A closeup of the ramen with a fried egg, kimchi and quick pickles. LEWISTON — Zach Pratt and Keshia Thanephonesy opened boba when he was 23, she was 21 and they had little to lose by signing a lease for a five-seat restaurant inside a Lisbon Street gas station. They offered pho, dumplings and bubble […]
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Posted inBusiness, Lewiston-Auburn
Working: One man’s junk . . .
AUBURN — Nothing gets under Shawn Leone Sr.’s skin like a junked mattress. Tossed blatantly in the street, abandoned artfully in the woods. “I get irritated,” said Leone, 40. “I grew up in this area. If people don’t care about the community and just throw stuff outside — a mattress — just thinking the city […]
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Working: Cody Childs, hard-driving barber
AUBURN — Cody Childs talks quickly and deftly about skin fades, tapers and undercuts and it could be boxing, maybe, except it’s barbering. The 23-year-old opened his one-man shop two months ago in a former Center Street yoga studio, decorating it with a black leather lounge area and stylish red-and-black seats and stations. On the […]
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One burrito shop, coming up on Lisbon Street
LEWISTON — Theirs is a sweet, unconventional love story and from it has been born a sweet, unconventional burrito shop. Tricia Tomlinson met Ben Scott at a Portland nightclub 20 years ago. They danced. She declared her crush. He said he was married and slipped out. “He never came back, broke my heart,” said Tomlinson, […]
Posted inBusiness, Lewiston-Auburn
Working: The Frisky Whisk, take two
GRAY — Emily Wright hopes customers come for the oven-fresh cinnamon rolls and stay for Fat Elvis. Wright says she’s fulfilling a longtime dream by moving The Frisky Whisk Bakery and her line of decadent, gourmet cupcakes and desserts out of her Auburn kitchen and opening a storefront. On the menu: cupcakes with names such […]
Posted inBusiness, Lewiston-Auburn
Working: Pose. Breathe. Repeat.
LEWISTON — Eight months ago, inside a defunct Lisbon Street storefront across from Lepage Bakery, the ceiling was black and the floors were dark — and a spa-like atmosphere didn’t even cross a viewer’s mind. “It used to be a furniture store,” owner Shanna Breton said. “It used to be somebody’s plumbing business. It was a […]
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Rachel Gendron: Working out, working others
LEWISTON — Rachel Gendron was 17, working out at a southern Maine gym, when the gym’s nutritionist walked by. “(He) said, ‘You have a great back — you should do a show.’ That’s exactly how it started,” she said. Within two years, a few bodybuilding competitions later, Gendron was invited into the York Barbell Weightlifting Hall […]
Posted inBusiness, Lewiston-Auburn
Working: Anna Low, handmade books from start to finish
AUBURN — When Anna Low and her husband, Ben, moved to Maine, the couple took a leap: He, on a career path to become a college professor, would try to find a job brewing beer and she, a high school art teacher, would try to become a full-time artist. Her mornings start in her Lake […]
Posted inBusiness, Lewiston-Auburn
Working: Balancing life, adventure and opening a new gym
LEWISTON — Two summers ago, longtime friends Jonathan Brown and Trevor Brooks, inspired by a story about Captain Kidd’s missing treasure, hopped in a 14-foot aluminum fishing boat and motored four miles out to Jewell Island in Casco Bay looking for gold. They hiked, they dug, they accidentally beached their boat in low tide and […]
Posted inBusiness, Lewiston-Auburn
Working: Two jobs, two stores, a new face on Main Street
LEWISTON — Someday, Linda and John Snyder were going to open an antique shop. Years from now. When time was a little less tight and they were ready. Nine months after they began building inventory, their house near-overflowing with someday antiques, prime retail space opened on Main Street. They went for it. Space next door […]