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Park & Main

Meet Park & Main, a Carlton restaurant celebrating exceptional local foods with fine dining service in a small town. Led by owners Dustin and Maryfrances Wyant, the team creates a delicious menu from wood-fired pizza to craft ice cream to freshly prepared deli items and an international wine market.

Dustin has a long and successful, history in the hospitality industry. During his career he has managed resorts and restaurants Montana, in Dundee (The Inn at Redhills and Farm to Fork), in Newberg (Recipe), and in McMinnville (The Barberry and 1882 Grill). A native Oregonian, he had always hoped to open up a restaurant in his own backyard of Carlton and in 2019 he got that chance with a little help from First Federal.

"The First Fed experience was great. The process was easy and straightforward. The one thing I enjoyed particularly was that it didn't require reams of data. As a startup we had no data. And so for us to be able to provide the usual pro formas would have been impossible. The straightforward approach to 'let's look at the business plan, let's look at what we think it's going to do, and how you are going to do it, and what's your relevant experience to be able to pull that off'. Working with people as individuals instead of a series of pro formas was really important. And that's why Park & Main is here today. Without First Federal's support, we would have had to maybe take on another partner or go the private equity route and at that point you lose the opportunity to control your destiny. With this relationship it's been great. Plus the people are great. Tony's been incredible to work with. And the best part is that we see all of those people in the restaurant because everyone's local and supports local."

Launching a business in May of 2020 during a pandemic was not something Dustin and his team had planned for but they quickly adjusted their operations to support online ordering. "At first it was hyper focused on 'local, local, local'. Because we were brand new, we didn't really have an advertising budget, nobody knew us, we're in a really small town, and we're opening in the middle of this mess." The community embraced Park & Main with open arms. Dustin recalls, "When we started offering outside dining we had to borrow tables, chairs, and heat lamps from customers. The community support has been incredible. We've had people come in and buy gift cards to help us with our cash flows. That level of support and generosity and people looking out for us this past year has been overwhelming."

With every decision to be made, Dustin takes a community-impact approach. He believes this is what led him to First Federal because, "First Federal is in the community, they support the community, they give a lot back in terms of charity work and just being there. I can actually talk to a human and not go thru a phone tree. I can call and talk directly to my loan officer, Tony Journey, about what's happening. That's important for us as a small business. They're here in the community and you know your money is going to stay here and not go back to New York and be spent on whatever. It's going to continue to circulate within Yamhill County. Philosophically it's a good match to have people who are committed to a localized way of doing business."

To learn more about Park & Main, visit https://parkandmaincarlton.com/ or visit Dustin and Maryfrances for a tasty meal at 211 W Main Street in Carlton.

Photos courtesy of Kirkpatrick's Graphics.

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