WINTER HARBOR, Maine — For many years, it’s been culinary feast or famine in the seaside Hancock County community of Winter Harbor.
This summer it appears it will be feast.
Plans are in the works to reopen the long-mothballed Mama Boy’s Bistro restaurant in Winter Harbor, which has been sitting empty for most of the last eight years.
Owned by Roxanne Quimby of Burt’s Bees fame, the three-story timber frame building at Newman and Main streets was built in 2002 and has more or less been sitting empty, costing Quimby $5,035 a year in property taxes.
The J.M. Gerrish building on Main Street in Winter Harbor will reopen as a restaurant on May 15. It is being operated by a nonprofit co-op that over the winter hired a new chef with big plans for the seasonal feeding frenzy that drives the Schoodic Peninsula tourist economy.
Co-op members ante up $50 to help keep the restaurant solvent. In exchange, members get 10 percent off any meal they order. A volunteer board of directors oversees the operation. Volunteers have spent the winter planning the menu and selecting wine list offerings.
Entrees will range in price from $11.95 to $16.95 and will include menu items such as Southern fried chicken, a special steak served with toasted rye bread slathered in garlic butter, and oysters on the half-shell. The menu will feature seven salads and three soups — a soup of the day, lobster bisque and clam chowder.
The J.M. Gerrish co-op recently hired Melissa Ford as its chef. She was the culinary brain trust behind the Sullivan Harbor Cafe before the building that housed her popular restaurant on Route 1 in Sullivan was sold. Among her areas of epicurian expertise is making ice cream. Other desserts will include locally baked pies.
The restaurant will serve breakfast and lunch seven days a week and will serve dinner between 5:30 and 9 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with reservations suggested. Call 963-7320 for details.
The anchor tenant of the Winter Harbor dining scene is the Fisherman’s Inn, a culinary fixture for 13 years running. It’s a labor of love owned, overseen and staffed by the family of award-winning chef Carl Johnson. His eclectic menu showcases local seafood and specialty dishes that reflect Johnson’s fascination with the culture and culinary traditions of Thailand.
The Fisherman’s Inn’s most popular menu item is the seafood mixed grill, which includes grilled servings of locally harvested lobster, scallops, shrimp, haddock and crab. Other seafood entrees feature scallops, mussels and haddock, each prepared three different ways. There are Thai-based entrees as well.
While the restaurant serves only dinner, lunch on the run in available through Johnson’s love affair with hot dogs. He recently commissioned the creation of an elaborate stainless steel cart from which his daughter-in-law serves up hot dogs midday in front of the restaurant. Johnson’s “delicious dogs” are dressed with an array of relishes that he spent many a winter month perfecting. This year, he plans to serve up his quarter-pound beef hot dogs on fresh-baked buns. He also will offer dogs roasted over charcoal on a unique grill he imported from Thailand. Also on the take-away luncheon menu is a hefty, no-mayonnaise-allowed, quarter-pound lobster roll.
The Fisherman’s Inn will open Memorial Day weekend. It’s located at Main and Newman streets, across the road from Mama Boy’s Bistro. Reservations are suggested, call 963-5585.
Another story of the haves and the have mores. YAWN!!!!!
It’s actually a story about a new restaurant.
Sounded more like an ad for eateries in Winter Harbor.
Id starve to death before i set foot in anyplace owned by her!!!!
She may own the building but it is leased to Michael Boland . What do you have against him ? He would be the one you would be hurting not Roxanne.
i have nothing to say of mr boland,but if he wants to lease from her,thats his choice. but like i said i wont spend a red cent in the place. i will go across the street to the fishermans inn to eat and support their buisness!
Jealous much?
nope no jealous.i support buisness that gives back to their community,not one that likes to take away from um! im for “BAN ROXANNE”! you dont have to like it,im just not gonna support it!!!when i end up in winter harbor i will go to chases,or the inn for my seafood!!
Exactly how is this new business different than any others? What has Quimbly taken away from you?
Sniff, sniff, bwahhh! Tears are running down my cheeks! The killer bee has to pay over $5k in taxes for this place! Maybe we should take up a collection to help out. BWahhh!
Killer bee….now thats funny.
good place to boycott
Who can afford to go out and eat at some very expensive restaurant? Most of us Mainers are still trying to pay off our oil bill from this past winter.
Its in winter harbor, its not intended for us mainers its intended for the out of staters.
The prices listed sound very much like any locally owned restaurant.
To be honest I only read the comments on this story and I’m just being half sarcastic.
Eric, I don’t see any sarcasm in your previous comment. Everything Quimby touches has nothing to do with consideration for “common” Maine natives.
