Created by Brandon William Monroe, Eat MDI brings local restaurants, shops, and services together in one free online guide.
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The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by First National Bank.
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND—Every winter locals and visitors search for what restaurants are open and when.
Back around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, First Express owner Jennifer Cough began collating who was open and when, focusing on restaurants open after November 1, and soliciting answers from restaurant owners and managers and updating her PDF list weekly or biweekly.
Now, Brandon William Monroe has built a website to help everyone navigate the off season.
“As a year round local myself, one of the biggest challenges is ‘what’s open tonight?’The lists and websites have been helpful over the years, but sometimes a huge list is confusing and doesn’t answers the question: ‘what are my options?’” Monroe said. “As I am familiar with hotel search engines, I wanted to design something similar for restaurants and shops. Enter the date you want, and the options appear.”
The sleek and easy-to-use site is called Eat MDI with a tagline of “less wondering.
More wandering.”
Everything is submission based with approval from an administrator before it goes live. Which makes it easy for owners to update, Monroe said.
So, it’s totally free and community edited.
”My goal is to help show how many great off season options we have. Working here in the winter, one of the common questions I get from guests is: Is anything even open?’” Monroe said.
People often think the island—especially Bar Harbor—closes down for the winter.
“The reality is there is always a ton of options to shop and eat, you just have to know where to look. My focus is shops, restaurants, and services,” he explained. “This town is an amazing summer community but we have an equally amazing winter community.”
He also wanted people to know that community is key for the site to help everyone.
”This platform only works with community participation. I encourage everyone to add businesses, or adjust hours. Simply fill out one of the edit forms via ‘Add Business’ or under view hours ‘Suggest an Edit’ for a specific business to review. The goal is to be easily updated by the community so it can stay up to date. You can add any planned closures ahead of time. All the information, all in one place. Totally free to use and participate,” he said.
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