Café offers varied cuisine, personalized service
The eatery’s small dining room is a charming blend of elegance and country style.
PHILLIPS – At the bottom of a long menu that includes everything from lasagna to quesadillas is a small notice to customers. “Other items will be available at Madeline’s whim or by your request.”
That short addendum manages to describe the general attitude at the Phillips restaurant, 93 Main St. Café.
Café owner Madeline Haines of Madrid and her crew, including chef Tony Thomas and wait-person Julie Lyon, will do whatever it takes to satisfy a customer and make sure they leave with a full belly and a good taste in their mouth.
Quick to offer a complementary homemade whoopie pie, Haines has found that personalized service is the key to success.
“I want it be a family restaurant,” she says. “The atmosphere is what makes us special – it’s comfortable. People can come in and really sit down. You can get a little bit of everything here. I try to listen to the customer and what they want, and not just give them what I want.”
Change of pace
For nearly the past three decades, Haines has been involved in home health care, working for 23 years for Androscoggin Home Health Care and then running her own adult family care home for the past four years. But escalating insurance costs and a desire to spend more time with her family prompted her to find a “completely and totally new direction.”
Phillips needed a restaurant, Haines was a “pretty good baker” and she knew that if she could just pull together a hard-working team, her idea for starting 93 Main St. Café would work.
Keeping the faith
The night before the café opened in July, Haines had a nightmare that no one came into the restaurant and everyone in town was laughing at her. It didn’t deter her dream and on day one, customers were lined out the door.
“I have a higher power so I don’t worry,” says Haines, 60. “Everyone told me it wouldn’t work, but I knew it could. I just make sure to sell all the time.”
Now, just three months after 93 Main St. opened, Haines plans to hire another cook. She says she often has help washing dishes, bussing tables and baking on weekends. “I am paying the bills,” Haines says with a deep laugh.
Country charm
The small dining room is a charming blend of elegance and country style: lace tablecovers, fresh flowers and plates brimming with home-cooked food. Like the bar in “Cheers,” 93 Main St. is a warm place where everyone knows your name and how you like your coffee.
In an area like northern Franklin County that has recently seen manufacturing and mill jobs move overseas, the success of the café is proof that the area is a viable place to start a business.
“I believe you can do whatever you want as long as you put in the effort,” says Haines. “What’s made my business success is the old man up above. I am just doing the legwork.
“You’ve got to be good to everyone who comes in the door. Everyone is welcome here, long as they behave.”
93 Main St. Café is open Sunday through Thursday from 5:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Friday and Saturdays from 5:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and for dinner from 4:30 to 8:30. For more information, call 639-2725.
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