Standard Gastropub brings city fare to rural Maine

William Henry Holmes feels the combination of a gas station and restaurant—two of life's essentials—is a winning business model in the rural town of Bridgton, whose population of 6,000 swells to 16,000 in the summer. He and partner/chef Alvah Franklin Johnson plan to open Standard Gastropub LLC on July 1.

Holmes, 28, and Johnson, 27, are the exact demographic that small, rural Maine towns are trying to attract as their economies stall and their youth leave for opportunities elsewhere. The new restaurant aims to give year-round residents and tourists an upscale dining option to an otherwise hour's drive into Portland or North Conway. To keep costs down, Holmes will source ingredients locally, use fast-cooking methods like sous vide and serve food quickly. He'll also sell craft beers.

Mainebiz spoke recently with Holmes, born in Harrison and an architect by training, about the dual-business model. Following is an edited transcript:

Mainebiz: How did you come up with the idea for Standard Gastropub?

William Henry Holmes: I graduated into the start of the recession and quickly got laid off. I went back into the restaurant industry in Boston. About a year ago when I was visiting back home, I noticed that the real estate market had opened up. McDonald's had opened about a year ago. That was a big green light to me. I drove by this gas station one day that had been closed down for about a year, and it occurred to me that one of the most recession-proof business models is a fuel station. The idea for the restaurant is basically you can do something that's a little more specialized and more like what you'd expect to find in the city because you have that constant traffic coming in from the fuel side of things.

MB: What makes you think the idea will fly?

WHH: Over the past five years, food, cocktail and bar culture has been widespread on TV. And it's becoming much more commonplace for people to know a lot more about culinary cooking techniques, ingredients, other cultures and foods.

MB: How would you describe the cuisine?

WHH: What we're doing is gourmet versions of different street and fast food from all different cultures around the world. That's everything from tacos you'd get on the street in Mexico to yakitori in Japan to bahn mi [Vietnamese] to croquettes you'd get in Holland. Locally, we're going to be between Eventide [Oyster Co.] and Cantina [at El Rayo], with a little more of the culinary influence of Nosh Kitchen Bar. Our chef trained for 10 years under the head chef at Bray's Brewpub in Naples.

MB: What is the average price of a meal?

WHH: In the daytime it's probably around $7-8 and at night around $12. We would like to get to a point where we're doing between 200 and 500 meals per day.

MB: What is your expected revenue?

WHH: We'll be doing between $2 million and $3 million a year in fuel sales the first year, from this July till next July. It's going to allow us to really open with a fury and be at full capacity fairly quickly. I think we'll be around $360,000 to $380,000 for the restaurant side of things for year one.

MB: How many employees will you have?

WHH: In addition to Alvah Johnson and myself, there will probably be two to three full-time and four to five part-time employees. In the second year of growth we're looking to do an outdoor space in the back of the building, and we'd be able to grow our seating by 60-70 seats to about 100 total. At that point we would probably as much as double the staff.

MB: What is your funding to date?

WHH: We have around $50,000 invested to date from cash and crowdsourcing.

MB: What's the most challenging thing about the business?

WHH: Seasonality. Our population in the town of Bridgton goes from 6,000 to 16,000 in the summer. So you can imagine what you see in the summer tapers off quickly in the winter. Gas is a necessity, an everyday thing. The convenience of having something paired with that is going to obviously bolster the revenue and viability of that other business.

MB: How large is it? What are the hours?

WHH: The building is roughly 1,000 square feet, with a 200-square-foot open concept kitchen.We'll be open during the week from 6 a.m. until midnight. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, we'll be open until 1a.m. and open slightly later in the morning.

MB: What are the pub's unique features? What is an "elevated culinary experience?"

WHH: It's all in the presentation. It's how you set the room. During the day we are going to be much more blue collar with more takeout, sort of a cross between a coffee shop and a deli atmosphere. At night we'll have lighting and music. You can take a very plain space and make it inviting and upscale. We plan by the end of the summer to start a brunch service on weekends with some sort of a jazz and acoustic music accompanying that. It's something we'll ease into, and probably have some nighttime performances as well.

MB: What are eating trends now, and how does Standard Gastropub fit into that?

WHH: We'll be competing with other restaurants in town, but there's not one establishment that's doing the level of creative thinking about their menu or about what they're offering. We're also pairing with local farms. Next summer we aim to have 100% of our menu be local. We're keeping the food close to home and the people close to home and ultimately giving them what they're looking for.

MB: About 50% or more of restaurants fail in the first year. What will you do to survive?

WHH: I'm always surprised it's not a higher percentage, say 80% or more. They aren't doing enough in terms of the design of their business. The reality is you're part of one of the largest industries in the country and the world. You're providing someone an experience. A lot of places fall short in that aspect. For us in Bridgton, there's not an opportunity offered, there's opportunity to be taken. It's not happening in the traditional sense. You have to be on the cusp of something, have different ideas and think outside the box. The integration of the different business models is the first thing that got me thinking about that. I wouldn't doubt that 10 years from now that will be a pretty widespread thing, to take two different business models and put them together. I wouldn't be opening a restaurant if it wasn't in a gas station in that area. That's what makes it work. We'd like to collaborate with anyone in the area who is open to it. The key to building the economy of that area is for these businesses to team together.

