Midcoast Entrepreneurs: Bright Ideas, Creativity and Enterprise
From restaurateurs to artists, and everything in between, the Midcoast is beaming with creatives and innovators in all mediums.
Since the inception of PenBayPilot.com, a collective goal of our writers has been to spotlight entrepreneurs and their creativity. Now, we have established a hub for our stories about the Midcoast’s entrepreneurs to permanently reside.
We encourage our readers to support as many local business owners as possible across as many industries as you can. Our neighbors need our support, so please browse through this hub for potential purchases or places to eat.
Meet the owners of 18 Central, Rockport’s new Oyster Bar and Grill
ROCKPORT — They say timing is everything. For Patrick Duffy, an executive chef and Jessica Duffy, a seasoned server and restaurant manager, the time seemed right to open their first restaurant together once they learned that Shepherd’s Pie in Rockport was closing for good this past May.
“We’d thought about opening a restaurant before, so when this space became available, we literally had days to decide,” said Jessica.
It so happened that the pair had moved from Boston in 2011… Read more
Sleepy village of Warren wakes up with St. George River Café
WARREN — All winter, the bottom floor of the three-story wooden building next to the St. George River in Warren has been transforming. For 20 years, it had been Wink’s Whimseys, an antique store. Partners Ann Gonzalez and Fanny Faye Davis left their jobs and condo in Seattle, Wash., last year and moved to Maine, hoping to find more affordable land and a country house. Gonzalez, who’d grown up in New England, said she always had a desire to come back so, sight unseen, they bought a house in… Read more
Rhumb Line, Camden’s newest industrial clam shack, opens May 18
CAMDEN — Over the last few months, a space on the working waterfront side of Camden’s harbor, at Lyman-Morse at Wayfarer Marine, has been quietly undergoing major renovations for Chef Scott Yakovenko’s latest restaurant, Rhumb Line, set to open May 18.
A whole new kitchen had to be built and the interior of the snug space was completely retrofitted by Chris Biggart and Fred Boursier, who fashioned the walls with reclaimed barn boards from Youngtown Inn. In addition, they hand-… Read more
Broken Egg: new breakfast-brunch-lunch joint opening in May
ROCKLAND — You know what they say: you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs. For Heather Symmt, a Camden resident, this is something to keep in mind as she prepares to open her first restaurant, Broken Egg at 421 Main St., formerly the site of Comida Restaurant on May 18.
An accountant by trade with a passion and degree in baking and pastries, Symmt looked around for two years, before landing the what she saw as the perfect spot for her breakfast, brunch and lunch… Read more
Two new food trucks coming to Belfast, Rockland
What should we call food truck connoisseurs—truckies? Well, truckies will be interested to know one Belfast food truck is pulling up their wheels and handing them over to someone else, while another dormant food truck in Rockland will be rolling in this spring.
Belfast’s Good ‘N’ You, a Mexican-themed food truck run by Sarah Waldron and Seth Whited since 2012, has decided not to re-open this summer. (… Read more
Home Kitchen Cafe taking over former Brown Bag space in Rockland
ROCKLAND — Known for the “Best Breakfast in New England” (deemed by Yankee magazine), Home Kitchen Café owners James Hatch and Susan Schiro are expanding their restaurant’s popular brand this April into the former Brown Bag location on Main Street.
Hatch and Schiro, who’d just expanded the business a year before, transforming the former hair salon adjacent to the restaurant at 19 North Main St. into an ice cream parlor and bakery, had no plans on moving until they learned… Read more
‘Location and loyalty’ is how Belfast’s newest restaurant is thriving
BELFAST — As we wrote in a recent article, it’s always tough for a fairly new restaurant in the Midcoast to thrive during the winter, but Jenifer Oakes, one of three co-owners of Nautilus Seafood & Grill, credits two factors for their winter survival: a new location and loyal customers.
Though it’s only been a little more than a month since they moved from the east side of Belfast, across the bridge the spans the Passagassawakeag River, and took over the former Weathervane… Read more
Pho Sizzle is latest food truck eatery to gain restaurant space in Rockland
ROCKLAND — It’s been a little more than a year-and-a-half since Tom Pham rolled out his bright yellow food truck, Pho Sizzle, in Buoy Park in Rockland. Whipping up authentic Vietnamese cuisine with local ingredients, his food truck quickly became a local favorite. Business grew so fast, it didn’t make sense to shut it down for the winter. Instead, he decided to lease space at 10 Leland St. in Rockland, the site of the old Oh Bento restaurant.
“This summer was really busy all summer… Read more
‘Traveling Baker’ takes Italian/American fusion to Lincolnville pop-up dinners
LINCOLNVILLE — Tucked in the bend of a back road in Lincolnville sits a tiny one-woman enterprise called Dolce Vita Farm and Bakery. Rose Lowell has been producing fresh breads and vegetables for sale at local farmers' markets, as well as her own vegetable shed, for more than five years. For the last 15 years, she has made the trek to Italy to learn, to absorb the culture and food. There, she met Stefano Valenti at Spannocchia, an organic farm outside of Siena, Italy.
“He was working… Read more
Stewarts bring Drouthy Bear to Camden for a bit of Scotch and steak pie
CAMDEN — A bit of Scotland is getting seated on Elm Street in Camden, in a little old house — eccentric, one could call it — with lots of nooks and crannies, circular staircase and bright floral wallpaper. Perfect for a Scottish pub where the kitchen will come alive with baking and frying, and a dining room full of conversation.
This is where Andrew and Shannon Stewart, their two children Harris and Tildy, plus a lot of local friends, are planning to open the Drouthy Bear later in… Read more