Orrington bakery provides bread for other new businesses in town

ORRINGTON – Walk into the Gott Family Traditions bakery on Center Drive and the smell of the freshly baked cinnamon buns, breads and other goodies seems to wrap itself around you like a warm blanket.

“It’s like going to your grandmother’s house,” said Orrington resident Ruth Halliday, who was in the bakery Saturday and purchased a dozen cookies. “I love this place. I just discovered it last week.”

Trish and Steve Gott opened the bakery Nov. 9 and already are making submarine sandwich rolls for the town’s new pizza parlor and sandwiches for a convenience store and gas station that opened last month.

The three businesses double the amount of food available for residents, Town Manager Carl Young said last week.

“It’s good to see them interacting with each other,” he said. “It’s not a dog-eat-dog [world].”

The Gott bakery has gourmet sandwiches on homemade bread, along with soup, chili and chowder. In addition to breakfast and snack foods, such as brownies and bismarks, the bakery also has pies, rolls and biscuits for sale.

On the shelves of the bakery are numerous items made by Trish Gott, including jams and jellies – one being carrot marmalade – fudge, candies and chocolate bark filled with nuts or toffee.

“I’ve made jams and jellies since I was little,” she said. “We grow all the berries right here on the property,” which has a small apple orchard in the back.

Blueberries, blackberries, grapes, peaches, pears, cherries, both red and yellow, are grown at the farm, and “there are all sorts of different kinds of apples,” Trish Gott said.

Steve Gott makes the bread and cinnamon rolls, and the rest is made by his wife. The couple opened their first food establishment in Belfast in 2000 and most recently ran the Gott Family Restaurant in Brewer.

It was while searching for a larger home that they found the farmhouse and orchard, which once operated as King’s apple orchard. Once they saw the barn, the couple decided to open the bakery.

A cozy fireplace in the corner of the bakery is near handmade crafts for sale, some made by Trish and others on consignment from area artists.

Selectman Ralph Holmes, who had a bag filled with breakfast treats Saturday morning, commented that the new business “is great – honest to God.”

“It’s a great asset to the town, to the community,” he said. “It’s needed; home-cooked food. [And] it’s a nice place to get together.”

John Athanasopoulos of PizzaLand in Snows Plaza, stopped in Saturday morning to pick up his order of 2-foot-long golden sub rolls.

“We’re trying to stick with the local businesses as much as we can,” he said.

The Boston native said he was traveling though town when the idea to open a pizza shop hit him.

“I was delivering freight to the [Penobscot Energy Recovery Co.] plant, and I just happened to see the location,” Athanasopoulos said. “I found the location, I talked to the landlord, and it kind of just happened.

“I was looking for a career change,” he said adding that he started working for his cousin in a pizza joint when he was 15. The pizza recipe was given to him by a friend.

“It wasn’t even Greek – it was Italian,” Athanasopoulos said.

In addition to pizza and submarine sandwiches, the shop also makes fresh salads and offers delivery. The shop, located at the junction of Route 15 and Arctic Station Road, opened its doors Dec. 1.

Besides baking the sub rolls for PizzaLand and making sandwiches for Gallants gas station and convenience store, the Gotts are talking with other stores in town about selling sweets, bread, sandwiches or a combination of items, the couple said.

Gallants opened two weeks ago and through a partnership with Dysart’s fuel company of Hermon is able to provide competitively priced gas, Young said.

The town manager said he’s ecstatic that so many places have opened in town and residents now have a choice to buy locally.

“The opening of three new food-related businesses doubles the amount of commercial food available,” Young said. “When that happens in town, all that money stays in town.”