Photo / Laurie Schreiber
Specialty foods like raw chocolate are featured at Sunbury’s.
Updated: 8 hours ago
After big-city careers, Bangor natives boomerang home to open specialty foods shops
Photo / Laurie Schreiber
Annie Cutler, left, talks with Betsy Lundy, executive director of the Downtown Bangor Partnership, at Cutler’s shop Sunbury’s.
Bangor natives who left Maine to pursue careers in the big city have boomeranged back to open small downtown businesses with a focus on specialty foods.
Sunbury’s
Annie Cutler opened Sunbury’s, at 86 Hammond St., to offer items like local and imported cheeses and meats, small batch olive oils, gourmet chocolates, artisan bread, wines and kitchenware.
Cutler grew up around Bangor. After obtaining a degree in journalism, she moved to New York City, worked in film advertising and publicity and enjoyed shopping there.
“I loved that you could get anything anytime and it was easy to find unique things everywhere you went,” she said.
Upon returning to Bangor, she went into event management, then became vice president and chief operating officer of the University of Maine Alumni Association.
She long had a dream to open a specialty foods and kitchenware shop. She bought an existing business that sold wine and cheese, performed renovations and changed the name and concept.
The space is in a historic building, featuring brick walls and exposed ceiling beams.
“It’s an honor to be in this space,” she said.
Photo / Laurie Schreiber
Cutler renovated an existing retail space in a vintage building at 86 Hammond St.
The store features Maine products, as well as classic cooking tools, specialty foods, and goods that might easily be found in a larger city but not so much in Bangor.
“I’ve found in recent years that many of our friends are not from here,” she said. “They moved here for work, the quality of life and to raise a family. But they still want some semblance of what was available in their prior cities.”
Cutler said she finds the community is eager to support the store, even if it’s simply to buy a bottle of wine or fresh-baked bread. She regularly receives special orders for wine and kitchenware. “It’s a fun place to be,” she said. “It’s everything I love.”
Hawaiian ice
About six blocks north, Julianne and Andrew Sawyer opened Sawyer’s Shave Ice at 173 Park St. to offer traditional Hawaiian-style shave ice made with finely shaved ice and a wide selection of tropical flavors.
Both were born and raised in Bangor. They lived in San Francisco for seven years, where Julianne was a freelance writer and content creator. Andrew is a software engineer.
In 2020, they moved to Maui, where they fell in love with the way of life and had Hawaiian shave ice for the first time.
Photo / Laurie Schreiber
Julianne and Andrew Sawyer, with Lundy at right, opened a traditional Hawaiian-style shave ice shop at 173 Park St.
“They serve it with ice cream at the bottom and a ‘snow cap,’ which is a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk, on the top,” said Julianne.
Additional ingredients include a powder made from dried salted plum, called li hing mui, and toasted coconut shavings. The ingredients and the syrup concentrates come from Hawaii.
Returning to Bangor in 2022, they started a food truck to offer the treat, operating June through September.
“By the end of the season last year, we said, ‘We should open a storefront,’” she said.
After looking at a few spaces, they happened on 173 Park St., a former café that had come up for lease. Advantages included being near the downtown core and its set-up as a café. They signed the lease in February and repainted the walls with a pink-wave motif. Andrew built the seating and counter. The startup is self-financed. The couple said they’re keeping a close eye on shipping costs for ingredients from Hawaii.
They’re getting word out through social media and their website.
“This is a huge moment for us,” the Sawyers said. “We’ve dreamed of creating a space where people can enjoy a little taste of aloha year-round, and we can’t wait to share it with the community that’s supported us from day one.”
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