This fall, Northport's off-season food life fits on a short weekly calendar. The Scone Goddess has closed its Route 1 bakery and moved its baking to Belfast, where fresh scones are sold by pre-order only. The Hoot on Bayside Road has themed Monday dinners posted through the end of November. The Bayside Store on Atlantic Highway runs under new owners who took over in February. Down in the village, the Northport Village Corporation has spent the past month shutting Bayside down for the season, one notice at a time.
That leaves a smaller set of places with fixed days and hours. Late fall in Northport goes best for whoever knows those days.
The scone run now needs a pre-order and a drive to Belfast
The Scone Goddess's own bakery page now opens with a banner that reads "TEMPORARILY CLOSED OCTOBER 3RD UNTIL POSTED OTHERWISE," and it sends customers to Facebook and email for updates. The closing was announced well ahead of time. In July, the Bangor Daily News reported that the company planned to close the Northport space at the end of summer and move to its manufacturing facility in Belfast, which opened this spring.
Owner Vee Stubbs told the BDN, "I am sad to close the shop in Northport as the town is my home and embraced us, supported us and cheered us for the last seven years," and added, "If I could have expanded by building there and stayed, I would have." The paper traced the business from a stand at the United Farmers' Market in Belfast to a food truck, and then to the Northport bakery that it eventually outgrew.
The bigger change is in how you buy a scone. The Belfast space is a 2,000-square-foot production facility. Fresh-baked scones are sold there by pre-order only, with no walk-in scone sales, though the mixes are still for sale. The Northport shop kept regular hours of Thursday through Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to noon, with longer summer days from May 26 to August 29. Now you order ahead and drive to Belfast. Stubbs told the BDN that the company also bought a van for festivals and plans to sell through more co-ops and specialty grocers.
In the same story, the BDN covered a new arrival. Lone Star Latte opened in July in a converted shed at 473 Shore Road, serving kolaches, coffee and lemonade. It was planned as a July operation, open most mornings from 7 to 11. It was always a summer stand and was never meant to take over the bakery's late-fall mornings.
The Hoot plans its off-season around Monday
With the scone shop closed, the most reliable sit-down meal in town is on Bayside Road. The Hoot serves brunch on Saturday and Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and dinner on Monday from 4:30 to 8 p.m. at 144 Bayside Road. The Monday dinner is unusual on two counts: most kitchens pick Monday as their night off, and The Hoot gives each week its own theme.
Here is how the posted November calendar on The Hoot's events page reads:
- Saturday, October 31: No brunch. The restaurant is closed that morning after a Friday-night staff party.
- Sunday, November 1: Brunch is back, 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
- Monday, November 2: Greek Inspired Dinner, 4:30 to 8 p.m.
- Monday, November 9: Pie Inspired Dinner, sweet or savory, 4:30 to 8 p.m.
- Monday, November 16: To Meatloaf or Just Loaf Inspired Dinner, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.
- Monday, November 23: Thanksgiving Inspired Dinner, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.
- Monday, November 30: Thanks Given Again, a vegetarian-inspired dinner, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The listings for November 16 and later end at 7:30 p.m., a half hour earlier than the 8 p.m. close on the restaurant's homepage. Plan a late table around the listing for that night.
The building has a long history as a place to eat. The Bangor Daily News covered The Hoot's opening on June 15, 2017, in the building where Dos Amigos, a Mexican restaurant, served until 2012. In May 2024, the Penobscot Bay Pilot reported that the restaurant was passing to new owners Robert MacDowell and Janiece Fazio. The current menu page lists Fazio and MacDowell as owners and describes the restaurant as locally sourced, globally inspired and made from scratch. The rotating Monday dinner dates back further: Down East's 2019 review described it under the earlier owners.
The Hoot's calendar shows dates through November 30 and doesn't post a December schedule. Check the events page before you plan a holiday-week dinner.
The highway store that stays open all year
The Bayside Store at 1336 Atlantic Highway covers the hours The Hoot doesn't. The Bangor Daily News reported that sisters Elisabeth and Emilia Parker took over the store on February 15, 2026. Emilia had already worked there for more than three years, according to John Burgess's Midcoast Villager column. The sisters planned to keep the familiar offerings and add new ones, starting with sourdough bread and cinnamon rolls. The BDN also listed subs, penny candy, breakfast pizza and lobster rolls, and reported plans for espresso drinks, indoor seating and more locally made goods.
The store's off-season role comes from the previous owner. Burgess wrote that Liz Lane, who ran the grill and counter for six years, moved the store to year-round operation, "where you could depend on the store being open and ready to serve." The Town of Northport's business directory lists the store's hours as Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with no Sunday hours. The same listing names pizza, ice cream, shakes, groceries and Maine craft beer. Those hours were posted in May, and winter schedules can change, so call the store before a Sunday run.
That schedule lines up with The Hoot's. The Hoot covers weekend mornings and Monday evening, and the store covers weekdays and Saturday. A weekday breakfast or a midweek supper in town now goes through the counter on Atlantic Highway.
Liz Lane's new antiques mall in the barn next door
Liz Lane stayed on the same corner. Burgess's March column reported that her next business would be an antiques mall in the big barn next to the store, formerly known as the Northport Landing, with twenty vendors already signed up and a grand opening planned for early April. Northport Landing Antiques and Eclectic Decor at 1330 Atlantic Highway now fills two floors and has held weekend yard sales during the summer. The Maine Tourism listing gives hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week, and labels the shop year-round. That listing is undated, so confirm winter hours before a Sunday trip.
Store and barn sit side by side at 1336 and 1330 Atlantic Highway. One parking stop covers a sandwich and two floors of browsing, and on Sundays, the one day the store has no listed hours, the antiques mall's listed hours still run.
The village closes down in stages
Bayside's season closes through a string of Northport Village Corporation notices, and each one moves a little more daily activity off the shore.
- Trash: As of mid-September, Bayside pickup is Tuesday only, with items out by 8 a.m.
- Ruggles Park floats: Dinghies, kayaks and other personal watercraft had to be off by Monday, October 12.
- Water: The village's 2026 calendar put the seasonal water decommissioning around October 15 and the Bayside Library's seasonal closing on September 26, and it lists both dates as approximate or tentative.
With the floats out of the water and the summer water turned off, The Hoot, the store and the barn are among the few places in town still on a regular schedule.
The rest of the fall calendar
A few other dates fill out the next few weeks.
| When | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Since Sept. 8 | Fall rates in effect | Northport Golf Club |
| By Oct. 31, 5 p.m. | Entries due, second Great Pumpkin Contest | Details in the Midcoast Villager |
| Ongoing | Scrap Dog food-scrap pilot, free public bins | Northport Transfer Station; starter kits at Town Office |
| Oct. 27 and Nov. 24 | Northport First Responders meetings, new volunteers welcome | Beech Hill Fire Station |
| 2nd and 4th Wednesdays, 6:15 p.m. | Select Board meetings | Town of Northport |
The golf club's homepage gives fall rates but no closing date for the season. Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so the pumpkin contest deadline and The Hoot's brunch closure land on the same day.
If you're weighing a Northport property with winters in mind, I'm glad to talk through which spots stay open and how far you'd drive for the rest. Let's Connect with Joseph Saltalamachia.
