Vending with a vista

Food vendors at Fort Williams Park deem pilot season a success

With the top of Portland Head Light just visible over
the hillside at Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth,
hungry park-goers queue up at the Bite Into Maine
trailer, named one of the Top 40 food carts in American
by the Food Network.

CAPE ELIZABETH — As folks from away queue up at the tour bus, one person jumps out of line, trots over to the American Cookie Co. trailer parked just a few hundred feet from Portland Head Light, and snaps a quick picture. Over the next 15 minutes, another half dozen passers-by do the same.

At the window, owner Carl Dittrich dispenses lobster rolls, Moxie soda and red-snapper hot dogs, along with his specially patented “Shuckie” – a scalloped-shaped fortune cookies manufactured at his “Shuckatorium” in the Scarborough Business Park. As yet another camera clicks, he remarks in deadpan fashion, barely looking up from his work.

“I’m the most photographed hot dog cart in Maine,” he laughs.

The joke is, of course, a play on the historic head light, often referred to as the most photographed lighthouse on the planet. Partly because of the revered nature that status brings to the site, some people, including a few town officials, were nervous about allowing food vendors to ply their trade at Fort Williams this year.

As it turns out, there was little to worry about. As the park’s advisory group prepares to consider whether to continue the pilot vendor program past this year, town officials seem pleased with public reaction, and the vendors, while admitting that working the park was harder than expected, return the kudos.

“Oh, yes, I think it’s gone quite well,” said Town Manager Michael McGovern.

“The reaction overall, I think, has been positive,” agreed Bill Nickerson, chairman of the Fort Williams Advisory Commission, Monday. ”I think for the most part it’s been viewed as a benefit to visitors to the park.”

Nickerson said neither litter not generator noise has been the problem that was feared. In fact, he said, the sole complaint has been the location of one cart, located atop Battery Knoll, just before the turn to the lighthouse.

“It’s so dominant,” he explained. “When you first come into the park and head up the road to the head light and there’s that vending cart sitting on the top of the hill, well, some people don’t like to see that there, near the flagpole, where people go to fly kites. But otherwise, the public has not put up strong objections about there being vendors here.”

On the contrary, apart from the location issue, the Bite Into Maine cart, owned by Sarah and Karl Sutton, has won rave reviews. In fact, the parking spot some deplore helped the Suttons gain national attention, including a spot among the Top 40 food carts in America, as determined by the Food Network.

“I’ve made a point of going there for lunch,” said Lynn Shaffer, chairwoman of the park’s Arboretum Master Plan committee. “It is simply delicious.”

“We’ve had such great feedback,” said Sarah Sutton, pointing out that while Dittrich’s location makes him the choice of tourists, her cart caters more often to locals.

“This has been an amazing experience for us,” she said. “We’ve found that we have a lot of people who come here, for us, as a destination. I don’t want to brag about that, but they do.

“We love it here,” Sutton added, gesturing out the screen door in the back of her cart. “We obviously have the best office view around, and there’s no better place for a lobster roll.”

So good, in fact, that the Sutton’s report going through 20 pounds of lobster meat on Monday alone, long after the season’s peak had passed.

Both Dittrich and the Suttons created carts to take advantage of this year’s vendor program – the Suttons outfitting a new trailer for the full May-to-October season, while Dittrich retrofitted a 1960s-era Jordan’s hot dog cart for the final two-month push. Neither will say what they invested in their start-ups, but both acknowledge it will take another season to hit the break-even point.

Whether or not a second season will happen remains to be seen. While Nickerson has no negative comment on the program, neither will he voice outright support prior to his group convening on the topic.

“That will be up to the full commission, to review the season and then to take a look at whether or not we want to continue the pilot for a second year,” he said.

The group will conduct that review “sometime over the winter” said Nickerson.

“Because of the investment, we’d like to come back for a second season,” said Karl Sutton, who quit his job at University of Southern Maine for a chance to run his own business. There has been talk of Portland easing restrictions on food carts within the Forest City, but the Suttons say they’d return to Fort Williams, given the choice.

“If we had angel investors come and give us another trailer, we’d love to expand,” said Karl Sutton, “but we’re really happy here.”

That despite the fact that running a food cart has been no easy feat.

“It’s the hardest and best thing we’ve ever done,” said Sarah Sutton.

“The first week I threw my back out,” joked Karl Sutton. “Moving the trailer in and out every day is a physical process. That aside, I think the town put a lot of thought into how they wanted to approach this and I come away with a lot of positives. They did a lot of things that were really smart and park appropriate.”

Cape Elizabeth’s Carl Dittrich, owner of the Atlantic
Cookie Co. hot dog cart at Fort Williams Park, shares
a laugh with tourist Joe Kellner, of Owings Mills, Md.

“It’s been a lot of work, but I don’t have a single thing bad to say about how the town handled and managed everything,” agreed Dittrich. “It’s not like I’m making a million dollars, but I appreciate the opportunity. It’s been interesting meeting people from all over the world. I would come back again for the same September to October season at this same location, and, I think, the cruise ship people would want us to come back.”

The town made $11,000 charging four vendors $2,000 each for half-season permits. Frank’s Franks of South Portland and Gordo’s Lobster Cakes of Cape Elizabeth took up spots by the head light from May 1 to Aug. 31. The Atlantic Cookie Co. and Kennebunk-based Dory Dogs, were slated to serve fare from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31, but when Dory pulled out over reported health issues, Frank’s returned to fill the void. The Suttons, of South Portland, paid $3,000 for a full-season permit.

“We do need to continue to find ways to generate revenue in the park, given what it costs the town in maintenance and improvements,” said Nickerson.