VAN BUREN, Maine — When Donita Ayotte moved from Texas to northern Maine three years ago, she had no idea she would eventually get into the business of making and selling kolaches, a pastry from Eastern Europe that’s also popular in southern states.
Now, her kolaches are attracting customers from hundreds of miles away, and she’s preparing to open a brick and mortar restaurant, Northern Maine Kolache, Co., at 66 Main St. this Saturday, Jan. 27.
Kolaches are doughy pastries that were traditionally stuffed with fruits or cheeses, according to NPR, but Czech immigrants brought them to Texas, where they became popular and have evolved to include many other fillings.
In Ayotte’s case, she makes her dough from a family recipe, then stuffs it with a variety of sweet or savory ingredients. Her restaurant offers both breakfast and lunch options. For breakfast, there’s an egg-and-cheese kolache that can be ordered with bacon, sausage or potatoes. There’s also the ranchero, a kolache filled with scrambled eggs, ham, cheese, picante sauce and jalapenos.
Lunch options include a pulled pork kolache with a house-made barbecue sauce; a loaded scalloped potato kolache with bacon, sour cream and cheese; a chicken pot pie kolache; kolaches with pizza filling; and another with jalapeno, cream cheese and bacon.
And for dessert, the restaurant offers a pecan kolache.
Already, Ayotte’s offerings have drawn eaters from far and wide. Customers ordering online have come from as far as Bangor to get kolaches. Ayotte said she’s even taken an order from a customer in Portland who was driving through northern Maine. And many of the business’s regular customers drive up from Caribou or Presque Isle, about an hour-long round trip.
Ayotte grew up in Oklahoma in an area with a large Polish population, where kolaches were as common as ployes are in the St. John Valley.
“Kolaches were very popular in my hometown,” she said. “And then I moved to Texas and really fell in love with them because they’re so big down there.”
She attended culinary school, but later decided on a career in the tech industry. At her office, Ayotte said kolaches were always available during meetings.
“Picking up kolaches is just what you do in Houston,” she said.
Ayotte and her husband later moved to Maine after having their first child.
“My husband is from Hamlin,” she said. “Him and his family own a big potato farm. We wanted to be around family, and I wanted to raise my kids in an area that was better than Houston.”
But there were no kolaches in northern Maine.
“So I just started making them myself,” she said.
At first, Ayotte would make kolaches for the farm crew. But word-of-mouth quickly spread, and she began offering kolaches online. To meet demand, the Ayottes bought a spot on 46 Main St. with the hope of renovating the location to become a physical restaurant. After demand kept growing, they acquired a temporary space on 66 Main St.
Ayotte said Van Buren Town Manager Luke Dyer helped them secure the location.
“It was just sitting here, vacant, and he asked me if I wanted to use it temporarily,” she said. “And that’s what I’m doing now while we renovate.”
The business will be open every day from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and then from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. As the business grows, Ayotte said she may extend the hours.
“White-glove customer service is the most important thing to me,” she said, “because I’m from the South, and it’s just what we do down there. I’d rather have shorter hours and do very, very well than have to sacrifice that.”
Ayotte said she is working to obtain her liquor license and eventually offer mimosas and craft beers. She is hoping to install a large TV and host a Super Bowl party with kolaches and drinks that would go from the late afternoon into the evening.
Without the community’s support, Ayotte said none of this would be possible.
“The community has just surrounded me with open arms,” she said. “They’ve been so supportive of what I’ve been doing. They’re the reason I’ve been able to open up this shop, because I’ve had so many people ordering all the time. I have nothing but amazing things to say about this community.”
