A new grocery store will open this fall on Monhegan in time to replace the existing store, thanks to the quick action of the community.
“We all feel that having a grocery store is vital to the year-round community as well as the summer community and tourists,” said Lisa Brackett, who will run the new store. “It’s vital in winter in particular.”
The community began to form a plan of action after learning the current grocery store, Carina, would close in the fall.
Richard Farrell is the president of the Monhegan Island Sustainable Community Association Board of Trustees.
The nonprofit association buys property and makes affordable business and housing opportunities available to year-round residents in an effort to counteract the effect of skyrocketing real estate prices and ensure the sustainability of the year-round population.
“The store is important in a number of ways,” Farrell said.
The year-round community could probably survive without a grocery store, “but it would be more difficult, and it would certainly be more difficult to attract new people to the community, which we want to do,” he said.
A year-round grocery store is more than a convenient source of fresh food, Farrell said. A store “tends to be one of the centers of the community where people can gather, and there aren’t very many of those, so to lose one would be quite a blow.”
The association had $150,000 on hand for another project and raised another $160,000 during the winter, enough to purchase a property with an empty grocery store and a house, make repairs to the store and install a new septic system for both buildings.
The store was formerly Carina II, Monhegan Store and North End Market.
Brackett, a year-round resident since 2004, plans to lease the building and operate a store and small diner under the name Lisa Brackett and Son. The Carina will close at the end of October and Brackett would like to open permanently by Nov. 1.
Brackett plans to stock the shelves with a wide variety of everyday grocery items, as well as some of the organic goods available at Carina.
A boat out of Port Clyde delivers wholesale grocery orders to the nearby dock three times a week, allowing the store to offer fresh dairy, eggs, meat and produce.
Brackett also hopes to be able to sell fresh fruits and vegetables from the island farmers market, and would like to set up a small deli where people can buy sandwich meat.
The store will also sell beer, wine and cigarettes.
The store will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily during the summer.
The diner will serve breakfast and lunch from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. with a classic diner menu including BLTs, cheeseburgers and club sandwiches. Brackett hopes to build a lunch counter, set up a few tables inside and eventually add picnic tables outside.
She will man the store for a couple of hours during the winter on days off from her sternman duties. Otherwise, members of the small year-round population can help themselves to groceries on the honor system.
She plans to make casseroles, lasagna and soup during the winter for people to take home and reheat. She also plans to host a cribbage tournament and other occasional community events.
She approached the Monhegan Island Sustainable Community Association about running the store after the acquisition. The store will give her something to do in the slow winter months, she said.
Brackett fell in love with the island and bought a house there in 2001. Her ancestors have lived on the island for generations.
“I really can’t imagine living anywhere else, and that’s why I’m so excited about the store,” Brackett said. “I think it’s going to be a good fit for me. I like to talk to people, I like to help people, and I want to run a good, fair business.”
Brackett and her homestyle cooking are familiar to many in the mainland community. She and her mother, Martha Brackett, ran the Bristol Diner throughout most of the 1990s.
Like many year-round island residents, Brackett works different jobs depending on the season and plays multiple roles in the island community.
She lobsters aboard the Legacy with its captain, Sherman Stanley, and works for Stanley in the summer at his restaurant and seafood market, Fish House.
She runs a small business, Brackett Rentals, which manages and rents apartments, cottages and other properties around the island.
She is the registrar of voters, the town clerk, and a trustee of the nonprofit land trust Monhegan Associates Inc., which owns two-thirds of the island and manages its famous hiking trails.
A “cardboard regatta” will take place Saturday, Aug. 17 at 4:30 p.m. at Swim Beach. As the name suggests, contestants will build boats out of cardboard and earn prizes for first place, as well as best boat design, best costumes and a Titanic award.
Music and refreshments will follow. The proceeds from the $10 entry fee will benefit the new store.
Lisa Brackett and Son will replace the Carina, a primarily organic grocery store and sandwich shop. The landlord of the Carina is not going to renew its lease.
Tara Hire, the proprietor of Carina for six years, will exit the business to focus on a new venture, Monhegan Wellness. “As long as there is a grocery store, I’m happy to move on and do new things and follow my passion,” she said.
Hire will lead wellness retreats for women to encourage clients to step away from their daily lives and “focus on their self, finding balance and health for physical and mental well-being,” according to a marketing brochure.
For more information, visit http://www.monheganwellness.com.
For more information about the Monhegan Island Sustainable Community Association, visit http://www.misca.info.