The Kennebec Journal

HALLOWELL

March 7

Slates: 30 years and counting

By Ethan Wilensky-Lanford ewlanford@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

Seared tuna on a roasted red pepper romesco. Slow-cooked beef tenderloin, with a pork and porcini mushroom ragu. Seafood in a fresh lemon provencal risotto. Diners at Slates -- a beloved landmark restaurant in Hallowell -- could choose from these dinner specials and more Friday night.

Today marks the restaurant's 30th anniversary. After two expansions, a bakery spin-off, a devastating fire, 14 long months to rebuild, and thousands of satisfied customers, a celebration is in order.

Tonight, at seven o'clock, the staff, regulars, and everybody else is invited to a potluck reception. The owner, Wendy Larson, is contributing a few turkeys and hams. Chef Jody Reed, who began working in the kitchen in 1980, will bring her famous spinach dip. A timeline of photographs and newspaper clippings stretching back to 1979 will ring the dining area.

"It's a big celebration for all of us," said Betsy Allen-McPhedran, a French and art teacher at RSU 38 who has been waiting tables since the mid-1980s, when she moved to Maine after sailing around the world for 4 years. "I'm sure it will be standing room only."

"It's a big celebration for all of us," said Betsy Allen-McPhedran, a French and art teacher at RSU 38 who has been waiting tables since the mid-1980s, when she moved to Maine after sailing around the world for 4 years. "I'm sure it will be standing room only."

Come in on a late Saturday morning and you might find folks hanging out reading books, checking out art that changes every month, and others enjoying one of life's top pleasures: eating good food, made with care from fresh and often local ingredients. "I've never had a bad dish here," said Kathy Benson, who drove down from Bangor Saturday for brunch: a broccoli, mushroom, and cheese quiche. "They've all been excellent. Not just good, but excellent."

"It's consistently the best restaurant in Maine," said Lew Collins of Readfield, the assistant superintendent at Maranacook Area Schools, who had crab cakes and a caesar salad with his wife Debbie Wheawill, their son Eric, and his girlfriend Ashley Amiot Saturday. They have been to Slates often. Wheawill went Friday night, too.

The three or four dinner specials change nightly, depending on what is fresh. Everything is natural or organic, including the meat. In the summer, local farmers provide most of the produce and some of the cheese.

"I'm proud to tell people what we have to offer," said Leah Sampson, a hostess, server, and bartender who started a year ago. Her mother worked at Slates for 20 years before that. "I love it."

Looking around the restaurant these days, at the quilt employees made for the 20-year anniversary, the modern open kitchen, and the colorful tables and dining area, you would never guess that the restaurant might not have survived just a few years ago. The fire started during brunch one Sunday morning in February of 2007.

"We noticed some flickering lights in the bar -- the old bar," Larson said. A nail in the floor of the apartment upstairs had, over time, rusted away enough in the 180 year-old building to short-circuit a wire, she said. Seventy thousand gallons of water was sprayed in, but the fire kept crawling up through the heavily renovated walls.

"We all just stood out in the parking lot for hours, hours and hours, crying," Larson said. "I couldn't imagine coming back."

The third story burned entirely, but the ground level was saved. Water and smoke damage, however, was severe.

Townwide effort

The town of Hallowell came together to rescue Slates. Two women started the Slates Fire Relief Fund, raising $150,000 from art sales, benefit concerts, and area business support. The money was distributed weekly to more than 30 out-of-work employees.

"My biggest fear was losing my support system, which is the group of people who have been here for so long," Larson said. "It was a big 'town united' thing that happened that pretty much blew us away."

Lon Walters bought the building and helped her rebuild. The building is on a floodplain, so the new kitchen had to be raised, and the utilities were all brought upstairs.

While the work was being done, Larson opened up Slates Rising Grill outside, then moved it into the bakery around Halloween. The restaurant reopened at its original location on April 8, 2008.

"You need to be here," Larson said. "It really is a fun place."

Ethan Wilensky-Lanford - 620-7016

ewlanford@mainetoday.com