A new lunch spot on the northern stretch of Damariscotta’s Main Street pays tribute to a variety of world flavors – and one beloved local cat.

The landmark Jefferson building and events venue Le Barn is fully operational and ready for the 2024 season, business owner Marie Lindsey, of Jefferson, said on Wednesday, March 13.

Amy Mussman’s Westport Island kitchen table was full of Maine wildlife one Saturday morning – a loon wearing a bow tie, a smiling seal, a crow with a top hat, a fox in a scarf, a big round bear, and many more. The animals were handmade creations she and her mother, Phyllis Mussman, of West Bath, have been sewing together for eight years as “Mainely Primsicals.”

Warren Busteed and Beth Polhemus, owners of The Contented Sole, have found a new home for their restaurant after the building that housed the business for the last 19 years was devastated in the Jan. 10 and Jan. 13 storms.

S. Fernald’s Country Store did its last day of business in the hands of the Richards family on Saturday, Feb. 3 before selling to four local admirers who raised almost $40,000 in a month to buy it.

Just over a year has passed since the landmark Alna Store was reborn again as an elevated restaurant and market under the ownership of Jasper Ludwig and Brian Haskins. With national and state recognition already under their belts at a level unprecedented for Lincoln County, owners are continuing to put local identity first.

After calling Somerville home for more than half a decade, the property that houses Misfit Farm will soon be on the market, as owner Carrie Basile and her husband Kenny Bunker seek a new home in southern Maine. When they find it, the 62 abandoned or neglected animals that have found a home at the sanctuary will be along for the ride.

Community, movement, and comfort are at the heart of how Stacy Gogolinski approaches exercise – and those values are tangible inside The ComeFit Zone, a gym that Gogolinski founded more than a decade ago and which has recently returned to Lincoln County after changing hands several times.

A group of Lincoln County residents are working to bring S. Fernald’s Country Store in Damariscotta from family ownership to community ownership after 18 months on the market. They hope a crowdfunding campaign will raise $35,000 to bring them over the finish line and “Save Fernald’s” by early February.

After school on weekdays, as dusk falls over Waldoboro, Medomak Valley High School senior Landen Stewart puts on some rock music, sits down at the table in his family’s kitchen, and gets to work filling orders of homemade dog cookies.

A home workshop in Damariscotta Mills is providing new life for sewing machines of all kinds across the Midcoast and further afield.