Bake Maine opens second location: Wells couple brings sweet and savory eats to hometown

WELLS, Maine — At Bake Maine, a new breakfast, lunch and pastry shop, there’s a savory sandwich called The Brandon that includes a baked egg, bacon, ham and sausage, all topped with cheddar, American cheese, dijonnaise, arugula, tomato, and avocado, all tucked in between a ciabatta bun.

Never heard of The Brandon? There’s a reason for that. It’s unique to Bake Maine, which is owned by Wells natives Kristen and Doug Perry and opened at 2178 Post Road on Friday, May 3.

According to Doug, Brandon was just a customer who walked into a previous shop at which he worked and said, “Give me everything you have.” Doug did just that, and the meat-packed, heavily topped breakfast sandwich made its debut in the world.

“We ended up becoming friends,” Doug said.

The Brandon ended up as one of several sandwiches on which Doug is putting his own twist at his and Kristen’s new shop.

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New Bake Maine is homecoming for Wells couple

While Bake Maine is new to Wells, it’s actually the second such bakery and sandwich shop that goes by that name. The Perrys opened their first one in Portland in early 2023. Based on the quick success of that operation, they decided to expand their enterprise into their hometown. Both Kristen and Doug graduated from Wells High School in 1998.

For the couple, the new Bake Maine is a return to the local eatery scene. With a business partner, the Perrys opened and operated 1690 House Bakeshop and Café in Wells from 2017 through 2020. Afterward, they managed A Café and Bakery, also in Wells, until 2022. That year, they moved into the Portland space on Washington Avenue.

The professional homecoming feels good, according to Kristen. She said she is looking forward to connecting again with the base of customers she and Doug built up during their first forays into local eateries before they started their Portland business.

“It’s really nice to be home,” she said.

The shop will be open seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“We’ll expand hours as we get closer to summer,” Kristen said.

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Sweet and savory on the menu at Bake Maine

Kristen provides the sweet half of the shop’s menu, and Doug brings the savory one. She discovered baking by watching Julia Child, the famous French chef, on PBS when she was young. She studied the art of French baking in Paris and New York City. Before returning to Maine, she worked for two French chefs in Boston.

Doug has a history of working at local restaurants, including the Maine Diner. Coming up in his career, he figured he would own a diner of his own someday.

“Not too far off,” Kristen said to him from her seat in their shop’s dining area.

The menu at Bake Maine features eight sandwiches for breakfast and seven for lunch, as well as a Power Bowl salad and the soup of the day. The idea, the Perrys said, is to focus on their unique offerings and to leave room to shake things up with specials, should another Brandon walk in with ideas of his own.

“We don’t want to do what everyone else is doing,” Doug said. “Most of our stuff, almost 90% of our stuff, is from scratch, made here. A lot of restaurants are going away from that because they don’t have the labor.”

The Brandon is not the only sandwich named for someone. There’s a breakfast sandwich called The Kristen with a baked egg, cheddar cheese, dijonnaise, avocado, tomato and spinach on a biscuit.

For lunch, there’s also The Lawson, named after Kristen’s father. That one has roast beef, pepperjack cheese, fried onions, hot honey chive mayo, and arugula on a potato bun.

As for the baked goods, it’ll be Kristen in the kitchen making croissants, scones, tarts, French macaroons, and more.

It’s those macaroons Kristen likes best.

“The outside of them is a thin crispiness, and the inside is soft and gooey and melts in your mouth,” she said. “You can change the flavors so easily because it’s two shells of a cookie and a filling. The whole bite can be like multiple layers of flavor and texture.”

Kristen also said she might want to teach a baking class at the shop – something she once did at York County Community College – and she and Doug might begin offering pop-up meals at one point.

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Opening Bake Maine in Wells 'a dream come true'

Opening a second Bake Maine is both “terrifying and exciting,” Kristen said and smiled, but for her and Doug, it’s a dream come true, a longtime goal they’ve achieved in the hometown they love.

And do the Perrys see a third Bake Maine opening somewhere? When asked, Kristen laughed and nodded toward her husband.

“He does,” she said.

For more information, visit online at bakemaine.com or call (207) 216-9060.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Bake Maine: Wells couple brings sweet and savory eats to hometown