LEWISTON — Ileshea Stowe knows there’s a lot of interest in what’s going on behind the closed doors of the old Lincoln Street Grand Trunk Depot.

People stop by all the time and knock on the doors.

“We have people who will just wander in off the street, if the doors are open,” Stowe, director of operations at Rails on Lincoln Street, said. “Or they knock and ask for a tour or if we’re open yet.”

Her new restaurant is not open — yet — but they are close. They should start testing things next week, serving invitation-only meals to friends, contractors and investors, Stowe said.

The doors open Dec. 5 for a soft opening serving lunches and dinners. The grand opening is scheduled for Dec. 10.

“There is a real positive feeling we get,” she said. “It seems like everyone really wants this to work.”

General manager Sharon White has hired most of her staff and executive chef Paul Olaf Lively has pretty much set the menu.

It’s heavy on fresh, organic food tuned Franco-American. The menu features local microbrews and Maine-distilled spirits paired with meatloaf, gnocchi and cheese or his own gluten-free version of poutine.

“From the get-go, Rails will have something for everyone,” Lively said. “It has great atmosphere, it’s in a vintage building, we’ll have consciously sourced food and we are going to start a trend of bringing community to Lewiston.”

Stowe knows that people are impatient for the restaurant to open.

“People have an emotional connection to this place,” she said. “When I first started working on this, there was an outpouring of emotion and of memory. They started donating pictures and old menus and artifacts.”

The pictures, menus and train timetables are framed and decorate the walls.

A restaurant at the spot has been in the works for more than four years.

The building, at 103 Lincoln St., was built in 1874 and served as the landing spot for many of Lewiston-Auburn’s Canadian immigrants for years. It’s been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979.

Building owners, the Lewiston-Auburn Railroad, started renovations in 2010, beginning negotiations with Karen Pulkinnen in 2011 to open a cafe. Renovations wrapped that year, with Pulkinnen agreeing to pay $10 per square-foot per year for the roughly 2,100-square-foot space.

Stowe’s father-in-law, Stephen Dick, acted as a silent partner with Pulkinnen until he filed suit in January, alleging she had misused his investment.

The suit was dropped this spring, with Dick in charge. He appointed Stowe the director of operations.

“I know there is a history with it, but we’re trying to close the door on that,” she said. “Since that time, we have involved the community and done everything we can to make it a good place, both to work and to come to. That’s the vibe we want. We want people to forget about their problems. Leave all that other stuff outside.”

staylor@sunjournal.com

Chef Paul Olaf Lively describes his Franco American take on Chicken and Waffles.
Chef Paul Olaf Lively describes his thinking behind Brussel chips, a new appetizer at Rails on Lincoln Street.

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