Elaine’s goal: ‘Donuts around the world’

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    MILO — Elaine Poulin worked for the state government for 30 years with regular hours and a decent benefits package. Today, she loses track of the hours she puts in at Elaine’s Café and Bakery in Milo. “But I don’t consider it work. For me, this is fun. Working for the government was not fun,” Poulin said with a smile.

Observer photo/Mike Lange

    FRESH AND TASTY — Elaine Poulin shows off a pan of freshly-made donuts at her bakery and café in Milo. Her pastries are also in 25 retail locations.

    After six years at 24 Main Street, Elaine’s Bakery and Café — formerly known as Elaine’s Basket Café — moved into the Milo Heritage Building earlier this year, giving it more visibility and a lot more space for the rapidly-growing bakery business.
    The Heritage Building was a key component of Milo’s recovery from a devastating fire in 2008 that destroyed five businesses and left a downtown block in ruins. A USDA Rural Business Enterprise Grant financed the construction of the building and the Maine Department of Economic Development assisted Poulin with funding for new bakery equipment. She now has 10 employees and business is booming.
    “I wanted to expand the wholesale bakery business,” said Poulin, an Aroostook County native. “Right now, we’re in 25 stores and we’re always looking for more. We go to Greenville, Howland, Corinna, the Bangor Mall and all the A.E. Robinson stores,” she said. “We’re on the road with deliveries at 3 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.”
    In addition, Elaine’s Bakery and Café will ship their goods anywhere, a service sparked by  several compliments about the bakery by out-of-town customers. “Our goal is to have our donuts around the world,” she said.
     While donuts are the biggest seller at Elaine’s, they also bake cream puffs, jelly and custard-filled pastries, brownies, homemade bread, whoopie pies and much more. “We’ve had kids from the Youth Conservation Corps tell us that our cannolies are better than anything they get in Portland,” Poulin said.
    Poulin’s dedication and work ethic can be traced to her childhood days in Aroostook County. She was born and raised on a small potato farm in New Canada, a small town seven miles from Fort Kent, and recalled that her parents enjoyed cooking and baking to feed the family of eight.
    Elaine’s Café and Bakery was also the inspiration for a song by the bluegrass group New Relm recorded on their “Catching Dreams” CD. They also created a video at the bakery and a link is posted on the café’s Facebook page.
    The café is open with a full breakfast menu from 6–11:30 a.m. daily and the bakery is open from 6 a.m.-5 p.m. seven days a week. EBT cards are also accepted for purchases.
    Visit them on Facebook or at www.elainesbasketcafe.com.