Family opening Bangor eatery Oct. 27 launch set for Perrihouse

BANGOR – A new restaurant is opening up at 735 Main St., near the Hampden town line.

Where Seguino’s, City Limits and Guinness & Porcelli’s previously have set up shop, Perrihouse now can be added to the list. But don’t do it just yet.

Lisa Reider, who with her husband, Mike Reider, is opening up the new eatery, believes they have a formula that will set it apart from those that have come – and gone – before it.

“We think offering great food at a price people can afford will be the secret [to longevity] for us,” Reider said Friday while taking a break from tasks such as painting the restaurant interior and answering the phone.

The fact that the restaurant will be independently owned and operated, rather than being another franchised facility, also should help draw diners, she said.

“By being independent, we’re able to offer service at a higher level,” Reider said.

The restaurant will offer American cuisine in a relaxed, casual setting, according to Reider.

Perrihouse is a family enterprise. Reider’s sister, daughter and nephew all have been helping to get the restaurant ready for opening, she said, and it is named after her mother-in-law whose maiden name was Perri.

The family reference in the name reflects the homey feel of the dining space, which is inside a former house, and Reider hopes will “give us a little luck.”

Jason Amado, a graduate of New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vt., is the restaurant’s chef. After an invitation only “test drive” dinner on Oct. 26, the restaurant will be open to the public the following evening, on Oct. 27.

Reider and her husband bought a house in Veazie a couple of years ago after the mill-closure scare in Millinocket, where they still have a home, prompted them to seek out a school district with more reliable funding. Though Mike Reider still works at the Katahdin Paper mill in Millinocket, their daughter has attended John Bapst Memorial High School for the past two years, she said.

Reider has two dozen years experience in the restaurant business and most recently spent more than five years working as a server at River Drivers Restaurant in Millinocket, she said.

The restaurant will be open seven days a week for dinners only and can be reached at 941-0112. It will seat people from 5 to 9 p.m. during the week and until 10 p.m. on weekends.