From her beginnings of experimenting with beeswax candles and lip balm, she caters to “those of means”. After Burt’s Bees, she moved on to buying exclusive real estate in Palm Beach to re-sell. She tried to create her own art colony in Portland. Her gifts and grants to the arts, directly and indirectly, are very generous. She tried to re-create the village of Winter Harbor. She created an exclusive children’s organic clothing business.
She bought up land in the Maine Woods to leave as her “legacy”. The people, their beliefs, small businesses and local traditions of the Maine Woods are of absolutely no significance to Quimby. Her “vision” of her legacy remains her one and only goal. The pathetically sad part of the Maine Woods situation is that she is trying to promote a National Park as being an “economic engine” to boost the area’s economy. All of her “facts” in this promotion date from 2001-2009 statistics, when the economy allowed for family vacations to a semi-remote “park”.
Coercive practices, condescending alliances, and “pie-in-the-sky” numbers have been thrown about in her endeavor to achieve her goal. The history of Quimby in the Maine Woods dates back to the early 2000’s. She forgets that the people of the area remember!
The people of the area would have more respect for Quimby, if the truth was more clearly stated. The FACT that the Maine Woods National Park is clearly for PRESERVATION purposes only, with dedicated areas for artists and writers to enjoy, would have been a good start. The second truth could have easily been stated as well … the 70,000 acre “gift” of a park from Quimby, is only the seed to the eventual 3.2 million acre plan that has been documented by RESTORE (& Quimby) for over 20 years. In a weak attempt to convince the people that she had changed her mind (on the 3.2 mil concept), she conveniently had her name removed from RESTORE’s website, less than 6 months ago. (while donations to RESTORE from Quimby’s foundations continue).
Nothing in Quimby’s past says that she is even remotely aware or concerned with anyone who would appreciate a $6.00 meatloaf “special” at a local restaurant, just to feel the luxury of going out to eat.
So, Eric, you actually hit the nail on the head with your comment.
It all comes down to jealousy and bull headed Mainers.
Jealousy? Would you state “jealousy” as your feeling, if someone was planning to scoop up 3.2 million acres in your backyard and shutting down existing industry because of the mandated buffer zones of a National Park?
If and when you decide to do any research on this subject, look at the small community newspapers surrounding the areas of any National Park/Monument, especially out West.
Wow, sounds like you are writing her biography. Did you interview her for the book or are you just listening to the heresay of your neighbors? There’s not a lot of real news in Maine, so just go ahead and make it up.
Nice try dron, Antiwhine is 100% correct and you know it.
Let’s just say that the people of the Maine Woods (including myself) have a 20+ year history with Quimby. You know … things that don’t get published in mainstream as much.
Since you always seem to “pop up” to support Quimby, have you noticed that you are in the minority …. even in the most recent PPH article on the old Roma Cafe?
Your comment “There’s not a lot of real news in Maine” …. reveals your perceptions and your thought process well.
Those prices are for Gerrish’s Co-op, not Mama Boy’s. The article wasn’t veey well written.
Really not sure where you live, but I hardly used any oil because it was a very mild winter. I didn’t even need plowed at all!
Subsidised housing perhaps?
The entire Katahdin Region and beyond wishes you well! You can have her!
Pretty unique, it will be the only restaurant where the customer spits in the food, not the staff.
omg i know someone who wants to sell her camp on schoodic lake near millinocket. i told her not too maybe someone like quimby might buy the land
Boland’s most recent ‘fame’ is actually that he tanked a restaurant in Portland after only 18 months. Running a place in Winter Harbor at a profit is a pipedream.
They will likely only be open for the tourist season, place would hemorrhage money otherwise probably.
I am sure there will be a lot of ” pipe dreaming ” at this location..it’s not that we don’t have enough all ready……..
Some folks take financial risks and meet with successes and failures. That’s business. And some folks sit on the side lines and criticize the players.
I wondered if there were enough folks at Grindstone Neck to support a Boland type restaurant. Apparently there wasn’t enough business for Quimby’s son.
But then again I think Boland’s a trust fund kid so he can try , try again.. Didn’t he try Guiness & Porcelli’s for a year or so?
I just don’t get it. There are always these seemingly conservative types bashing Quimby. So whats up with that guys? It seems pretty hypocritical if you ask me. You want private property rights but complain when she exercises her rights and buys land. You claim to be pro-business but the restaurant is not even open yet and the tone here is generally negative. Is it the idea of a successful liberal woman that irritating? Don’t forget that the American Dream belongs to everyone regardless of sex, race or political views.
really………………………”seemingly conservative types”…………..look in the mirror Dave to see the “hypocritical ” type maybe?
hmmmm ed,
I am not sure I quite understand your point. How is it that I am being a hypocrit? Please, I’d like to hear your logic behind that one.
