When the owners and staff at a local landmark tried to assess the needs of modern-day Lewiston, they realized a slice of the past might be exactly what’s in order.
That’s the reason for the expansion at Hibbard’s, which is scheduled to become a full-service restaurant next Monday when the addition opens and the business starts selling more than just custard.
Marley McCormick, longtime manager at Hibbard’s, said the idea resembles the one the family had decades ago, when the group sold fish fries and hamburgers.
“In the past few years, we’ve found a need for a restaurant like that. Obviously, we have a lot of great restaurants here, but they’re all sitdown, you spend an hour or two. But not something you can something on the fly,” McCormick said. “We have a lot of pizza. But not so much sandwiches, hamburgers, good summer day food. That inspired us to reincarnate the old dream of the custard and the hot dog.”
McCormick said the old restaurant was on the same grounds as the new addition.
“I don’t know what the layout was like,” she joked. “It was way before my time.”
Hibbard’s will make hamburgers and cheeseburgers with their own recipe, and will offer Hofmann’s hot dogs out of Syracuse.
“They’re delicious,” McCormick said of the hot dogs. “And we’re making our own beef on weck as well. We’ll have daily specials, like mac and cheese and different sandwiches. And we’ll have fresh-cut curly-Q French fries.”
McCormick said plans for the extenstion started at the end of the season in 2010, but it took a while to get the ball rolling. The restaurant is owned by Jim and Harold Hibbard, Jim being the brother of the original owner while Harold is the son of the original owner.
With a new contractor on the project, however, the site should be ready by next week, and with a big summer of events scheduled for Academy Park, McCormick said that’s sure to keep things busy.
“There are definitely using this space a lot better. They’re going to put more parking in and they’re hoping to have more events there,” McCormick said. “And that would be beautiful for us. You can go wrong with the park right across the street, right?”
The new addition will be open year-round, and although the hours will start from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., McCormick said that will be adjusted accordingly.
“The good thing about having the restaurant open is that we can serve the custard year-round,” McCormick said. “We can get people their fix.”
See McCormick below discussing the new restaurant.