Jay Coelho makes a pizza Tuesday at Only Pans, a new restaurant in Waterville. Coelho, a former Waterville mayor, and Desiree Sirois co-own Only Pans, which opened at 47 Water St., the former home of Scotty’s Pizza & Variety. Dylan Tusinski/Morning Sentinel

Only Pans seeks to create ‘community store, not convenience store’ in Waterville

WATERVILLE — Don’t let the name fool you; Only Pans serves everything from Sicilian-style pizza and Portuguese pot roast to pulled pork and mac and cheese. Pan optional.

The restaurant, co-owned by former Waterville Mayor Jay Coelho and Desiree Sirois, specializes in comfort food and dishes by request with a wide-ranging menu that changes by the day depending on who’s hungry for what.

Only Pans is for all ages, Coelho jokes, and has no connection to Only Fans, the adult content website by a similar name.

“Just as steamy, but not the same,” Coelho said, laughing. “We do premade meals a lot of the time, and we do requests. Really anything you can think of we’ll make at least once.”

The restaurant moved into 47 Water St., the former home of Scotty’s Pizza & Variety, in October. Coelho said he wanted to turn the space into “a community store, not convenience store,” expanding his menu and offering basic groceries at the shop in recent months.

“Because we do frozen premade meals, they’re all eligible for food stamps, so we give out a lot of food that way,” he said. “I give every kid that comes through that door a free slice of pizza because then I know they’re gonna eat. This is not an affluent neighborhood per se; we want to take care of everybody.”

Only Pans is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

— Dylan Tusinski, Morning Sentinel

Editor’s note: Central Maine Eats appears Wednesdays in the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel.  

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