Governor may visit new McFalls cafe

Photo: Kayla Collins

CUSTOMERS — Ron and Sue Dorman from Bryant Pond stop in to get some coffee at Better Than Average Maine Made Gift Shop and Café in Mechanic Falls during its soft opening on Saturday, September 1. The couple said they were just driving through the area when they noticed the open sign and wanted to check it out. The café's grand-opening is September 7 at 10 a.m. 

MECHANIC FALLS — A new café will officially open its doors on September 7, says the chef behind Better Than Average LLC, Shannon Bissonnette, and the Governor may pay it a visit.

The ribbon cutting for Bissonnette's Maine Made Gift Shop and Café begins at 10 a.m. The café is located at 1 North Main Street in Mechanic Falls, across the street from the Village Pizzeria. 

According to Bissonnette, Governor Paul LePage planned on attending the grand-opening, but with a busy schedule, he will not be able to visit until the following weekend. The exact time is still to be determined. 

"I have gotten word he wants to come," says Bissonnette. "He is switching his schedule around, but we are planning for him to be here." 

Better Than Average, LLC is Maine's premier homemade jams and jellies company. Products are sold in retail locations in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont and Georgia. 

In fact, Bissonnette's jams and jellies are so popular that they even made it into 800 gift bags for the 32nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards last fall. 

According to the Better Than Average website, Bissonette also recently received the 2011 Food Producer of the Year Award from the Maine Grocers Association. 

Bissonnette makes 19 flavors of jams and jellies, made from the freshest ingredients, including blueberry rhubarb, apple maple and raspberry habanero. 

She also makes three unique sauces – a summer seasonal spicy peach barbecue sauce, a zesty apple barbecue glaze and a berry cocoa topping. She even has an award-winning chili! 

According to Bissonnette, the company began out of her small home kitchen. For the past three years she's worked out of a commercial kitchen, but she decided it was time to move into a bigger location.

She's hoping to hire a couple employees this fall. 

"I thought, why don't we make some food that has our jams and jellies in it?" she says, about one reason for needing more space. 

"Everything will be Maine-made." 

She even has a "Moxie" jelly, says Bissonnette, who showed off her jams and jellies at this year's Moxie Festival in Lisbon Falls. "We got the official license to do 'Moxie' jelly, made with 'Moxie' soda!" 

The café will feature cookies and jelly-filled whoopie pies, chili, pulled-pork sandwiches, cinnamon rolls, chocolate lollipops with jam filling, pretzels filled with peanut butter and jelly, jam-coated popcorn and much more. 

"We will have a different flavor everyday," says Bissonnette of the popcorn. "It will be a lot of fun." 

Seven days a week, the café will be open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. for breakfast and lunch and the shop will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Bissonnette is excited about her new location and says the plan is to bring a unique business to the area. 

"It's not going to be bacon and eggs – we have enough of that around here," she says. 

Photo: Kayla Collins

NEW CAFÉ — Maine Made Gift Shop and Café in Mechanic Falls, owned by Shannon Bissonnette, will officially open its doors on September 7 at 10 a.m. The café is located at 1 North Main Street at the stoplight by Cumberland Farms.