BRISTOL — Lincoln residents Abbey LaMay-West and Wayne Johnson are passionate about feeding their community. 

It’s a shared mission that’s played a prevalent role in the pair’s friendship and that recently led them to open their own restaurant, Smoke and Lola’s, on Bristol’s North Street. 

“It happened really fast, but (is) something that had been brewing for a long time,” LaMay-West said while taking a quick break from the eatery’s busy “soft opening” this past Friday. 

Smoke and Lola’s officially opened up at 28 North St. on Dec. 9. The new eatery offers grab-and-go breakfast and lunch options five days a week. 

LaMay-West describes the restaurant’s menu as “eclectic comfort food,” offering warm beverages, breakfast sandwiches and a variety of hearty dishes, from empanadas to a chicken vindaloo sandwich. 

“We tried to think about stuff that was easy to-go,” LaMay-West said. “We tried to make it where everyone could enjoy something, whether you’re a vegetarian or a meat-eater.” 

FREE SOUP

LaMay-West and Johnson feel so strongly about ensuring everyone has something to eat that they’ve decided the restaurant’s regular menu will also include “Pat’s Soup of the Day,” a free soup option for anyone to enjoy. The offering pays homage to Johnson’s late friend, Pat Peters, a former chef at Middlebury College, who would whip up free soup for community members on her days off. 

The pair is hopeful the menu item will help keep more stomachs full in the surrounding community.  

“Hunger is invisible so many times, especially in rural areas,” LaMay-West said. “You don’t have to wait until ‘soup day’ to come in, you can come in any time, and you don’t have to worry about what that looks like or what that feels like. You’re just a regular customer for us.” 

Johnson noted that Peters’s efforts received a lot of community support, which at times included donated ingredients. The Smoke & Lola’s team have received a similar response to Pat’s Soup of the Day, with community members and local businesses already offering to provide ingredients or sponsor the menu item. 

“People with the means to do so seem to be very excited about participating, and I’m happy and thrilled to make the soup,” Johnson said. 

While plans for Smoke and Lola’s have been in the works for around six weeks, the pair has been brainstorming how to make food for their community for much longer.

LaMay-West said the duo was toying with the idea of opening a catering business when Jones the Boy bake shop announced they’d vacate the spot on 28 North St. this past October. 

“We said, ‘Well, that’s interesting.’ They have a commercial kitchen, and we could have this breakfast and lunch café and still be catering as well,” she said. “It’s just been really hitting the ground running ever since.” 

RESTAURANT TEAM

While opening a restaurant is a newer endeavor, the Smoke and Lola’s team brings a wealth of related experience to the table. 

Johnson and his son, Skye, will make up the restaurant’s kitchen staff. Johnson’s culinary background includes stints at Middlebury restaurants Otter Creek Café (now Otter Creek Bakery) and American Flatbread, as well as time abroad learning from chefs in Jamaica and Peru. 

Those that stop into Smoke and Lola’s can expect to find dishes from other parts of the globe on the cafe’s menu. 

“I like to do as much global food and keep it to the comfort food aspects of world food. I’m not trying to overpower anybody with something that’s going to be unfamiliar,” Johnson said of his culinary inspirations. “I love cooking Caribbean food; it’s got a beautiful simplicity to it. Just anything that makes people smile. I really enjoy the connection to people.” 

Upon entering the Bristol eatery, visitors can find Smoke and Lola’s Café Manager Jess Denny and LaMay-West greeting customers at the front counter. Running a business is familiar territory for LaMay-West, who owns Vermont’s Own Gifts & Goods in Middlebury. 

As for those looking for the café’s namesakes, you aren’t likely to run into Smoke and Lola at the restaurant. The eatery is named after Johnson and LaMay-West’s puppies, who were born this past spring. 

“We each kept one. (Johnson’s) is Smoke and mine is Lola, so we’re Smoke and Lola’s,” LaMay-West explained. 

SOURCING LOCALLY

Despite their diverse experience, LaMay-West said she and Johnson are united in their passion for a few things: food, sharing food with the community and sustainability. They see Smoke & Lola’s as an opportunity to blend those interests. 

“Sustainability and food go hand in hand,” LaMay-West said. “We’re really trying to source as locally as possible and try to make smart choices in terms of sustainability when it comes to products.” 

The new owners have inherited compostable to-go containers and other materials from Jones the Boy and will continue carrying some of the bake shop’s goodies. Eventually, they’d like to open up the space to more local producers by creating a community market in part of the restaurant. 

“We want to source hyper-locally, so, if somebody’s got an abundance of tomatoes,” LaMay-West said. “We’re going to be putting out calls for really local producers on Front Porch Forum. We want it to be really community-building and community-grown.” 

The market would be a place for 5-town area producers to sell anything from pickles to homemade preserves. LaMay-West said the team is hoping the space will provide a resource for local producers. 

“The kitchen space, we envision having people come in and do their canning in here, having cooking classes at night,” she said. “Even though we can’t have seating in here, we want to definitely make it a resource for the community.” 

In the meantime, the Smoke & Lola’s team is excited to settle in and start serving the surrounding community. 

“We have so many ideas but the foundations of it are that we want to source locally, we want to feed locally and we want to make our community happy,” LaMay-West said.

Johnson agreed. 

“I grew up here, so I’m excited to feed my neighbors and friends. It’s a pretty cool thing to get to do,” he said.