Crissy DeOnis, the owner of Crissy’s Breakfast and Coffee Bar on Main Street and, formerly, the founder and owner of Paco’s Tacos and The Uptown Café, has found an enthusiastic audience for her latest venture.
“Every day is busier than the day before,” DeOnis said in a Dec. 20 interview at the restaurant.
“We’re concentrating on breakfast,” DeOnis said. Crissy’s signature dish, she said, is huevos rancheros. “That’s what everyone remembered and missed from the Uptown,” DeOnis said. “Now we have two versions.”
Crissy’s also serves a limited lunch menu, including a “very popular” Monte Cristo sandwich, tacos and a gluten-free, “Asian-inspired” rice bowl.
“We make everything in house,” DeOnis said. “We try to keep everything fresh. We don’t have any problem there because the turnover has been so rapid.”
DeOnis and her staff use local ingredients when possible, including Bowden’s Eggs, from Waldoboro, and, seasonally, produce from Morning Dew Farm in Newcastle.
“It’s a very simple formula that’s filling a need, I think, in town,” she said.
“I was lucky enough to put together a great staff on short notice,” DeOnis said. The staff includes “fabulous baker” Stephanie Harris, a holdover from The Uptown Café and currently the Head Chef at The Trailing Yew, a seasonal restaurant on Monhegan Island, and Teale Puchalski.
DeOnis and Puchalski describe the latter’s role as in-house decorator, designer, graphic artist and barista-in-training. “It’s a great group of people,” Puchalski said of the staff.
Of the restaurant’s early popularity, Puchalski said, “It was the curiosity that brought them in but the food is so good.”
“It’s a warm, comfortable environment” with food to match, Puchalski said. “People have been saying it doesn’t taste like restaurant food. It tastes like you’re at someone’s house.”
“[Crissy’s] is sort of streamlined,” DeOnis said. “The Uptown was trying to do too many things.”
DeOnis closed The Uptown Café, which occupied the same Main Street space, in 2007, citing financial factors and limited seating. After The Uptown Café left, an Italian restaurant, Zampa’s, took its place, closing earlier this year.
Before Zampa’s closed, however, the owner renovated an office space adjoining the restaurant, enlarging the seating area. “We have three times as many seats now,” DeOnis said.
After closing The Uptown Café, DeOnis “took a couple years off” before returning to house painting, her longtime occupation before she founded Paco’s Tacos, the still-popular Damariscotta eatery, in 1997.
Now, the restaurateur is glad to be back. “I’ve been having a lot of fun,” she said. “I love cooking but it’s only fun when it’s busy.”
“The main goal of this enterprise,” DeOnis said, is to market the building that houses Crissy’s Breakfast and Coffee Bar. DeOnis co-owns the building, which is currently for sale. DeOnis plans to exit as owner of the restaurant if and when the building is sold. “I hope someone will buy it and keep it going,” she said.
Crissy’s Breakfast and Coffee Bar, at 212 Main Street, is open Thursday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Crissy’s will be open every day from Dec. 26 through Jan. 2, including New Year’s Day. For more information, call 563-6400.
