Fishnet Cafe owner Joan Ouellette has sold her popular Bailey Island restaurant to niece Sara King, who plans to reopen the seasonal eatery in May.
If you’re going to sell your restaurant, what better person to buy it than someone in your own family? And this family is up to their aprons in the food business.
King has worked for her aunt at the cafe since it opened in the summer of 2022. She previously managed the dining room at Thornton Oaks Retirement Community in Brunswick. One of her sisters, Valerie King-Mallar, is managing partner at Wild Oats Bakery & Cafe in Brunswick. Another sister, Natalie Speare, works at Wild Oats. Their brother, Adam King, is a baker at Tandem Coffee and Bakery in Portland. Their father, Dale King, was a chef years ago at the former Chuck Wagon restaurant in Brunswick. Their mother, Joanne King, is a nurse, but makes Fishnet Cafe’s seafood lasagna. And, of course, Joan Ouellette — Dale King’s sister — owned Fishnet and took her turn in the kitchen.
Did you follow that?
“We have a very cool family,” said Sara King, 41, who bought the cafe on Feb. 1. “It’s interesting we all went to school for different things and a lot of us ended up in the food industry.”
Ouellette, 70, said she’s ready to retire. “I just want to enjoy my life and visit my kids,” she said, two of whom live in Maryland and one in North Carolina. She still plans to work the breakfast shift at Fishnet with her niece a couple of days a week.
Fishnet will continue to offer breakfast, lunch and dinner. It will be closed Wednesdays and Thursdays. Restaurant hours will be 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. While she searches for a cook, King will work full time in the kitchen. Even her 6-year-old nephew, Viyani Speare, plans to help.
The biggest change to the menu, King noted, will be more fried seafood options and nightly specials, including her mom’s seafood lasagna on Saturdays, Mexican fare on Tuesdays (followed by the cafe’s popular trivia night), prime rib on Fridays, and local fried or raw oysters at other times.
The cafe’s name won’t change, but the atmosphere will be a bit more casual, King said, with cardboard platters for the seafood. And King wants to honor locals who are, or were, in the local fishing industry by hanging framed photos of them on the walls.
To liven up the cafe, King also is counting on the return of three Fishnet regulars who love to banter at breakfast every day. A preacher, a former librarian and a former town Select Board member have a reserved table with their own colorful, plastic menus.
King, with long, blonde hair and blue eyes, recently sat at one of the cafe’s 20-some seats and easily laughed at what she had gotten herself into. She had toyed with the idea of owning the restaurant, but it was only after two earlier deals fell through that she made the decision to buy it. Her aunt told her she really would like to keep the restaurant in the family.
King said she has “always really enjoyed restaurant work and talking to people,” emphasizing that she’s “a chatty person” who enjoys the social aspect of the business.
A graduate of Brunswick High School and Saint Michael’s College near Burlington, Vermont, King lives in Brunswick. Since she’s not from Harpswell, she thought she might not be accepted by the locals. But they’ve been welcoming and “adopted me into their circles,” she said.
Given her work ethic, King is likely to succeed. She will continue running her parents’ business, Brunswick Taxi, a job she’s had for 20 years. That includes hiring and scheduling 25 drivers and sometimes even doing the driving.
King also works for the town of Brunswick during election season. She set up a voter registration drive for the town one Saturday in February at Wild Oats. In her spare time, she’s hoping to travel to all 50 states. She has made it to 41 so far.
Mostly, King will spend her time at the cafe. She wants it to be a place where the local community connects and “can come to talk to their friends and joke around.” At some point, she’d even like to have a karaoke night.
Roxanne York Real Estate adjoins the cafe. Laurie Haggerty, business owner and broker, is glad King is taking over. “It’s wonderful to have new, young energy in Harpswell businesses,” Haggerty said.
