Y-Knot Gourmet Sandwiches and Desserts opens in Newcastle

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 3:00pm

Story Location:
928 Route 1
Newcastle, ME
United States

There's a new takeout food stand on Route 1 in Newcastle.

Carol Heaberlin and her daughter Mindy Jones are joint owners in the business, making and selling their gourmet sandwiches and desserts.

The newly painted orange trailer the women work out of was found through happenstance. It came from the Westbrook Lions Club, where it had been used to sell cheeseburgers. “It worked out great,” Jones said. “My brother was just driving by and saw it.”

“We called and they liked what we wanted to do with it,” Heaberlin said. “They actually talked themselves down on the price.”

Since then, Heaberlin and Jones, with help from their husbands, took the interior down to a bare shell and started outfitting it with the necessary electric appliances. Jones’ husband painted it the bright orange, and Heaberlin added the blue awning over the take-out window. “That was Mom’s touch,” Jones said. “She’s good with colors.”

A building on the property the stand sits on, just north of the rest area on Route 1, was used for several different businesses over the years. It was demolished in 2013, after it was mostly destroyed by a fire.

The mother and daughter team isn't new to the foodie scene. From 1998 to 2004 Heaberlin had a sandwich shop in Boothbay Harbor, Seymour’s Subs, with Sarah Morley. Several of the sandwiches featured at the new stand are holdovers, with some name changes and revisions, from Seymour’s.

Jones has worked as a waitress in Boothbay Harbor, and helped out at Seymour’s when she was in her teens. “My mom is a great cook and when my husband and I moved back here from Pennsylvania, we decided that we should do something like this together. She always likes to have something going.”

“We were actually looking for a place to do a year-round wine and dip business,” she said. “But I have a child and my mom and dad like to travel, so she didn’t want to worry about me running a place by myself if she was gone somewhere in January.”

Jones said she threw out the idea of a food truck, and then her brother came across the trailer in Westbrook, and fate stepped in. “It kind of all just fell into place after that.”

The two work well together, with Jones focusing on desserts and Heaberlin on savory items. “I know how to cook her food, and she knows how to cook mine,” Jones said.

Y-Knot opened on July 18 with a wide variety of sandwiches, from a basic grilled cheese through hot dogs, to lobster rolls and a “Knotty Lobster” sandwich, made with Texas toast and a homemade seafood stuffing. Other unusual, original fare includes: The Maine Knot: Texas toast, lobster, bacon, lettuce and tomato, with a parmigiana garlic mayo; the Farmer’s Knot, with chicken salad, bacon, provolone and Y-Knot homemade relish; and a Trucker’​s Knot – roast beef, Y-Knot cheese spread, black pepper cheddar, grilled onions and Y-Knot slaw.

The name Y-Knot derives from family names. “My maiden name is Yereance,” Heaberlin said. “And my mother’s maiden name was Young. A lot of the recipes we use came from her. She passed away last year, so this is kind of an homage to her.”

On opening day, a woman and her son from North Carolina stopped by for sandwiches, Heaberlin said. The two had driven by over the past weekend and saw the sign on their way to Gorham, where they were staying. “They came back this morning all the way from Gorham to try the sandwiches. She said they were the best sandwiches they had ever had, and she was going to write about them on her blog.”

The sandwiches were the Farmer’s Knot – which Heaberlin and Morley used to make at Seymour’s Subs – and the Trucker’s Knot.

When they bought the trailer, Heaberlin said the owner from the Westbrook Lions Club told her he hoped she’d have as much fun with it as he and his fellow Lions did. It looks like he may get his wish.

The stand is located between Robert Foster Antiques and the Newcastle rest area on Route 1.