Hypocrite (n) – A person who professes certain ideals, but fails to live up to them.
I don’t see that in the mirror. I am content to congratulate anyone who works hard and gets to enjoy the results of their labor… Unlike some who hiss and moan about the success of others.
So what you say is, if someone doesn’t like you, it’s because of your success.. What if they don’t like you because, your ideas aren’t the same. People move to Maine because they claim they like it here.. Then they want to change it to reflect where they came from. This is what I object to.
Maybe folks know that Roxanne is a selfish cheap lousy tipper !
Dave ist not the property thing Its the park thing. She can do whatever she wants with her land. Dont give it to me I dont want another park. Baxter’s donation was more than adequate
Do your research, you will get it.
Dizzle has hit the nail on the head. Been there done that. All you have to do is look around with your eyes open.
Like any controversy, there are two sides to every story. Some people come into a community with new ideas and blend into that community. Others, come in and try to force their ideas on that community. Those are the ones met with resistance.
Yes, because Mainers think that it’s their way or no way. They are jealous of people who are successful that have moved to Maine and tried to improve it.
” They are jealous of people who are successful that have moved to Maine and tried to improve it.” You said a mouthful! Who do you think you are? You see truenative this is half the problem, you and people like you think people from Maine are fat, lazy, drug addicted and need help from people like you! You would like to have a National Park in our back yard and its not happening so in your view, we need your help! Get over yourself….
Ever been to Wal Mart on a Saturday morning? The posterior views are amazing.
You shop at Walmart? You do realize that your money immediately leaves the state?
Wal Mart is Maine’s largest employer. Gotta love ’em.
HINT: If you’re on Quimby’s payroll, you need to re-group. Your comments are clearly helping OUR cause, not Quimby’s. Condescending coercion is more the style that Quimby likes.
Your blatant insults to Maine people are not helping her.
Umm, I have lived in Maine all of my life. My ancestors have lived here for at least ten thousand years. I know first hand how stubborn some Mainers can be and how they look down on people from away. I don’t think that Mainers are all the things that you listed, but perhaps you do?
I would LOVE to live next to a National Park. My son does, and he loves it. I love visiting him. I love shopping in all of the stores near the park, eating at the restaurants, buying equipment to use in the park, enjoying the night life.
I am always on the side of preserving our natural resources and setting aside precious natural areas for future generations.
” I don’t think that Mainers are all the things that you listed, but perhaps you do?” I do not, but Quimby does, just ask her.
“I would LOVE to live next to a National Park. My son does, and he loves it. I love visiting him. I love shopping in all of the stores near the park, eating at the restaurants, buying equipment to use in the park, enjoying the night life.” Well go visit your son or move just outside of a NP. I am sure you haven’t moved already is because the jobs just outside of a NP don’t pay anything.
My son and his girlfriend seem to be doing just fine with the wages. Summer before last they banked $10,000 + over the summer and bought many expensive items for a cross country trip that they took that year.
OK thats just wonderful
You have no idea what you are talking about.
Maine was just fine and was prospering before these folks came in and decided how we’d live based on their preferred lifestyles. The money flows directly into their pockets and supports their efforts unless we do something about that through carefully considered decisions on spending our slave wages.
Yes, that’s what the native Americans have been saying for centuries.
It all comes down to jealousy.
Speak for yourself…
It’s the underlying theme and not difficult to spot. That is what it all boils down to…
How does she decide how you will live? Please be specific… And Maine was prospering? Are you sure about that? Also, there is no such thing as slave “wages”.
The key word here is “Improve.” We have lived here all our lives because we think it is the best place in the world to live. One cannot improve on prefection. It sounds to me that you are the one who wants everything done his own way. You want all of us to change and embrace the way of life you LEFT. It is what it is! Love us as we are or leave us; but done think that you will be able to change us. We happen to like this place.
I have lived in Maine all of my life which is almost fifty years. My ancestors have lived here for at least 10,000 years. I grew up on a small island so I don’t know how much more of a true blue Mainer that I could be.
If Maine is so perfect, then why do we face so many challenges? Why has our quality of life decreased and our economic struggles increased?
One point is that the more a state spends and increases taxes, the more it retards economic growth.
Actually just read recently that the governor of Oklahoma (female & republican, I believe) just two years ago started to implement lower taxes, reduced spending via budget transparency, and as a result OK GAINED 300,000 jobs last year ! Companies are moving there from states that have increased taxes.
