad so suddenly, it put a lot of things into perspective,” said Lauren. “One of my callings is to promote Maine seafood and the cultural heritage of Midcoast Maine and a great way to do that is by opening our own raw bar. We feel very passionate about promoting lobstermen and how important it is to working waterfront families of Maine today.”

Indeed, the business’s two main offerings: champagne and locally harvested raw oysters scream “luxury” to the rest of the world, but to the Crosby sisters, it’s meant to be reframed into what is and should be accessible to everyone, not just wealthy tourists.

“Historically, oysters and champagne have been perceived as this elite food, and it’s so funny because there seems to be this disconnect in the general public between these foods– including lobster–as being out of everyone’s price range, but we who have worked on boats, filling the bait bags, know there is nothing elitist about it,” she said. “The high stress and dangers that come with working on the water are our reality. The working families who provide us with lobster, oysters, and crabmeat are being supported when you come here.  The food we bring in shouldn’t just be accessible to people with a lot of money. That’s why Sadia and I really wanted to create a space in downtown Bath that is fun, and welcoming to all—families, people with dogs—just come hang out and enjoy life’s simple pleasures.”

The most popular items on the menu are the charcuterie board, the lobster, and crab sliders. The place boasts a massive sparkling wine and bubbly list as well with Mimosa flights being the top sellers. They also sell wine, beer, cider, hard seltzer, distilled cocktails, and non-alcoholic bubbly drinks

The Crosby sisters have not only parlayed Sadia’s aquaculture skills into the business, but also have a vision to support more female-run businesses (including oyster farms, wineries, and farmers) as well as host local artists, songwriters, book clubs, and educational opportunities at the space. The sisters also plan on providing an annual scholarship to a deserving student at Morse High School–a school where both they, their mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother are alumni.

Given how seasonal the offering on the menu is, Oysthers will only be open from Memorial Day to December 31. Most lobstermen in the Midcoast have wrapped their season at that point and oyster stocks need to rest and grow over the winter.

To learn more about the sisters and the new raw bar visit: www.oysthers.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BATH—Captain Angus McGregor Crosby was a lobsterman since he was 14 on Georgetown Island before he died unexpectedly in 2021. His daughters, Lauren Crosby, 29, and Sadia Crosby, 28, each had her own vocation at the time: Lauren worked as a  traveling musician and teacher, and Sadia owned an oyster farm called OysHERS Sea Farm.

After he died, the sisters felt drawn even closer together and wanted to open a business that had been a long-held dream —a raw bar with sparkling wines and beverages to honor their father and all of the fishermen and oyster farmers whom they’d grown up around.

“He was definitely a classic Maine fisherman, very hard-working, very stubborn and smart; a classic Scotsman and he never let us forget it,” said Lauren, laughing, while she recalled. “He played a massive role in our lives to become entrepreneurs and to do things your own way. Sadia asked me a couple of months ago, ‘Do you think Dad would be proud that we started this business?’ And I answered ‘I don’t care what Dad would think–we’re doing it anyway!’”

The sisters opened Oysters Raw Bar & Bubbly June 17.  

“With the passing of our dad so suddenly, it put a lot of things into perspective,” said Lauren. “One of my callings is to promote Maine seafood and the cultural heritage of Midcoast Maine and a great way to do that is by opening our own raw bar. We feel very passionate about promoting lobstermen and how important it is to working waterfront families of Maine today.”

Indeed, the business’s two main offerings: champagne and locally harvested raw oysters scream “luxury” to the rest of the world, but to the Crosby sisters, it’s meant to be reframed into what is and should be accessible to everyone, not just wealthy tourists.

“Historically, oysters and champagne have been perceived as this elite food, and it’s so funny because there seems to be this disconnect in the general public between these foods– including lobster–as being out of everyone’s price range, but we who have worked on boats, filling the bait bags, know there is nothing elitist about it,” she said. “The high stress and dangers that come with working on the water are our reality. The working families who provide us with lobster, oysters, and crabmeat are being supported when you come here.  The food we bring in shouldn’t just be accessible to people with a lot of money. That’s why Sadia and I really wanted to create a space in downtown Bath that is fun, and welcoming to all—families, people with dogs—just come hang out and enjoy life’s simple pleasures.”

The most popular items on the menu are the charcuterie board, the lobster, and crab sliders. The place boasts a massive sparkling wine and bubbly list as well with Mimosa flights being the top sellers. They also sell wine, beer, cider, hard seltzer, distilled cocktails, and non-alcoholic bubbly drinks

The Crosby sisters have not only parlayed Sadia’s aquaculture skills into the business, but also have a vision to support more female-run businesses (including oyster farms, wineries, and farmers) as well as host local artists, songwriters, book clubs, and educational opportunities at the space. The sisters also plan on providing an annual scholarship to a deserving student at Morse High School–a school where both they, their mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother are alumni.

Given how seasonal the offering on the menu is, Oysthers will only be open from Memorial Day to December 31. Most lobstermen in the Midcoast have wrapped their season at that point and oyster stocks need to rest and grow over the winter.

To learn more about the sisters and the new raw bar visit: www.oysthers.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

MIDCOAST—Two micro-bakeries have quietly opened their doors this summer. Take a look at what they’re offering:

Sunflour meals and cookies

43 Hatchet Mountain Road, Hope

For the last three years without a website or advertising, Hope resident Carrie Laurita has been quietly cooking and baking in a tiny air-conditioned shed behind her house at 43 Hatchet Mountain Road, trying to feel out a direction on where her avocation would go.  She is part of a growing number of solo entrepreneurs in food services who test out their passion for hyperlocal communities before making a bigger leap forward. And in the many rural towns of Midcoast, a number of food producers sell out of their own houses. 

Her specialty is gourmet cakes, cookies, and prepared meals — and in the wintertime — batches of comfort soups. Customers order ahead of time by emailing her and she prepares their take-out dishes ready for pick up at certain times.

“My services at the time were already take-out oriented, so three years ago, when the pandemic hit and nobody could go to restaurants, my little business started to take off,” she said. “It was unbelievably busy and so much fun.”

Laurita has decided to offer a new spin on her Sunflour cooking this summer called “Carrie-out” in two forms: 

1. Cool, summery picnic meals and soups people can pick up on Wednesdays, such as curried chicken salad, fruit and cheese kebobs, and a cookie. 

2. Home-baked gourmet cookies out of a special yellow-painted “cookie hut”  that can be sold in a self-serve, self-pay stand similar to the farmer’s stand models.

“I’m just going to put them out every day on the honor system and when they’re gone, they’re gone,” she said.

With a bit of help from two people who assist her with catering services, she is content to keep her operations small.

“People keep saying I need a website, so I’m pretty much at max right now,” she said.

Her cozy work area is a tiny shed decorated with painted sunflowers.

“The baking shed at one time was a hay shed for elephants,” she said. For reference, the large building that abuts her workspace used to be the site of Hope Elephants before the untimely death of her husband, Jim Laurita, the executive director of Hope Elephants.

“When my husband died, I stacked wood, cooked, and baked,” she said. “That’s all I did and how I dealt with grief.”

She said the act of losing herself in cooking was therapeutic and at first, was its only means to an end.

“And then it occurred to me, people might want to buy food from me,” she said.

Soon, her desserts were in demand and she began selling them to local restaurants and general stores. She then did Soup Nights once a weekend and prepared catered dinners. What began as a hobby has turned into her primary source of income.

Laurita is not done dreaming up future plans. The giant barn building that once housed the Hope Elephants, and most recently was Hope Air, is currently a space for North Atlantic Gymnastics Academy, but soon will be empty when they move to another facility.

It occurred to her that given her own interests, the barn could be a multi-use space for her own business, as well as other food purveyors and artists. Perhaps, it might even be an indoor farmer’s market — she hasn’t decided yet.

Laurita’s weekly specials can be found on Instagram @sunflour43 and she can be reached at: sunflouryellow@gmail.com

The Place

117 Elm Street, Camden

Chelsea Kravitz and Chris Dawson, both in their 30s, were living and working together in Kravitz’s bakery-restaurant in Long Island, when the two friends, who became romantically involved, decided they wanted a simpler life, and moved to Camden, Maine this past spring.

Their joint micro-bakery, The Place, launched a quiet grand opening this past weekend in a converted woodworking studio next to their house which is adjacent to the Cedar Crest Inn.

The opening weekend on July 15 and 16 was a surprising success. Despite a gloomy, rainy weekend, Kravitz said word-of-mouth advertising prompted a long line of customers to stand outside their door even before they opened.

Kravitz and Dawson use local flour, dairy, and produce and their biggest seller this past weekend were the savory danishes and a version of “Persian Bun,” a deep-fried cinnamon bun with chocolate frosting made locally famous from the Camden Home Bakery, which has since closed.  “Ours is made with croissant dough, and it has that cinnamon swirl in the middle with the chocolate frosting,” said Kravitz. “It was received really well which made us happy because it’s hard to recreate an old favorite in a town you’re new to.”

They also offer pre-orders on their website.

“We’ll also have plenty available for walk-ins when we’re open,” said Kravitz.

Next weekend they will be open July 22 and 23 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The following week, starting Thursday, July 27, they’ll be open four days a week (Thurs-Fri-Sat-Sun) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

See The Place’s weekly pre-order menu here. They can also be found on Instagram.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

WATERVILLE—If you’re one of those people who longs for fall in the midst of summer, the Maine International Film Festival has you covered. Now in full swing this week (July 7 to 16), MIFF has a special category for “Mostly-Maine Horror” shorts.

Coming up Thursday, July 13, at the Waterville Opera House for a matinee at 4 p.m., as well as Saturday, July 1,5 for a 9 p.m. screening at the Maine Film Center are four spooky, moody, fictional narratives.

While several of the stories involve the sinister side of Breton and Scandinavian folklore, several stories plumb personal family tragedies for inspiration. One hits very close to home—filmed on location in Stephen King's dorm room at the University of Maine.

Let’s take a look:

The DoubleWalker

(21 minutes)

An aimless 20-something returns to her childhood home to find closure over a family tragedy, and instead discovers she may have inherited a sinister curse in this film shot entirely in Sedgwick, Maine, and inspired by Breton folklore.

According to the crowdfunding campaign indigogo set up by filmmakers to finance the film: “On the surface, ‘The DoubleWalker’ is a psychological thriller that follows one family’s tragedy...With the feature, it's our intention to slowly and organically build relationships with more Indigenous filmmakers, actors, and artists, on our journey to completion, especially the Penobscot people. They've been protecting this land (known today as Maine) for over 11,000 years. They are the true stewards. It's long overdue that the film industry shines light on Indigenous cultures both past and present, while making concerted efforts to hire Indigenous people in front of and behind the camera. That is our big, big dream for ‘The DoubleWalker’: to tell a compelling story while using our privilege to open as many doors for others as possible.”  FMI: indiegogo.com

The Huldra

(13 minutes)

I Know What You Need

(45 minutes)

Based on the short story from Stephen King's 1978 Night Shift collection, I Know What You Need is an after-school special that dissolves into terror. It's a love story, but a Stephen King love story, so things aren't always what they seem. 

