The tenants opening a restaurant simply named Dinner, on the western end of Bar Harbor’s downtown area, said they hope to build on the success of their other restaurant — appropriately named Lunch.
Meghan Bishop and Aaron Porter leased 135 Cottage St., invested about $5,000 into fit-up, and opened mid-May.
“It was pretty turnkey,” said Bishop.
The landlord
The landlord is FishMaine Inc., which bought the property last December for $775,000, said Erica Brooks of the Swan Agency, who brokered the transaction.
FishMaine, owned by Jeremy and Kristi Bond, has five restaurants in Bar Harbor.
Bishop grew up in Maryland but had long been visiting Bar Harbor and working in FishMaine restaurants there during the summertime, starting with hosting and working her way up to management.
Porter grew up cooking and ran the FishMaine kitchens. Bishop and Porter met through their mutual employer.
A Lunch following
Six years ago, they had a chance to lease a former restaurant space at 8 Mount Desert St., adjacent to Bar Harbor’s busy downtown village green. They decided to open a seasonal soup, sandwich and salad shop, called Lunch. The eatery has 30 seats and also does lots of takeout for customers heading into Acadia National Park.
“Lunch has gone off without a hitch,” said Bishop. “It gets busier and busier every year and has a local following.”
Quieter Dinner spot
So when FishMaine bought 135 Cottage St., also a former eatery at the other end of the downtown area, they jumped at the chance to lease it, too, as a year-round lunch and dinner restaurant.
“We’ve always wanted to do a nighttime restaurant and call it Dinner,” said Bishop. “When 135 Cottage St. became available for lease, we jumped on it.”
The 38-seat spot has a cozy vibe. The menu includes specialties such as green curry mussels and pork schnitzel.
“It’s a small, quaint spot,” said Bishop. “We added pops of color and we went antiquing and picked up pieces of décor. It had kitchen equipment and seating. The bar was there.”
Lunch and Dinner have 15 employees. Bishop still manages two of FishMaine’s restaurants.
Being in the center of town, Lunch gets lots of walk-in traffic and hasn’t needed much advertising. Dinner is toward a quieter area of the community core.
“We just joined the Bar Harbor Chamber with both restaurants,” said Bishop. “We’ve been advertising more. People are finding us.”
