Stop by Phil's Route 27 Bake Shop, owned and operated by Phil McLellan, and you might notice a new employee. McLellan's son, Mike McLellan, will join his father to help carry on the tradition of making fabulous lobster rolls and other treats for locals and tourists passing through.

Phil's is a style of dining that Phil McLellan explains as "order in, take out." Customers walk into the newly remodeled kitchen, separated from where they order by two stainless steel shelves, one with the register, and one adorned with assorted homemade cookies.

Known fondly as "Phil the Baker," McLellan bakes fresh rolls and other goodies while they wait. The aroma of freshly baked goods proves to be extremely tempting.

McLellan started the business in 1959 as a small hotdog wagon in Rockland and built up from there. As a child in 1963, Mike McLellan began working with his father as a cook. In 1970, they moved to Boothbay from Rockland, and in 1976, they began to sell fresh seafood in a bigger truck. Eventually, they ran two trucks, one on Route 1 and one in Boothbay Harbor. In Edgecomb, the business was known as McLellan's Seafood for 18 years until that location was sold in 1987.

Mike McLellan, who graduated from Boothbay Region High School in 1971, just retired after 18 years of long-haul trucking in order to work and live with his father. For now, the father and son are partners in the business.

Phil McLellan ran the business on his own for decades with immense success, his son said. But Mike McLellan still has plans for the future.

"I'm hoping to stay open until at least 10" p.m., Mike McLellan said. "There's not many places open past that time, and it will be here for people driving into town."

Though Mike McLellan has three brothers, it will just be him and his father running the business. "Just me," Mike McLellan said. "It's a one- to two-person operation."

Phil's is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Summer hours will start Friday, June 15, and it will start staying open until 10 p.m.