The river is visible from every seat in Thomaston’s newest restaurant, The Slipway. The hull of a sailboat bobs peacefully on the nearby St. George River as the 44-year-old chef and owner Scott Yakovenko sits at a small table describing his hometown venture. The Slipway is located at the Thomaston docks in the building that formerly housed The Harborview Restaurant.
Yakovenko was previously the chef at the Dip Net in Port Clyde, and he says he transformed that dining spot from “a nice sleepy clam shack to a high-volume destination restaurant.” After eight years of business there, his lease ended in 2009, and he began to search for a new building to house a restaurant.
Starting a new business is “all about finding the right location,” says Yakovenko. He searched the local area from Port Clyde to Camden, but he hoped to remain near the St. George peninsula. His attraction to the area dates to his childhood. Yakovenko grew up in Tenants Harbor and went to school with the fishermen from whom he now buys seafood. “When I go down to the boats to get fish, it’s from one of my friends from school. Not many people in business can say that.”
However, it took Yakovenko a decade to recognize the opportunities his old hometown affords a local hoping to shine as a chef. After completing high school, Yakovenko moved to the Virgin Islands and started cooking at Hotel 1829, which was owned by a friend’s father. And he learned from the bottom up, he explains with a smile, starting by “peeling potatoes and cooking carrots.” After perfecting his culinary skills and moving up in management, he decided to return home to establish himself in the Maine cooking scene.
Two years after Yakovenko’s lease ended with the Dip Net, he found a building to house his business. The owner of the Harborview Restaurant, Bernard Davodet, decided to sell the building after owning it for 20 years. This past January Yakovenko bought the Harborview Restaurant and began renovations with longtime fellow chef and business partner, William Zbylut, for his grand opening, which took place on May 26.
In The Slipway, the white walls of the building brighten the atmosphere and contrast with the dark blue floors. The tee shirts and blue jeans of Yakovenko’s twenty-five employees along with the wooden tables and chairs foster a casual atmosphere that invites in patrons of all walks of life from Thomaston and the surrounding coastal towns.
“This is an interesting piece of the coast. You can feel that in the air,” says Yakovenko of Thomaston and the St. George Peninsula. A lot of things have happened here.” In fact, a lot of things have happened right where The Slipway stands. Take the name “The Slipway,” for example.
“This building was built on top of an old slipway, which is why the building is angled toward the river,” Yakovenko explains, pointing out the slant of the floor. In Thomaston’s boat building heyday in the mid-1800s, vessels were launched into the river along railroad-like tracks, which were called slipways.
Local history is readily available for everyone who listens in the Midcoast area, and Yakovenko is no exception. “I was talking with my friend, Ed Coffin of Owl’s Head, who described the history of this building,” explains Yakovenko. “When he said the name slipway, I thought the name sounded ‘organic,’ and I decided to give that name to my restaurant.”
With the restaurant’s extreme proximity to the river, Yakovenko hopes to attract “clammers, fishermen, and families” who can arrive by either boat or car to enjoy the beautiful view of the St. George River. To enhance its guests’ experience, the restaurant is renovating its 120-foot dock. “I just thought that a place to sit and enjoy good food and beverages would be a nice addition to the dock.” The dock with picnic tables and a bar is slated to open in early July.
From its wooden exterior, with the river a few feet from the doorstep, it’s easy to imagine tall ships steaming past the restaurant’s windows and a new wooden sailboat rolling down the slipway.
Written on the back of the shirts worn by the staff at The Slipway is this motto: “Live Long, Love Strong, Eat Seafood.” For Yakovenko, it’s more than a motto, however. He’s serving a hometown crowd hometown seafood-and, he humbly boasts, “the Gulf of Maine produces the best.”
Kate Hynd is a resident of Thomaston and a participant in The Working Waterfront’s Student Writing Program.