MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Michelle Cyr’s journey to success with The Eastern Depot

OPENING A RESTAURANT DURING A PANDEMIC OFFERS CHALLENGES AND REWARDS

Michelle 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.’”

Michelle Cyr takes a moment out of her busy day.

The drawing of the Presidential Range above the bar is a favorite of the hikers who come in.

The Eastern Depot — or just “The Depot,” as most people call it — is not the first restaurant that Michelle has owned. In fact, the Gorham restaurant is the namesake of one she owned in Berlin. The location of that one gave birth to the name — it was in an old train station at the eastern end of the city.

The first Eastern Depot was created by Michelle’s mom and a partner in 1995. Not long after, Michelle joined them. “They basically did the back of the house cooking and all that, and I handled the front of the house.”

It was a breakfast-and-lunch restaurant, also known for its madefrom-scratch food. “It was a great little restaurant,” Michelle says. “It kind of reminded me of ‘Cheers,’ you know, where everybody knew everybody by name.”

When the partner left five years in, Michelle stepped up to become co-owner with her mom. “We kind of kept it family,” Michelle says. Her children helped out; her father cooked on weekends.

But the day came when Michelle’s mom retired, and Michelle had to make a decision — to continue on in Berlin or relocate. She decided to gather everything up, go six miles south to Gorham, and start again. What she found was what she calls “a whole new ballgame.”

For one thing, the pace picked up significantly. “I’m here all the time now that my kids are grown up,” Michelle says. “I’m married to this place.” And it is a happy marriage. She has no complaints about the work. No matter what needs to be done, she’ll do it. “I love it. I’m passionate about it.”

Not long after the restaurant opened, the pandemic hit. With indoor dining not allowed, she shifted to takeout, delivery and curbside pickup. The problem was, she had to do it all alone. “I answered the phone, did all the prep, cooked the food, and did the dishes,” she says. “l literally was here from probably six in the morning, and I never left until everything was ready for me to turn the key the next morning.”

It wasn’t easy, but there were bills to pay.

“I worked hard to get where I was, so I wasn’t giving up,” she says. “My biggest fear was not knowing whether I could keep everything afloat.” Helping her to stay afloat were funds from the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which she got through a Service Credit Union branch just down the street, where she had banked for 30 years.

When the COVID-imposed restrictions eased and patrons returned, Michelle brought back a few employees and had others work the hours they were allowed to work while on unemployment. Some simply volunteered their time to help her do all the sanitizing that was required. “That was awesome,” she says.

Now, with those tough times over, her staff of 14 is at work, the restaurant is busy, and Michelle is thinking of expanding into a vacant building next door and adding live acoustic music. Maybe there’ll also be an ice cream shack just outside. What’s for sure is that she will add another 10 employees to handle the increase in traffic come summer.

Among the many tourists who descend upon Gorham in the summer, Michelle says there are “tons of ATVers.” As fortune would have it, one of their trails ends right behind the restaurant, and the ATVers love the food at The Depot. “I prayed that this would all work out,” Michelle says. “And it has.” n

The restaurant’s offerings are a combination of comfort food and upscale entrées.