Restaurateur Sarah Smith likes to joke that she and her husband, Harding, had the rooms — and now they have a house.
With four established restaurants already under their wing, the Smiths’ new Bethel restaurant, Mayville Union House opened the weekend of Feb. 21-22.
The couple’s “rooms” are, in Portland: The Front Room, The Grill Room and Bar, and The Corner Room Italian Kitchen and Bar; and in Newry, the 10-year-old The Mountain Room.
The Federalist-style 1791 Mayville Union House is at 174 Mayville Road on Routes 2/26, along the road to Sunday River ski area. The property is a larger undertaking than the Smiths’ previous ventures, with a first-floor bar and dining room, six second-floor guest rooms and a separate three-bedroom cottage.
The dining room seats about 70, and the Smiths plan to use the outdoor space as well.
“It’s a very versatile space,” Sarah Smith said.
Initially, the restaurant will be open Thursday through Saturday evenings, with an earlier happy hour geared toward the après-ski crowd. Live music is planned, and the Smiths hope to host small weddings and affordable elopements. They plan to expand into lunch service in late spring.
Sarah Smith said they hope to host more community and private events going forward.
“We want to be on hand for the community as much as we can,” she said.
The Smiths also plan to grow vegetables, herbs and flowers in on-site gardens. A beekeeper friend may provide bees, and chickens are likely. The restaurant will source potatoes from a farm across the street and eggs from Blake Farm in Bethel.
“We’re always trying to incorporate local farm food,” she said.
That commitment is reflected in the menu. Under Small Bites, deviled eggs — chef inspired — feature Blake Farm eggs, and the farm will also supply beef for the restaurant’s burgers. A vegetarian main dish, mushroom ragu, will use Shady Grove mushrooms from Harrison. Prices range from $15 for fish chowder to $50 for a 20-ounce à la carte ribeye. The menu also includes sandwiches, pasta, greens and crocks.
Their Portland restaurants similarly source seafood from local fishermen and oyster farms, as well as produce from Sunset Farms farmers.
The Smiths and several partners purchased the property in 2025 for $1.8 million from Brenda Blond, of Newry, who operated GraceNote Inn and Spa from 2022 until selling in 2025. Blond began extensive property updates in 2016. The pool and spa have since been removed.
“At my very first job I was a chambermaid, but I don’t know anything about pool maintenance,” Smith said.
One of the home’s most notable former occupants was William Rogers Chapman (1855-1935), a Bethel native raised by his widowed mother. A graduate of Gould Academy, Chapman became a respected musician and music teacher and founded the Maine Music Festival, which he directed for 20 years.
Chef’s table
Unlike their Portland restaurants, which feature open kitchens, the Mayville kitchen is closed off from the dining room. But the Smiths plan to offer a chef’s table in the kitchen for up to six guests.
The chef’s table will not have a menu.
“Harding will make you whatever his vision is for the evening. It will be a great way for customers to interact with the back of the house,” Smith said.
Smith said their general manager is John Hicinbothem, formerly of Bethel Resort and Suites, and the sous chef is Steve Flint. They hope that Tara Pocock, who works with them at Sunday River, will work on the floor.
On Feb. 10, Smith, who is adding her own creative flairs to the new restaurant, was on her knees painting the fireplace tiles. She wasn’t quite ready to release photos because the wall art was not up yet and she hadn’t hung the ceiling plants.
She had already researched and painted the upholstered benches that will be in the dining room. “I’ve got to sand them down and do another coat.”
In 2005, after returning from seven years in Florida, Smith bought a season pass at Sunday River to snowboard. She and Harding met in Portland but connected at Sunday River.
The Mountain Room sits on North Peak at Sunday River, rather than at one of the base lodges, creating unique logistical challenges. Ski area groomers deliver most supplies, but sometimes the Smiths have to improvise.
“I ski with loaves of bread and whatever I can carry in my backpack. You wouldn’t believe what it takes to get a head of lettuce up that mountain,” said Smith, adding that the ski community is special and other skiers help her.
“Never in my wildest dreams, sitting in the lodge at North Peak, did I think I would have my own restaurant … I’m very proud of it,” she said.
That unlikely path — from snowboarder in the lodge to restaurateur on the road to Sunday River — is not lost on her.
“In hospitality and in the skiing community you meet great people,” Smith said. “It beats being in a cubicle most days.”
Now, with Mayville Union House preparing to welcome its first guests, the Smiths are adding something new to Bethel’s dining scene: not just another “room,” but a gathering place meant to reflect the mountain community that shaped them.
“It is a really special place,” she added.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Rose Lincoln can be reached at rlincoln@sunjournal.com.