09/11/2026
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the future of the business and what direction I want to take it in. We are considering making the transition from primarily a dessert restaurant into more of a full quick-service restaurant, while still keeping many of the desserts that Smush has had during these first few weeks.
The plan would be to make the transition sometime in the first few weeks of October. There will be a completely new name and new branding. And, yes, no AI this time. I definitely learned my lesson on that one.
Because we have a very small space behind the counter to prepare food to order, I’ve been trying to come up with a menu that makes sense for the space. We need food that can be prepared quickly, doesn’t require a lot of equipment, doesn’t take up a huge amount of cooler space, and allows us to use the same ingredients in multiple items so we can keep waste down.
One of the ideas I really like is loaded baked potatoes. We could have a few different loaded potato options and use homemade broccoli cheddar soup and homemade chili as part of the menu. The chili could also be used for loaded potatoes and potentially chili dogs, which would give us some good cross-utilization of ingredients.
I also really want to do panini sandwiches. We probably wouldn’t have a huge menu, maybe around five different paninis to start. Since we only have an electric oven and a panini press to cook with, most of the sandwiches would be assembled cold and then pressed to order.
One thing I definitely want to do is make our own parmesan herb focaccia bread completely in-house. I think having really good homemade bread could make the sandwiches something special.
For meats, I’ve been thinking about ham, pepperoni, turkey and bacon, along with possibly one more option. For cheeses, we could have fresh mozzarella, cheddar and shredded cheddar jack. I’d also like to make our own pesto and a few different homemade sauces to give the sandwiches their own flavor. I definitely want to have a really good vegetarian panini as well.
The vegetables are where we need to be careful. We simply don’t have a lot of room in our prep cooler, and I don’t want to carry a bunch of different vegetables just to have them go bad and create unnecessary waste. Some of the vegetables I’m considering are roasted red peppers, caramelized onions and tomatoes. We will probably offer either lettuce or spinach, rather than both, along with maybe one or two other vegetables.
I’d also like to have one house-made salad that we can make to order using ingredients that already cross over with the rest of the menu. That way we can offer a salad without creating a whole separate list of ingredients that we have to keep on hand.
We will also still have our steamed red hotdogs. Since we’ll already have homemade chili, I’m thinking about adding a really good chili dog as well. We’ll have Cape Cod potato chips, and we may add coleslaw, although I haven’t completely decided on that yet.
And, of course, I don’t want to lose what made Smush fun in the first place. A lot of the desserts will still be part of the new restaurant. Warm cookies, ice cream, loaded shakes and some of the other desserts we’ve been serving will continue to have a place on the menu.
The biggest thing I still haven’t figured out is the name.
I’ve thought about a lot of different names, but I haven’t found one that truly feels right to me. I want the new name to make sense for what we are going to become, but I also want it to have some kind of personal meaning behind it.
The one idea that keeps coming back to me is naming it after my grandparents.
I lost both of my grandparents within a little over a year, and I miss them both very much.
My grandmother Mary has always been a big part of why I think I fell in love with cooking. I spent a lot of time at their house growing up, and she was always making home-cooked meals and baked goods. Some of my earliest memories around food and cooking are connected to being at their house.
My grandfather Merle has always been one of my biggest supporters. No matter what crazy thing I decided to do with my life, he was always there supporting me.
To me, they were Meme and Papa.
Now I have two daughters of my own. Vada is four years old, and Hadley is nine months old. That has made me think even more about family, legacy and what I’m building for the future.
I’ve thought about naming the restaurant after Vada and Hadley as a way of creating something that belongs to our family and maybe, someday, they could continue it.
But I also keep coming back to Meme and Papa.
Maybe there is something special about taking the love of cooking that I believe started with my grandmother, the support my grandfather always gave me, and turning that into something that could eventually become part of my own children’s lives.
I don’t know exactly what the final name will be yet. I don’t know exactly what every item on the menu will be either.
But I know I want this next chapter to be something that makes sense for our space, makes sense for our customers and, most importantly, feels like us.
So I’d really love to hear what you think.
What is your favorite panini? If you could take the ingredients I listed above and create your own panini, what would you put on it? Feel free to add one or two ingredients that you think would make it even better.
And if you have thoughts about the menu, the name, or what you would want to see from a small quick-service restaurant like this, I’d love to hear those ideas too.
We’re still figuring it all out, and this time I’d like to build it with the people who have supported us from the beginning.
Thank you for your time , support and ideas
-Devan
Chef and owner of Two Maine Guys Augusta & SMUSH Cookie Creamery