According to L.A.-based director/screenwriter Julia Marchese in an indiegogo campaign story, she participated in Stephen King's Dollar Baby Program which allows the rights of certain of his stories to be bought for one dollar. The contract states that the rights are good for one year, and the resulting film must be 45 minutes or under, plus the film must be non-profit, non-broadcast - which means the film cannot be sold, but it can be shown at film festivals and in private screenings. Marchese acquired the rights to turn the short story, “I Know What You Need” (from 1978’s book “Night Shift”) into a short film. She filmed in the exact locations mentioned in the book. King requests that all finished Dollar Baby films be sent to him to view and the film will premiere at the Maine International Film Festival. FMI: indiegogo.com

Nash

(12 minutes)

Nine-year-old Nash is determined to find the monster that killed his mother; his father George is equally determined to stop him. 

Director Tim Warren, based in Miami, is behind the film, “Nash,” which has played around the world in competition festivals including Foyle, Florida Film Festival, USA Film Festival, and Calgary Underground. According to Warren’s bio, “...he inhabits the dichotomy between the ochre dawn and solemn dusk...”

To learn more about Maine Film Festival’s films and programs visit: https://miff.org/

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Shiitake mushrooms, mainly found growing in East Asia, have been a traditional Chinese and Japanese food as medicine since the 12th century. Packed with fiber, vital minerals, and unique compounds, shiitake mushrooms activate the immune system, reduce blood pressure, fight cancerous cells, reduce inflammation, and lower cholesterol.

Oyster Creek Mushroom Company, owned by Candice Heydon in Damariscotta, has been growing and selling shiitake as well as other fresh, wild mushroom varieties since 1989. Her clients come from all over the world.

“At my peak, I was doing five flower shows every year, as well as multiple farmer’s markets, and would sell to a lot of restaurants,” said Heydon, who is now semi-retired.

She has spent the last 30 years growing or purchasing mushrooms and, these days, only sells to select clients, while occasionally attending farmer’s markets. Her main source of business now is selling dried mushrooms through her website. Her specialty is Shiitake Growing Kits ($30) which include 300 shiitake plugs inoculated on hardwood dowels and complete instructions on how to transfer them into oak trees.

Borrowed from Japanese, the word shiitake comes from shī, (which means “shii or chinquapin tree”) and take (which means “mushroom”).

“Tree mushrooms are the easiest to grow because the tree is a sterile environment,” said Heydon.

Her advice for growing shiitake starts with the tree. First, select healthy, young, living trees in stands that need to be thinned. Avoid damaging the bark. Cut logs with diameters between four to eight inches, cut to four-foot length.

The traditional Japanese growing method is to use a small dowel containing the mushroom spawn and insert each dowel into the log. The white wood rot fosters the growing process. Her website provides instructions on how to get mushrooms to grow. The process takes five to 10 months and fruits in the spring and fall.

Beyond the health benefits of shiitake mushrooms, the texture has been described as “meaty,” making them an ideal vegetarian substitute with a rich, umami flavor that intensifies when cooked. Having cooked with them for more than 30 years, Heydon said some of her favorite recipes on her website, including mushrooms in cream sauce over pasta, mushroom-dusted fish, wild mushroom dip, and wild mushroom soup.

Or just cook them up with butter and you’re all set.

“Start with a very hot pan before you put them in and fry them as you would potatoes and don’t crowd them, get them nice and brown,” she said.

For more information, visit oystercreekmushroom.com

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 travel around the state to deliver everything that has been ordered each week, driving from Portland to Augusta to Bangor and up and down the coast.

Moore, 34, grew up in Freeport, and traveled for a few years, landing in California and Colorado, before coming back home and setting her sights on a plot of land in Maine. With a background in design, construction, business, and massage therapy, she bundled all of her transferable skills together and started Seed and Soil Farm in Liberty, on which she primarily grows microgreens.

“My best friend in California had a microgreens business, which I helped her with, and I just wanted a piece of property where I could grow them myself and be self-sufficient,” she said, of her initial plan.

With Seed and Soil, she built up her restaurant clientele, and one day, invention, the mother of necessity, led her to a bigger idea.

“I had all of this property to fill up and had small orders of microgreens from chefs and they started requesting more,” she said. “Obviously, with a brand new farm, I couldn’t produce more so I found a couple of farmers and we started to work together in order to fulfill the chefs’ orders and give them what they wanted that was still local.”

This past winter, her farmer friends saw the larger potential of banding together in order to fulfill more restaurant requests for blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb, lavender, rainbow eggs, duck eggs, and quail eggs.

“The chefs kept asking me for more and the farmers were excited to team up so they could put more of their energy into the farming and not have to do the selling,” she said.

Based on that initial collaboration, Maine Produce Alliance was born, giving the public wider access to proteins, produce, and products made from Maine small farms.

The business model has expanded to add subscription boxes and bundles. Each box or bundle is a farmers-choice assortment of fresh, local produce in multiple sizes that Moore personally delivers weekly or every other week to the customer’s nearest pickup location.

“It’s almost better than a CSA [Community Supported Agriculture] because it pays the farmers up front, but it gives the customer more flexibility than say, committing to a three-or six-month window,” she said. “You can skip weeks; you can pay weekly, or monthly. You can change your individual order asking for more or less of something else; you’re not stuck with produce you don’t want.”

On the website, the variety is not only a chef’s dream, but a home cook’s secret weapon with dairy, fruit, vegetables, proteins, mushrooms, eggs, honey, maple syrup and other delicacies that all change seasonally. For example, a $20 single person’s CSA-style box at the end of June will likely yield a salad kit, strawberries, herbs and mushrooms. And a $30 breakfast box will get you Greek yogurt, eggs, and chorizo sausage.

Recently, Penobscot Bay Pilot wrote about H & H Mercantile in Searsport, which serves as one of Maine Produce Alliance’s Midcoast drop-off locations. What’s so innovative about Moore’s alliance is that not only is she pairing products and services with friends and farmers, she’s expanding the model to include artisans, fishermen, and other Maine producers.

Her friend Patrick Hutchings, co-owner of H & H Mercantile, happens to be the son of a lobsterman, and so, she will be selling his father’s lobsters through the website. Naturally, once the word gets out, Moore will be looking for more products.

“I’d love to pair up with more lobstermen and fishermen, and I’d love to find an oyster farmer,” she said.

In between deliveries, she participates in one farmer’s market each week, showcasing much of her collaborations with others.

“I end up bringing a lot of Patrick’s crafter clients’ items to this farmer’s markets to sell as well and I want to do more around Maine-made natural crafts, such as goat’s milk soaps, which I also happen to make,” she said. “But I sold out on the first day, so I want to find more makers of goat milk soap. I have another farmer who makes these wonderful tinctures and I’d love to be able to offer a whole line of Maine-made home gifts and personal items.”

Asked if she works 80 hours a week to accomplish all of this she said: “Oh God, you don’t even put numbers on it. I try to get as much of the prep work and planning in the winter done as I can.”

Find out more at https://www.maineproducealliance.com/

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Author and photographer Bob Trapani’s latest coffee table lighthouse book, Gleams and Whispers: Maine’s Lighthouses and Their Allure, examines some of Maine’s 66 lighthouses from angles and perspectives rarely seen.

Trapani sees lighthouses not merely as useful structures, but as watchers, sentinels, and keepers of human life.

“It all starts with light,” he said. “They represent the finest of the human spirit in that they were built to save lives by preventing shipwrecks in the dark, stormy weather, and fog.”

As the Executive Director of the American Lighthouse Foundation, he is able to access some lighthouses, getting into places the general public doesn’t usually have permission to see. In addition, he has cultivated long-time connections with members of the lighthouse community and for the last 25 years, has worked as a volunteer lighthouse technician for the Coast Guard Auxillary. For the book, Trapani climbed through rockweed-covered ledges, stood outside in sub-zero winter temperatures at dawn, trudged through waist-high snow, waded through the ocean, and laid down in brine pools to get his shots.

“I view lighthouses from all different aspects, from a preservation side, an aid to navigation side, and from the general public’s view of them as well,” he said. “I have a deep appreciation of the history of each one, so I like to pull subtle components from all of these various angles into one photograph.”

Here are three photographs in which Trapani explains what it took to get the shot. “I try to tell the story of each lighthouse through unique angles.”

 Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, Bristol (p. 143)

“I often spend time looking up down, and around, and not even look at the lighthouse because I’m looking for an aspect that people haven’t seen before,” he said. “I was down on the north end on the rocks and found a puddle. People probably thought I was crazy, lying down flat on the rocks with my camera inches above the tide pool. This image through the puddle is reflected through time. That lighthouse looks the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”

Lubec Channel Lighthouse, Lubec (p. 55)

“I’m standing on the gallery looking down at the water,” he said. “The sun was coming up over Campobello island and to me, I saw the lighthouse’s history in the shadow of the shot. There’s so much to a lighthouse that is a mystery and we’re never going to learn about all of it. You can visit these places over and over and you may not ever see this perspective of the lighthouse ever again.”

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde (p. 131)

“To me, this spoke to the idea of renewal—vitality was returning to the coast of Maine and beauty was blossoming. The Marshall Point lighthouse is just one of those places you have to see in person in the spring in the splendor of the flowers and the greenery. By the way, the one tulip that’s broken—I did not do that, but I did use it!”

For more information about Gleams and Whispers: Maine’s Lighthouses and Their Allure, visit shop.momentsinmaine.com

ROCKPORT—A group of farmers, food manufacturers, artisans, and even a food truck have started a new farmer’s market at the former Rockport Elementary School site on West Street on Wednesdays starting at 3 p.m.

The site, owned by the town of Rockport, is being developed into a community park with the financial help of the Lesher Family Foundation, which is investing $3 million into the 6.7 acres for its transformation. According to the LFF website, “The space [RES] is a magnet, an anchor, a center of gravity used by so many different people.” See that story here.

Not to be confused with the Rockport Farmer’s Market at Guini Ridge Farm, on 310 Commercial Street, Rockport, the new West Street Farmer’s Market sits right at the busy intersection of routes 90 and 1.

The farmer’s market’s second week started out foggy and rainy, but the seven vendors who stuck it out under tents have faith that the site, and the market, will take off this summer.

Sue Hamel, of Dogpatch Farm in Washington, has been credited with its organization.

Hamel, who sells farm-raised pork, turkey, chicken, baked goods, and handmade soaps, and who has been active with the Camden Farmer’s Market, saw the potential for a new market in collaboration with whom she was already working.

“We needed a new outlet and some of these people I’d already worked with, I knew they had quality products,” she said. “We plan to use this whole area and expect a lot more vendors to join us as the summer goes on.”

The Brother Shucker food truck, owned by Zak Kuras, sits adjacent to Hamel’s tent. Kuras’s specialty is supplying cold fresh oysters sourced from Damariscotta, along with specialty burgers and dumplings.

The casual atmosphere lends itself to mingling with other vendors. Sometimes, they even use each other’s products in their own offerings.

