A bakery featuring individually sized treats has opened this month in Windham in the former home of Cece’s Diner.
Pine Tree Bakery was to open April 10 at 1557 Bridgton Road. The 1,500-square-foot space can seat 38 customers, according to owner and baker Lesa Beck. Pine Tree will be open Wednesday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Beck said the bakery will offer a variety of fresh-baked goods ($1-$6) including scones, muffins and other breakfast pastries, cookies, eclairs and single-size cakes, cheesecakes and pies. “We’re doing everything in small sizes. I’m an excellent baker, but not necessarily a cake decorator, so I chose to focus on individually portioned desserts.”
Pine Tree will serve coffee from Portland’s Coffee By Design. The bakery will also offer breakfast sandwiches, as well as savory baked items for lunch, including breads stuffed with ham and cheese or Italian cold cuts and ricotta, and potato-and-cheese hand pies.
Pine Tree is the first foray into the hospitality industry for Beck, who was previously a project manager in the tech field. “I was tired of the corporate world and I’ve always loved baking, so I decided to make it a career instead of a hobby,” she said.
The Wrigly Field-style wall inside Cormier’s Dog House in Windham. Courtesy of Cormier’s Dog House
Also in Windham, a Waterboro man aims to open a Chicago-style hot dog restaurant this spring.
Ryan Cormier is in the midst of a buildout at 765 Roosevelt Trail, next to the Windham post office. The 1,800 square-foot space had formerly housed Elliott Nutrition until earlier this year.
The eatery, named Cormier’s Dog House, will offer hot dogs with a variety of toppings, like a Reuben dog with sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing, as well as Maine red snappers. But Cormier’s will specialize in Chicago-style dogs – all-beef hot dogs on poppy seed buns topped with mustard, onion, tomato, relish, pickled sport peppers and a dill pickle spear, with celery salt sprinkled over the top.
Cormier said he’d always wanted to open a hot dog stand. He visited the Windy City frequently in recent years, becoming enamored with the local dog style. Cormier is a former Fed Ex delivery driver and first-time restaurateur, and last September attended a two-day course at “Hot Dog University” at Vienna Beef in Chicago to learn about the hot dog business.
“I just fell in love with the taste of the Chicago hot dog. I thought we don’t have anything like that in Maine. I know we used to,” Cormier said, recalling his visits to the former Chicago Dogs on Route 1 in South Portland when he was growing up.
Cormier had a commercial kitchen and vent hood installed in the Roosevelt Trail space, which will be a counter-service restaurant seating up to 44. He’s also covered one wall partly in brick and artificial ivy to mimic the look of Chicago’s historic Wrigley Field.
Cormier plans to also serve burgers and perhaps sausages, along with fries and chips, and hopes to obtain a beer and wine license. He said he expects to launch by the middle of May. Cormier’s Dog House will be open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.
Food editor Peggy Grodinsky contributed to this column.
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