PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A new team is taking over the longtime Academy Street eatery Ray’s Corner Variety and turning it into Shannon’s Home Style Variety.
Dale and Laurel Shannon, a husband and wife team from Crouseville, have purchased the business from Raylene and Barry Shaw, and they are hitting the ground running.
The name is changing, but not much else is, said Laurel Shannon. “We’ll have the same good home-cooked food and the same good service.”
The property along Academy Street in the middle of Presque Isle’s most densely populated neighborhoods has hosted some form of a corner store under many different owners since the 1940s, said Raylene Shaw, who purchased the business in 2005.
“This place has changed owners, but it’s an icon,” Shaw said.
Shannon said that she and her husband have long wanted to be “their own boss.” She has worked in food service, most recently managing a Tim Horton’s store, and he in maintenance management.
They used to drive past Ray’s on their way to the Presque Isle Wesleyan Church, and then one day they saw the store was for sale online and decided to move on it, Shannon said.
“I thought the store was an excellent opportunity. It’s the American dream, to find a business of your own.”
The deal is a “win win” for both parties, Shannon said.
Raylene Shaw said she was ready to move on from the business and was glad to find owners that would keep on employees and stay engaged with the local community. “I’m going to take a few months off, and we are thinking of relocating to get closer to family,” she said.
“We look forward to the next chapter in our life but it is bittersweet,” the Shaws wrote in a Facebook post to customers. “Throughout the years you the customers became our friends.”