“I love the community here because it is so welcoming,” said Kuras. “And then I get to try other vendor’s products; for example, I’m using [Dogpatch Farm’s] pork belly to make a pork burger.”

Peter Alsop, owner of Tenderwild Farm in Rockport, also has a vendor area. In its second growing season, the farm offers an array of fresh produce at the Rockport Farmer’s Market.

“This location is a natural gathering place,” said Alsop. “And we’re excited to see how the market can grow along with the new park.”

Steph Grant, of Hawthorn and Thistle Farm, raises endangered heritage sheep, sells sheep and goat sausage, and also spins the fibers of the sheep for yarn and felted goods.

The Graze features fresh-squeezed juices.

Tanya Harsch, of Appleton, an oil painter and printmaker was the only artist at the farmer’s market. 

“I have done craft fairs as well but think it’s more of a spontaneous discovery to find artwork at a farmer’s market,” she said. “Here, you don’t get lost in the noise.” 

Sweet Monkey Business co-owner Matt Burke takes his signature shortbread cookies and granola to the market.

“We’ve been in markets with Sue before and we love the location and Wednesdays seem to be a really good fit for everybody, “ he said. “And this community really wants something like this.” 

As the market grows, other vendors will be added. The market opens at 3 p.m. on Wednesdays rain or shine and goes to 6 p.m.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

MIDCOAST—In the midst of one of the soggiest summers we’ve seen in years, there will be a respite in the weather on Tuesday, July 4, a.k.a. Independence Day with forecasts calling for partly sunny skies.  However, bring a poncho or umbrella for the possibility of pop-up thunderstorms.

Check out the events in your area.

Belfast

At noon on July 4, Belfast will host Songs of America – American history is told through song and speakers in a fun-filled nostalgic hour, outside at The Park on Main (just below Rollie’s). In case of rain, it will be moved to the Boathouse on Front Street. Seating is on the grass. Take your chair or blanket and your spirit for this heartwarming annual family event. A free presentation from the Belfast Parks & Recreation Dept.

Searsport

Update: Due to the weather forecast, the town of Searsport has postponed the fireworks show for the evening of July 4. The forecast is for possible rain and thundershowers in the area followed by fog. No future date for the display is offered. 

The parade and other events are still on schedule as planned. The Variety Show is happening tonight as planned.

For a town that has been making the news for its artistic and literary resurgence, Searsport is a get-away-from-the-crowd experience this Tuesday with the Penobscot Marine Museum Visitor Center celebrating July 4 with free admission all day, including traditional activities such as croquet, a bean bag toss, and children’s crafts in the crescent of the museum. Food and vendors start at 9 a.m. on Main Street with a chicken BBQ starting at 11:30 a.m. until sold out. Food and vendors start at 9 a.m. on Main Street with a chicken BBQ starting at 11:30 a.m. until sold out. The parade is still on, and starts at 11 a.m. The variety show is still happening as planned.

Camden

Update: The determination will be made on the morning of July 4 whether fireworks will still commence and you can find out more information here.

After a three-year hiatus, Camden is once again pulling out all of the stops with fireworks at Camden Harbor starting at 9 p.m. Central Maine Pyrotechnics is producing the event at the newly designated area located at the mouth of Sherman Cove. Catch this nighttime show sitting on the Schooner Olad or on a blanket in Harbor Park and wait for the spectacular grand finale—that always gets a few shrieks from the kids! FMI: Camden

Earlier in the day, Camden Rotary Club’s annual Music by the Sea celebration will present four free concerts to the Camden Library Amphitheatre.

The music, made possible by the generous sponsorships from local individuals and businesses, will start at noon and continue into the evening:

Noon to 1 p.m.:  Bay Chamber Concerts Jazz Ensemble (Village Green)
2 to 3:15 p.m.:   Midcoast Symphony Orchestra (Library Amphitheatre)
4 to 5 p.m.:   Folk Duo Elsie & Ethan (Library Amphitheatre)
6 to 7:15 p.m.: The Right Track R&B/Soul/Funk (Library Amphitheatre)

Thomaston

Thomaston, arguably, has the most attended Independence Day “Freedom & Fireworks” event, and therefore, expect some crowds.

The day will start with a kids’ Fun Race starting at 8 a.m., and a Firecracker 5K race starting at 8:30 a.m.

The craft show opens at 9 a.m. with more than 20 vendors. A parade starts at 11 a.m. (with a battle of the bands competing as they walk!), a car show, and an American Legion motorcycle show running from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with tons of activities for kids during the day as well as live bands throughout the event. As for food, a BBQ Chicken dinner begins at 12:30 p.m. until sold out.

Other vendors include Station 118, Stone Fox Ice Cream, The Scone Goddess, Elevat8 Energy, The Hernandez Family, Fun N’ Shine, and the American Legion. And just after it gets dark, the fireworks display will cap off a memorable ending to the day-long celebration. FMI: Thomaston Freedom & Fireworks

Vinalhaven

You’ll have to catch the ferry at the Rockland Ferry Terminal, but Vinalhaven is gearing up for a very special community July 4 celebration with the theme of “Vintage Vinalhaven.” Booths open at 9:30 a.m. with a silent auction, from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., food vendors open at 10 a.m., and a parade starting at 11 a.m.  FMI: Vinalhaven

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

WARREN — Anyone craving authentic jerk chicken, tender and juicy, slow-cooked on the grill, along with rice and peas, a classic Jamaican side, need only to go to Beth’s Farm Market every weekend while Dennis McCalla is cooking.

For the 23rd season, McCalla, a loyal employee of Beth’s Farm Market, has returned to the farm and has turned a family recipe into a customer favorite. Inside a corrugated metal hut that Beth’s Farm Market had built for him, McCalla can be found tending the grill with seasoned jerk chicken and pouring a giant stockpot of rice and peas into chafers while customers line up. There are plenty of picnic tables behind the hut, under shady trees.

When McCalla first went to Beth’s in 2000, he worked on the farm through a program supported by the Jamaican government for traveling farm workers. His specialty was tending to the strawberries. The farm, owned by Beth and Vincent Ahlholm since 1979, offers a variety of produce, from spinach, tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, and sweet corn, to apples, pumpkins, and potatoes, in season.

“We used to cook down by the camp where we stay and we recommended [those dishes] when they’d put on a community dinner in August,” he said.

Approximately five years ago, McCalla said the owners asked him to take his signature dish to the farm market on weekends and holiday Mondays.

The meal includes a half of jerk chicken, rice and peas (with kidney beans as the “peas”), festival bread, and a bottle of water, for $18.50, plus tax.

McCalla who was born in Clarendon, Jamaica, moved to the U.S. in 1999 and has been a naturalized citizen of the U.S. since 2017. He gets his chickens from a poultry farm in Waterville and slow-cooks them in Jamaican spices that he orders on the internet. He puts them on an industrial iron grill and takes several hours to seal in all of those flavors. The festival bread is made in-house similar to a sweet fry cake.

McCalla enjoys the process of cooking every weekend and having his own hut with his name on it.

“It’s all right, you know?” he said.

He said people return every year from out of state, not just to shop at Beth’s, which is a destination unto itself, but to make the drive for the chicken.

“It’s crazy sometimes, on a sunny day, we have people in a long line,” he said.

Visit Beth’s Farm Market in person at White Oak Farms on Western Road in Warren. The season runs from Mid-April through December; open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Visit Beth’s Farm Market’s Facebook page for more info on when McCalla will be cooking.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—If you like a dirty martini, you’re going to love Nautilus Seafood & Grill’s Pickled Fiddlehead Martini, only seasonally available, and harvested locally.

Nautilus Bar Manager Katie Hills had to be careful not to reveal either the name of the forager who procures the delectable Maine seasonal fiddlehead — the tiny shoots of an ostrich fern that can only be picked late April to early June. Nor could she reveal his secret foraging spots. All she could say about the star ingredient to their cocktail is that the person sold them 24 pints of them in a special brine, and when they’re gone, they’re gone!

This traditional martini made with small-batch crafted Maine-made Twenty 2 vodka has been available for the past eight years at Nautilus and it’s a hit with both locals and tourists, some of whom have never even heard of a fiddlehead.

“This was a collaborative idea, but the idea was to have an original Maine cocktail you couldn’t get anywhere else,” said Hill’s colleague, Laura Hastings, who knows the identity of the harvester. “When he started bringing in these jars of the pickled fiddleheads, we thought, this would taste really good with vodka.”

We set out to see how the cocktail is made and what it really looks like.

First you fill a shaker of ice and add four oz of the Twenty 2 vodka. Then, add a splash of the pickled fiddlehead brine. Shake and strain off the ice. Finally, give the chilled martini glass a “kiss” of the Dolin vermouth into the martini glass. Garnish with a fiddlehead. To see how to make one, watch the video.

Hill explained her “kiss of vermouth” technique that gives the spotlight to the vodka and brine instead.

“With martinis, oftentimes people will ask for them to be dry, and since vermouth is tricky to work with, I find it always comes out perfectly to swish it in the glass and dump it out and that just makes it perfect,” she said.

In our “What’s in that cocktail?” series, we encourage our readers to make the cocktail at home. But, with the short season of fiddleheads now over, the only way one can do that is either buy a jar of pickled fiddleheads (there are some at Beth’s Farm Market in Warren) or go to Nautilus and have them make it for you. We’re told there are 22 pints left, so get in there while you can!

The first sip will have the sides of your tongue feeling like a splash of the ocean with its saline taste. The brine is similar to the brine of olive juice with just a kick of red pepper. There’s an earthiness to this drink with the fiddlehead that mellows with each sip. The crunch of the briny fiddlehead garnish is the savory treat at the end.

To see all of our past “What’s In That Cocktail” series (with video!) check out our “Iconic Cocktails” resource page: The best craft cocktails in the Midcoast

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

WASHINGTON—Just down the road from Union where Jillian Lary and Brian Fickett, owners of Sterlingtown Public House live and work, sits a roadside take-out called The Spot by Sterlingtown, the couple’s third business venture in four years.

The Spot is not your average take-out stand and is designed to be a destination in itself.

Sitting back from the busy Route 17 road that connects the Midcoast to Augusta, it boasts an enclosed screened-in area that seats about 20 with an outdoor beer garden area that can seat about 45 people.

“We moved here about four years ago and opened the restaurant, and then opened the café and just feel that this area is a culinary destination and hotspot,” said Fickett. “It’s all about providing the community with another option.”

The Spot’s main offerings include a smashburger that customers can customize their way with different toppings and sauces, all complimentary as part of the price.

“We’ve got fries, onion rings, and lobster rolls sourced locally,” said Fickett. “I know a lot of people inland really would like to have some seafood out this way.”

They’ll also serve Shaker Pond ice cream cones and hot fudge sundaes.

“They’re out of Alfred Maine, a brand that you don’t see a lot of around here, but their product is top notch and they’re great folks to work with,” he said.

With a liquor license, The Spot is able to provide craft Maine and New England beers in the can, such as Allagash and Lawson’s Finest Liquids, as well as wine, and cider.

Lary and Fickett are going for the fun, family-friendly, and cool hangout-for-friends vibe with reggae playing all day and Pacifico beer on the menu.

