PARIS – Joyce and Andy Crane have a formula they have developed for the past quarter century in the catering and restaurant business.

“We serve real food,” Joyce said. “Not fast food – just real food made fast.”

Homemade is the keyword at A.J.’s.

She and her son won’t use a turkey roll for meat, preferring to bake her own for entrees. They cook their own beef and roast the chicken for the chicken salad sandwiches, which she said are flying out of the store since it opened July 1.

The meatloaf and lasagna are homemade and the soups are made from scratch.

They make their own desserts: cookies, whoopee pies, cakes and bread pudding.

They even make 11 flavors of homemade ice cream, and the establishment is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

“The coffee’s always fresh,” Andy said.

They have a brewing machine, in which a customer puts a small container of one of eight coffee choices, pushes a button and the beverage is done in 30 seconds.

“As soon as we can get the stuff in – in about three to four weeks – we are going to have desserts that are either low carb, low fat or sugar free,” Andy said.

Joyce, 66, started in the food business in 1966 when she opened the Jo-Lynn Bakery in Mechanic Falls. She said she was up at 2 a.m. every day and made 25 dozen doughnuts, but her business lasted only about two years.

“I had two kids and it was too much,” she said.

In 1978 she opened the Five Star Restaurant also in Mechanic Falls at five corners, which featured seafood lunches and dinners.

Andy started cooking there in 1978 when he was 15 years old. It was a seasonal restaurant closed for the winter.

After five years she opened Chef’s Corner in downtown Mechanic Falls and operated a year-round business there for two years, which also offered catering.

Then in 1988 she started Andrew’s Restaurant and Andrew’s Catering business located in the Nickelodeon in Mechanic Falls and in 1990 she moved the business to Lisbon Falls, where she stayed for 11 years.

She planned on retiring. The banquet rooms were downstairs in Lisbon Falls and the kitchen was upstairs.

“It was a lot of walking and a lot of work,” she said. “I thought I was too old.”

After two years she wanted to get back into the business. She said she looked in Auburn and Lewiston, but with the help of the Growth Council of Oxford Hills she decided on Paris.

She said the reception so far has been positive.

“I really think people are getting tired of fast food,” Joyce said. “Plus, people don’t have to go home and cook a meal. They can come by here and get a homemade one.”

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