Bigger-than-your-head pancakes and perfectly cooked bacon are on the new breakfast menu at The Penalty Box. (Suzi Thayer photo)
There’s a new breakfast place in Damariscotta. Well, not exactly a new place, but now, after serving lunch and dinner for a year and a half, The Penalty Box Pizza & Pub is offering breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays.
Owners Kent and Lisa Boucher, who met at their place of business when it was called Romeo’s Pizza, said the lunch and dinner business has been good, so they decided to give breakfast a shot.
“We’ve been really busy, and when we started out we really didn’t have time to do breakfast,” Kent said. “But people kept coming in and asking if we had ever considered it. There aren’t a lot of places to get breakfast in Damariscotta, so we thought we’d give it a try.”
The new breakfast menu is not as extensive as the lunch and dinner menus, but it offers something for everyone, including breakfast pizza.
“We wanted to keep it simple, and in keeping with the same theme as our other menu, it’s affordable for a family, and they’re not going to break the bank for breakfast,” Kent said.
Breakfast business is slowly picking up, as more people become aware that their favorite pizza joint is now open in the early hours. “And that’s fine with us,” Lisa said. “We wanted to work out the kinks in the beginning.”
“The breakfast is new to us, so this gives us a chance to figure out what we’re doing well, and what we’ve got to improve on,” Kent said. “We’ve been tweaking some things as we go.”
The Penalty Box owners Lisa and Kent Boucher share a cup of coffee during breakfast. Their Damariscotta restaurant now serves breakfast Saturday and Sunday. (Suzi Thayer photo)
The Penalty Box has been serving breakfast on weekends for over a month now, and Kent said they’re considering weekdays. “If it becomes really popular sometime down the road, we’ll start doing it more days,” he said.
The Bouchers, who are at the restaurant most of the open hours, are working long hours, especially on weekends. “Those are extremely long days,” Kent said. “But it’s only Saturday and Sunday.”
The Penalty Box is the couple’s first business, but both have backgrounds in the food industry. Lisa, from South Bristol, worked in the restaurant business for 26 years, waiting on tables and tending bar, before working in health care on the Miles Campus in Damariscotta.
Kent, who grew up in Bath, worked at and managed Shaw’s stores in Bath, Brunswick, Rockland, and Wiscasset.
Most lunch and dinner items at Penalty Box are named for a hockey term, like the “Big Bad Bruin,” the “Olympian,” the “Bobby Orr,” and the “Misconduct.” There’s even a “Black ‘n Blue Salad.”
“We want to be known as a place where a family can come have a good meal at a good price and enjoy themselves, and people can come in and relax and enjoy a game on TV and socialize with friends and family,” Kent said.
The restaurant, at 436 Main St., is open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays until 11 p.m. Breakfast is served from 7-11 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays. For more information, call 563-1563.