“We’re kind of going for the beachy vibe out here with corn hole, a slack line, a hammock, so it’s just a cool spot to come hang and be low-key,” he said.

The Spot will be open Wed-Sunday noon to 8 p.m. Find them on Facebook.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

SEARSPORT—The humble shop that sits at the Hobby Horse Antiques Marketplace in Searsport (383 E. Main Street) is actually a hub of creative collaboration between multiple industries in Maine.

Patrick Hutchings and his husband, Jack Hill, both artisans themselves, wanted a small place to sell their own upcycled artwork, as well as give lesser-known makers and crafters in the area more exposure. 

Having recently moved back to the Midcoast from Florida after being away for nearly 20 years. Hutchings, who grew up in Lincolnville, his father a lobsterman, knew they belonged back in the Midcoast. In Stockton Springs, where they own a home, they used cut wood from trees on their property to repurpose the 17-foot x 8-foot shop.

“We thought we’d start with this small concept of carrying other artists’ items and see if it took off,” said Hutchings. “People all over just started contacting me and it’s grown.”

The offerings from H & H Mercantile are eclectic, ranging from vintage items, artwork, crocheted and crafted pieces, food items, and home goods, where freeze-dried candies and homegrown teas are popular sellers. And most of the solo entrepreneurs H & H Mercantile represents live and work in rural areas such as Lincolnville, Morrill, or Stockton Springs.

“I try to only carry one type of artisan at a time,” he said. “Everyone is super friendly and talented, and what each person makes is totally unique.”

Hutchings’s ability to connect little-known artisans, makers, and crafters, some of whom just work out of their living rooms and kitchens, doesn’t just end there.

Based on his roots in Maine and having grown up and worked in the Midcoast, Hutchings has made all kinds of collaborative alignments with friends and colleagues to grow the tiny store into a farmer’s market, as well. His childhood friendship with home gardener Jessica Bennett, allows them to offer seedlings and hardy Maine plants on a weekly basis.

“She doesn’t have a formal business; she just runs a tiny nursery out of her own greenhouse and property and brings her assortment of plants and seedlings to us every week,” said Hutchings. “Everything is field grown to Maine hardy temperatures.”

Another friendship with Beth Gindel, who runs the Hennery in Hope, led to the provision of some of their farm-raised eggs.

Beyond that, Hutchings’s collaboration with another good friend Nicole Moore, a first-generation Liberty farmer, who founded the Maine Produce Alliance, sets his little gift store apart, connecting to an industry that usually doesn’t pair with artists.

Since 2019, Moore has organized a network of local farmers who all produce quality local ingredients and sell their products online and at farmer’s markets. Maine Produce Alliance’s farm share subscription boxes are a weekly farmer’s choice assortment that Moore and her team deliver all over Maine. H & H Mercantile serves as one of its pick-up locations.

Moore also delivers farm products, such as garlic, shallots, rhubarb, microgreens, eggs, and other seasonal produce every week, as well.

Hutchings will also soon be offering another food item, one that is close to home—he’s working on a license to sell his father’s lobsters.

In Maine everybody has their “thing” and it’s great to see all of these alliances to lift up microbusinesses as a whole.

The Hobby Horse Antiques Marketplace is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. six days a week

H&H Mercantile is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. This will be adjusted as the summer progresses. For more information visit H & H Mercantile on Facebook and Instagram.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—No sooner had we pressed the “publish” button on the Welcome back to the Rockland area, Snow Birds 2023 article than a host of new businesses and expansions sprung up like dandelions in Rockland. Here’s the rundown of what’s new and what to check out during the annual Summer Solstice Street Party on June 17.

Main Street Markets renovates, expands to-go food offerings

After months of renovation, Main Street Markets, a full-service specialty grocer, deli, and cafe, held its grand re-opening on Wednesday, June 7. Co-founder Jennifer Rockwell, along with her father, co-founder Rick Rockwell, listened to community input, which requested fewer retail options and more options for more prepared foods to go. 

The new Hot & Cold Food Bar with a daily rotating culinary theme such as Indian-inspired Monday and Taco Tuesday, is offered on weekdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on Saturday, 9 a.m. to  2 p.m.  The store also has an in-house bakery, grab-and-go items, breakfast and lunch for sit-down or take-out, salads, vegan offerings, provisions, and prepared meals from Ada’s Kitchen, an Italian restaurant down the street.

“We have coffee by Speckled Ax, a new espresso machine, and a soft-serve ice cream maker,” said Jen Rockwell. The store also carries many local beers and wines and other non-alcoholic beverages.

To see Main Street Markets menu and other offerings visit: www.mainstreetmarkets.com

Winafred & Evalyn opens on Main Street

A new home goods and furnishings store, operated by Hiata Corduan, has recently opened in the Thorndike building lobby on 385 Main Street next to Curator. “I named the store after both of my grandmothers and it’s been years in the making, but the theme is vintage, upcycled, and new,” she said.

Corduan has sourced her inventory from artists in Maine and from around the country. “I really try to source from a lot of small women-owned businesses,” she said.

Her store offerings include pillows and throws, linens, tote bags and accessories, glasses and dishware, candles and soaps, and furnishings and lighting. Her main aesthetic is recycled or upcycled pieces that have been well-crafted, along with new, quality home goods.

“I try to hit all the price points for folks, for a gift to give someone or just to yourself,” she said.

Her store is open Wednesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information visit: www.winifredandevalyn.com

Two Daughters Maine Sea Salt

Blink and you might miss it, but down the residential street on 11 Talbot Avenue in a converted garage, is Ian and Emily Emmott’s sea salt micro-business. He makes and sells around a dozen varieties from flake sea salt to flavored sea salts out of the attached garage.

Ian Emmott souces his salt from seawater, which he harvests off secluded harbors in the Midcoast. He even made his own wood-fired kiln, which he uses to process down to a concentrated brine, and then sun cures it to its final form. The Emmotts, who are raising two small daughters, (hence the business name) wanted a side business that allowed them to spend more time with their children. Ian Emmott, a veteran, left his cushy job at the Veterans Association, in order to do that, and to make his own natural products from home.

The store hours are Monday through Wednesday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information visit: www.twodaughtersmaine.com

Harvest The Light, jewelry store opens

Seth Fainkujen, a jewelry artist who went to high school in Belfast, and has been gone for 20 years, recently moved back to the Midcoast to Rockland with his wife. His renovated studio is at 26 Rankin Street (formerly the Ripple Initiative).

His custom-crafted jewelry is full of poetry, reminiscent of themes of the sea, pirates, Vikings, folktales, and more. “I look at making jewelry as though making future artifacts,” he said. “If they were found 200 years from now, they’d still be timeless. I really enjoy history, folklore, and whimsical stuff. I try to incorporate it in the design process to give each piece this explosive feeling, like harvesting the light.”

His hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for walk-ins on weekdays and by appointment on the weekend. Find his work at: https://harvest-the-light.com

Summer Solstice Street Party & Rock The Dock takes place June 17

Main Street in Rockland will be closed down for a family-friendly street party from 4 to 7 p.m. with live music, dancing, kids activities, crafts, and more. Then, the adult’s-only dock party takes place from 6 to 10 p.m at Journey’s End Marina. Adults Only 21 and Over, I.D. Required. No Cover, Cash-only bar, games, dancing, and live music by Red House with support from DJ Dan Miller. FMI: Facebook

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—There’s something so suitable about a library gallery that puts on a book arts exhibit. Camden Public Library is hosting three book artists in a joint exhibit in the Picker Room Gallery during the month of June.

The hush of the library is the perfect backdrop for this group show. The three artists on exhibit are Barry McCallion, Nan Haid, and Joelle Webber. Each sculptural work needs your full attention for at least a minute per piece to fully realize what each artist has infused into it. 

McCallion, who currently lives and works on the east end of Long Island, New York, has been described in an article from The East Hampton Star as creating “astonishingly beautiful and utterly unique books.” His handmade books and artwork are meticulously crafted and book lovers will truly enjoy viewing his work.

Haid, a professor emeritus, has exhibited nationally for 50 years, including several times at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, in Washington, D.C. Her crazy quilts, in particular, are visual diaries to behold and her Whitman Sampler piece is simply just fun to look at.

Joelle Webber’s merfolk series was particularly captivating.

What Webber calls her “Mermaid ABeCedarian” is an accordion alphabet book on dusky blue paper. “In calligraphic terms, I've created each letterform based on historical models, which incorporate different flourishes, downstrokes, and techniques,” she said. She used a broad-edged tool to create fin-like flourishes. Upon closer look, within all of the embossed letters are hand-drawn merfolk, or what's known as a ‘bestiery,’ an alphabet made out of creatures.

Webber, who draws from her own collection of books on mermaids, has gathered a story behind each letter of her anthology. “Every culture in the world has a mermaid folktale,” she said. “Each letter represents a mermaid story from a different culture. For example, ‘A’ is for Argyle, Scotland. ‘B’ is for Brazil and ‘C’ is for the Caribbean.”

Above this still-unfinished book is a framed portrait of the same merfolk in a piece she titled “Interrupted Play.” It’s as if the merfolk escaped their rigid formation of A-B-C letterforms in the book below and sprung into a random collective in an ocean above. Once again, it takes a minute to fully appreciate the entire piece and its intent. It’s not random at all. The bestiary illustrates a poem, which, as the title card explains, is part of a short story Webber wrote at a young age to describe a community of merfolk at play.

Go enjoy the exhibit while it lasts in the ephemeral month of June from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. generally. Note: The Picker Room hosts meetings and library events and is not always open for viewing. Best to call ahead before your visit or check their website calendar to see what’s happening daily.

For more information about the show visit: www.librarycamden.org

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

BELFAST—There’s a handwritten sign on the door of Belfast’s newest independent bookshop, Grump & Sunshine at 159 High Street, that reads: “Shame does not exist between these four walls. Please keep judgment to yourself.”

The expansive and rose-colored shop owned by 25-year-old Cassidy James Taylor is a haven, she says, for people who love romance novels and aren’t ashamed of it.

“When you come in here, whatever you like in romance is acceptable, and that you’re supported,” she said. “I had a customer come in, mention that sign and tell me she appreciated that because she’d been told that romance is silly and she shouldn’t read it.”

Having been a solo entrepreneur since the age of 17 and a lover of romance novels all of her life, she officially opened the shop on May 22, 2023.

“I grew up on books,” she said. “I was a shy kid— still shy,” she said. “Books were my best friend and put me into worlds that weren’t my own.”

Romance is having a resurgence. “Over the last several years, particularly through the pandemic, romance as a genre has skyrocketed,” she said. “The number of big-name publishers who are taking on romance has increased; usually it’s been smaller independent presses and self-published authors dominating the romance genre. There are now publishers branching off and having only romance-only sections.”

Her shop, done up in lots of pink and florals, has subgenres of romance grouped together in little clustered stacks all around the store.

For example: mafia and hockey romance—who knew that such subgenres even existed?

“Hockey romance is having a huge surge right now,” she said, “There’s even a bump in female viewing of hockey games on TV because of so many women getting into the books.”

