From DownEast Magazine, March 2000

Youngtown Inn by Paul Doiron
Though it's off Route 1, both locals and tourists find their way to this Lincolnville landmark.

Manuel and MaryAnn Mercier, owners of the Youngtown Inn in the midcoast town of Lincolnville, like to tell the story of how they first met, and really, you can't blame them. The tale of their improbable shipboard romance not only reads like a chapter from a novel - French chef and vacationing American woman fall in love at sea - but it also seems to sum up something ineffable about their optimistic yet practical approach to life. To understand how a classic French restaurant came to be located on a quiet country road in the Camden Hills, and why it has prospered there since 1992, you need to understand how the Merciers have gone about creating their own good luck.
"People ask me, 'How do you meet the chef on a cruise ship?"' says MaryAnn Mercier, 35, a friendly, talk- ative woman with short-cropped dark hair and a ready laugh. "Well, when it's really hot after you've been dancing in a disco and you go out on deck, there's the crew."
Originally from Staten Island, New York, MaryAnn was working as a vice president in bond sales for a division of Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette in 1988 when she decided take a European cruise, touring the Baltic States out of Copenhagen. She never imagined she'd bring home anything but souvenirs and snapshots. Instead, she brought home a future husband from this real-life Love Boat.
Parisian-born Manuel Mercier, 38, had already served a long apprenticeship at the Majestic Hotel in Cannes, starting when he was sixteen, and at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London before signing on as executive chef with Ocean Cruise Lines. Meeting MaryAnn made him curious about New York, and now he had a reason to go. Six weeks after the ship docked, Manuel moved to Manhattan, having found a new job as a private chef for the Wildenstein Gallery and household. The Merciers were married eleven months later.
"We couldn't have made up a better story," says MaryAnn of their romance.
But the Merciers' run of good luck was hardly over.
The newlyweds decided they wanted to open a restaurant together somewhere away from the crowds and crime of New York. For Manuel, being the chef at his own restaurant was a lifelong dream. For MaryAnn, escaping the city was an appealing idea. "I just wanted to raise my family somewhere outside of New York," she says. "I never guessed we'd end up 425 miles north of it."
The couple hoped to find a building that could double as home and business: a restaurant with, perhaps, an apartment up above. Working with a broker, they searched up and down the East Coast for two years, without luck. Eventually, Manuel ended up in Maine, a state neither of them had ever visited before.
"I went up to Boothbay and Wiscasset and looked at a lot of places there," he recalls, speaking English with a distinct French flavor. "But the broker we worked with said, 'You've come this far, you should come look at this last place."'
This last place was the Youngtown Inn in Lincolnville, four-and-half miles northwest of Camden. A Federal Style 1810 farmhouse, the building had been the center of the Young family poultry and dairy farm for more than seven generations until 1982 when a pilot from Delta Airlines purchased the property to turn it into an inn and watering hole. Now, in 1991, the business was for sale again. Although the old farmhouse needed repairs, Manuel says it took him only two minutes to decide it was the right place to start their new venture.
"We were very lucky to find this place," says MaryAnn. "Someone was definitely watching over us."
But as the Merciers prepared to reopen the business in January 1992, this time as a French country inn - they knew it would take more than luck make it a success."Once you own a business it seems like you put your whole heart into it," explains MaryAnn, "and you hope for the best."
The results of their hard work are apparent to anyone who visits the Youngtown Inn for dinner. Located along Route 52 past Mount Megunticook and the lake of the same name, the inn is as welcoming a building as you could hope for: a stately white-clapboard farmhouse with black shutters and goldtrim.Lit up for dinner with its windows all aglow, it seems an outpost of worldliness and refinement along a darkened country road. The inside of the inn is equally welcoming. Warmed by a potbellied wood stove and brightened by arrangements of fresh flowers, the extended dining room is nicely understated. Stenciled white walls hung with French prints ascend beamed ceilings, and naturally finished pumpkin pine floors shine underfoot. A small oil-lamp illuminates each white-clothed table.
"We wanted it to look like a French a hundred or so dollars, with wine, for wn country inn," says MaryAnn. "Simple and clean. We wanted to have white tablecloths - which can scare some people off- because having dinner out should be a special experience."
On any given weekend night, one is to likely to find seventy or so other people who agree. On a recent evening, the crowd included a big, well-dressed family ((the inn encourages men to wear jackets for dinner); several distinguished-looking foursomes; a group of travelers from Saudi Arabia; and a young couple engaged in hand-holding and quiet conversation, who were staying upstairs in one of the inn's six bedrooms. Reservations are strongly recommended, even in February and March.
Initially, MaryAnn had been concerned that, despite the inn's relative proximity to Camden and Route 1, its inland location would make attracting a clientele difficult. Now she recalls her husband's response: "People will travel for good food," he told her, and he was right.
Good food is the draw at the Inn, and the Gallic menu makes few compromises to American tastes or trends. "I feel we've educated our clientele to classic French cooking." says Manuel. Courses are many - especially if you order from the prix-fixe menu - and portions are modest but pleasantly filling.
A glass of wine makes a nice beginning. Manuel has put together an eclectic list of French and California wines.Both the Smith & Hook Cabernet and Rutherford Hill Merlot are excellent, affordable choices.
Although the menu changes constantly, on a typical night one could choose from roast rack of lamb with thyme (the all-time Youngtown Inn favorite), venison tenderloin with red currant and port, grilled filet mignon with Maytag blue cheese, or grilled red snapper with lime beurre blanc.
Appetizers might include lobster ravioli with American sauce (another favorite), escargots, or mesclun salad with warm goat cheese. Desserts are a must; the creme brulee is a stand-out, as are both the Grand Marnier and chocolate souffles (which must be ordered at the start of the meal to allow time for preparation). Diners should expect to spend two or more hours and a hundred or so dollars, with wine, for a dinner for two.
Eight years after opening the Youngtown Inn, the Merciers are still working hard (a banquet room is next on their to-do list), and they still feel very lucky. Now the parents of three sons, Matthew, 8, Maxwell, 6, and Morgan, 1, they have also come to feel at home in the Camden Hills.
"Maine is just the perfect place to raise a family," says MaryAnn. "We love the safeness of it, and, of course, the people are wonderful. We call it Utopia."
Nor does this cosmopolitan couple feel isolated living in rural Maine. "We meet artists, musicians, scientists," says MaryAnn. "We meet people from all over the world."
"We just had a family from France stay here," interjects Manuel, "and they were impressed we were still French, still traditional, with the classic cooking, that we haven't gone the American way. They told us we offered American hospitality and French gastronomy," he says with a little smile.
For MaryAnn, one of the other rewards has been seeing local people come to accept this French inn as part of the community. Long after the tourists have departed, their inn is still open and busy, a testament to how highly regarded it is by locals in the know. "Everybody might not spend a hundred dollars," she says, "but I think they appreciate what we're doing, how nice the building looks, and they want to support us. "
Some neighbors, of course, are just amazed we're still here," she says with a laugh. "We still get people who call up and say, 'You're still there, it must be good. Guess we'll have to make a reservation. "'
-Paul Doiron

The Youngtown Inn is open for dinner Thursday through Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m., through March 31. Call for the expanded spring and summer hours. Personal checks and major credit cards are accepted. Located on the corner of Route 52 and the Youngtown Road in Lincolnville. 207-763-4290.