Nearly every morning, Cathy Conn welcomes a married couple — both 88, living at Dirigo Pines in Orono — into Stone Sparrow Cafe, her tiny, cozy restaurant in Veazie, for a simple breakfast and a little conversation. With just 18 seats, it’s easy for Conn to get to know all her regulars very well, very quickly.
“They say that they made the decision to go out to breakfast every morning because it gets them up and out and dressed and going,” said Conn, who opened her cafe in June 2014. “One of the really nice things about being small is that you really get to know people.”
Over bacon and egg scrambles, French toast or classic chicken salad sandwiches, regular patrons of Stone Sparrow Cafe catch up on the news and each other’s lives, read the paper or a book, simply sit quietly and think. Some are young people with children; most are retirees, either friends or couples, sharing stories, jokes and maybe a little gossip. There’s not a thing about this cafe that’s forced or impersonal.
Conn, a Brewer native living in Old Town, didn’t start out in life planning to open a restaurant, though she did work as a personal chef on Mount Desert Island during the summers in between high school and college. She cooked for a wealthy older woman and her many guests in an impressive Northeast Harbor summer home.
One time, in the late 1970s, she served Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis lunch.
“I remember being complimented on my clam chowder and blueberry pie,” said Conn. “I was 17. She was very nice, though I was told I couldn’t tell anyone she was there. She was the most famous woman in the world, to me.”
Despite her auspicious beginnings as a cook, she took a circuitous route toward eventually opening Stone Sparrow Cafe. She first worked as an interior designer around the southern U.S. — her eye for creating an inviting space is evident in the cafe’s warm, comfortable atmosphere. In the early 1990s, she moved back to Maine, where she worked for MBNA and Bank of America for nearly 20 years.
During that time, Conn, always an avid home cook, began doing small-scale catering for friends and family — a dinner party here, a small wedding there. Nothing major, though she received rave reviews for food.
“It was never something that was going to be a full-time thing,” said Conn. “But I’ve always loved to cook, and eventually, I was just thinking about maybe, someday, maybe. … People always said to me, ‘You should open a place!’”
Then she was laid off from her job when Bank of America closed its Orono call center. She took her severance package and decided to bite the bullet and open her own place. She initially looked for a property in Old Town, but when she saw the little stone cottage was up for sale, she jumped at it.
“It was a case of ‘If not now, when?’” said Conn. “When I saw this place was available, I just went for it.”
The first two years Stone Sparrow Cafe was open, Conn struggled with staffing issues, and she had to close for a few months to recuperate from a broken foot. Undeterred, however, she’s kept going — and is finally in a place where things seem to be running smoothly.
Stone Sparrow Cafe is located in the eye-catching stone cottage that formerly housed the Stonehouse Cafe, another breakfast and lunch spot, about halfway between Mt. Hope Cemetery and Penobscot Valley Country Club. Inside, the walls are painted a creamy white, and tasteful photographs and paintings hang on the walls. Vintage sugar bowls and funky green chairs, some taken from the former Oronoka Restaurant in Orono, are at every table, and the front counter is packed with luscious baked goods — from brownies, muffins and cookies to beautifully frosted homemade cakes.
From the tiny kitchen, a small but thoroughly vetted array of breakfast and lunch items come out from the swinging doors. The most popular dish is the Sparrow’s Nest Scramble, an egg scramble filled with bacon and home fries. A weekend brunch favorite is classic Eggs Benedict — the most expensive thing on the menu but still just $9.50 — served with thick slices of fresh baked ham and Conn’s lemony, decadent hollandaise sauce, of which she’s justifiably proud.
“It’s Julia Child’s recipe,” said Conn. “If you’re going to do something like hollandaise, you use the best recipe.”
For lunch, there’s daily soups and sandwiches — traditional favorites such as a BLT, and chicken and tuna salad, with sandwiches priced at either $5.50 for a half or $8.50 for a whole, with side salads or chips (there’s no fryolator at Stone Sparrow Cafe). There also is Conn’s personal favorites, the French onion and spinach and artichoke grilled cheeses; the former slathered with caramelized onions and, optionally, bacon, and the latter utilizing Swiss, asiago and cream cheese and roasted garlic.
The 18-seat dining room, small menu and the even tinier kitchen mean that there’s little chance for the kitchen to become swamped — though it does mean that on weekends such as the University of Maine’s Homecoming, Conn has to turn people away.
“I hate turning people away. But we have 18 seats,” she said. “People don’t like to wait. I get it. But we really want folks to come in on weekdays, too.”
Conn intentionally kept the menu small — though the size of her kitchen had something to do with it, she also knew that she wanted to not aim too high, or overwhelm herself.
“There are a lot of really good restaurants around here that can do some really impressive stuff. There was no way I could ever compete with dinner. I didn’t want to do dinner,” said Conn. “I just wanted to do lunch. It’s really good and really fresh, but it’s just breakfast and lunch. I wanted to keep it simple.”
The Stone Sparrow Cafe is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. It is located at 1492 State St. in Veazie. For more information, visit facebook.com/stonesparrowcafe/.