William Henry Holmes feels the combination of a gas station and restaurant—two of life's essentials—is a winning business model in the rural town of Bridgton, whose population of 6,000 swells to 16,000 in the summer. He and partner/chef Alvah Franklin Johnson plan to open Standard Gastropub LLC on July 1.

Holmes, 28, and Johnson, 27, are the exact demographic that small, rural Maine towns are trying to attract as their economies stall and their youth leave for opportunities elsewhere. The new restaurant aims to give year-round residents and tourists an upscale dining option to an otherwise hour's drive into Portland or North Conway. To keep costs down, Holmes will source ingredients locally, use fast-cooking methods like sous vide and serve food quickly. He'll also sell craft beers.

Mainebiz spoke recently with Holmes, born in Harrison and an architect by training, about the dual-business model. Following is an edited transcript:

Mainebiz: How did you come up with the idea for Standard Gastropub?

William Henry Holmes: I graduated into the start of the recession and quickly got laid off. I went back into the restaurant industry in Boston. About a year ago when I was visiting back home, I noticed that the real estate market had opened up. McDonald's had opened about a year ago. That was a big green light to me. I drove by this gas station one day that had been closed down for about a year, and it occurred to me that one of the most recession-proof business models is a fuel station. The idea for the restaurant is basically you can do something that's a little more specialized and more like what you'd expect to find in the city because you have that constant traffic coming in from the fuel side of things.

MB: What makes you think the idea will fly?

WHH: Over the past five years, food, cocktail and bar culture has been widespread on TV. And it's becoming much more commonplace for people to know a lot more about culinary cooking techniques, ingredients, other cultures and foods.

MB: How would you describe the cuisine?

WHH: What we're doing is gourmet versions of different street and fast food from all different cultures around the world. That's everything from tacos you'd get on the street in Mexico to yakitori in Japan to bahn mi [Vietnamese] to croquettes you'd get in Holland. Locally, we're going to be between Eventide [Oyster Co.] and Cantina [at El Rayo], with a little more of the culinary influence of Nosh Kitchen Bar. Our chef trained for 10 years under the head chef at Bray's Brewpub in Naples.

MB: What is the average price of a meal?

WHH: In the daytime it's probably around $7-8 and at night around $12. We would like to get to a point where we're doing between 200 and 500 meals per day.

MB: What is your expected revenue?

WHH: We'll be doing between $2 million and $3 million a year in fuel sales the first year, from this July till next July. It's going to allow us to really open with a fury and be at full capacity fairly quickly. I think we'll be around $360,000 to $380,000 for the restaurant side of things for year one.

MB: How many employees will you have?

WHH: In addition to Alvah Johnson and myself, there will probably be two to three full-time and four to five part-time employees. In the second year of growth we're looking to do an outdoor space in the back of the building, and we'd be able to grow our seating by 60-70 seats to about 100 total. At that point we would probably as much as double the staff.

MB: What is your funding to date?

WHH: We have around $50,000 invested to date from cash and crowdsourcing.

MB: What's the most challenging thing about the business?

WHH: Seasonality. Our population in the town of Bridgton goes from 6,000 to 16,000 in the summer. So you can imagine what you see in the summer tapers off quickly in the winter. Gas is a necessity, an everyday thing. The convenience of having something paired with that is going to obviously bolster the revenue and viability of that other business.

MB: How large is it? What are the hours?

WHH: The building is roughly 1,000 square feet, with a 200-square-foot open concept kitchen.We'll be open during the week from 6 a.m. until midnight. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, we'll be open until 1a.m. and open slightly later in the morning.

MB: What are the pub's unique features? What is an "elevated culinary experience?"

WHH: It's all in the presentation. It's how you set the room. During the day we are going to be much more blue collar with more takeout, sort of a cross between a coffee shop and a deli atmosphere. At night we'll have lighting and music. You can take a very plain space and make it inviting and upscale. We plan by the end of the summer to start a brunch service on weekends with some sort of a jazz and acoustic music accompanying that. It's something we'll ease into, and probably have some nighttime performances as well.

MB: What are eating trends now, and how does Standard Gastropub fit into that?

WHH: We'll be competing with other restaurants in town, but there's not one establishment that's doing the level of creative thinking about their menu or about what they're offering. We're also pairing with local farms. Next summer we aim to have 100% of our menu be local. We're keeping the food close to home and the people close to home and ultimately giving them what they're looking for.

MB: About 50% or more of restaurants fail in the first year. What will you do to survive?

WHH: I'm always surprised it's not a higher percentage, say 80% or more. They aren't doing enough in terms of the design of their business. The reality is you're part of one of the largest industries in the country and the world. You're providing someone an experience. A lot of places fall short in that aspect. For us in Bridgton, there's not an opportunity offered, there's opportunity to be taken. It's not happening in the traditional sense. You have to be on the cusp of something, have different ideas and think outside the box. The integration of the different business models is the first thing that got me thinking about that. I wouldn't doubt that 10 years from now that will be a pretty widespread thing, to take two different business models and put them together. I wouldn't be opening a restaurant if it wasn't in a gas station in that area. That's what makes it work. We'd like to collaborate with anyone in the area who is open to it. The key to building the economy of that area is for these businesses to team together.