Brady's Restaurant is about to be added to America's Best Restaurants' (ABR) Maine list when the ABR Roadshow arrives Friday, June 13. Filming will be from 2 to 5 p.m. and owner Jen Mitchell said Brady's will be open as usual. The episode will be shown extensively and exclusively on various social media platforms, according to ABR's website. 

According to the site, ABR is an online national media and restaurant marketing company that travels around the U.S. filming its visits to independently owned restaurants sampling menu specialties/favorites, chatting with the owner(s) about the backstory, interviewing the chefs, discuss community engagement, and often talking with locals and visiting diners that want to talk about the restaurant.

Typically, a restaurant is nominated by diners or the owner. Mitchell wasn't sure how ABR found Brady's, but she suspected it is the restaurant’s strong online presence. Suzanne Hale writes the show's press releases and said, “I would say 100% it’s their social media presence, they're independent and they're just a very, very popular restaurant. It's a community, like neighborhood spot, and they have a great story. So all that together is something that we we want to help them tell their story. You know, that's why we search for independent restaurants.”

Hale also noted the Channel 6 coverage of Brady’s weekly winter lunches donated, cooked and served by local businesses discovered by ABR online.

“We didn’t know how they found us,” Mitchell said. “John and I had a Zoom call with (account manager) Dawn (Davis) in late October and then right before Gardens Aglow we were told they were coming. We didn’t say anything about it because we weren’t sure if it would happen or not … then in March (ABR) contacted us again and told us we were confirmed, about the date and here we are.”

In addition to the episode's remaining on the ABR website (restaurants are listed by state), it “floods social media with 100-plus bits of content” long after the episode first airs. Hale said the ABR host will be Theo Williams and the videographer Logan Stryker. The pair will pay Chef John Asendorf a visit while he’s cooking up one of his dishes, which Hale said will be plated and tasted on the spot. While Asendorf prepares more dishes for taste testing, Williams will interview Mitchell and her mom, Tancy, in the dining room. Often diners at the restaurant who want to talk about why they love eating at Brady’s are included in the final cut.

At press time, Asendorf hadn't decided what he would be cooking up on the 13th, particularly since Brady’s recently launched its new menu, but the haddock fish 'n chips could be one of them. It was noted in the ABR press release along with the traditional one-pounder lobster roll and the Brady Burger.

Bartender José Rivera, who may or may not be wearing a ski mask, plans to come up with a special adult beverage for the occasion. “Especially since it’s being a Friday the 13th, we’ll come up with some kind of bloody margarita or a bloody martini...”

“It’s going to be an interesting afternoon,” Mitchell said. “We’ll be open as usual and we’re having a kind of wrap-up party from 5 to 7. It’s a busy weekend – Claw Down the night before, the next day the lobster boat races, Fishin’ For Fashion – it’s all good!”

Said Hale, “I think, the fact that (Mitchell) has worked in the industry since she was a teenager, left to work in the corporate world, and then came back, and the fact that the restaurant is named after her mom's dog...I mean, all of that just makes for such a great story.”

In addition to ABR staff researching online, most restaurants are nominated by diners at

https://americasbestrestaurants.com/

According to Hale, the ABR team will be in Maine for over a week filming at Jodie's Cafe & Bakery in Wiscasset, and to stops in Windham, Augusta, Lincolnville, Belfast, Machias, Skowhegan, Rangeley and Stratton.