|
 Rumford, Maine 04276 ~ info@growrumford.com
New businesses fill out the Rumford and River Valley economy
|
Elegant dining returns to the River Valley with the opening of Brian's Bistro
The River Valley again has a fine dining establishment with the opening this summer of Brian's Bistro, on the island in the old Harris Hotel in the center of Rumford. Run by Brian and Jessica Nichols, the restaurant is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Friday and dinner on Saturday. Nichols is a professionally-trained chef who used to help run the Boiler Room, the former occupant of the site. His new venture offers a somewhat more reasonably priced menu but with a similar, upscale menu selection, although with a focus on slow-simmer sauces and fresh, local ingredients. The Nichols worked particularly carefully to re-design and redecorate the room which now has a more open feel with designer colors. Filling the niche of the only upscale-style restaurant in Rumford, Brian's Bistro has done a steady business in the weeks since the opening. |
 |
Olympia Sports Store and Sears help fill out the River Valley Plaza
Olympia Sports, a sporting equipment and clothing retailer, has opened a branch of their chain store in the River Valley Plaza, on Rt. 2 in Rumford. The store, which opened in May, joins over 150 Olympia Sports outlets throughout the Northeast. The River Valley Plaza, once completely empty, has slowly begun to fill back up, and now features a Marden's and a Dollar Tree Store. The Olympia Sports store fills one of the three remaining empty units at the plaza. Another section of the plaza will be filled by a Sears Catalog Store. Sears went out of its way to recruit an entrepreneur to run a store in Rumford, which Sears found was a potentially profitable market through their research. After holding an informational session in March at the Linnell Conference center, Sears struck a deal with the owners of the Farmington store and is scheduled to open in September. |
|
|
'No View Farmstand' hopes to be player in development of local farm economy
Opens bakery, plans co-op focused on local foods and shared kitchen for food entrepreneurs
The No-View Farm and Greenhouses on South Rumford Road in Rumford opened a new bakery earlier this year as part of plans to encourage and use the opportunities in the farm and food economy in the region. Proprietor Annette Marin, at right, is offering breads and pasties with a theme of "healthy" foods and ingredients. This month, she is also organizing a food co-op that will offer members foods grown or produced within a 50 mile radius. The co-op will use the No View bakery space to display and sell the food. Membership, says Marin, will be $60 yearly. She is also planning to install a shared kitchen at the No View, hoping to have it ready for use by summer.
|
 A shared kitchen would allow other food entrepreneurs a state-inspected facility in which to bake or can goods for sale. For information about the bakery, the coop or the shared kitchen, visit No View at 855 South Rumford Road or call 364-1080. (A new report says more farm and food businesses could succeed here. See the details.) |
|
New dental clinic aims to employ ten
A community dental clinic has opened in Rumford with plans to serve the entire region. The clinic is a collaborative effort between Rumford Hospital, the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition, the River Valley Growth Council and, primarily, the Community Dental Clinic in Portland, a non-profit program aimed at providing dental services to low income Maine residents. The clinic is opening with capital acquired through various grants, totaling, to date, $403,150. The clinic will be a significant new tenant in the largely empty Technology Center, a building rehabbed from a former mill that was supposed to become an incubator for new businesses, but has remained largely unoccupied for the last several years. The new dental clinic will use about 1,800 square feet on the first floor. Initially, about 10 people will be employed. They include two dentists and two or three hygienists, four to five support staff and a center supervisor. The clinic began with just one dentist, currently committed to stay only until September. He has been joined by a second dentist, Dr. John Gallant, a local dentist who came out of retirement to join the clinic. The center is projected to annually serve more than 4,500 children and adults during more than 9,000 dental visits per year. A sliding-fee scale will be used so that care is affordable for all patients. While the other agencies have at times seemed to claim credit for bringing the clinic to Rumford, Rumford Hospital is the only agency which took the initiative. The grant writing was done by Community Dental itself. The Healthy Communities Coalition helped with local organizational efforts, and the Growth Council came on to the project last, only after being asked whether it would be willing to rent space to the clinic. Founded in 1918 as the Red Cross Children's Dental Clinic in Portland, Community Dental operates dental health centers in Farmington, Lewiston, Peaks Island, Portland, Saco and Sanford. It annually provides 32,000 dental health visits to 15,000 children and adults. |
|
John Bartash, owner of Harvey Fabrics
The new Rumford Marden's
Route 2 Diner proprietor Erin Webber, waitress Ashley Davis
|
Positive change is coming to Congress Street, the commercial center of Rumford
Several new businesses have opened up, including a spa, and a lingerie store. Further, the Key Bank building is undergoing extensive renovations which will create an elegant new facade with canopies over each window, as shown in the picture (left).
A new restaurant has opened in Dixfield. Called the Front Porch Cafe, it was opened earlier this month by Clint Bailey, seen at left, and his wife Sammie Angel in the 185-year-old Phoebe Stowell house about a quarter mile east of the post office just off Rt. 2. The couple is offering breakfast and lunch to begin with, open 6 am to 3 pm weekdays, 6 am to 4 pm Saturday, 7 am to 4 pm Sunday, and closed Tuesdays. This may change, says Bailey, and the restaurant may eventually shift into a dinner menu format. The restaurant features an elegantly re-done interior dining room. Mouse over the photo to see the interior (may not work if you have an older browser).
A business combining framing and furnishings, wholesale and retail, has come to the center of Rumford. John Bartash, a Rumford native, has returned to town with Harvey Fabrics and Moulding Design, a business he purchased in February on Long Island, New York. Through Harvey, Bartash not only offers framing to local customers, he wholesales frame pieces to businesses all over the country. He also sells upholstery fabric locally. The new business is located in a storefront at 91 Canal Street in the downtown "Island" section of Rumford. "I knew I could do well in town with a frame shop," he says; "and with my wholesale business, I don't have to depend entirely on local trade."
A long awaited new addition to the retail economy in Rumford and the River Valley was Marden's, a popular and well-known Maine discount store chain. The new Marden's occupies a space in which there was once an Ames Department store, and has since been the location for two other discount stores, both of which failed due to under-capitalization and limited inventory with dingy building maintenance. Marden's has redone the interior of the store, and, as at all its locations, has packed the shelves with a variety of goods. The parking lot filled up for opening day May 24. Also in this Rt. 2 shopping plaza is a Dollar Tree Store. Several storefronts remain available. As indicated elsewhere on this site, this would be an excellent location for a restaurant, as truckers now have no place to eat in town with parking large enough for an 18-wheeler. This site would have it.
A new breakfast and lunch restaurant opened recently on Rt. 2 in Rumford Center, a village about three miles west of downtown. Called the Rt. 2 Diner, it's run by owners Erin Webber (in photo at right with waitress Ashley Davis) and Matt Hall. The 40-seat restaurant was a former pizza restaurant and offers breakfast and light lunches until 2 pm.
| |
