Rollover Café: New owners take over popular Wells Beach spot. Here's what's planned
WELLS, Maine — This past Labor Day weekend, Steven and Cynthia Gibbs went to Rollover Café at Wells Beach to get coffee. Instead of buying coffee, they ended up buying the whole place.
They made the purchase official, in partnership with their friends Adreanna and David Spezzaferro, when they signed on the dotted line for the 14-year-old business on New Year’s Day.
The café closed last summer. Steven and Cynthia discovered this when they went there seeking coffee and instead found a bright pink sign in the window announcing Rollover Café had closed and was for sale.
That sign surprised them, and it also inspired them.
Steven had told Cynthia for years that he had wanted to own a business in the Wells area. Here, finally, was the big chance. The couple, who live most of the time in Florida, decided to ask the Spezzaferros, who live in Wells, to team up with them on a new business venture.
“We really respect and adore David and Adreanna,” Steven said. “They’ve been great partners. It seemed like the natural thing to work with them.”
Both couples are versed in entrepreneurship. Between them, they have experience in the fields of real estate, marketing, consulting, health care, events planning and others.
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New owners renovating cafe with plans to reopen this summer
The Gibbses and the Spezzaferros are now renovating the café and are planning to reopen it for the summer in early May, ahead of Mother's Day and Memorial Day weekend. According to Adreanna, the goal is for the café to be seasonal, open through sometime in October.
The two couples said they know not to mess with success and instead to build upon it.
“The previous owners did a really great job creating a community atmosphere that we really want to continue,” Steven said. “This will be a home-style restaurant where you get friendly service, good food at a reasonable price, and everything will be made with a lot of love and care.”
Cynthia concurred, noting the previous owners established good family traditions over the years they owned the café.
“Every time we went there, they would address us on a first-name basis,” she said. “They would ask us about our dog. They made you feel like family every single time.”
The café will serve breakfast and lunch, according to the couples.
“Fresh, fast and healthy,” Steven said.
They’re aiming to emulate the previous owners’ warm and inviting approach to customers as well as the pet-friendliness for which they were known. The café is, after all, adorned with knickknacks celebrating pets, and the name of the place itself takes after a well-known dog trick.
“That was a big appeal for all of us,” Adreanna said.
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Rollover Café to offer grab-and-go meals, beachside delivery
The couples also plan to add features that will be new to the cafe. They are aiming to provide take-out services as well as ready-made, grab-and-go meals, for example.
“Basically, they’ll be freshly prepared meals,” Adreanna said. “People can get a tray of lasagna, and it’ll already be prepped and freshly made. Heat and eat.”
Also, they are planning to offer beachside delivery – to bring people their food and drinks at an agreed-upon meet-up at one of the public ways along the shore.
“You’re hanging out on a nice, sunny day, and you want to get something fresh, and light delivered to the beach,” Steven said. “I want to stay in my chair, keep a good book open, and keep the day going. I think that’s a pretty convenient feature.”
Convenient and unusual, it seems to Steven.
“I’ve seen it in other places throughout the country, but I’ve never seen it in the great town of Wells,” he said.
“Nobody wants to leave the beach and try to find food,” Adreanna added.
For both couples, this is their first foray into owning and operating a beachside café. Steven, who described himself as quick and decisive, explained why he jumped at the chance to buy Rollover Café and team up with his wife and friends in the process.
“One thing in life that is finite is time,” he said. “We don’t have unlimited time. That’s why I don’t like to waste it. Take advantage of every opportunity.”
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Rollover Café: New owners for popular Wells Beach ME spot
