In the weekday morning light, the dusty parking lot in downtown Skowhegan is as vacant as a lunar landscape. But looking out at it from the window of her artisanal cheese shop, Amy Rowbottom knows that soon enough, it will barely be recognizable. “Right now, it’s where we hold our three-season farmer’s market, but once the new building goes up, it will be [functional] year-round,” she says. “It’ll be a whole new world.”
She isn’t being hyperbolic. This area is the nexus between Maine Grains (a heritage grain producer also helping to bolster the region’s farms), Amy’s award-winning Crooked Face Creamery, and the town’s rapidly evolving Water Street and riverfront. Over the next year, the new building will become the site of an innovative incubator for local farmers, entrepreneurs, and artists—which will even include housing and daycare for its employees. What’s more, it’s just one in a dizzying number of seismic changes about to take place.
Some of these new businesses are already here and thriving, and some are in the process of being built. The latter category includes the 80,000-square-foot Spinning Mill that once housed Maine Spinning Company, which after a fifteen million dollar facelift, will house a posh hotel, 45 apartments, and a brewery. Downtown will also see the new Skowhegan River Park, fueled by federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, that will include a whitewater park with the only adjustable wave on the Kennebec, and an expanded four-season trail system, with the goal to make the town a tourist destination. What’s already in place is perhaps the most crucial element in Skowhegan’s future: A collaborative community where small businesses consistently find remarkably creative, and even downright ingenious ways to support one another.
And so our Drive story this issue begins in that vacant parking lot. (And it’s really more of a Stroll story, given how eminently walkable downtown Skowhegan is.) Crooked Face Creamery is as ideal a place to begin as any, since that’s where one of the best ingredients in town comes from—and a prime example of the town’s collaborative prowess. “The Bankery uses our smoked ricottas in its ravioli and cannoli filling,” says Amy, who crafts and sells her collection of exquisite small-batch cheeses on site. And while it’s the ricottas (including crackerjack versions like lemon-fennel and cilantro-scallion) that have put Crooked Face on the map, Amy’s just as fluent in making aged cheeses, like a buttery Havarti-style cheese made from Jersey cows.
Next door at The Miller’s Table, the rustic café and bakery housed in Maine Grains’ gristmill, Amy’s smoked ricotta is served drizzled with honey on a signature dish called Crooked Face Toast. It’s just one of many artisanal delights getting churned out of the ovens here, from thick triple-ginger cookies made with organic, stone-milled flour to pizzas perfectly charred from the oven. “Do you see those leopard spots on the sides there?” asks our server, pointing to the char marks as he pulls a pie from the oven. “Those are a prized possession. It means the temperature’s high enough to cook but not burn.” His name is Arik, and he’s worked here long enough to see big changes in town. “It’s magical the collaboration going on in this community,” he says. “Wait till you talk to Amber.”
He means Amber Lambke, the driving force behind all of this. She co-founded The Kneading Conference in 2007 followed by Maine Grain Alliance and converted the former Somerset County Jail into the Maine Grains gristmill to serve local grain growers. And those grains have become the bedrock for an entire ecosystem of local burgeoning entrepreneurs.
“We identified early on that Skowhegan has active farms in this area,” she explains. “We’re a hotbed for back-to-the-land-ethos people, and now their children are here and want to get involved.” And that all leads to yet more symbiosis, according to Amber. “There are a lot of creative thinkers here,” she continues. “We all cooperate on grants and marketing, but also on creating products that come from the grains—ice cream sandwiches, pizza, pasta. They all stem from a local grain being available here in Skowhegan. Now even companies growing mushrooms are coming along.”
Many of those new companies are opening up on Water Street. Walk across the parking lot past the old Strand Cinema, a restored historic theatre showing first-run films, and find your way to independent vintage shops like Thrifty Chic, where owner Kylie Brown stocks on-trend consignment gems. Next door at Unwined, a wine bar opened by Billie Clark and her daughter Samantha Hilton during the pandemic, the space is so welcoming it could almost be thought of as communal. “We really didn’t want a typical bar feel,” says Billie, who grew up in Skowhegan and last year won an award for her community involvement. Her husband built the bar himself out of reclaimed barn boards from Billie’s grandfather’s barn. The place fills up regularly with a post-work crowd. Other than wine, they pour local spirits and serve only local foods—like desserts made by neighbors like The Bankery.
Yes, you read that right: “Bankery.” The Bankery & Skowhegan Fleuriste was the first bakery that began the Water Street transformation when it opened in an old bank building in 2007 (the owners eventually bought they florist next door, as well). “I collaborated with Amber to develop everything when we opened,” says Matt DuBois, who co-owns the twin businesses with his spouse Michael Hunt and brother Michael DuBois. “Even though Maine Grains bakes there, they have different equipment than us, and we make different products, so we work together—we make the pastry dough for The Miller’s Table, for example.” And Matt has paid that goodwill forward, mentoring other newcomers. “When Joe’s Flat Iron Café opened nearby, I wanted to help. Joe’s more focused on the lounge-y coffee vibe, which we don’t have. So now we make food that they sell, and Joe provides the coffee.”
Joe’s Flat Iron Café sits a few buildings over toward the river (on the way, swing through River Roads Artisans Gallery, a collaborative run by local artists) and is owned by Joe Almand, a former firefighter who always had a thing for making espresso eggnogs before opening his own place last year. It’s a smoothly appointed mix of leather sofas and velvet seating at the coffee bar. And as different as it feels from many other parts of the town, Joe sees them as overlapping. “There’s a community outlook here,” he says. “We don’t expect people to go to the same place every single day, so we’re all working together.” For example? “I’ll ask Amber how to get funding. I’ll ask Matt about how to lay out my kitchen. And we use each other’s products; I make apple hand pies, so Matt rolls out the dough, and I make the filling. I collaborate on overnight oats and breakfast sandwiches with Maine Grains. There are no secrets. We all network and give recommendations to help boost each other.”
That perspective may become even more crucial with the influx of new residents and visitors sure to come once The Spinning Mill and River Park open up across the river from legacy stalwarts like Hilltop Antiques. “The town’s about to change even more,” asserts Hilltop owner Greg Salisbury, who’s run his labyrinthine shop, chockablock with everything from Wedgwood pieces to tweed sofas, for decades. But as the town evolves, staying supportive is something the current guard is intent on. “We could be more cutthroat and competitive with each other,” says Amber. “But in the end, this is a small town. People here want to keep working together.” ▪
