Our “FAMB”ily Restaurant in Dexter is a family affair

DEXTER — Melissa Reynolds says her family, her husband Frank and their children Ashley and Brady, does everything together, and since January that includes running their Our “FAMB”ily Restaurant. An extra letter was added to the name to include Brady Reynolds’ first initial along with those of the rest of the family.

“It is a great place for people to come,” Melissa Reynolds said. “We are open 6 to 2:30 every day, and we serve breakfast all day.”

“We try to keep it as much like family as we can,” she said. “We want people to feel cozy and welcome, and we keep it bright and cheerful.”

“We live here and I have done this a long time, we are talking 20 years,” Reynolds said. She spent a dozen of her two decades in the restaurant industry working at the former Noah’s Landing, which was located in the building on Russ Street just off of Route 7 that is now the home of Our “FAMB”ily Restaurant.

Reynolds said she did not want to miss her children’s sporting events and activities — her daughter is now in her first year at the University of Maine and her 12-year-old son is a student at the Ridge View Community School where Frank Reynolds teaches grade 8. “I thought ‘do I want to go to Bangor for work?”, but we didn’t want to miss their stuff,” she said.

Instead the Reynolds family purchased the restaurant building in August 2016. “When it went up for auction we knew what needed to be fixed, there were no real surprises,” Reynolds said.

“We did a lot of work in here,” between the late summer purchase and opening at the end of January, she said. “What we did is we put in 28 new lights, we put a whole new floor in,” Reynolds said, with renovations done to the kitchen and back room and the dining area was painted.

“We bought shades for all the windows, we put in heat pumps,” she said, with new insulation also put into the facility.

“I would say we do more breakfast than lunch, breakfast is good any time of the day” Reynolds said. “You have a lot of people who work nights and there’s no place to go,” as before Our “FAMB”ily Restaurant they would have no place for these patrons to get breakfast after having slept during the morning hours post-shift.

“Everything is made to order,” Reynolds said about both the breakfast and lunch menu. “When you order haddock it’s breaded then, when you order eggs those are made then — none of that stuff is predone. Deep fried and grilled home fries, those are made to order.”

“Our soups are all homemade,” she added.

“We try to keep all of our stuff local,” noted Reynolds, saying this was true as local contractors were sought for the renovations and Our “FAMB”ily Restaurant uses local products in its items such as the meats coming from the P&L Country Market in Dexter.

“That was one of the biggest things when we bought this place,” she said. “You try to put money back into the community and help them. We live here, so we try to help the people here.”

“We sell a lot of hamburgers because we buy fresh hamburg, it’s not frozen,” Reynolds said. “We sell a lot of fish burgers and haddock.

“For breakfast I would say one of our biggest things is hash benedict and the OFBB, the Our “FAMB”ily Restaurant big breakfast,” she said. “You get two eggs, two slices of bacon and sausage, home fries, Texas toast and French toast or pancakes. I would say those are two fairly popular things we have.”

“We make our own pancake batter so it’s fresh, all of our things we try to make fresh and not frozen,” Reynolds said.
“My muffins are homemade, we make make homemade pies and homemade desserts.”

She said one popular dessert item is the Persian, a cinnamon-swirl pastry with maple frosting and a crunch. “People love them, we have one customer who comes in every Saturday for several of them.”

“Our salads are pretty popular, we make big salads so they are pretty excited about those,” Reynolds said, as some customers will end up surprised at the size of their order when it is served.

She said Our “FAMB”ily Restaurant offers takeout, “You can get anything you want to go.”

“We try to do specials daily, breakfast and lunch specials,” Reynolds said.

Our “FAMB”ily Restaurant has seating for over 100 patrons. Reynolds said the parking lot has ample room and with no steps into the building senior citizens can come and go without a great degree of difficulty.

She said the restaurant can accommodate large parties, as Reynolds said she would soon be hosting a gathering of around 30.

“We have catered 50th class reunions since we have been open, we have catered proms since we have been open, we have had parties here,” she said. “We can do almost anything, a party platter for a business meeting or a dessert platter we can do any of that stuff.”

Reynolds said the Our “FAMB”ily Restaurant staff is comprised of four cooks, three waitresses and a dishwasher, plus herself and at times the other three members of the Reynolds family.

Our “FAMB”ily Restaurant is located at 16 Russ Street in Dexter, just off of Spring Street (Route 7). The business is open from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. seven days a week For more information, please call 924-2217 or see the restaurant’s Facebook page.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
OUR “FAMB”ILY RESTAURANT — Our “FAMB”ily Restaurant owner Melissa Reynolds stands behind the counter of the establishment located on Russ Street, just off Route 7, in Dexter. Reynolds runs the business serving breakfast and lunch with the help of her family, her husband Frank and their children Ashley and Brady and each of their initials is a part of the establishment name.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
BREAKFAST THROUGH MID-AFTERNOON — Our “FAMB”ily Restaurant in Dexter is open from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. seven days a week. The establishment serves breakfast during all hours of operation, with menu items made fresh to order.