co-founders Sergio Hernandez (left) and Andrew Pettingill (right) and Pettingill's wife Kristen stand in one of their marijuana grow rooms in Cumberland. “Every caregiver I talk to is hiring staff and the staff is coming directly from the restaurant industry,” said Andy Pettingill, co-founder of Evergreen Cannabis Co., a grow room and caregiver service based in Cumberland.īangor Daily News Evergreen Cannabis Co. Equipped with years of training, cooks are becoming caregivers, bartenders are now “budtenders” and pastry chefs make better livings as specialized cannabis chocolatiers and candymakers.
As restaurant owners in Portland and beyond struggle with a back-of-house labor shortage that they say threatens their business model, Bishop and a wave of other cooks responsible for elevating the Maine food scene over the last decade are finding better wages, less stressful work environments and greater opportunities for advancement in cannabis. “I felt like I couldn’t be the only person who is bailing on the restaurant industry.”Īs it turns out, he’s not. “If I could get the same hourly wage to cook with cannabis, it’s much more appealing,” Bishop said. Bishop became a full-time caregiver and launched Candy King, his own cannabis company, making specialty edibles and distillate. for 13 years - seven of those as head chef - but the dream of operating his own restaurant was being packed away for another. The 36-year-old graduate of Southern Maine Community College’s culinary program had worked behind the line at Street and Co.
PORTLAND, Maine - Weeks after Portland was anointed Restaurant City of the Year by a prominent food national magazine last summer, longtime chef King Bishop left his job at one of the Old Port’s most popular dining spots.For a restaurant industry facing a statewide labor shortage, a move like Bishop’s might be the canary in the coal mine.
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