LEWISTON — Fish Bones Grill is being sold to a partnership that includes the popular dining spot’s Executive Chef Floyd Goding and his wife, Megan Cyr, and Ryan Costello of Downeast Cuisine and his wife, Brittany. All of them bring a lot of hospitality experience to the table.

After 20 years of owning and operating Fish Bones in Bates Mill 6 at 70 Lincoln St., Paul and Kate Landry decided it was time to slow down as they look forward to retirement. They will maintain ownership of Pine Point Grill in Scarborough, which they opened in 2019.

“It had been our intention prior to COVID-19 to start thinking about our exit strategy and that kind of put it on hold for a few years,” Kate Landry explained. Having survived the pandemic and realizing hitting 60 was not far away, an opportunity appeared in the form of chef Floyd Goding.

As the Landrys looked for a new chef a year ago Goding applied and they hit it off.

“We were pretty excited to get someone else with his experience up here in the Lewiston area,” Kate Landry added.

Goding, who is from Lewiston, has been a part of Fish Bones since April of last year. He cut his culinary teeth in Portland area restaurants — most recently as the chef de cuisine at The Grill Room & Bar.

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“We care about the people that work with us,” Paul Landry said. “We’ve got a lot of old-time faces in here, a lot of old-time customers … it was important for us to find the right combination of people that shared the same philosophies that we have about taking care of staff and preparing quality food for people.”

The Landrys are pioneers in the Lewiston and Auburn restaurant scene, opening Mac’s Grill in Auburn in 1994 and then Fish Bones Grill in 2005, both of which continue to be popular places.

Casual fine dining did not really exist in Lewiston and Auburn before they opened Fish Bones, followed by Eric Agren opening Fuel and Jules Patry expanding DaVinci’s Eatery at 150 Mill St. into a new and bigger space.

Goding and wife, Megan, both grew up in Lewiston so they come with an understanding of what people here want, although some of that is changing as the population changes.

Fish Bones

Ryan Costello and his wife, Brittany, are two of the new owners of Fish Bones Grill in Lewiston. Submitted photo

Ryan Costello and his wife live and work in Portland. He is originally from Lowell, Massachusetts.

“Just being here the past couple weeks, being a fly on the wall, seeing the community engaged with Paul, the servers and everyone … the food clearly speaks for itself,” Costello said.

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He, too, has worked in hospitality for many years with 99 Restaurants and another chain, Smokey Bones. A college degree in marketing and management led him to Portland and The Grill Room where he stayed for 10 years in various capacities. What’s key is that Costello and Goding have a solid working relationship.

“We just kind of want to reassure the L/A community that with a new restaurant group we’re here to bring fresh perspectives and liveliness through our dishes and our cocktails for the next 20 years,” Costello added.

“We have the passion for it, we’ve been collectively in it for 50 years … we just figured the next step is ownership,” he said.

The deal will close mid-February. The City Council would need to approve the liquor license in the new owners’ names next Tuesday.

Acknowledging the reputation the Landrys have carefully cultivated for Fish Bones, Goding said, is important for them and the customers.

“It’s what they have established,” Goding said. “Twenty years of hard work and getting that name is important to us and keeping the  tradition — that is what we’re trying to do.”

The chef plans to keep working to source as many Maine products as possible, including the freshest whole fish as possible.

“I work in depth with all my vendors locally, like Harbor Fish,” he said. “I’m talking to them about two or three times a week, what you got coming in, what specials do you have … we want to work a little bit more this season with farming.”

Customers will see the new owners on a regular basis at Fish Bones.

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