Capers Catering is moving to a new location in Boothbay Harbor. The restaurant and retail shop will move from 12 Oak Street to 25 Townsend Avenue.

Owner Stacey McLellan said it had been a 20-year dream to open her own restaurant when she opened her doors for the first time on March 3, 2014.

The new space is considerably larger than her present business, and around half that space will be used for retail. McLellan said she feels adept at retail management, after having managed Edgecomb Potters for 11 years. Her new shop will carry handmade wooden bowls, artisanal cheeses, jellies, an extensive line of spices and teas, and dips and patés. She’s excited to offer a rabbit paté she tasted at a recent food show. “It was so flavorful and so good,” she said. “I think some people will try it because they've never had rabbit.”

The new shop will also feature “fun food items,” like a Moxie jelly, according to McLellan, and there will be a large selection of wines and beers, chatecuterie, sausages, bacons and other deli items.

The restaurant side will have almost double the seating capacity as at the present location. McLellan said there will be seating for 36, with a large window overlooking the footbridge.

McLellan said the menu at the new location will remain similar to the existing one, with daily specials. After her first year in business she said the breakfast egg sandwiches were really taking off. Three years later, they remain one of her most popular menu items. “This menu has worked,” she said. “We do it very well, but I want to hear what people have to say, and what they want. I'm going to take everybody's suggestions into consideration.”

On her one-year anniversary she said making it through her first year was epic. “It’s the most exciting thing ever. Not every day is going to be the same, and I didn't know what to expect. I came into this blind. Now I know what to expect. I made it through the first year with most of my sanity intact. When you open a restaurant you're going to have to go in knowing that you're going to live there. You've got to love what you're doing, because it's a hundred-hour week.”

McLellan said the first year in her new, larger space, will be another learning experience. “We'll see what everybody likes, and by the second year there, hopefully we’ll have it all figured out. I want people to know there won't be any big changes. I've heard rumors that I'm going to open a speakeasy. I'm not. It's going to be Capers, but bigger and better.”

McLellan said she's looking forward to seeing her “regulars,” who will be in the area for the summer, and she's excited about the neighbor who will occupy the other side of the former Sadie Green's, Amy Bouchard, the owner of Wicked Whoopies. “She is so enthusiastic about being here,” she said. “She makes me look mellow. Someone told me 'I'm not sure Boothbay Harbor can handle two of you, side by side.'”

The move is tentatively planned for sometime around mid-May.