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Located in St. Albans, Jeff's Maine Seafood is in the middle of Franklin County, an area many call one of the most conservative in Vermont.
It's not exactly the kind of place you'd expect to find drag queen Yolanda spilling out onto Main Street in all her splendor, surrounded by a restaurant full of queer fans and onlookers.
Certainly it's not something that happens all the time — only once to date, in fact — but owner Jamie West counts it among his favorite professional memories. "It was very...visual," he says, with obvious understatement.
West has been working with and for the GLBT community for the past three years to make Jeff's Maine Seafood at least a sometime queer oasis. He is first and foremost a restaurateur, but sees being out in the business community and in the world as a big part of the picture.
West took over the business in August of 1996, along with his brother Tim and silent-partner siblings Pete and Becky. "I realized really quickly that there were a lot of gay and lesbian Vermonters who don't go out to bars, so I knew I could offer something, a very comfortable and 'equal' environment. I felt really proud that I could do that."
It began with a Third Sunday event for the Vermont CARES Men's Health Project, a congenial mix of munchies, drinks, conversation, and condoms. Never satisfied to leave well enough alone, West pushed for capital-E Events. He added speakers, entertainment, book signings, and games to his list of ideas and changed the gathering's name to The Main Event.
Since that time, the restaurant has hosted Rainbow Business Association meetings and GLAD attorneys speaking on the Vermont same-gender marriage issue. Author Charles Kaiser has stopped by to promote The Gay Metropolis. "And if he sees this article, I bought two of his books and he still took them away," quips West.
The restaurant also hosted a tremendously successful fund-raiser for Vermont Pride '98 — the night of the aforementioned Yolanda episode. Attended by more than 130 people, it raised upwards of $2000 for the Pride Committee. This year's Pride fundraiser on May 16 will include entertainment, a silent auction, and "tons of food as usual," says West.
West isn't telling. In fact, he doesn't even know Jeff's last name.
Jeff was a brief partner but a lasting namesake, giving over the business shortly after starting it 20 years ago. Since then, it has grown from a seafood-buying run to Maine into a market, bar, and 90-seat restaurant widely considered the best spot for seafood in the state.
Based on that reputation, West and company seem to have all the business they need; getting a table for dinner can sometimes be a challenge. So why worry about broadening the clientele?
"My main thing is, I love to make and serve food; I love people's reactions to good food," he says over a chef's salad at his other favorite spot, Sneaker's, in Winooski where he lives. "That was actually my main reason — I love to do that in general, to the whole spectrum of the public. But I really like to do it when it's my community, when it's gay and lesbian. Because I don't think that happens a lot — especially in the middle of nowhere, in St. Albans."
Also, he adds, "We can really get grass roots at these things. There's nothing more powerful than getting people with the same ideas together, [to discuss] not where they should be going [but] where they deserve to be going."
Negative reactions, if any, have been little more than minor blips on the radar. "At first," West concedes, "I was a little nervous. It wasn't just buying a business; it was buying a business where I'm visible and you have to deal with the public. And if you don't like dealing with the public, you have to pretend. That can be tricky. If you're nervous about divulging your sexuality, then you've got two things you're pretending about."
Business, as it turns out, has only increased. Several local (and presumably non-GLBT) customers have actually begun showing up for events, sometimes even to help out.
As for the future, West plans to remain as busy as ever. He hopes to continue hosting The Main Event as often as possible, to continue donating gift certificates and food where he can, and to continue encouraging people to be as out as they are able.
"People can see, 'wow, he's young and gay and owns a restaurant in a really conservative part of Vermont, and hasn't been run out of town yet, and holds his head up,'" says West. "I hope people look at that and think, 'gee if he can do that, I can do that.'"
And just in case all this doesn't keep his attention, West also thinks about venturing into filmmaking, perhaps someday applying his business acumen to the job of movie producer. "Of course," he says, "that's after I become a rock star."
