The Bangor Mall was greeted with a fresh new breath of life as The Candor Cafe opened on Nov. 4. As its namesake implies, the new dine-in location strives to provide a simple and honest meal selection, which the Bangor Mall so desperately needs.
The Candor Cafe offers nutritious meal options such as flatbreads, sandwiches, salads, tea, coffee and various breakfast items. Owner Bethany Gregory used the word “candor” in the name of the cafe as a double entendre. The word candor means honest and sincerity but it also refers to the town she grew up in: Candor, New York.
Gregory has been a professional chef for roughly 30 years and has owned many other locations, including restaurants in the Cape Cod area. This included a vegan restaurant known as Twin the Tides and a pizzeria location known as Pita Pie. After seven years in Massachusetts she moved to Maine in May of this year.
During the Bangor Mall’s Autumn Craft Fair in October, Gregory had the idea for opening the Candor Cafe at the kiosk within the mall.
“I learned from the employees of the mall, that they did not actually have any kind of food in here other than the arcade, so it’s not necessarily mall-friendly food,” Gregory said.
The idea and eventual creation for the Candor Cafe had seemingly fallen into place like magic.
“I was supposed to be redoing an old gas station that’s here in Bangor. But after moving on to the property and starting the work on location, I found out that there were a lot of problems with the building and there was an issue with soil contamination as well. So that was not going to be something that I could do… I found out about the situation with the mall not having food. I also was moving out of that location and trying to figure out what my next plan was and it just fell into place as being the next plan,” Gregory said.
Occupying a pivotal position as being the only independent eatery within the Bangor Mall helped the Candor Cafe garner attention upon its opening. Mall employees and visitors alike finally had a new location to eat at after a three-year drought.
So far the Candor Cafe’s launch has been going smoothly with positive feedback across the board, especially from employees within the mall who finally have a reliable rest stop for coffee, breakfast or lunch. The ease of the launch has proved to be rewarding and Gregory is very pleased with the outcome.
“I just feel really happy and content with the fact that this is the right decision for me, as opposed to the gas station which was nothing but obstacle after obstacle,” Gregory said.
For more information, visit The Candor Cafe Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TheCandorCafe/.
