New Ventures Maine recently announced winners of the Fall 2023 Marketing Mini-Grant competition. The Northern Maine region winner is The Shamrock Café in Houlton, owned by Susan Richards.

The restaurant offers breakfast and lunch, party platters, and take-and-bake meals, such as casseroles and calzones. Their goal is to make as much as they can from scratch, sourced locally and with as little processing as possible, and create a unique flavors you can only get at their Houlton restaurant. They also serve special tacos, enchiladas and rice bowls on Taco Tuesdays.

The $1,000 grant will help the restaurant to promote the reopening of dining in and new menu items to the community.

Six winners, in six regions across Maine, will receive cash grants of $1,000 awarded through a competitive application process. Mini-grants support new or expanded business marketing and promotion. Contest criteria for small business applicants included: 1) Five or fewer full-time equivalent employees; 2) sales in the current calendar year; and 3) gross annual sales of no more than $150,000 from the previous calendar year.

The competition was sponsored in part by Katahdin Trust Company, a local community bank with locations serving northern Maine and the greater Bangor and Portland regions.

New Ventures Maine is a statewide program of the University of Maine at Augusta, University of Maine System, and provides free classes and individual coaching in the areas of career planning, entrepreneurship, and money management.