OXFORD — After delivering a ramekin of sliced lemons to a table, Mike Doerr picks up two plates loaded with burgers and fries, makes a lap around the restaurant, pushes the swinging door to the kitchen, digs through ticket slips buried under a stack, consults a waitress and, finally, exiting the kitchen, offloads the sandwiches to two people at the counter 5 feet away. 

Busy even at the end of the lunch rush, Doerr — in the midst of another 120-hour workweek — is nonetheless a happy man, albeit 25 pounds lighter. 

Having recently made the jump from corporate restaurant to open his very first family-run establishment, Mike and his wife, Jerrie, are co-owners of the Checkered Flag Restaurant, a diner on the doorstep of Oxford Plains Speedway. 

After a career of crisscrossing the country to open restaurants, the Doerrs, with three kids in tow, have spent the past nine years in Auburn. They’re finally settling down. 

“You reach a point of diminishing returns, where every state starts to look the same,” Mike said. 

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the 40-plus seat restaurant makes traditional American diner food the hard way: from scratch. Mike, 46, who worked at Longhorn Steakhouse for 18 years, does a bit of everything while Jerrie, 51, a former teacher, bakes and hosts.

Favorites include the bacon burger, poutine, fried haddock and — Mike grows serious here — onion rings, which he said are battered in-house. The menu will change seasonally, and they’re exploring adding steak and prime rib. Online ordering is in the cards. 

The decor draws from its surroundings; photos of race car drivers dot the walls. Pieces of actual cars hang above dining tables. In the bathrooms, sinks are wrapped in a metal drum and tires that look as though they’ve seen a few laps. 

The Doerrs say the restaurant’s size provides plenty to do while allowing a relationship with patrons, something that wasn’t always possible in the past.  

Being in one community for a long time is something new for the family. Mike’s from Indiana; Jerrie, upstate New York. They met in Tampa Bay, Fla., where Mike was going to school to become a marine diesel mechanic. Their three children were born in separate states — Florida, Kentucky and Georgia. 

As they talk to a Sun Journal reporter, a patron, towing a race car in the parking lot, gives Mike a signed photo of the car to hang on the wall.

Racing fans running a restaurant in the shadow of a track evokes memories of always finding “that diner” where other fans would go before and after a race. 

“Oxford Plains Speedway is a landmark in the community,” Mike said. “I remember growing up when tickets were $10 and it’d buy soda and peanuts and a seat in the stands. Nearby, a burger joint would sit next to every track.” 

The Checkered Flag Restaurant is located at 901 Main St. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

A full breakfast menu can be found online at at www.thecheckeredflagmaine.com/a/index.php/breakfast-menu/. The dinner menu may be accessed at www.thecheckeredflagmaine.com/a/index.php/dinner-menu/.

ccrosby@sunmediagroup.net 

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