“There are so many subgenres so I try to have as many as I can,” she said.

Her shop additionally carries fantasy, historical, contemporary, paranormal, LGBTQ, young adult, and even a category she calls: MILF but the “M” stand for monster.”

“Generally in monster romance, the female is human and the male is not,” she said.

That’s to say, love can be found in many forms, faces, and fetishes.

Take, for example, her “kink” section, which harkens back to the sign she’s got posted on her door. One title seemed to be taboo to pick up: “Your Dad Will Do” a book by Katee Robert, about seducing her cheating fiance’s father.

The name of her store is a fitting nod to the industry.

“Grump and Sunshine is a trope within the romance genre,” she said. “It’s generally when opposites attract: one person is grumpy and sour and the other is sunny and the name just kind of fits what I wanted for the shop.”

Taylor is now the fourth bookstore in tiny Belfast, which boats a big, book-rich community.

“The other bookstores have been so supportive; we’re all different from one another and I think it definitely works,” said Taylor. “People have come in and told me they’ve never seen some of these authors before, so we get to expose them to all kinds of new ways to read.”

Taylor said she also carries Maine authors who specialize in romance and intends to hold author readings and events in the future. Based on feedback she’s gotten so far, she thinks Grump & Sunshine might be a destination store.

“We’re the only romance-only bookshop in Maine,” she said. “here are a few in the country and one in Canada.”

Grump & Sunshine will be open six days a week. 

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKPORT—Perhaps before this weekend, not many people knew that the creator of the Donut Hole, Captain Hanson Crockett Gregory, lived in Rockport, Maine. They do now.

The site where the Nativity Lutheran Church is located is the birthplace of Capt. Hanson Gregory and where the only monument to the donut hole in Rockport is located.

Starting on National Donut Day (June 2) the town of Rockport kicked off an inaugural weekend filled with donut-themed festivities. The Rockport Donut Festival was created to pay homage to the doughnut's history.

After a  stellar nearly 80-degree day leading up to the weekend, Friday and Saturday plunged into the mid-40s with rain—April temperatures!—but that didn’t stop people from coming out for a dance party on Friday night with the super funky Motor Booty Affair under a tent in Rockport Harbor.

Saturday’s main events included a parade down Main Street where fire trucks, schoolchildren, families dressed up in festive wear, and bystanders all cheered as they wound their way down to the harbor.

Hundreds of people flooded into Rockport Harbor on foot where there were food trucks, a donut truck with the banner: “Not responsible for donut addiction,” and a large tent set up with donut vendors and coffee stations. It was a cheery sight to see people crowded around a table munching on a pile of donuts. All of the vendors sold out of their donuts due to the overwhelming demand.

As the day ran on, so did citizens of the Midcoast, undeterred by the cold rain. About 190 people registered for The Friends of the Rockport Public Library’s Donut Dash 5K Family Fun. The 140 runners who actually came out, called “The Donut Dashers”—the most ever for a 5K run said the organizers—ran the 5K Rockport route. See our PenBay Pilot story for winners and photos. 

All day long, other festivities included a book sale at the Rockport Library, donut games and activities for children, a cornhole competition, a homemade donut contest, and a talk about “The Hole History” with Alexis Iammarino, a Rockland artist, who organized a public history show, “Hole History: Origins of American-Style Donut” in a story I wrote for Pen Bay Pilot in 2016. 

Saturday evening’s events capped off with a special Dinner on The Bridge (which, due to the weather, turned out to be Dinner under the Tent) and another dance party with DJ D-Vice spinning.

“We have so much gratitude for all who came out to support our inaugural Rockport Donut Festival,” said organizer Kari Luehman. “This weekend was certainly a testament to the hardiness of our community and a big celebration of circular joy— in all ways — eating, playing, dancing, and being together in community. We hope you found moments of sweetness and connection... and were able to savor some delicious donuts!”

For more information, videos, and photos of the weekend visit The Rockport Donut Festival’s Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

LINCOLNVILLE—It’s been several years since Lincolnville Beach had an ice cream shop and this summer, The Sweet Retreat, part of The Lobster Pound, will be serving up Maine-made ice cream, sundaes and milkshakes.

Joe Cloud, The Lobster Pound’s new manager, said, “With so many people coming to Lincolnville Beach this summer, everybody is looking for a great, Maine ice cream and we had the space, so we decided it was time to re-open it.”

The shop will be selling Gifford’s ice cream, a well-known Maine brand whose humble roots started on a dairy farm. With more than 40 years in the business of making homemade ice cream from locally sourced ingredients, the award-winning Gifford’s brand sells more than two million gallons of ice cream around the country each year. Cloud said the most popular flavor at The Sweet Retreat is their Moose Tracks and chocolate chip cookie dough flavors.

Speaking of moose, it’s guaranteed this is the only ice cream shop in Maine, and the world, that houses two giant taxidermied moose in the shop along with their companion, a taxidermied turkey.

The shop, which is open from 11 a.m. to  8 p.m. on the days the restaurant is open, offers sugar cones, waffles cones, sundaes, and custom milkshakes.

Cloud said the ice cream shop is not the only news: the restaurant will soon be offering breakfast and a Sunday brunch in about a month, collaborating with local Lincolnville purveyors Dot’s for baked goods and pastries and Green Tree Coffee & Tea for coffee.

“We are all about building community relationships, and along with supporting Dot’s and Green Tree, we’ve been buying our lobster from the same lobsterman for years, so likely there will be a lobster and crab benedict on the breakfast menu,” he said.

In addition, The Lobster Pound will once again, offer Happy Hour once the season gets rolling, which is welcome news to the locals. “We’ll have live music on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays,” said Cloud.

For more information stay tuned to their Facebook page.

Ice Cream for Everyone!

Maine already has a Beer Trail, a Distillery Trail, a Farm Trail, and a Cheese Trail which spans the entire state. Why not an ice cream trail?

We’ve compiled a custom list (see sidebar) including a visual Google Maps link to encourage locals and tourists alike to make a day of patronizing local Maine ice cream shops and getting a taste of everything on the Midcoast. It’s decadent, but what a summer bucket list!

The beautiful thing about Maine and ice cream is how well local, and seasonal ingredients go together from cucumber lime cilantro to mango sticky rice.

On this ice cream trail, you’ll find just about everything for every taste: hand-crafted, small-batch ice cream, banana splits, gelato, sorbetto, vegan, and even adult milkshakes with vodka.

Get your scoop on this summer.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—This is our annual “Welcome back” article to acquaint those who haven’t been around this winter to see what’s open, what’s closed, what's new, and what's happening. Here is your Rockland rundown for the summer.

New Restaurants and Street Food

While not new, Café Miranda, which had to close last fall due to a number of factors imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, has re-imagined its dining concept three ways, so that it may re-open again soon. As PenBay Pilot covered in a recent story, chef Kerry Alterio is re-opening Miranda as a street food pop-up, a catering company in-house, and for exclusive dinners.

Speaking of street food, Wiley’s, a new breakfast/lunch stand owned by chef Kyle Apel at 346 Main Street opened this month with an elevated, locally-sourced menu. Read that PenBay Pilot story.

A Rockport pizza joint may soon relocate to Camden Street if approval is granted by the Rockland Planning Board. Aphiwat Ruklittikul (Mr. Wat) is seeking to bring his takeout restaurant, Spice Pizzeria, to a former gas station at 59 Camden Street. Read that PenBay Pilot story.

Down the road in Owls Head at the Knox County Regional Airport, travelers and locals can get some home-cooked good food at The Apron, under Matthew Stilphen, a one-man operation with a simple philosophy: Make good food at prices working people can afford. Read that recent PenBay Pilot story.

Down in Thomaston, two new developments will delight the locals. Hot Hill Tavern, owned by husband-and-wife Carly Laughery and Nate Millerare soon opening a community tavern and restaurant at the old Weymouth Grange Hall, formerly Billy’s Tavern. Read our PenBay Pilot story.   And the rumors are true: The Slipway in Thomaston is re-opening Memorial Day weekend after a long hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Follow their news on Facebook.

Over in Union, The Community Kitchen, spearheaded by the Knox County Gleaners, a community organization that collects surplus food from farmers, gardeners, and orchard owners and gives it to food pantries, soup kitchens, libraries, senior homes, and other community hubs, is building a kitchen, which would give the organization the ability to process and provide fresh gleaned foods and prepare “ready to heat and eat” meals. Read that PenBay Pilot story. And soon, Union will also have another eatery, The owners of Sterlingtown Public House, are opening a burger shack called The Spot. Stay tuned to their Facebook page for the grand opening. And this just in: Alsace, a new restaurant in Union, has just announced it will be opening in the old Come Spring location. Stay tuned to their Facebook page for more details.

Business News

This is a little shout-out to the businesses and news the community might be interested in:

Following renovations, Main Street Markets is excited to open its doors with a new espresso coffee program featuring Speckled Axe Coffee and other locally roasted coffee, more prepared food options, including a hot & cold self-serve food bar. The new summer menu will feature an in-house bakery program, a new breakfast and lunch menu, prepared food items to go, additional seating, and expanded hours.  This summer, the Market will host pop-up dinner events and private dinners with guest chefs in a new adjacent art and dining space.

The schooner Grace Bailey will leave her  Camden Harbor as she heads out onto Penobscot Bay, and sets course for Rockland Harbor. Read that story here.

After six years, The Edna St. Vincent Millay House in Rockland is finally complete and open to visitors. Read that story here.

Pen Bay Medical Center (PBMC) has retained a real estate broker to sell several properties in downtown Rockland, including the site that houses its long-term nursing care facility at 6 White St. and the adjacent Bok Building at 22 White St. Read that story here.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—This is our annual “Welcome back” article to acquaint those who haven’t been around this winter to see what’s open, what’s closed, what's new, and what's happening. Here is your Camden-Rockport rundown for the summer.

New Restaurants

Several new restaurants have opened this year including Gypsy Rose Tavern, in the former Cedar Crest restaurant space on Elm Street, serving pizza, wings, beer, and wine with a reputation for supporting local, live music.

Wolfpeach, a Camden restaurant at 50 Elm Street, announced a new concept that is more accessible, going back to its roots with sourdough pizza. See that PenBay Pilot story here.

Whistling Whale, a cold-brew coffee shop, just opened in the Lyman-Morse Marina on April 5 serving cold brewed coffee and home-baked goods. See that PenBay Pilot story here.

Bistro La Cave, a new French-inspired bar, restaurant, and jazz and blues located on the public landing in downtown Camden, is set to open in late May.

Camden News

Midcoast Sports Exchange, a sports consignment shop for new and used gear, first opened in Rockport last November, as Pen Bay Pilot initially reported, and quickly outgrew its space, so moved again to Camden in March with an expanded store. See updated story.

Last fall, the Camden Post Office temporarily shuttered, temporarily suspending retail operation due to the construction of the building, and customers who needed to pick up delivered items had to go to the Rockland post office, according to a Pen Bay Pilot story. The Pilot updated that story with the announcement that by April 11, the Camden Post Office would reopen mail service to Camden box holders with the hope that retail operations would be up and running by April 17.

