Golden Harvest buys Carl’s, Enoteca is moving and Loco Coco’s is expanding

While the Maine Department of Transportation’s plans for a stretch of Route 1 in Kittery remain unclear, changes are already underway that will affect the area’s character.

At a DOT hearing in June, local business owners and residents voiced concerns that changes to the road would have a negative impact on area businesses. The owners of shops along the so-called “Gourmet Alley”—particularly the Golden Harvest, Terra Cotta Pasta and Beach Pea Bakery—were wary of how changes to the road, including the addition of a sidewalk with a raised curb, would impact their parking.

Project leader Joel Kittridge suggested at the end of the meeting that a workshop be formed, made up of DOT representatives, town officials, residents and business owners. As yet, this workshop has not met, and there is no date set for an initial meeting. In the meantime, some issues caused by the DOT project will be settled without town hall.

Golden Harvest market recently purchased Carl’s Meat Market. The meat store is next to Golden Harvest, but set farther back from the road. Jim Spencer purchased Carl’s at the beginning of May.

“It was an opportunity,” says Spencer, who had an arrangement with previous owner Frank Belleville that he would have the first option to buy the meat market if Belleville chose to sell. The store is still run as a meat market, but with an increased selection of marinated meats, all-natural meats and prepared foods. Spencer also has plans for the parking lot. He is currently working on a parking scheme that will maximize the number of spots between the two stores. Golden Harvest would have been hardest hit by the initial DOT proposal, their parking reduced by almost half. Spencer says, though, that the DOT project was not his primary reason for purchasing Carl’s. “We’d always had an interest in it,” he says. “The DOT (project) may have pushed us over the edge, but we probably would have done it anyway.”

While Spencer’s immediate fears for his parking situation have been somewhat assuaged, he still hopes to remain involved in the DOT project by participating in the yet-to-be-scheduled workshop. “There seems to be some flexibility (with the project),” he says. “I’d still like to see the area enhanced, and I think there’s a great opportunity to do that.”

Down the road, Chris Souder, co-owner of Enoteca Italiana, has plans to move his store, which specializes in imported Italian meats, cheeses and wines. Enoteca is located on Route 1, but set back far enough that Souder’s business or parking situation would not have been affected by the project. He says the decision to move his store to its future Walker Street location, in the nearby village of Kittery Foreside, was natural and almost spontaneous.

“I was at Ocean National Bank (across the street from the future Enoteca site), and I saw the ‘For Sale’ sign on the building,” he says. Souder rents his store’s current location. “That’s the beauty of it all. To go from renting to owning, it’s almost a no-brainer.”

Souder has no complaints about his current location and says it has worked out very well for the store. The Walker Street location will be 700 to 800 square feet larger than the current location. This extra space will allow the store to carry a wider array of products, including a larger selection of hard-to-get European imports that Souder recently sampled at last week’s Fancy Food Show in New York City.

“It’s going to be what we have now, but an expansion of it,” Souder says of the new space and the increased product line. The new location will also be able to accommodate more guests at the store’s popular wine tastings. Souder expects the new store to be up and running by mid-September.

Loco Coco’s, a popular Mexican eatery also on Walker Street, is planning to expand into additional space in its current building. Owner Luis Valdez expects the purchase of the space to be completed by the end of the month, and the expansion to be completed in the fall. The kitchen will be moved into the new space, and additional seating will be added, bringing the restaurant’s capacity from about 25 to close to 100. Valdez says the decision to expand was prompted by the restaurant’s growing popularity.

“It’s gone beyond our expectations,” he says of the eatery that opened in October of 2004. In addition to increased seating, Valdez plans to add cash registers to increase the ordering efficiency, a more industrial kitchen to accommodate catering and take-home meals, and a margarita bar.

Valdez has been very happy with his restaurant’s Walker Street location, just off Route 1, and thinks the DOT project will be a benefit.

“I think for all of us, even the business owners who will be affected by the project, it will create more exposure,” he says. “I am ecstatic with my location.”

The DOT’s reconstruction project is the result of a request put in by the town in 1998. The project, as initially proposed, would replace the deteriorated concrete base of the road and add six-foot shoulders as well as a five-foot wide sidewalk with an eight-inch granite curb. The sidewalk would necessitate designated entrances and exits to parking lots, which would drastically affect the parking layout of some stores, like Golden Harvest and Terra Cotta pasta, which currently rely heavily on pull-in parking.