Just like when everyone complains about jobs going overseas – they go there because politicians keep raising taxes and other barriers here so companies move overseas !
SORRY — SORRY – That 300,000 seemed a bit much so I found the correct statement:
While many other states were raising taxes in order to close their budget gaps—and driving out jobs in the process—we cut our income tax. We provided relief to working families and spurred economic growth in the private sector. As a result, we have seen a net increase of almost 30,000 jobs in the last 12 months, and our job growth rate ranks in the top ten among all states. Our unemployment rate continues to be one of the lowest in the country at 6.1 percent. And in 2011, Oklahoma ranked first in the nation for the growth of manufacturing jobs, which grew five times faster than the national average.
Comparing Maine to Oklahoma is like comparing apples to bananas. They have significant petroleum resources. A google search lists 236 oil and gas exploration companies in OK compared to a whopping 2 in Maine.
I see your point but this is the nature of true capitalism. Those with the $$$ can finance the changes that they want to take place whether it be bulldozing the forests for profit or in the case of Quimby, buying them so we can all look but not touch them. Face it, most rich people are just plain used to getting their own way.
It seems that people are angry or jealous at those who reap benefits from the capitalistic system when in fact they should either 1) work to change the system that allows this to occur or 2) utilize the system to figure out their own way to success.
The American dream is fine, until you turn it into a federal park…!
She has proven herself to be a liar-
She has proven herself to be a blackmailer-
She has proven her dream will require eminent domain-
As long as she is gone from the Katahdin region- we dont care…!
We, are described as more than 85% of the area residents comprised of Republican, Democrat & Independents that voted No Park…!
Many people who call themselves Mainers have a strong feeling of entitlement to snowmobile and ride their ATVs on land owned by others, a form of redneck welfare if you will. They incorrectly perceive a national park as threatening this “traditional way of life”. They would rather have the Koch brothers or Canadian and South African corporations control every acre of the Maine woods seeing as how they have brought soooooooo much prosperity to the Katahdin area in the last few decades. Good luck with that.
She’s only leasing the da&*%$ thing, she’s not cooking soup and steaming lobsters, relax.
Now that I know Roxanne Quimby owns it, I’m going to drive down there and poop on their lawn.
that just makes you sound like the Occupy Wall St crowd.
I think ramrodsmith may have been being facetious. The “return to nature meme” taken literally and in all its glory.
This year i am riding my 4 wheeler by her signs and on her land, thanks roxy!!!!!!!
me to
Really??
I’m really not sure why it matters that Quimby owns it. What does that have to do with the restaurant?
The fact that she owns the building is enough for me to stay away.
Nothing.
Because if she owns it, your patronizing it puts money into her pocket. That’s why. Happy to clear that up for you.
I am all for anything that keeps her away from Millinocket….!!!!!
I’ll stick to eating at Chases and thumbing my nose at the over priced over built restaurant across the road.
The site would better serve the public if it was returned to it’s natural state. It’s blocking a beautiful view of mother nature. The nesting habitat displaced by this large building just distresses me.. Please Ms Quimby do what you did to other wildness camps in the northwoods and return the land back to it’s original beauty.
Great comment ! I’m sure the folks that were put out of work when the camps were destroyed are all wishing her success.
Yup, her success in leaving Maine
Just travel around Bangor long enough, and it’s obvious that we have plenty of clientel chewing up tax money right here. I’m sure Milli can’t hold a candle to Bangor.
The factory jobs are gone, what would you have these people do for work? Try bringing back Maine’s manufacturing instead of complaining.
No National Park for you to play in so you dump on the people from the Katahdin area? Get a life!
This is a cruel and selfish remark. We are all Maine residents, when hard times come we must all work together for a solution. Millinocket was the number one employer in this state for a number of years; these people have paid their dues. The people of Millinocket are a proud, hard working, decent people. It is not their fault that bigger business took over the mill and sold them out! Quimby’s idea is not something that the people of Millinocket believe will help their community; they have a right to make their own choices. Unless you have a reasonable solution to the problem, the people of Millinocket will continue to do the best they can with the hand they’ve been dealt. But, rest assured, if you needed help, they would be there for you.
Rvamrs, bangorian comments on most of the stories in the BDN, 99.9% of the comments are complete Buffoonery!
I’ve noticed.
We all have noticed
The best place to eat in Winter Harbor: Chase’s! Not even mentioned in this article.
Yes, the overcooked and rancid grease in the fry-o-later at Chase’s certainly smells lovely as it wafts out of their restaurant. Good thing there is an emergency clinic up the road to take care of the heart attack patients.