Two marijuana retail shops have requested to open locations in Camden, which was discussed in a two-hour public hearing. The Select Board voted 4 to 1 on March 21 to let the voters decide the outcome at June 2023 Town Meeting. Read that story here.

In February, Mark and Catherine Bradstreet asked the Town of Camden for permission to establish a stand or shack by the fisherman’s dock on the Public Landing, from which they would sell lobster on a daily basis. In a follow-up phone call to Mark Bradstreet, he said the town denied the request, but said he will still be using the fisherman’s dock as a retail location to sell his lobsters directly to the public after Memorial Day and he’ll additionally offer lobster boat tours. Find that original story here.

The Select Board in Camden held a public hearing March 21 on amending its ordinances that would allow retail marijuana stores in specific districts. If the board finds in favor of moving the matter before the voters, it is to appear on Camden’s June 2023 Town Meeting warrant. Read that story here. Here’s a list of where to find other dispensaries in the Midcoast.

Rockport News

Jesse and Amanda Simko, from Rockport, opened Maine Cup in March, an online coffee subscription featuring only Maine coffee roasters across the state. Each month subscribers receive a new coffee from a Maine roaster and get an insider look through videography and photography. 

According to a March Pen Bay Pilot story, The Select Board in Rockport has agreed to ask voters in June at the annual town meeting if they will endorse spending $3.76 million on a new West Rockport Fire Station as well as make the former Rockport Elementary School a community park and recreation center. The Lesher Family Foundation, established in 2022 with headquarters in Rockport, has pledged to give the town money to set the RES site aside for use as a park, and to fund the creation of park designs, as well as public outreach efforts. The Foundation established a website that went live Friday, April 14.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

Things are usually quiet in Belfast over the winter, but Penobscot Bay Pilot has the rundown on what has opened and changed while you were gone.

New Restaurants & Bars

Sophia, a new beer and wine bar at the underground space on 84 Main Street in Belfast opened this winter under the helm of two friends, Steve Garrand and Luke Olson, who intentionally created it as a place they themselves would like to hang out in. Read that PenBay Pilot story here.

Egg rolls will be on the menu at Big Daddy’s Hot Box, a food truck, which is also taking over the concession stand at the Belfast City Park for 2023.

Out in Appleton, two other friends, chef and owner of Camden’s Boynton-McKay, Brian Beggarly and chef Andrew Bridge, formerly of Thomaston’s Station 118, opened Appleton’s only bar and restaurant, Fōda, which is an old English word for “food.” Fōda has now started a weekly farmer’s market at their location as well. Read that PenBay Pilot story here.

Down in Lincolnville, Aster & Rose, the new restaurant that opened in the Youngtown Inn by owners Michael and Karrie Nowak, made its debut last fall. With Michael in the kitchen as the chef, the menu is French-inspired with relaxed, contemporary, fare. Read that PenBay Pilot story here.

In Searsport, Hello Sailor, a taco, art, and cocktail restaurant PenBay Pilot covered last year in this story, announced a major expansion to its current downtown space, announcing its plans to add a pizza kitchen and raw bar in June.

New Businesses

Two new, independent bookstores have opened this spring. Anodyne, a Searsport bookshop just a few doors down from Hello Sailor is owned by at Elly Burnett on 33 East Main Street and launched its grand opening on April 8. See that PenBay Pilot story here. And Grump & Sunshine Bookshop, a new romance bookshop owned by Cassidy James Taylor at 159 High Street in Belfast, announced it was opening up in May. 

Frederico Martinez, who grew up in Maine, opened a new business in Belfast. As the proprietor of Waldo County Guns, he said he is the only Federal Firearms Licensed (FFL) gun business within the town of Belfast. FMI:207-332-2755 or email: waldocountyguns@gmail.com

Short Shots

The Colonial Theatre, which had been closed to the public during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, re-opened after a 15-month intermission last June. For those who weren’t aware, The Colonial,  a locally-owned three-screen cinema is back with a force, screening classic, cult, and new films in-person once again. See that story on PenBay Pilot.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

WALDOBORO—If the word “opera” brings forth the picture of a stuffy evening centered in a large concert hall, think again.

Opera in the Pines, an alternative opera company committed to reinventing the opera experience, will present Bar Crawl Bohème, an immersive, community-focused adaptation of the operatic classic “La bohème” in a first-of-its-kind bar crawl across Maine and they’ll debut their Midcoast performance at Oyster River Winegrowers in Warren May 12 at 7 p.m.

Three Maine-raised singers in their 30s are behind this company and their mission is to take the boring stigma out of the traditional opera experience and take it to new audiences.

Lauren Yokabaskas, one of the founding members and the General Director of Opera in the Pines, said she and her colleagues, Aaren Rivard and Sable Strout were all individually pursuing opera careers in Maine when they decided to join forces. “it’s kind of unique that we’re all working opera singers and during the pandemic were challenged to find a way forward, which is how we started Opera in the Pines.”

“When we started this, we wanted to create opportunities for Maine artists, do site-specific productions, and take opera into places you normally wouldn’t associate with the art form,” said Yokabaskas. “Classical music has this reputation of being a bit elitist and stuffy and that wasn’t how it started. Opera started as entertainment for the masses in a barroom setting where it was loud. Opera singers were kind of the rock stars of their era.”

What it is

“La bohème” is the traditional version that inspired the musical “Rent,” featuring various scenes in the lives of four struggling artists: a poet, a painter, a musician, and a philosopher. according to the opera description, “One Christmas Eve, their neighbor, the seamstress Mimì, knocks at their door, asking for a light for her candle. She quickly falls in love with the poet, Rodolfo, and their lives are changed forever. Our Bohemians attempt to find their way despite the dark realities of the world in this timeless story of the magic of first love, the special innocence of youth, and the devastation of loss.” 

Where it is

“We’re staging the show at Oyster River Winegrowers, a gorgeous farm and barn space where they make all of the wine on-site,” she said. “It’ll be a unique place to be to experience the beauty of Maine, but the set is going to look like a standard 20-something apartment with random Ikea furniture to underscore how genuine the story is.

Food & Drink

The menu will mirror the Italian opera with The Uproot Pie Company, a mobile pizza oven serving up sourdough pizza pies with local ingredients as well as cider, and wine offerings.

“I think Mainers can appreciate opera and there is a place for classical music but it has to be an evolving art form and accessible to everyone,” said Yokabaskas.

For more information visit: operainthepines.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKPORT—“Living the dream.” That’s what people often say when asked how they are doing. For Bonnie Brooks, owner of Bonnie’s Place, a market for Maine artisans, that sentiment is the truth.

Her post-and-beam two-story shop, custom-built on her property, is the home for 112 artists and crafters all over the state from Kennebunk to Fort Kent.

Earlier in her career, she was the co-owner of a wharf in Cushing and the Bay View Lobster Restaurant in Camden.

“I’ve been a crafter for many years and I was working for a company when the time came that I knew I had to do something different,” she said. “So, I contacted seven of my crafter friends and asked them if they’d be interested in supplying me with their crafts if I opened up a store. I literally started with those seven crafters in the old Edgecomb General Store as my initial location.”

After launching the business, she wanted to move the store closer to home. It didn’t get any closer than the 24 x 24-foot building she had built 100 feet from her house, which sits at 288 Mill Street in Rockport.

Now, she enjoys her days meeting new people and talking up her vendors.

“I only sell Maine-made products and quality is the top priority,” she said. “Everything is different so none of my crafters have to compete with similar items. I try to carry items you don’t see everywhere.”

Each corner of the shop features one-of-a-kind handmade items, including her own handmade wreaths.

The items span the gamut with spices, teas, syrups, jams, and products from the Scone Goddess and Bixby Chocolates, Maine authors, jewelry, soaps, fiber arts, pottery, quilts, ornaments, original art and photography, and toys.

Marionettes handcrafted from Fish River Crafts are one of her biggest sellers.

She said that tourists often come in and buy souvenirs and mementos of Maine to bring back home, while locals often come in and look around to check out the competition.

“I get a lot of people who say, ‘I could make that or what a good idea,” she said, laughing.

One day, a high school student came into her shop with an idea. He told her he wanted to make playing cards featuring Maine towns and later, Maine lakes. She encouraged him and he came back with his finished product—it was a big seller.

Brooks and five other local businesses have organized a “Maine-made” crawl this Saturday, May 6, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. called The Spring Hop.

She said a colleague named Pam Burgess got the idea after participating in a Spring Hop in another town, seeing it as a way to collaborate resources and promote Mainers and their products.

The other retailers include Cary’s Corner, in Warren; Dragon’s Breath Pottery, in Warren; Beth’s Farm Market, in Warren, Sterlingtown Bakehouse, in Union, and Shanie’s Gifts, in Union.

“I’m very fortunate,” she said. “I’ve owned three businesses in my lifetime in Maine and this is the first one I’ve done on my own.”

Asked how she felt about that, she said, “Pretty damn good.”

For more information visit: https://www.facebook.com/BonniesPlaceme

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—The little food stand on 346 Main Street, in Rockland, formerly The Shack, is reopening under a new owner Friday, May 5.

Kyle Apel is set to open Wiley’s, his grandmother’s surname. The venture consisting of breakfast and lunch is Apel’s first foray as the owner of a food stand.

Sourcing most of his ingredients daily, as well as locally, the breakfast menu features an egg and bacon sandwich with tomato jam and Cooper cheese, an egg burrito with his own queso Hollandaise sauce, and veggie frittatas. Other items include home-baked goods, such as a Madeline, the cousin to a pound cake.

His lunch menu will be an array of fresh salads, tacos, sandwiches such as a brisket burger, and a Korean-style fried chicken sandwich. That is all along with classic Maine seafood, such as steamers, mussels, chowder, and lobster rolls.

“I want to bring a level of cooking to take-out that’s not pretentious, but approachable,” he said.

Apel earned a college degree in sociology and anthropology, but had an inkling that he was meant to do something else.

“I was always cooking for my roommates and my background in cooking comes from my family, so after I got my degree in 2014, I went right into culinary school,” he said.

With a French, German,and Irish heritage, he graduated from the French Culinary Institute, now rebranded as the International Culinary Center. He then worked at a three-star Michelin restaurant in New York City for five years.

“That kick-started my level of cooking,” he said. “I was trained in classical French cooking and lived in France for five years when I was younger, so that has inspired my food. I like rustic, peasant food like a lamb leg that has been braised for hours.”

On an Instagram post of his Grandmother Wiley, he puts his cooking philosophy best: “I can attribute the love of food I have to my family. On all sides, we have always been cooks. Seeing the smile that comes to someone’s lips when they taste good food, that’s better than any paycheck I’ve gotten.”

To learn more visit:instagram.com/wileysonmain

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

For a state that is 2,821.8 miles from Mexico, the quest for authentic (not Taco Bell) flavors for this Friday on Cinco de Mayo, depends on the establishment. Here are some places all around the Midcoast where you can get the flavors you’re craving.

