DIXFIELD – Bev Gallant’s dreams will come true Wednesday morning.
That’s when this Dixfield resident with a love of cooking and people will open her new business, the Bear-ly Inn and Restaurant on Weld Street.
She and her husband, Bill, bought the 1881, 17-room brick home in March, and ever since then, with the help of many friends and family members, they’ve been redecorating, planning menus, acquiring licenses and taking care of the seemingly millions of details required of innkeepers.
With her Italian and Acadian ancestry, Gallant decided to focus on Italian foods with occasional specials featuring Acadian fare.
Gallant, who ran a catering business for about year when she and Bill lived in Rumford, believes that food brings people closer together. As one of nine children, she started cooking quite young.
“I love people and I love to feed people. When people are sitting down to the table, that’s when they get to know each other. My favorite saying is, mangiare, mangiare,’ (eat, eat)” she said.
The brick inn and restaurant operated as the Daphne House bed and breakfast for about a year prior to the Gallant’s purchase. Before that, it was a private residence.
History runs deep in the architecture, woodwork, and its place.
It was built by Frank and Mary Stanley and known as the Stanley House. Frank was a cousin to Francis and Freelan Stanley of Kingfield, the inventors of the Stanley Steamer.
The new bed and breakfast has four guest rooms, each with a theme. On the masculine side, there’s the “Field and Stream” room, decorated with bear and caribou skins, old ice fishing traps, a mounted deer head and speckled trout. Across the hall is the Independence Room featuring a copy of the Declaration of Independence, a ceramic pitcher and bowl, and other Colonial decorations.
The Dollhouse Room includes rose pink woodwork, pink striped walls, a doll’s crib and stuffed bears, while the Garden Suite showcases a canopied bed and orchids. For now, the four guest rooms share a bath and a gathering room. The Gallants, however, have plans to add a bathroom to each guest room in the future.
Gallant, 55, has been thinking about a bed and breakfast for years, and searched for just the right details for perfectly decorated rooms.
“When you dream about something like this for years, it’s like a puzzle. It all came together,” she said.
The downstairs houses two dining rooms – a small one for serving breakfast to guests, and a larger, Italian art decorated room for restaurant patrons.
Breakfast for the general public will be served from 7 to 10 a.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, and breakfast and brunch from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays. At least for a while, dinner will be served, by reservation only, from 5 to 9 on Friday and Saturday nights. Additional hours may be added later.
Ross Swain, a pianist from Andover, will provide live music one night a month in the restaurant.
The business will employ two waitresses and one kitchen helper, along with Bev and Bill Gallant, who also live in one section of the large home.
The business is located at 28 Weld St. and may be reached at 562-7700.
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