MEMBER SPOTLIGHT:
Michelle Cyr’s journey to success with The Eastern Depot OPENING A RESTAURANT DURING A PANDEMIC OFFERS CHALLENGES AND REWARDS
Michelle Cyr takes a moment out of her busy day.
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M
ichelle Cyr says she’s not a big risk-taker, but her new venture just felt right. “Something was driving me, telling me to do this. I just went with my heart.” So, one day three years ago, she signed a lease for a vacant building in downtown Gorham. It would be transformed into The Eastern Depot, a 74-seat restaurant, serving both comfort food and more upscale entrées to a steady stream of patrons, both locals and tourists. “We make everything from scratch,” Michelle says. There are homemade French fries, homemade pancakes, homemade soups, homemade pretty much everything. “It’s not from a can or a bag, and people like that. You can definitely taste the difference.” For the considerable prepping, cooking and serving that’s needed for breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus a bar, she has the help of 14 employees. “I have wonderful employees,” she says. “Some have been with me since the beginning. We all work hard, and we all have each other’s back. I call us ‘Team Depot.’”
I worked hard to get where I was, so I wasn’t giving up.
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— MICHELLE CYR, OWNER, THE EASTERN DEPOT
6 servicecu.org | June 2022
The drawing of the Presidential Range above the bar is a favorite of the hikers who come in.
