Over Memorial Day weekend, Pearls Seaside Market and Cafe on Cliff Island opened its doors for the summer. Cliff’s only store-front business is currently in its second season run by owners Steve and Johanna Corman.
Two years ago, Johanna Corman was on vacation for a couple of weeks in July on Cliff Island with her two children, Mayzie and Silas, and her parents. It was their second visit to the island and she spotted a sign on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper that read, “Subs and Soda $5, Add Chips $6, Store for Sale $5000.”
“I called up my husband, who had never even been to Cliff, and told him I had a crazy idea,” she says. Her crazy idea was to move their family from Cape Charles, Virginia, where both she and Steve were established teachers, to take over the cafe and market on Cliff. He had a few questions about the logistic but twenty-four hours later she had answers for him and he agreed that they should do it.
Though some friends and family thought they were nuts, Steve and Johanna weren’t worried. “We knew we’d make it work,” she says. Now in their second season of ownership, Johanna runs the market throughout the year, while Steve lives in Portland during the week working as a teacher. “I refer to myself as a ‘summer person’ since I really only work the shop full-time when I’m off during the summer,” says Steve.
During the busy summer season, Steve can be found most days behind the grocery store counter, chatting with locals, making a mental note of what sells well and taking orders for personal shopping. “When some people come to Cliff to visit, they just want to be here, without having to worry about getting groceries,” he says. Steve handles personal shopping orders when he’s on the mainland stocking up for the store. It’s an added service that the market provides to islanders and summer residents.
Johanna prefers to work the cafe. While neither she nor Steve had formal restaurant experience, Johanna grew up on Apple Acres Farm in South Hiram, where she ran the gift shop and created gourmet apple products that were eventually picked up by Dean & Deluca. In the morning she bakes goods like cinnamon rolls and egg sandwiches-without a stove. “We don’t have the right ventilation system for an oven, so I do it all on a griddle!” she says. Other highlights on her menu are homemade pizza (the feta and spinach pie was delicious) and the B.L.L.T, a classic bacon, lettuce, lobster and tomato sandwich.
Pearls is one of just a few storefronts right at a Casco Bay Lines ferry dock. If you’re lucky enough to be on a ride that allows it, Steve and Johanna love to get orders for lunch or ice cream to bring to passengers enjoying a ride around the islands. “We’d love to be able to do it more, but not every captain allows it!” she says.
Though it’s smooth sailing now, it was a shaky start when the Corman family sold their home and took over the store and cafe within five weeks of buying it. “We got to Cliff and the previous owner left the next day. We were thrown right into it and had to learn along the way,” says Johanna.
Johanna revamped the cafe the following spring, with a new coat of paint and a tiled counter by the windows. The market sells the usual groceries, as well as some gift items made by locals such as homemade soaps by Joanne Lapomarda; Pam Anderson’s original watercolor prints and notecards; and wreaths and gifts made out of found island objects by Ann O’Reilly. “We try to sell works by local artists as much as possible,” says Joanna. “We’re also working to try and use as many Maine-made meats, dairy products and vegetables when we can.”
A challenge for the shop-as with most island businesses-is the logistics of getting things out to Cliff. “We have a dairy in Portland, a beer distributor, restaurant suppliers but the reality is that sometimes things don’t arrive,” says Johanna. “If we run out of ice cream, we can’t just hop in the car and run to a store. But it never ends up being the end of the world.”
Pearls is the only store on Cliff, but there are other islanders in business. Chester Pettengill runs an island taxi service. Eleanor Cushing and her daughter, Sally Howard, run The Sugar Shack, which is open periodically in the summer and sells Cliff Island souvenirs. There are also independent contractors and, of course, lobstermen and women.
The transition from rural Virginia to an island in Maine was simple for the Corman clan. “Before we lived in Virginia, we had spent time living in South Portland, Hiram and Parsonsfield, so I think our kids were always Maineiacs to begin with,” says Steve.
“For us, moving to Cliff was a no brainer,” says Johanna. “We’ve lived in other places. We know how special Cliff is. Sometimes I look out my window at the ocean and think, what’s not to love about this?”
For more information visit: www.pearlsseasidemarket.com
Laura Serino is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.
