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.
Blue Barren Distillery finds a temporary new home in Hope
HOPE—Blue Barren Distillery, formerly based in Camden, has gotten a new lease on life in Hope, and is once again, is open to the public.
Many businesses have suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, but no one got the one-two-three punch as Blue Barren Distillery did back in the spring and summer of 2020 when COVID-19 not only shut down Blue Barren Distillery’s tasting room capacity but also forced the distillery’s co-owner Andrew Stewart to have to close his Scottish pub Drouthy Bear… Read more
Brodis Blueberries in Hope gears up for first Wild Blueberry Weekend
HOPE—Maine’s first Wild Blueberry Weekend is rolling out this weekend August 7 and 8 just in time for wild blueberry processing season with more than 15 farms and 40 businesses planning to participate over the state.
Amid hundreds of acres of rolling hills in Hope sits a new building that serves as a processing center, distillery space, and a tasting room for Brodis Blueberries, a business that has been in operation for more than 150 years.
Ron Howard is the son-in-law of… Read more
Nature-inspired arts and decor store opens in Liberty
LIBERTY—The quiet little inland town of Liberty certainly has it going on these days. Good Natured, a home goods and artisan shop with nature-inspired crafts and decor held its Grand Opening on July 31.
Owner Kate Meadows, a maker and artist herself, had been wanting to open her own shop for two years after moving to Liberty with her husband from Pennsylvania.
The shop is a rustic combination of repurposed vintage items and nature-made art. Inside, one can find old bottles,… Read more
Maine Tasting Center aims to be a statewide hub for iconic Maine foods and beverages
WISCASSET—Lobster. Blueberries. Beer. Maine’s most well-known fare is synonymous with the state. But, what about sea salt? Seaweed? Kombucha and Jun? The native products that can be derived from Maine’s land and sea are so much more and Maine Tasting Center aims to educate the public about it, while providing a brew-pub style space to taste all of it.
Sara Gross, general manager, and her parents Andy Gross, president, and Elizabeth Gross, chef, opened the Center the first of July,… Read more
Teen wins MIFF Honorary Mention for her short film featuring Hope General Store
HOPE—The Hope General Store serves as a catalyst in 19-year-old Emma Jordan’s short film The Musicbox, which won an Honorary Mention award at the 43rd Maine Student Film an Video Festival this year, run by the Maine International Film Festival.
“I had to come up with a Halloween-themed short film for a school project,” said Jordan, who studied filmmaking at the Mid-coast School of Technology through its Design/Technology program.
With an eye on submitting a short… Read more
New family-friendly food truck ‘Mac Attack’ sets up in Rockland
ROCKLAND—A wild idea turned out to be the smartest thing that Richard Curtis, a lobsterman out of Friendship, ever had.
He’d never run a food truck before. “One day, I found a truck for sale in Newcastle and I thought, ‘You know what? I’m gonna go buy that tomorrow,’” he said.
His new food truck, Mac Attack, just opened this past week. The business run by his fiancée Siearra Cook and his sister, Elizabeth Main, has been only been open a week but is attracting long lines just… Read more
Unity’s Stone Tree Farm & Cidery opens to the public
UNITY—The rolling vineyards and farmhouse that once was the site of Clem and Jeri Blakney’s Younity Winery have gotten new owners and a new business. Now called Stone Tree Farm & Cidery, the small-batch winery and cidery opened June 12.
Owners and life partners Brian Erickson and Frank Haferland were in touch with the Blakneys years before Blakney was… Read more
Friendly business rivalry underway in Belfast with sign war
BELFAST—Restaurants and businesses in Belfast are going toe to toe and pun to pun with an emerging sign war.
As we reported on a story in May, central Maine businesses got a chuckle from launching into a sign war, where the name of the game is to be cheeky, use puns, and lob a good-natured diss.
We’re not sure why the best insults come from puns on… Read more
Two new businesses open in Camden this summer
CAMDEN—Two new businesses have filled the vacant storefronts left from the pandemic in Camden and two stores have re-opened. All of these businesses opened after we published our annual Midcoast business round-up story, “Welcome back to the Camden area, Snow Birds 2021!”
New in Camden
… Read moreBelfast Shaved Ice & Provisions offers nostalgic touch to Belfast City Park
BELFAST—Shaved ice, a treat once popular with surfers in California in the 1960s, has made a comeback in 2021 in the form of Belfast Shaved Ice & Provisions, a family-owned concession stand in the heart of Belfast City Park.
Run by Ashley Messner and Rick Strout who live in Brooks, the family leases the food stand from the city and has help from the children, Lennen Ewald and Camille Ewald.
There are 25 all-natural flavors of shaved ice.
“We were vacationing four… Read more