When Joy Dudley first started her cookie business, she would bring just 20 cookies to the Bangor European Market every Saturday morning to sell at her table.
“I would sell out every weekend,” Dudley said.
The business grew, and now, five years later, she’s opening a second brick-and-mortar storefront, this time in downtown Bangor. It’s one of several local businesses set to open their doors downtown in the winter months.
Baked By Joy, which has a takeout-only store in Hampden, plans to open its Bangor location at 25 Hammond St., where Bangor Sandwich Company sat before moving to the larger space next door earlier this year.
The opening means that Dudley can move her baking operations out of her basement in Hermon and into the Bangor store as she grows her staff and the wholesale side of her business. Local grocers like Danforth’s and Tiller and Rye carry her baked goods, and she’s looking to expand the wholesale side of her business too.
In Bangor, she can add more to her menu and offer seating for customers to hang out with their treats — a space that customers have been asking for since the Hampden store opened in March, Dudley said.
“Bangor is a hub for everybody,” she said. The store’s central location downtown will make it easy for people to stop by, and she thinks the Filipino-inspired flavors on her menu will add something unique to the Queen City. Some of her offerings might be foods her customers can try for the first time.
That menu includes cookies, pan de sal (a type of Filipino bread roll), cakes, matcha, ice cream, boba made with real fruit like strawberry, mango and ube, and lattes and pourover coffee supplied through a partnership with the Deer Isle-based 44 North Coffee.
Dudley plans to start moving into the new store this month with the goal of opening before Christmas, or sometime in January if not then. She’ll do some updates and painting to the store but doesn’t have any major renovations planned. She hasn’t determined what the store’s hours will be yet, but she’s hoping to stay open a bit later to give customers a cafe option in the early evening, a rarity in Bangor.
Two other area residents are planning to open downtown businesses in November and December as well: Burgers & Bad Decisions and the Fireheart Tavern, both on Main Street.
Dudley also wants to host events in the store every month, especially focused around kids and families, like baking classes or the princess day she hosted last winter, when she was using space within the Not So Empty Nest gift shop. About 200 kids showed up, Dudley said.
“It’s kind of hard if you don’t have your own space to do that,” she said. “We’re excited to be in Bangor.”