COURTESY / JENNY SMITH & CO.
Bar Harbor Catering Co., which has seen continual growth since it started in 2009, is now adding a restaurant on top of its catering services.
Updated: January 9, 2020
Bar Harbor Catering Co. takes over 80-year-old restaurant
By Staff
Bar Harbor Catering Co., a woman-run business in Bar Harbor founded in 2009, is adding a restaurant on top of its catering services.
The company’s founder and owner, Mandy Fountaine, will take over Abel’s Lobster Pound, a seasonal, waterfront restaurant that has been in operation since 1939 and has attracted generations of diners.
The restaurant is located in the Henry R. Abel & Co. boatyard and features traditional Maine seafood.
Fountaine is an eighth-generation Mainer who has worked in the food industry for 20 years. Bar Harbor Catering offers full-service event catering and bar service and is based out of a separate location on Route 3 in Bar Harbor, according to a news release.
“Abel’s is a well-known authentic Maine dining establishment on MDI and we’re not planning to change that,” Fountaine said in the release. “We’re going for a fun, informal type of experience."
The lobster pound charm of Abel’s will remain and the menu will showcase traditional offerings mixed with some more modern options. Fountaine plans to cater to the neighborhood as well as the hundreds of thousands of seasonal visitors with coastal Maine cooking.
The company’s executive chef, Matthew Leddy, is helping Fountaine create a menu that will honor Abel’s history.
Leddy was named one of the “Five U.S. Sous Chefs To Watch” by Forbes, and while working at Farmstead in Providence, R.I., the restaurant was a finalist for James Beard Best Chef Northeast Award from 2011 through 2014. During Leddy’s time at Townsman in Boston, the restaurant was named Food & Wine’s Restaurants of the Year in 2016, Esquire’s list of Best New Restaurants in America 2015, and USA Today's Readers' Choice Award 2015 for Best New Restaurant.
“We hope to synthesize the familiar and the unexpected, an interpretation of modern Maine that’s right for its time,” said Fountaine. “Our focus is on Maine flavors, ingredients, and atmosphere.”
Abel’s sits on Somes Sound in Mount Desert and features traditional clapboard shingles and picnic tables. Under Fountaine’s management, the 100-seater will look mostly the same, but with a few cosmetic updates.
Bar Harbor Catering has been recognized with several accolades, including Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce's 2019 Business of the Year, 2018 Top 3 finalist Catersource ACE award: Achievement in Catering Excellence, in both Catering and Events, and 2017 Rising Star Business of the Year.
Abel’s will open Father’s Day weekend.
Last April, Bar Harbor Catering Co. launched a pop-up eatery and tasting room to operate as a test kitchen for chefs and also reach a more-general audience.
In conjunction with the 2019 event season kicking off in May, the company also launched a new website designed to better accommodate client needs and offer more accessibility, mobile responsiveness and ease of use.
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments