Do yourself a favor and eat at the Freeport Cafe! - Take Exit 18 off 295

Amy Gillis will make you very welcome at this fine Freeport eatery. In our 20 minute interview today, I learned some very interesting details about her career with the Maine Course Hospitality Group http://www.mchg.com/ In 1994, Amy started work at the adjacent motel next to the cafe where she did laundry at nights. From there, she worked in housekeeping and then progressed to Supervisor. She left Maine at one point in her career to work in New Orleans where she took a very challenging job working for Firestone selling oil changes door-to-door. I could relate to Amy somewhat in that her sales job with Firestone was completely commission based. If she didn't make a sale, she didn't eat. She had to learn how to speak more slowly so that the slower speaking Louisiana residents could understand her. While working her way to top salesperson for Firestone, she dealt with the rigors of reverse discrimination and sometimes sales territory that wasn't exactly prime. When she returned to Maine, she worked for a time as a massage therapist. Eventually, she accepted a job offer to work as a server at Freeport Cafe. And today, she is at the top of her game again as manager.

Amy told me that she has introduced some new ideas to Freeport Cafe which sound pretty creative. For example every Thursday night, there will be a different theme buffet. So everybody needs to get out their calendars and mark the following Thursday meal themes starting this Thursday with a Mexican fiesta buffet. Thursday April 10th is a British Isles buffet; April 17th is a Vegan buffet; followed Thursday April 24th with a Polynesian buffet; and finally on May 1st there is a Southwestern comfort food buffet.

Now that our dollars is on par with the Canadian dollar, Amy has noticed an increase in the number of Canadians eating at the Freeport Cafe. Canadians have either a two week or three week winter break during March. Things really get hopping at the restaurant just after July 4th. Amy sees more tourists and fewer locals in the high season. She'll see more locals as the weather warms up because they will have more disposable income once they aren't spending a fortune to heat their homes. Tax rebates will also be another reason to draw the local crowd.