Ada’s Kitchen

How does an Italian restaurant in Rockland get into this category? The proof is in the mix—mixology, that is. They have some of the craftiest bartenders in the Midcoast and for Cinco de Mayo, they will be offering $6 classic margs with a choice of a Blackberry-Basil, Spicy Watermelon, or Coconut Water Marg for $7. They also offer margaritas to go. FMI: facebook.com/AdasKitchenBar

The Apron

This fast-casual eatery located inside the Knox County Regional Airport in Owls Head, Maine was recently profiled in a Pen Bay Pilot story. Owner-cook Matthew Stilphen has a propensity for street food and slow-cooked, smoked meats such as brisket and BBQ, and regularly adds slow-simmered tacos, such as carnitas, Americanos, and sweet potato to the daily menu. FMI: facebook.com/OwlsHeadApron

Föda Restaurant

This Friday, Föda, Appleton’s only restaurant, which Pen Bay Pilot profiled, is doing something a little different, kicking off a farmer’s market from 3 to 6 p.m. Since it will be Cinco de Mayo, they will be offering tacos for a street-style food option. FMI: facebook.com/fodarestaurant

Park Street Grill

No Midcoast Cinco de Mayo list is complete without this locally-owned fixture in Rockland serving American, Mexican, and southwestern fare as well as award-winning margaritas. You can always get $6 a la carte tacos (chicken, shredded, or ground beef) or the mega-popular Tostada Salad, which is like a taco folded into a salad.  FMI: facebook.com/parkstreetgrille

Sophia’s

This underground chill bar in Belfast which Pen Bay Pilot profiled in a story, is super low-key about how they advertise. However, we got word they will be doing a Cinco de Mayo special food offering of chimichangas (beef and yucca & beef and plaintain) as well as more authentic Mexican snacks. FMI: instagram.com/sophiaisabarhttps://www.facebook.com/TracksideStation/

Trackside Station

Trackside in Rockland is hosting an entire menu dedicated to Cinco de Mayo on Friday with margarita specials and sweet chili chicken tacos along with more Mexican-inspired dishes. FMI: facebook.com/TracksideStation/

Wiley’s

Wiley’s, which opens for the first time in Rockland this Friday on 346 Main Street, will be offering a host of tacos with corn tortillas, cotija cheese, cilantro, and line with toppings including pork, vegetable, and chicken between $3 and $6.  The shack will be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Story from Pen Bay Pilot coming soon! FMI:instagram.com/wileysonmain

Honorable Mention

The Block Saloon

The Block Saloon, based in Thomaston, has revived their lunch menu to include a “Taco Lunch” Tue & Wed: from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. with varieties that change daily, with $6 offerings such as shrimp, Korean beef, Polo Asado, and veggie. While there is no word that they’ll be offering this on Cinco De Mayo, they’re also renowned for their craft cocktails, so get yourself a hot twist on t hhe classic marg: The Hot Blooded (spicy tequila, blood orange, lime, and agave). FMI: www.facebook.com/theblocksaloon

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

MIDCOAST—The Island Institute is behind two conferences this weekend, designed for artists, makers, and solo entrepreneurs, otherwise known as “the creative economy.”

The 2023 Artist & Makers Conference

UMaine Hutchinson Center, Belfast

April 28, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This is the ninth year Island Institute has been putting on a conference with themed tracks for artists, makers, start-up businesses looking to grow. for After several years of COVID-9 pandemic disruptions, this is the first year since 2019 that the conference is in-person again. Naturally, the theme is “Together Again.” Artist and poet Karen Spitfire will kick off the welcome speech to the event with a Poet Laureate reading.

“When planning the conference, we always try to balance key takeaways with inspirational elements,” said Archipelago Director Lisa Mossel. “We have a marketing workshop for non-marketers with a goal of marketing smarter not harder, which ultimately allows artists or makers more time doing what they love.”

The workshops will range from marketing and selling fine arts to social media and branding, with lots of opportunities to network with other artists and makers. One of the first morning sessions, “Living a Creative Life” with father-and-daughter duo Joe and Nina Devenney, features artists of different genders, generations, and business models. After a pandemic when so many people nationwide looked inward to the creative self, this is the kind of session that answers the age-old question, “When can I quit my job and do what I love to do full-time?”

Almost as if to answer that philosophical question, “Where is the money?” is another session led by artist Kim Bernard, which features an interactive crash course about how to find grants for creative projects, how to write a compelling grant proposal, and how to put together a budget.

In the afternoon, once the sessions have been completed, there will be a mini-Pecha Kucha-style presentation sponsored by CMCA.  They will also have an afternoon session of music with The Myles Kelley Trio as well as an “after-hours” room at Darby’s from 3:00 p.m. on to allow folks to continue to connect. 

The Start Summit

Mid-Coast School of Technology, Rockland

April 28 & 29 (check website for times)

Register Here

This is the first time this two-day conference has been offered in Midcoast Maine. Designed for business leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs, the goal is to exchange ideas from thought leaders in Maine’s coastal communities and give participants new ideas for growth and innovation.

Panelists will discuss topics such as innovations in the marine economy, creating more resilient communities, and critical infrastructure, and will hear success stories from Maine's leading innovators and entrepreneurs. Participants will also be able to participate in a “Design Thinking” workshop, then work with their team to identify a high-potential problem, learn from a current startup founder, and pitch to a panel of judges for the chance to win a cash prize with the top prize at $3,000.

“There are a variety of issues facing Maine’s Midcoast, whether that’s climate change, higher fuel costs, accessibility to the workforce, or changes currently taking place in the lobster industry,” said Jeff Frank, Senior Community Development Officer at Island Institute. “This summit focuses on bringing together folks in the region who are innovators or in the business community who want to contribute to the conversation and have a cross-pollination of ideas.”

Explaining the team challenge, Frank said, “Teams will be presented on Friday night with challenges that mirror what is going on in the Midcoast currently and have a chance to get to know one another. The next day the teams will work together to provide innovative solutions to these challenges and those presentations will be judged later in the day.”

“This summit is unique in that there aren’t many opportunities where a fisherman from Stonington is talking to someone from a tech business in Rockland and offering a chance to bring those ideas together,” he said.

Sponsored by Roux Institute, MTI, Eaton Peabody, and Island Institute, this fun and interactive event is free to the public. Participants must register ahead of time, however.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

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 for the Coastal Journal, The Lincoln County News, and Boothbay Register, Stilphen has always enjoyed being a home cook with a concentration on slow-cooked, smoked meats such as brisket and BBQ.

“Whenever I travel, I always try to find interesting, off-the-beaten-path food choices such as food trucks and street cooking,” he said. “That was my main interest.  I just love cooking for people.”

His menu features breakfast and lunch with daily specials and local beer. The location of the restaurant determined that the restaurant needed to be open to early morning travelers. Some of the menu items are a nod to the aviation industry, such as The Pam Am breakfast sandwich, made with two over-medium eggs, sharp cheddar cheese, and a choice of bacon and sausage on a butter-toasted Brioche roll.

The Harriet Quimby Memorial salad, an organic mixed greens and quinoa salad, is a tribute to the first woman in America to earn her pilot’s license.

“Her great nephew actually saw this salad named after her and flew into the airport to try it,” he said.

Stilphen’s burger, tacos, and fried chicken sandwich have all been a hit with passing travelers and locals who come in just for the food. With inflation at a 40-year high and the after effects of COVID-19 still influencing higher menu prices across the country, it’s a refreshing surprise to find well-made sandwiches, burgers, and salad around $10. He’s also expanding his gluten-free menu.

“I think that it’s important to keep prices approachable without sacrificing any of the quality,” he said. “I source my ingredients as locally as possible.” 

Stilphen, a writer and creative person himself, additionally wants to position The Apron as a happy hour spot, featuring local author talks and live music from 4 to 7 p.m. each week. The concept dovetails nicely with the airport expansion into a community-focused facility.

“With the beer we offer, it’ll feel more like a tap room experience,” he said. “More things will come on the menu such as soft pretzels and charcuterie. I just envision this being a place for creatives to connect, maybe hear a talk on ornithology from an expert or whatever subject is regional and connects with the people.”

He plans to kick that off Memorial Day Weekend.

The Apron at Terminal A is open for the 2023 season Tuesday-Friday 8-2 and Saturdays from 8-12. Located inside the Knox County Airport in Owls Head and has free WiFi for those just passing through.

For more information, visit their Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—Currently riding his motorcycle through the South this week, Chef Kerry Alterio has left a wake of restaurant buzz behind him as he prepares to reinvigorate the Café Miranda brand by Memorial Day.

The restaurant on 15 Oak Street, originally purchased by Alterio and his former wife, Evelyn, has been closed for almost a year after a 29-year run. Citing massive changes to the restaurant industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on prices, the changing real estate market which has pushed the working class farther from the coast, the lack of young people entering the restaurant trade, and the general “grind” of running a restaurant day to day, Alterio said he needed a break.

“I took time off from social media for awhile to re-assess how to generate some revenue to keep the building and yet pay people a reasonable working wage,” he said.

“There are a couple of parts to re-opening,” he said. “The first thing I came up with is to rent Miranda out for events. We have everything needed for a party. All you have to do is bring in a caterer and we’ve got all of the gear. Rather than have your party in a place that resembles a town meeting hall from the 1970s or a barn with a two-holer, the café comes with a disco ball and an Elvis bathroom.”

The second part of Alterio’s plan is to offer exclusive dinner nights for a minimum of 20 people at $250 per person and a maximum of food choices. 

“On June 9, our 30th anniversary, we’ll kick off one of these dinners and I’ll blow your mind; I’ll feed you until you can’t stand it,” he said. 

Alterio plans to craft these dinners off his classic menu, but will also leave it up to the customers to suggest recipes. “You know you can choose from the 3,000 menu items we already have,” he joked.

The third prong to the plan is truly Alterio’s personality all of the way: street food with a joke and a smile. Based on a pop-up concept he’d done this winter for the Big Rockland Chill Street Party, he’ll offer a gourmet hot dog cart outside of Café Miranda called “The Excellent Dog” starting in the fall.

“There will be standard hot dogs, with fried onions and good bread, and then we’ll have what I call ‘punk hot dogs of character,’ such as the Surf ‘N Turf, topped with chilled crab meat.

The “New Age Hot Dog” cart will also feature lobster and crab rolls with brunch items offered on Sundays, along with a salad, chips, and sweets.

This, along with a recent purchase of a Vespa food truck trike will be street fixtures on the sidewalk.  “Vespa Jubilee” is a “New Age beverage, coffee, and ice cream-dispensing trike” with built-in taps for craft beer. He’ll also offer wine, prosecco, homemade cocktails, espresso, coffee, and non-alcoholic drinks.”

“You’ll be able to come to Oak Street Friday through Sunday and get a quick, quality, handmade lunch at a reasonable price,” he said.

“We do have a hitch on the Vespa, so I may just drive down Main Street for the hell of it,” he added.

The community reaction while he’s been on the road has been intense. “It’s like The Grateful Dead is reforming,” he said. “Or Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention are back from the grave.”

The dinners will support food insecurity, addiction and recovery, and homelessness. The Excellent dog & Vespa Jubilee will also be making contributions to older husky dogs that need vet care.

