Gray, Maine used to be a passthrough town. It’s not hard to see why. The town’s slogan—“at the heart of it all”—refers to its quintessential positioning between the state’s sparkling lakes and snow-covered mountains. If a traveler’s tires turned off the Maine Turnpike at exit 63, it surely wasn’t to linger.
Recent efforts to revitalize “the Village” (a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it downtown strip) are slowly giving commuters reason to pause. Dusty sidewalks have been swept, inviting foot traffic. Forgotten buildings boast fresh coats of paint. However slow, the objective is clear: In its proverbial second coming, Gray intends to make a name for itself by creating a bustling and cohesive community center of its once sleepy Main Street.
At the heart of this rebirth is the building at 7 Main Street. An awning fixed to the side of the milky-white exterior reads: Two Mums Kitchen: Est. 2022. “This dream has been forever in the making,” says Eliza Watson, who co-owns the homestyle bakery-café with her mother, Cindy Langley. “We’re so glad to have landed here. We’re very encouraged by everything officials are doing to enrich this community.”
The mother-daughter duo cooked up their plan to open a culinary business years ago, while Watson was home for the summer on college break. Nearly 20 years later, the pair experienced their serendipitous moment. Langley was retiring in 2021, after completing a rewarding four-decade tenure as a high school math teacher and alternative education director at schools across Maine and Vermont. Watson was involved in a pandemic-related layoff. “We were both looking, individually, for what could serve as our next thing,” Watson says. “That’s when we realized that it was finally our time.”
The call to open a café came naturally to Langley and Watson, who spent every holiday holed up in their own family kitchen. “There was always a lot of laughter… no surface was safe from flour,” Watson recalls.
Fudgy brownies, Scotch eggs, and loaves of sourdough—all delicacies that grace the pair’s family table come Christmas—are among the recipes that they have developed on a larger scale to serve the community. “We want people to feel as though they’re stepping inside a family kitchen when they enter our shop; to feel welcome to pull up a stool, grab a cup of coffee, and stay for a while,” Watson says.
Langley concurs: “Our motto is ‘bring home cooking home.’ For those who don’t have time to eat in, we offer family-sized frozen meals to take away that have been prepared not only with the healthiest ingredients, but also with love.”
As patrons step into the shop, they’re greeted by hot pink walls punctuated by rainbow murals, which has the same sweet effect as biting into a sugar-coated candy. Straight ahead, the bakery case beckons. Delicate slices of pound cake, studded with Maine wild blueberries, mingle with zesty lemon squares, brownies, breads, and cookies. Savory soups, sides, and nourishing meals—like twice-baked sweet potatoes, butternut squash lasagna, and curried chicken salad—are prepared according to ingredient seasonality. “Our goal is to utilize local produce and minimize waste. Employing the freshest ingredients is a non-negotiable,” the pair explain.
Despite their quick success, Langley and Watson are the first to admit that building their business from scratch hasn’t been easy. “Neither of us had prior experience owning or running a restaurant,” Watson says. “Potential partners and landlords seemed to try to take advantage of the fact that we were unseasoned and female, regardless of our backgrounds as career women.”
Plus, Watson notes, she and Langley have had to adapt their communication styles to reflect their new, and equal, relationship as entrepreneurial partners.
“We are, and always have been, very close. Neither of us talked about how our relationship as business partners might be different—it’s not nearly as intuitive as being a mother or a daughter!” says Watson.
“It certainly is different,” Langley echoes. “But once we’re in the kitchen and the flour starts flying, we fall right into step. To us, running our dream café and serving our special, family-favorite recipes within this evolving and receptive community, it truly feels like Christmas every single day.”