Chase’s has been in business since 1963, year round. Would you like to discuss Mama’s Boy?
Pick your poison, Dude.
Dude? Dude??
I would tell the people of Winter Harbor to be very careful. Little Roxan is locking up central Maine with her back to nature beliefs. I wouldn’t be surprised if she starts buying lands around the point.
BINGO!!
Where have gou been LOL ….she has been buying up Winter Harbor for over 10 years!_
This article is a real disservice to Michael Boland who has no involvement in Ms. Quimby’s politics. The Quimby name writ large will certainly dissuade many Maine residents from even trying Mr. Boland’s services. Fortunately most of the restaurant’s clientele will be from the flatlands where the Quimby connection won’t matter.
The Quimby connection IS only in the flatlands.
Let see a few thousand people from Maine will not go to this restaurant. There are millions of people who know her name through their satisfied use of Burt’s products. So a few people from Maine do not go to the restaurant who are they hurting? People who work in Maine! Real good thinking
Winter Harbor sees 250,000 tourists each season drive thru town on the way out to one of the most beautiful section of coastline in the United States. These hungry people are why there are restaurants in the town, not for the 700 souls who live there, who have their own kitchens.
Good thing the Bangor News found an article to write where they could put Roxanne Quimby’s name in the headline, even though the story has little or nothing to do with her. Otherwise the paper might go broke due to lack of interet.
Written like a true blue “drone” of the Queen Bee.
I have been following this controversy for some time. On the jobs situation I can understand some of the resistance. But that alone won’t stop Ms Quimby, and I would question that complaining has ever stopped a wealthy person from doing what they want, especially when they can buy the politicians to get the law done the way they want. I don’t think having her as a enemy does anyone any good either, again because the power that wealth gives in our society. The only logical solution is find someone else with enough money to buy her out. She is a business women, and if she could sell at a good profit, she just might. That is the only way I can see to end the problem. Arguing it here, is not going to have any effect on the situation. Find a buyer or get enough people together to raise enough money to make her an offer. You know the old adage, put the money where your mouth is. Yes I am fully aware that it is going take a lot of money. So does buying our government. But nothing less has much affect in our country.
A town leader in Millinocket is on the record as saying “We do not want any of these $900,000 homes built around here”. It seems to me that this building is paying five thousand dollars a year property tax. This five thousand dollars a year is more than the Dolby Land fill is contributing to the economy. The land that Miss Quimby is trying to conserve sits between the Dolby land fill and the Irving strip mine. Yes we all need to pick a side. Then we have to figure out just what traditional use means; then we need to figure out what we are trying to preserve? In Millinocket figure out how many sidewalks could be repaired with $5000 tax payers.
Maine the way life should be. I like eating at the real Maine coastal eateries. the run down old buildings with family history going back 100 years… Thats Maine!!!
I hear tell if they make a success of it a wal-mart and starbaucks will follow..
Don’t read their their health inspection reports. You’d loose your appetite.
Took a nice ride up the Wilson Stream Road in Elliotsville last Sunday. The gates still their but wide open. That must be a thorn in her side.
We would love to help you with your new business!
George Adams CPA MBA in Brewer 989-2700
http://www.intelligenceforrent.com/
Now that Millinocket has run out the “bitter old liberal millionaire” it looks like she is looking to haunt another part of Maine— just as long as she stays away from Katahdin…!
Oh, she’s still lurking in the Maine Woods. She has changed her tactics a bit, that’s all.
And we’re still here, ready and willing to oppose ay type of repackaged version of Quimby’s park
Seems to me Roxanne Quimby “The killer Bee”( i like that one) would do all of us Mainers a big favor by taking her money she earned in North Carolina back to NC and live out her days. I really don’t see anything she has done for Maine except cause heartache.
well said
I heard that mizz quimby got engaged to Brad Pitt last week.
P.s. Don’t tell anyone else.
A town leader in Millinocket is on the record as saying “We do not want any of these $900,000 homes built around here”. It seems to me that this building is paying five thousand dollars a year property tax. This five thousand dollars a year is more than the Dolby Land fill is contributing to the economy. The land that Miss Quimby is trying to conserve sits between the Dolby land fill and the Irving strip mine. Yes we all need to pick a side. Then we have to figure out just what traditional use means: then we need to figure out what we are trying to preserve? In Millinocket figure out how many sidewalks could be repaired with $5000 tax payers. Then look around to see how many sidewalks are being repaired by the government who think that they are in the business of keeping our forest just like it was 50 years ago.
If the bitter old girl wants the dump, she can have it….
What about Chase’s Restaurant and Bunker’s Warf? Did tthey close?
We know where we ain’t eatin!