Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 21 O C T O B E R 2 1 , 2 0 2 4 F O C U S M I D C O A S T / D OW N E A S T What is happening with an iconic restaurant Dennett's Wharf, a fixture on the water- front for decades, has had a turbulent recent history. e restaurant was closed between 2016 and 2022. Kip Oberting bought the Dennett's Wharf building in 2017. Since then, it has had several managers and was leased out for a few years. In 2022, the restaurant opened under the stewardship of an award-winning chef, restaurateur and hospitality team: Max Katzenberg, Ingrid Paronich, and Chef Taylor Hester. e group oper- ated the restaurant for two seasons, but departed in November 2023. is past summer, the restaurant had yet another set of leaders. Owner Kip Oberting and his family, along with several community members, reopened Dennett's after the double-whammy of losing the previous operator and losing its outdoor seating to the winter storms. e January 2024 storms, which dam- aged the outdoor seating and tore off the deck, were a bit of a "get up or give up moment." It was an all-hands-on-deck moment to replace the restaurant and its dock in time for the summer season. "e community really stepped up," says Oberting. "e town devoted resources to our project. We had around 25 people daily helping clean the restau- rant and repairing the dock." When construction was com- plete, the restaurant reopened on June 30 and operated until Labor Day. Oberting's son Miles Oberting, at 18, ran the kitchen and Apple Lieser, Kip Oberting's niece, ran the bar. "It was a whole family affair," says Oberting. "We had around 16 fam- ily members working at the restaurant. Along with Miles, his friends and Apple. It turned out to be a great summer and we had a lot of regulars." As for Dennett's Wharf 's future, Oberting plans to reopen it next sum- mer. He hopes his son will return to run the kitchen and Apple will return to swinging the cocktails. Oberting says he wants to do some work in the off-season to prepare for next summer. Right now, the plans for Dennett's include lifting the restaurant to make it more resilient against future high storm surges and rebuilding the rest of the dock portion that was swept away. What has been in the works Although businesses have had great suc- cess this summer and the dock repair is well underway, the town still has a lot of things up in the air. But there are still questions about Castine going into next year. Castine still needs a coffee shop and lunch spot to replace the former Bah's (and later Markel's). Bah's Bakehouse had been a gather- ing spot in Castine for 30 years, begin- ning in 1991 with Bah's Bakehouse and continuing as Markel's Bakehouse after the business was sold. Since 2021, the bakery has been vacant. Back at the Pentagöet Inn, Trinovitch and Powell have several plans for their next season. During winter break, the inn owners plan to work on finishing their "secret library" on the second floor. e space is designed for guests who need to take Zoom calls, com- plete work, or even hang out and play a card game. It draws inspiration from Victorian smoking lounges and the film "Knives Out" and has a secret entrance. While the space isn't entirely done, the inn owners said it should be completed for their next season. Lastly, construction is well under- way in the inn's courtyard. e patio will bridge the space between the main inn and the Perkins House annex, extending possible restaurant space and creating a place for small events like tequila tastings, Drag Bingo, oyster tastings and more. "For the Pentagöet, we want to con- tinue to grow and expand our season a little bit more," says Trinovich. "As for the town, we would love to see the town continue to grow and be con- sistently invested in small businesses that need to be there to make their living," Powell says. "We would like to see more restaurants reopening. e town is still in that pandemic revamp phase. It would be amazing to get it back to the period right before the pandemic when there was a bakery and a jazz club in the basement of the bakery. ere was more options in town and it would be great to have more variety, including more clothing stores." A l e x i s We l l s , M a i n e b i z S t a f f Wr i t e r / S o c i a l M e d i a S t ra t e g i s t , c a n be r e a ch e d a t aw e l l s @ m a i n e b i z . b i z We would love to see the town continue to grow and be consistently invested in small businesses that need to be there to make their living. — Matthew Powell Pentagöet Inn

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