“With every ebb tide there brings a wave of change.”

Ian Ronan, 26, and Jie (Jenny) Chan, 22, waxed philosophical as they talked about coming up with the name for their new business in Boothbay Harbor.

“It was a long process,” Ronan said. “We wanted to keep it coastal and we were looking out the window one day and saw some waves.”

After 48 years as Ebb Tide, the couple has leased the property from previous owners Peter and Nancy Gilchrist, and named it Waves Restaurant.

Waves opened Friday, May 15.

Ian Ronan said that it's thanks to his new wife they are opening their own restaurant. “If it wasn't for her we wouldn't be here. I was a little scared, but she said 'Why not? We're both here and we can do it.”

The couple has been getting a lot of coaching from the Gilchrists.

“We see them every day,” Ronan said. “They've been such a big help to us. Any questions that come up, business-wise, we always ask them. They're both brilliant.”

Chan, who grew up in China and attended college in Beijing, said she's not really into cooking, but her father owned a restaurant in Hong Kong.

She came to the U.S. on a whim for a summer holiday in 2012.

“I went to Texas. I wanted to see some cowboys,” she said with a laugh.

In 2013 she started looking for a job.

“I was searching on Google for a small coastal town in the U.S. and Southport, Maine popped up,” she said.

There was a picture of Newagen. She clicked on it and said she thought: “Wow. It's pretty!”

She said she liked the looks of it because it was next to the ocean, and she grew up next to the ocean in Guangzhow, China.

She filled out an application and had an interview through Skype, got a job at Newagen Inn, and came for the summer. Then she went back to China.

Chan, who speaks Mandarin and Cantonese, and is fluent in English (thanks in large part to her 2 ½ months in Texas), came back to the area in 2014 and worked at McSeagull's and Boathouse Bistro for the summer. She had met Ronan the previous summer, but there were no fireworks.

But last summer was different. “I met him again then, and it clicked,” she said. The two were married on Feb. 13.

Ronan was introduced to the world of cooking and food at an early age. Ronan explained that his mother, Amy, and father, Sean, both work at St. Andrew's Village.

Amy is the director of the Lincoln County Eldercare nutrition services; Sean is a dietary supervisor for Lincoln County Healthcare, “overseeing day to day operations of the food service department and corporate catering,” according to an email from Sean Ronan.

Ronan's parents are both culinary graduates from Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute. They each have approximately 47 years of culinary experience, the email continues. Amy Ronan holds a CDM CFPP, meeting the certifying board for dietary managers.

“My mother grew up here and has done a lot of cooking events and catering,” Ian Ronan said.

But he hadn't planned to become a cook himself. “I got my bachelor's degree in criminal justice, then when I got out of school I went to work at the Thistle, in 2012,” Ronan said. “I started working under Tony (Bickford) and Mike (Whitney). I learned a lot from them. Tony has been a great mentor. Any questions I have I ask him what he did.”

Bickford opened his own restaurant, Little Village Bistro, in Wiscasset two weeks ago. Ronan and Chan had been talking about doing the same.

“It was fate,” Chan said. “It was sometime in January. We were walking by the Ebb Tide. The steps were covered with snow, but I got up the steps and peeked in. That night I said, 'OK, I want to open that restaurant. Let's just do it.'” She called her parents in China that night, and they were 100 percent supportive.

Waves will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Chan will wait tables and do the books. Ronan will be in the kitchen.

The new menu is being finalized, but Ronan and Chan have a pretty solid idea of what they'll be serving.

“It's going to be somewhat similar to Ebb Tide's, like some diner food, but the plates will be decorative and the food will be a little fancier,” Ronan said.

There will be sliders, a “great” burger, fish & chips and fried shrimp, wraps, burritos and quesadillas for lunch.

“Then we'll switch over to the dinner menu,” Ronan said. “Lunch and dinner will kind of tie together to give people different options.”

Dinners will include steak tips, smashed potatoes, veggie of the day, seared haddock and salmon, risottos and homemade pastas.

“It will be an eclectic mix. It will be a mix of Italian, Mexican and little influences from everywhere.”

And there will be a breakfast banana split.

Wait.

A banana split for breakfast?

“It will be made with yogurt instead of ice cream, and served in a banana split boat-shaped bowl,” Ronan said. “I just came up with the idea.”

It will contain fresh berries and granola, and of course bananas.

Ronan's brother, Zach, who worked in the kitchen at The Thistle Inn with him, will be the assistant head chef. His parents, who are at least as excited as he, will be helping out too.

“My dad will be the dessert guy, and my mom will be helping with prepping and other things,” he said. “They've always wanted to own their own restaurant.”

Ronan said he's a little nervous about starting up a new business. “But at the same time I'm very excited.”

Chan, who has been doing a lot of physical labor getting the place ready, said she doesn't scare easily.

“I have never done so much work in my life,” she said. “I'm not nervous. People keep asking if I'm nervous. I say no, I'm just tired.”

Waves is planning to serve beer and wine for lunch and dinner. “And mimosas for breakfast,” Ronan said.

The Gilchrists, who made the Ebb Tide the Ebb Tide, offered their praise to Chan and Ronan in an email: “The old Ebb Tide couldn't be in finer hands than those of Jenny and Ian, and we wish them the absolute best in running Waves.”

The new owners are looking for line cooks and wait people. They said anyone interested should stop by for an application. The phone number is 207-315-6021. And be sure to check out and like Wave’s Facebook page.

And for all the inquiring minds, the booths will remain.