By Carol Coultas,Business Writer
After 10 years as chief cook and bottle washer, Carmen Lemay is heading out of the kitchen at Bill Davis.

LEWISTON – Come 6 a.m. Monday, Bill Davis Luncheonette will be open for business as usual.

But for the customers who need a wisecrack or a joke with their morning cup of joe, something essential will be missing: Carmen Lemay.

The petite dynamo who has run the restaurant for the last 10 years is leaving. Friday was her last day.

“I’m going to sit by the pool and have margaritas all the damn day,” quipped Lemay to a customer who asked what she planned to do.

Well, not really. But Lemay is trying to keep things light. The decision to leave is a personal one, made for reasons she doesn’t want to detail. But it’s obviously a painful change for a woman who considers her customers an extension of her family.

“What will I miss most?” she asks. “Everything. Everyone.”

In particular, she’ll miss the banter that ricochets through the air at Bill Davis like a pinball.

“It’s the grief that I get and give that makes this a family atmosphere,” said Lemay. “It’s the back and forth, the one-on-one relationships with our customers. It’s meant a lot to me.”

Apparently the feeling is mutual. By 9:30 Friday morning, flowers and gift baskets sent to wish her well lined a shelf. Oh, and six-packs, too.

Lemay joked with customers that she wanted beer for a send-off. Florists and friends Skip and Deb Girouard from Dube’s brought over a six-pack of Coors Light with an arrangement of flowers replacing the beer in one of the bottles.

“They’re too funny,” said Lemay.

It isn’t just Lemay’s personality that brings customers to the downtown landmark diner. It’s her cooking as well.

On Wednesday, one customer feared it would be her last chance to eat Lemay’s famous whoopie pies, so she bought the whole batch. Other customers openly mourned the loss of her fish chowder and her haddock and scallops combo.

Lemay is hoping they can avoid withdrawal. She’s proud of the restaurant she’s built up over the last decade and wants it to continue. So she’s leaving her recipes with the new management, and she’s offered to train staff to prepare them to her specifications.

Not that it will be easy.

Lemay begins her day at 3 a.m., preparing homemade breads and desserts. Then she gets her daily specials and soups under way. By 6 a.m., she’s ready to move out front, don an apron and serve breakfast customers.

At 8 a.m., the rest of the staff arrives and she can finish her lunch prep work. Then it’s all hands on deck during the lunchtime rush before she cleans and closes at 3 p.m.

It’s an exhausting routine, but Lemay has loved it. She’s worked in food service most of her adult life and hopes to stay in it. She’s taking next week off to consider her options. And unwind a bit.

“I haven’t had a vacation since I’ve been here,” she said, wondering what it would be like to have free time.

The one thing she won’t miss: parking tickets. She told a couple of cops who were in for breakfast that they had better get ready for a job change. Without the revenue from her parking tickets, “one of you guys will get laid off.”

Lemay’s car has been towed four times in the years she has worked at Bill Davis, and she has gotten more tickets than she can count. Other than that annoyance, it’s been a great 10 years.

“I just want people to know I’ll miss each and every one of them,” said Lemay. “Each and every one of them.”