‘Hometown boy returns to dream’
Mike Menard has been all around the world and has finally come home
to Scribner Boulevard in Lewiston.
LEWISTON
You might remember Mike Menard.
Back in the early 1980s, he was the tall kid behind the counter at Dube’s variety store, not far from his home on Scribner Boulevard.
In time, he tried to be a firefighter, and then a police officer. He labored for Lewiston Public Works, and for the U.S. Postal Service and in a newspaper press room.
He traveled the globe, from California to Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Virginia, the Phillipines. He sold toys. He was an actor, but landed only a brief appearance on Unsolved Mysteries. He worked retail jobs in Honolulu.
The local paper ran a photo of Menard, closing the door to the last operating Woolworth’s store in Hawaii.
And now, nearly a decade after leaving, he’s back behind the variety store counter, back on Scribner Boulevard.
Menard, 36, and his wife, Maureen, bought the store, now called Jami K’s Variety. They opened the doors on June 4. It had been closed under previous ownership since March.
It has been, Menard said, a long road home.
“It’s funny,” he said, spreading his long arms. “If you had to write a headline for this, it would be ‘Hometown boy returns to dream’.
“I grew up right down the street, so a lot of people know me around here. I actually tried to buy the place twice before, and it didn’t work out. We’re really excited, and happy to be back.”
The couple is outgoing, generous and friendly. If they don’t have something a customer requests, they’ll try to get it. The phone and fax are already busy, and the after-work crowd is building. Handwritten signs hang on coolers: More coming soon. A radio plays a country music station.
The Menards have stocked the shelves with chips, bread, milk, candies, the staples of convenience. But their real business is the food menu, inexpensive Italians, pizzas and desserts. Every day of the week has a special.
They don’t have much space, so they work with what they have.
“This store was grandfathered in, because it’s in a residential area, so we can’t expand,” Menard said. “It’s big enough for what we want.”
He knows the history of this place. It was built in 1948 by the Breton family, who lived next door, Menard said. Then it was J.J.’s, and Dube’s, and Richard’s from 1986 through the early 1990s. That’s when it became Jami K’s, named for an owner’s daughter. Before this spring, Menard said, the store had not been closed for more than a day since 1948.
Menard worked part-time for Mr. Dube, graduated in 1985 from St. Dominic Regional High School, and in 1991 left for California to make it big as an actor. It didn’t quite work out that way, but he had fun doing it.
“I got on ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ once,” Menard said. “That was about it.”
Eventually, he moved to Hawaii, where his brother was stationed in the Armed Forces. He moved between jobs, and found a pen pal in the Philippines, Maureen. A romance started when he visited, and the two have been together since.
His sister in Lewiston called him a year ago, with news that the store was for sale. Menard lost out to another bidder. The new owners decided to sell this year.
“My sister called and said the store was up for sale again,” Menard said. “We got it.”
The couple moved to Lewiston about a month ago, and immediately went to work.
Right now the staff consists of the Menards as full-timers, with help from his mother, two sisters, one niece and three nephews.
They plan a grand opening week, July 1-6, with specials and 54 prizes – one for each year the store has been open.
Menard can’t pin down exactly what drew him back, after so many years on the road.
“I don’t know what it is about Lewiston,” he said. ‘It’s just my hometown.”
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