For more info visit: facebook.com/CafeMiranda

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

ROCKLAND—A three-year-old boy with a brand-new Spiderman bike had the worst day of his life last month when he and his mother parked it outside a store only to exit and find it stolen. But, then, something amazing happened.

According to a March 31 Facebook post by the Rockland Maine Police Department, a woman saw the original Facebook post detailing the theft. According to the Rockland Police Department’s follow-up post: “The woman, who lives all the way in Oxford County, saw our post and felt as if she just had to do something to help. Unfortunately, she was recently forced to choose between making her rent or vehicle payment. Not wanting to default on the car loan, she is now currently unhoused and living out of her vehicle. Her own struggles did not deter the woman, however; and she selflessly purchased a new bike, helmet, and lock at a local Walmart and made the drive to Rockland. The women’s generosity was contagious and a clerk who heard what she was doing, gave her money to help pay for tolls.”

According to Lura Robinson, a board member of Mid-Coast Recovery Coalition, a plan was put in place to help the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous.

“We work closely with the Rockland police department and if they find someone who needs housing, they’ll call us,” said Robinson. “After the lady brought in the bike and told them her story, the police called us to see if we could connect her with resources to the Midcoast Homeless Coalition and maybe help her out by raising funds. Our Operations Manager Iain Kirkham decided that we at Mid-Coast Recovery Coalition should take on the fundraiser. This particular fundraiser is not associated with addiction in any way; we just try to help the community and give back where we can.

“She lost her job due to illness and only had social security to live on. She couldn’t afford both an apartment and a car, so she gave up her apartment and moved into her car. on it. Because she is the giving woman that she is, the day she got her Social Security check, she made a choice to buy the bike instead of going to a hotel that night. She decided it was her calling to buy this little boy a bike, instead.”

News Center Maine ran a story about the circumstances of the replaced bike on April 2. That was the week that Mid-Coast Recovery Coalition learned that the woman’s car had an $18,000 loan still left on it and started the fundraiser for her to pay it off so she could build up more funds toward an apartment. As of April 18, more than $9,000 has been raised for the woman.

Officer Alex Gaylor, who met the woman when she came into the station with the new bike, said: “This women's kindness and the degree of selflessness in her act, really stuck a cord with us and the community as a whole. The community reaction and outpouring of support and kindness that has stemmed from this is amazing. I want to thank Iain and Mid-Coast Recovery Coalition for stepping up to help this woman. In this day and age where bad news and the negative side of humanity seem to be such prominent headlines, I think in some ways we all needed this—not just the boy whose bike was stolen. This women's kindness was 100 percent contagious and her simple actions spoke volumes. She did not just dwell on the negative of what happened, and despite not living nearby or having much of her own, she did not say to herself ‘this was someone else's problem,’ she went out and made sure that love and kindness overcame. It brings to mind a quote  I once heard, ‘The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men and women to sit back and do nothing.’" 

The fundraiser is ongoing until the end of April. 

“Anything that we do that’s less than that is just a Band-Aid,” said Kirkham.

“My idea is to put a challenge out to the car dealerships in the area: perhaps a donation in the $1,000 to $2,000 range to help this lady,” said Robinson.

To learn more about the fundraiser visit: Mid-Coast Recovery Coalition.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

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 and as far away as Orono drive here to check it out. The feedback we got was so welcoming.  People told us they were appreciative to have our bookshop here. I was completely blown away by the reception, honestly.”

Anodyne is a noun that means “something that soothes, calms, or comforts.”

“I stopped practicing law during the pandemic when my kids were sent home from school and I decided I didn’t want to go back to practicing law,” said Burnett. “It was a classic reprioritization of life. There were a lot of hours to fill with four children and so we all started reading again. Books have always had that effect on me. Anodyne, the word, represented all of that to me and I hope we can bring that sense of comfort to this community.”

Burnett always had the inkling that running a bookstore would be an ideal career. With so many great bookstores in Belfast, where she lives, she set her sights on a less populated area. She now has her chance with the store, which offers new and used titles, a lot of new fiction, Maine titles, and books on social sciences, history, current affairs, politics, the natural world, essays, memoirs, and local interests.

Anodyne is also family-friendly with a children’s section for every reading level, from picture and board books to graphic novels.

“The sales over the weekend seem to indicate there’s a market for both new and used books; the breakdown was fairly even,” she said.

Many of the new patrons asked if there would be author events and other events in the future and Burnett is trying to find the balance to serve the community’s needs in the tiny space they have.

“Stay tuned for that,” she said.

With Hello Sailor’s taco, art, and booze vibe a few doors down, the Penobscot Marine Museum and Carver Memorial Library just steps away, RasDal Falafel, a Middle Eastern restaurant, Coastal Cafe & Bakery, galleries, and antique stores all within walkable distance, Anodyne is the latest cultural addition to the tiny town known for its shipbuilding history.

For more information visit: anodynebookshop.com and its Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

CAMDEN—With spring gradually fading in, people’s thoughts are turning to outdoor activities, such as hiking, biking, canoeing, kayaking, and other recreation.

Midcoast Sports Exchange, a center for used and new sports equipment and recreational gear,  is run by Justin Hovey, who always had his sights on a bigger space, even upon initially opening. PenBay Pilot covered its initial opening back in November of 2022 in Rockport.

When the old KeyBank building in the Camden Market Square, on Route 1 became vacant, Hovey jumped on the opportunity.

“I was at max capacity in the old spot, and I got a ton of new stuff, so this worked out perfectly,” he said. “We re-opened just before Christmas.”

Originally, thinking that his business inventory would rotate with the seasons, he now has a full basement dedicated to winter sports and gear year-round, which he calls The Snow Cave.

For spring and summer, Hovey has areas of the new store dedicated to fishing poles and gear, camping, pickleball, watersports, sailing, golf, and even hard-to-find New England clothing, such as original L.L. Bean boots. He’ll also have bigger items such as boats and bikes displayed outside the building.

People in the area who have sports equipment or recreational gear (no firearms) to sell on consignment, may contact Hovey at info@mserockport.com

For more information visit: www.mserockport.com or on Facebook

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

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’s brewed for 16 hours, then goes into a three-day mellowing phase. At that point, we’ll either keep the coffee in its natural state or we will use distiller’s flavor. Right now we have a Spring Clover essence.”

The coffee beans are sourced from all over the world from Nicaragua/Costa Rica, and Kenya, with teas sourced from Sri Lanka and India.

Contrary to what people often think, cold-brewed coffee can also be served hot.

“People have a hard time associating cold-brew served hot, but, that’s what we do,” said Tom Griffin. “The cold-brew process just removed nearly 75 percent of the coffee’s acid than if it were just brewed hot. The chemical reaction that occurs by applying heat never happens with cold brewing. So, people with sensitive stomachs can enjoy our coffee without the acid; the coffee is uniquely different.”

Similarly, those who enjoy iced coffee can be served straight from the taps at the counter, as well.

“We can also froth the cream for them or add it with milk or drink it black,” he said.

The hours are Wednesday to Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tom and Holly often get there by 6 a.m. to prep for the day and to bake coffee cake, muffins, cookies, brownies, and the house specialty—whaler biscuits.

Having owned a couple of cold-brew coffee businesses before moving to Maine three years ago, the Griffins are looking forward to a busy, summer season. As boaters themselves, they feel right at home on the marina. In fact, their Whistling Whale logo and the nautical poem (written by Tom) that decorates the wall are a nod to their new marina community.

“We know what to expect,” he said. “But our philosophy is every person standing at the counter is important and if it takes 10 minutes to deal with that person’s transaction, that’s what it takes. We’re not here to churn through the orders. We’re craft brewers and if you really like coffee—you’re in the right place.”

The Griffins have utilized the small space well in that they have collaborated with Maine Cup, which promotes Maine roasters.

“Each month, Maine Cup will come here with a Maine roaster from a different corner of the state who will give an educational seminar about his or her roasting process and introduce the product to the public.”

For more info visit: wwcoffeebar.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

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 space, it’s just the food and beverages we offer are now different,” said Acero. “We’re going back to our roots with sourdough pizza, which is what Derek was making when we first met.”

“I think we accomplished what we wanted to with wolfpeach 1.0,” she said. “The vision was always to be a neighborhood spot for the community, but whether it’s the reality of the price points or the perception of us as fine dining, we became the place that was only for special occasions. And that wasn’t our goal. We wanted to be the place you could pop in for a beer and a snack.”

The other major change wolfpeach has made from its original non-tipping model, is to return to a tipping model with a lower price point on menu items, which Acero said was another factor in the menu change-up.

“We did the no-tipping structure for two years and I feel really proud of that,” she said. “I still think tipping is still a problematic structure, but it’s also one that is so deeply entwined in the way restaurant finances work. The non-tipping model was also perceived as ‘very fancy’ and it’s important to us that the restaurant is perceived as fun, casual, and family-friendly. As a tipped model, it’ll feel more familiar to people.”

The restaurant still has the cozy bar from the original Drouthy Bear. They now serve oysters with lemon and mignonettes, a crudo, naturally leavened pizza, salads, and house-made ice cream. On the beverage side, Acero said they are relaxing their limitations around only serving Northeast beverages and will have a unique selection of classic cocktails (think: martini, Sazerac, daiquiri, Negroni), cheap, natural wines by the glass from Italy and Austria, and affordable beer ranging from Narragansett and Peroni as well as local craft options like Sasanoa.

They held their grand re-opening Saturday, April 1. Stay in touch with their website and on Instagram.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com

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 a stay-at-home dad for the past six years.

“I’ve worked in kitchens for 17 years and feel right at home in them,” he said. “I’ve run kitchens, and managed other places, and it’s nice to be able to design things the way that I want.”

Carly Laughery, Miller’s wife, has previously worked in retail and nonprofit settings but has a vocational background in baking. Her role will be the front of the house and making baked goods and desserts.

The couple has leased the large hall, putting the finishing touches on their new menu, which features classic pub fare such as wings and chili fries, sandwiches, entrees, and a kid’s menu. One surprising addition to the menu is the Puerto Rican-influence on several dishes, including queso frito (frying cheese), churrasco (steak with a chimichurri herb sauce) and arroz con mariscos (yellow rice with shrimp, mussels, peppers, and peas).

“My mother’s side of the family is Puerto Rican, so I’ve thrown a few notes of that into the menu,”  said Miller. “My brother and I have been talking about what’s really good in Puerto Rico that you can’t find here locally, so we’re recreating some of those dishes.”

The large space will encompass two pool tables, a jukebox, seating for 56 and even room for live bands, DJs, open mic, and standup comedy performers, which Miller is currently lining up.

The couple plans to open Hot Hill Tavern at the end of April and will open four days a week, Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight with plans to open on more days in the future.

As two people who have their finger on the pulse of what a working community needs, they decided that keeping the kitchen open late at night will be a benefit to those who have to work late.

“Compared to other places, the kitchen will be open at all times the bar is open,” said Miller. “If you get out of work at 10 and there’s nothing else open except for McDonald’s, we’ll be the place to get real food.”

For more information visit their Facebook page.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com