Rendering of what Mancini’s Italian micro deli will look like at 5 Park St., Lewiston. Submitted photo
Here’s one to watch: A young entrepreneur, supported by family and a consultant team of industry professionals, is getting ready to open what he calls an “Italian micro deli” at 5 Park St. in Lewiston later this summer or in early fall — the space formerly occupied by Richard Dahlquist’s “Gallery at 5 Park.”
Evan Mancini is already hard at work on “Mancini’s,” which he says will specialize in carryout and delivery food services, with a menu that includes fresh pasta, salads, traditional Tuscan flatbread sandwiches and desserts.
The plans are ambitious with an emphasis on homemade pastas, desserts, cheese and sauces.
Mancini’s will also offer handmade pastas — available by the pound — and a rotating stock of house sauces like ragu and pomodoro on a grab-and-go basis for creating a meal at home.
A sample of what customers can expect from Mancini’s Italian Deli later this year: Spinach leek ravioli with wild mushroom brown butter. Submitted photo
For the ultimate in convenience, there will be made-to-order pasta dishes like carbonara, gnocchi genovese and more available.
Sandwiches will be made on house-baked schiacciata, described as resembling a thinner, crispier focaccia, and accompanied by fresh toppings, spreads, and quintessential Italian proteins like prosciutto, mortadella and coppa.
In the deli case, Mancini’s says it will offer house-made mozzarella, burrata, premium meats, cheeses and fresh pasta.
Mancini says he plans to offer branded sauces and a selection of Italian goods like Molino Pasini flour products and rotating in-house desserts like butterscotch budino, seasonal panna cottas, tiramisu, a chocolate mousse cake and a burnt Basque cheesecake all in a customer accessible merchandiser up front for easy grab-and-go.
Mancini said he and his team have put a lot of thought into this project, noting that “a large amount of inspiration for this was from a series of hand-written cookbooks from the late 1980s authored by my late grandfather, Robert Mancini, a first-generation Italian.”
Mancini offered a nod to his French roots in Maine, noting that his late grandmother, Constance Currie, helped build and start a bread bakery in the basement of her home in Van Buren in the early 1900s. As a teenager, she used to bake and deliver her goods in the area. Mancini said it helped a large family of 15 get through the Great Depression, and helped shape his love for food.
The goal is to open in late summer or early fall. Projected store hours will be Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., offering carry-out and delivery. It’s a small space, so future plans include adding outdoor seating on a small patio the following summer.
Mancini says the deli will be relatively traditional with modern touches.
Mancini’s team of consultants include Zach Pratt, former head chef and owner of Boba, Patrice Currie, owner of Hum-Dingah! Brownies, and former owner and chef at Capers restaurant, and Kerry Altiero, former head chef and owner of Cafe Miranda in Rockland.
Bourgeois Guitars purchases two lots on North Lisbon Road as part of long-term, long planned expansion
Chris Fleming, CEO of Bourgeois Guitars, shows Edward Little High School students how they work and what they do on a recent field trip. The legendary guitar maker is entering the next phase of expansion, purchasing two lots on North Lisbon Road for a future guitar shop and sawmill. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal file
Bourgeois Guitars has purchased two adjacent pieces of property at 43 and 51 North Lisbon Road in Lewiston as part of their long-term expansion plans.
Founder Dana Bourgeois has been talking about expanding for perhaps a decade, plans which started moving forward when Bourgeois partnered with Eastman Music in 2019.
The North Lisbon Road location is the former Thompson Equipment site, and the 7,300-square-foot building is being gutted and rebuilt to house a small sawmill. The adjacent property will eventually be home to a new custom designed guitar shop that will be built from the ground up.
Speaking with The Buzz on Wednesday, Bourgeois Guitars CEO Chris Fleming said the renovation underway should be completed in the fall, but that they don’t expect to break ground on the new guitar shop for one to two years and that it will be between 20,000 to 30,000 square feet.
As a comparison, the current guitar shop in the Hill Mill is 12,000 square feet and Fleming said they are bursting at the seams. The expansion will allow Bourgeois to increase production from its current 400 guitars a year to over 1,200.
Bourgeois Guitars founder Dana Bourgeois built his first guitar in his dorm room at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. He now has 34 employees who make guitars in the Hill Mill at 41 Chestnut St. in Lewiston.
It will also allow Bourgeois to bring its mandolin production — which is currently done by Pomona, California-based Eastman — to Lewiston.
It will also mean the Touchstone line of guitars will also be able to migrate here. The Touchstone Series of guitars is something master luthier Bourgeois has been behind for years. It opens the door to quality guitars at a much more affordable price than the premier lines of hand-crafted guitars the company makes. The Touchstone Series has been available for about two years.
Fleming said that when they get to that point of increased production, they will likely have to double the current staff of 34 — 22 of whom are craftsmen in the shop.
Bourgeois’s family roots go way back in Maine, with his paternal side emigrating from New Brunswick in the 1920s, and his maternal side among the first settlers of Chebeague Island more than 300 years ago.
The expansion will further cement that Maine connection as Bourgeois and Fleming move to eventually source their red spruce directly from foresters and landowners here in Maine. Red spruce is a very special and important tonal wood for their high-end guitars.
Fleming said it’s a key to sustainability for the company and Maine’s foresters, as they plan to overpay for the prized Adirondack red spruce as an incentive to sustainable forestry. “The idea is low volume, high quality,” Fleming commented.
Red Spruce grows in abundance in Maine. Stradivarius uses red spruce for its world-renowned line of violins and string instruments. It will also allow Bourgeois to better control its inventory of specialty woods — a lesson learned the hard way during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bobcat Tractor dealership planned in Turner
Jordan Equipment Company of Falmouth has issued its public notice that it intends to file for permitting to build a new 6,200-square-foot building to house a Bobcat Equipment dealership on a 15.6-acre lot at 6 Pit Road in Turner.
Public comment will be accepted during the application process and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection may hold a public hearing on the proposal, if it deems necessary.
A copy of the application is available for the public to review at the municipal office in Turner or at the DEP offices in Augusta.
The plans call for the building, an access road, gravel storage and parking lot area.
The legal notice indicates Jordan Equipment plans to file its application on or about May 22.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story stated Kubota instead of Bobcat, based on incorrect information in the legal notice.
The Buzz offers quick hits about trending area business happenings. Have a Buzzable tip? Contact business writer Christopher Wheelock at 689-2817 or cwheelock@sunjournal.com
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