On the Record: Owner of three Maine restaurants ‘always open to new business opportunities’
PHOTO / JIM NEUGER
Krista Cole is a former nurse who owns three Maine eateries, including Sur Lie in Portland shown here.
Krista Cole, who grew up in East Millinocket, is the sole owner and operations director of Sur Lie in Portland and Gather in Yarmouth and co-owner of Catface Cafe in Biddeford. After an early career in nursing, she switched gears and opened Sur Lie in 2014. She bought Gather in 2022 and opened Catface in 2024, employing 30 people combined at the three businesses.
Mainebiz: How have your rural roots shaped your career path?
Krista Cole: Being from a small town and raised by a single mom with three kids, I had to get a job as soon as I could get a work permit. I was taught to be a really hard worker — my honesty, integrity and my work ethic comes from my northern Maine roots for sure. My first job in high school was working at a grocery store as a cashier in our little town, then I got my nursing assistant certificate when in high school and went to college for nursing. After a couple of years as a travelling nurse, I landed in Denver and stayed there four or five years and went back to grad school for business because I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
MB: In a few words, how would you describe the three venues?
KC: Sur Lie is an eclectic upscale casual laid-back fun tapas restaurant, Gather is slightly elevated neighborhood comfort food, and Catface is a fun little trendy specialty coffee and breakfast spot right in the heart of Biddeford, which has just so much stuff going on right now. It’s been fun to do the cafe, since I’ve always owned restaurants with dinner.
MB: How do you split your time between the three restaurants?
KC: Catface is open in the morning, so I try to spend two or three mornings there a week. I try to spend a couple nights at Gather and a couple nights here [at Sur Lie] — or at least one night at each. As the cafe has opened, I have kind of shifted to being at Sur Lie less — I always joke that they don’t need me, they’re really self-sufficient. I think it’s really important for me to be at Gather because it is such a community-based neighborhood restaurant.
MB: Anything that’s surprised you about running a cafe vs. a restaurant?
KC: It was relatively easy to take the bigger-scale restaurants and duplicate some of the systems into a smaller scale. I also love going into Catface and working in the kitchen there, making breakfast sandwiches.
MB: Would you be open to other business opportunities?
KC: Catface has a good opportunity to add maybe some other locations, and I’m always open to new business opportunities. I think also taking what we’ve done, taking my skill set and figuring out what to do long-term with that as well.
MB: What’s the biggest challenge facing your industry today?
KC: The cost of everything and trying to pay people livable wages. The industry has always depended on cheap labor and needs to figure out how to survive in the new world.
MB: How do you keep employees motivated when there are so many layoffs and closings?
KC: It is hard to keep up the morale in this industry because it’s just so grueling. We stay closed three days a week, so everyone works for four days and then they have three full days off. I’ve toyed with the idea of opening on Tuesdays again, which I think eventually we will have to do. What it comes down to is giving people a good work-life balance, paying people wages so they can live and have money to do the things that make them happy. I think also the team seeing me here doing whatever needs to be done — they have a lot of respect when they see you’re willing to put in the hard work.
MB: To someone opening a restaurant next week, what’s your first piece of advice?
KC: Buckle up. Just be present, be really smart, understand where all of your finances are going, and just be ready because it’s hard.
MB: What’s your outlook for the industry?
KC: I think it’s positive. At the end of the day, communities support small business. And regardless of what’s happening economically, we are humans that socialize and so people get together and they break bread together, they celebrate milestones together and birthdays and anniversaries. If the restaurant industry can be nimble, then we can weather it for sure.
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