Bottles & Cans Downtown Market opens over weekend on Main Street in Bangor

Photo courtesy of Downtown Bangor

Photo courtesy of Downtown Bangor

Bottles & Cans Downtown Market, a new convenience store and beer and wine shop, opened at 48 Main St. in downtown Bangor over the weekend. Owned by Paul Bosse and Stefania Marthakis, the shop sells Maine beer, wine, local produce, eggs, dairy and bread, an array of snacks and candy and a small selection of every day grocery items. It will be open from noon until 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and from noon until midnight Fridays and Saturdays. 

“The time is right for downtown Bangor,” said Bosse, who lived in Portland for years before returning to the Bangor area. “We wanted to be here, not in Portland. It feels like everything has been coming together in Bangor over the past few years. Now is the time.”

The store sells a large selection of affordably-priced bottles of wine and a carefully curated selection of beer and cider, as well as artisan sodas, regular sodas, energy drinks and cigarettes. Bottles & Cans is the first downtown market of its kind since Sweet’s Market was open in the current Paddy Murphy’s location in the early 2000s.

“It’s a convenience store but with things that you wouldn’t get at a chain. We will have some commercial products, yes. But we want local stuff and organic stuff, too,” said Bosse, who is well-known in Maine as a drummer and visual artist. “We’re not a restaurant or a deli; we’re a market. There’s no place downtown to buy eggs or milk or snacks. There was Sweet’s Market back in the day, but nothing has filled in that niche until now.”

Emily Burnham

About Emily Burnham

Emily Burnham is a Maine native, UMaine graduate, proud Bangorian and a writer for the Bangor Daily News, where she's worked since 2004. She reports on everything from local bands to local food to all the cool things going on in the Greater Bangor area. In her quest for stories, she's seen countless concerts and plays, been lobster fishing, interviewed celebrities, hung out with water buffalo and played in a ukulele orchestra. She's interested in everything that happens in Maine.