LIMESTONE, Maine — Though some had doubts regarding the success of Paul’s Sub Shop in Limestone, the business had been experiencing success since it opened on October 2, 2008.
“We heard a lot of ‘if you don’t serve breakfast, you won’t survive,’ ‘pizza and subs won’t sell,’ and ‘you’ll never make it in a small town,’” said Mary Morin, co-owner of Paul’s Sub Shop, “but we’ve done nothing but climb.”
The business has been climbing to the extent that they’ve just hired another employee, and they foresee the need for more employees in the upcoming months when they will be utilizing their brand new soft serve ice cream machine.
“The philosophy of ‘go big or don’t go at all’ really wasn’t the answer for us,” said co-owner Carl Morin, “We started small and expanded from there. In the first three days we were open, we sold 500 pizzas,” he added.
“If we had tried to do everything right at the beginning, we couldn’t have done it,” said Mary Morin, “we’ve been making additions since we’ve started, like the deep fryer, menu additions, and now the ice cream machine, and we’re looking at building an addition to the back of the building for additional storage and maybe an office.”
Meeting the requests of their customers has faired Paul’s Sub Shop well at this point. Some regular menu items, like the chicken finger salad and poutine fries, started as requests.
“Customers had expressed that they wanted ice cream, so that was our most recent investment and we’re thinking of offering ice cream maybe in the middle of March,” Mary Morin added, “we’re going to put a few little park benches right outside with some plants”
“We’d like to reface the building and lighten it up,” said Carl Morin, “we’d like to put some shutters on the building, add some park benches and flowers out front; these old buildings can be brought back to life, and this is a good example of it.”
Since the business opened just three months ago, they’ve needed to add new equipment to meet the demand of customers.
“People were asking for specials, so we offer specials on Wednesday and Friday, and soup on Saturday; then they were asking for fried foods, so we went out and purchased an auto fryer,” said Mary Morin, “so now our menu includes fried foods – French fries, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken; our customers seem to really like our chicken.”
“We’ve gotten an absolutely wonderful response from the community,” she happily added, “it’s much greater than we expected; we see constant repeat customers.”
Another relatively new addition to their menu is the hot sandwiches that they started offering about a month ago.
“We named one of the sandwiches after the high school, which is the Eagles Nest, another one is called the Limestoner,” said co-owner Paul Chasse, “but one of our best sellers is the Beef Bomb, (a roast beef sandwich) and that name is pretty self explanatory.”
“Our customers seem to like the hot sandwiches,” said Mary Morin, “we knew that the winters up here get cold, so we thought we’d offer something hot for them.”
“This town needed an eatery,” said Carl Morin, “If you pay taxes in a town like Limestone, you deserve a little place like this so you don’t have to go all the way to Caribou to get something to eat.”
Though Paul’s Sub Shop does mostly take-out, a loyal dine-in customer base exists in Limestone’s youth.
“The students from MSSM come down, and they’re super kids,” said Carl Morin, “they’ll sit down and order a pizza, and it gives them a place to sit down and unwind away from the school. Everyone needs a little break like that.”
It’s not only the teenage youths who enjoy Paul’s Sub Shop though.
“Kids that are 8 to 10 years old, who used to have nowhere to go, all pool their money to come here and buy a pizza and a big two liter of soda, and it gives them a place to hang out,” said Carl Morin.
“We had a contest at Christmas, to see if customers could guess how many candy canes were in a jar, and we had all these kids guessing so many different numbers,” Mary Morin laughed, “we gave out a free pizza to the winner; we’re going to be doing a similar contest for Valentines Day, too.”
“We here it time and time again,” Mary Morin added, “the same word used to define our dining area; people call it ‘cozy.’”
Paul’s Sub Shop is located at 20 Main Street in Limestone and can be reached at (207) 325-2114.
“We heard a lot of ‘if you don’t serve breakfast, you won’t survive,’ ‘pizza and subs won’t sell,’ and ‘you’ll never make it in a small town,’” said Mary Morin, co-owner of Paul’s Sub Shop, “but we’ve done nothing but climb.”
The business has been climbing to the extent that they’ve just hired another employee, and they foresee the need for more employees in the upcoming months when they will be utilizing their brand new soft serve ice cream machine.
“The philosophy of ‘go big or don’t go at all’ really wasn’t the answer for us,” said co-owner Carl Morin, “We started small and expanded from there. In the first three days we were open, we sold 500 pizzas,” he added.
“If we had tried to do everything right at the beginning, we couldn’t have done it,” said Mary Morin, “we’ve been making additions since we’ve started, like the deep fryer, menu additions, and now the ice cream machine, and we’re looking at building an addition to the back of the building for additional storage and maybe an office.”
Meeting the requests of their customers has faired Paul’s Sub Shop well at this point. Some regular menu items, like the chicken finger salad and poutine fries, started as requests.
“Customers had expressed that they wanted ice cream, so that was our most recent investment and we’re thinking of offering ice cream maybe in the middle of March,” Mary Morin added, “we’re going to put a few little park benches right outside with some plants”
“We’d like to reface the building and lighten it up,” said Carl Morin, “we’d like to put some shutters on the building, add some park benches and flowers out front; these old buildings can be brought back to life, and this is a good example of it.”
Since the business opened just three months ago, they’ve needed to add new equipment to meet the demand of customers.
“People were asking for specials, so we offer specials on Wednesday and Friday, and soup on Saturday; then they were asking for fried foods, so we went out and purchased an auto fryer,” said Mary Morin, “so now our menu includes fried foods – French fries, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken; our customers seem to really like our chicken.”
“We’ve gotten an absolutely wonderful response from the community,” she happily added, “it’s much greater than we expected; we see constant repeat customers.”
Another relatively new addition to their menu is the hot sandwiches that they started offering about a month ago.
“We named one of the sandwiches after the high school, which is the Eagles Nest, another one is called the Limestoner,” said co-owner Paul Chasse, “but one of our best sellers is the Beef Bomb, (a roast beef sandwich) and that name is pretty self explanatory.”
“Our customers seem to like the hot sandwiches,” said Mary Morin, “we knew that the winters up here get cold, so we thought we’d offer something hot for them.”
“This town needed an eatery,” said Carl Morin, “If you pay taxes in a town like Limestone, you deserve a little place like this so you don’t have to go all the way to Caribou to get something to eat.”
Though Paul’s Sub Shop does mostly take-out, a loyal dine-in customer base exists in Limestone’s youth.
“The students from MSSM come down, and they’re super kids,” said Carl Morin, “they’ll sit down and order a pizza, and it gives them a place to sit down and unwind away from the school. Everyone needs a little break like that.”
It’s not only the teenage youths who enjoy Paul’s Sub Shop though.
“Kids that are 8 to 10 years old, who used to have nowhere to go, all pool their money to come here and buy a pizza and a big two liter of soda, and it gives them a place to hang out,” said Carl Morin.
“We had a contest at Christmas, to see if customers could guess how many candy canes were in a jar, and we had all these kids guessing so many different numbers,” Mary Morin laughed, “we gave out a free pizza to the winner; we’re going to be doing a similar contest for Valentines Day, too.”
“We here it time and time again,” Mary Morin added, “the same word used to define our dining area; people call it ‘cozy.’”
Paul’s Sub Shop is located at 20 Main Street in Limestone and can be reached at (207) 325-2114.
