Dover-Foxcroft farm expands with meat market-cafe in Dexter

DEXTER — A husband and wife team that runs a cattle farm and day care in Dover-Foxcroft is investing in downtown Dexter with their new business — a combined meat market and cafe.

Benjamin and Ashley Cookson, who own Shaw Road Farm and Little Organics Early Learning Center, opened Shaw Road Ranch Meat Market & Cafe on Aug. 10.

Like many small towns in Maine, Dexter has struggled with vacant storefronts, but this Penobscot County town of 3,803 residents, according to U.S. census data, tries to lure the steady stream of travelers heading toward the Moosehead Lake Region into its shops. 

When Dexter Shoe Co. closed in 2001, putting many out of work, the town fell on tough economic times. Dexter doesn’t see many new businesses set up shop downtown but has a handful of longtime popular ventures such as Reny’s department store and Ace Hardware. Benjamin Cookson hopes his family’s new business is part of a revitalization of the downtown. 

When the Cooksons came across the building at 23 Spring St., they bought it and transformed the lower level into a meat market and cafe. Already established businesses upstairs will continue to operate.

Benjamin Cookson, whose parents started the farm in 1995 as a retirement project and later passed it down to him, said operations have grown and the family needed a place to sell its grass-fed Angus beef and other meat products besides at the farmers markets in Orono and Waterville.

That idea quickly morphed into something larger.

“We needed some stainless-steel tables, and I ended up meeting a guy on Facebook and buying two sandwich shops’ worth of equipment,” Cookson said. “So I said, ‘Well, if we’ve got all this equipment, let’s make some sandwiches.’”

The business offers coffee drinks and wraps with homemade sauces. Cookson, who enjoys experimenting in the kitchen and said he doesn’t believe in mayonnaise, concocts the recipes. The menu changes daily, depending on his ideas and what ingredients are available and in season.

For example, late last week the shop served up a Philly cheesesteak wrap with a Togarashi-inspired pepper sauce and chicken caesar wrap, among other options.

Most of their products have Maine ingredients, including local vegetables and greens used in the wraps and coffee beans roasted in Winterport and Kingfield. Baked goods come from Pleasant & Center Community Kitchen, a bakery and catering business in Monson.

Dexter resident Jessica Gonzalez, who stopped in late last week, likes that the shop can make her an iced coffee with sugar-free caramel and vanilla flavors, she said. Her teenage son, Anthony, ordered a double espresso Mountain Dew float.

“I was excited for the new business [to open],” Gonzalez said. “I’m actually going to do a meat package with them too so that we can stock up for winter.”

The meat market and cafe, with concrete floors and wood panels on the ceiling, has leather seating and a large display of antique and eclectic pieces that Cooksons picked out. Creations from Orono-based artist Daryne Rockett hang on the walls, and the shop may feature other artists, too.

There is also outdoor seating, including a stage for live music performances. An inflatable movie screen will give residents a place to watch movies outdoors, Benjamin Cookson said.

Customers can buy Shaw Road Farm’s grass-fed and grass-finished Angus beef and Finn lamb, Berkshire pork and pastured chicken. The farm — which won the annual Beef Producer Award in 2021 from the Maine Beef Producers Association — practices low-stress cattle handling, Cookson said.

The farm always uses mob grazing, meaning it can run 75 cattle on a small number of acres because they constantly maintain the field themselves, Cookson said. The animals are raised naturally, without antibiotics, which combined with the farm’s practices, produces quality meat, he said.

The Cooksons looked at several locations in Dover-Foxcroft for their new business, but when nothing panned out, they turned to a neighboring town. Cookson has ties to Dexter and sees it as a welcoming town.

That’s why the Cooksons are raising funds to purchase the C.N. Brown parking lot in Dexter, which was once home to a convenience store and gas station that closed in 2009. They started a GoFundMe page to raise the $100,000 needed to buy the empty lot, which they want to transform into a community park. Cookson envisions amphitheater seating, space for live music, a farmers market and more there.

For information, visit Shaw Road Ranch Meat Market & Cafe’s page on Facebook.