Restaurant-Owning St. John Couple Wins Essay Contest, Gets Historic Maine Inn As Prize

ST. JOHN — Prince and Rose Adams, owners of a St. John restaurant who decided to participate in a global essay contest to win a 210-year-old Maine inn, got the surprise of their lives on June 6.

“At first I thought it was a dinner reservation,” Rose told the Boston Globe on Friday. “Within 2 seconds, I realized what it was. I started choking on my egg sandwich and said, ‘I’ll get my husband.’ ”

Prince and Rose had just won an essay contest to collect the keys to the Center Lovell Inn, a classic New England hostelry and restaurant with a view of the White Mountains. Their winning essay was on the topic of marriage and hospitality.

The dining room at Center Lovell Inn.

“This is a crazy, crazy, crazy journey,” Prince Adams told the site. The married couple, both 45, have known each other for 26 years.

Sweet Plantains, the restaurant they own on St. John requires long days, endless passion and an innate desire to make people feel good. It also requires lots of energy, traits the couple will put to good use once they land in Maine.

“We love pleasing our customers — that’s key — and we’ve been cooking together since we’ve known each other, which is 26 years,” Rose said.

Originally from Brooklyn, New York, the Adams family will shutter Sweet Plantains today and journey to a destination with a weather pattern they’ve become unfamiliar with: snow, cold and a cycle of seasons.

The historic bed and breakfast was won in the same way it’s being passed on some 22 years ago, when current owner, Janice Sage, who was managing a busy Maryland restaurant, heard about the essay contest to win the inn.

Sensing the need to retire, however, Sage mimicked the contest through which she won the inn, bumped up the essay entry fee to $125 from $100, and called for a maximum of 7,500 entries to be judged by an anonymous, local panel.

Sage did not receive the 7,500 she’d hoped for — which would see the long-time restaurant maestro earning $900,000 — but what she received made retirement possible.

The deal was done.

Prince and Rose expect to open for business in their new inn on July 10 in Center Lovell, where they will continue to operate the dining room that Sage kept engaged for years. As was with Sweet Plantains, Rose will be chef, and Prince will continue his drink-mixing skills to make for a dynamic duo.

“From what I’ve been researching on-line, they have really great produce, lots of organic farms, and all those things we love. We can put together an awesome menu,” Prince said.

“If you love what you’re doing, it doesn’t seem that cumbersome,” Rose said. “Our son was born in a hurricane, there have been water outages, and I’ve cooked in the dark. You talk about the work hours — they’re intense — but frankly I wouldn’t trade it.”

Feature Image: Center Lovell Inn, a classic New England hostelry and restaurant with a view of the White Mountains.