Wannawaf has sent out an appeal asking for help to recapitalize their business. According to the message, the effort to launch 2nd store in Portland impacted the financially viability of the enterprise.
So here it is, Wannawaf in Boothbay harbor is going to go out of business because of my mistakes in Portland. I bled our consistently profitable Boothbay store in order keep Portland going a little bit longer, and as a result I do not have the capital to reopen this year.
If you want to help Wannawaf out go to their page on Go Fund Me.
They seemed like really cool people and I thought they had a good product but all it would have taken would be to ask two or three of us on this site who know Portland. Is there anybody who thought that was going to be a successful formula in that location? It is so easy to tell in advance what will work and what doesn’t in Portland. It is such a quirky town. I think we all knew Little tap House would kill it yet we all knew Plush West End in the same spot had no shot. We knew that place that was in there before Mainely Wraps wouldn’t cut it. It’s just simple but you have to know the scene.
I think maybe they would do okay as a food truck, even here.
I think the name needs to be changed. You have great product and service, but tweak the menu and change the name.
Nick, I’d be interested in hearing more about how you view the Portland restaurant scene.