KENNEBUNK – Yazmin Saraya and Kyle Robinson, owners of Kennebunk restaurant Chez Rosa, didn’t have a moment to themselves.

In the basement kitchen, movers and restaurant staff navigated the labyrinth of cardboard boxes and stainless steel prep stations, shelving and ovens. Deli containers of sauces, spice jars, napkins and gallons of vinegar lined the outdoor passage to the upstairs dining room. In a quiet chaos, electricians, restaurant staff and movers transported glasses, chairs and even a new pasta extruder in preparation for health and safety inspections the next day.

“We have, like, 15 questions for you,” a mover said to Saraya and Robinson on a recent Wednesday in early June as they sat on Chez Rosa’s new patio, hoping to catch a break amid a clutter of stacked tables.

The pair were in the midst of Day 2 of moving their restaurant from Kennebunkport to its new location just half a mile over the bridge in Kennebunk. The new location, home for many years to Old Vines wine bar, gives Chez Rosa more room, an upstairs space for private events, outdoor seating and on-site parking.

Wednesday was the day after the “hard move” when most of the heavy-duty equipment, like fridges, grills and the fryer, were hauled to Chez Rosa’s new space on Port Road. The restaurant reopened there about a week later, on June 12, in time for the busy summer season.

But moving a restaurant is more than moving the physical items. Saraya and Robinson, partners in business and in life, also had to figure out how to adapt their systems to fit the new layout. From configuring one stairwell for upflow and one for down, to finding spots for the broom and the hand sanitizer, Chez Rosa had to establish its “mise en place” — a French culinary term that means “everything in its place.”

“Honestly, my to-do list would actually wake me up in my sleep,” Saraya said, referring to the stress of moving and decorating from 7 a.m. to midnight for multiple weeks. To cope with the stress, the couple make an effort to go outside at least once every day and to stick to one cup of coffee each.

At Chez Rosa in Kennebunkport, the couple rented. The new space, they own. They also own the house on the property, which has eliminated their 35-minute commute from Saco. They moved into the house in May, three days before closing on the property. While living on the property has come with a loss of privacy, Saraya said, its convenient location during the move has been “fantastic.”

“When a contractor tells me they’re going to show up at a certain time, and they don’t show up, I don’t get so stressed,” Saraya said. “I’m like OK, whatever. I’ll go have breakfast at my house.”

Even though the restaurant had been up and running smoothly in its old location since 2020, the new Chez Rosa’s two soft openings revealed gaps in the process and required the last-minute installation of a stainless steel wall and salamander broiler. “We couldn’t offer onion soup the first day because of it,” said Saraya.

A reservation system malfunction, computer-to-printer disconnect and an unfinished prep station made running their first dinner service, on June 10, full of surprises. According to Saraya, the difference between the two back-to-back evenings was drastic, with the second evening outperforming the first.

MOVING A RESTAURANT

Restaurants move for all sorts of reasons, including to upsize, downsize, respond to a lost lease, or take advantage of a newly available space.

In Brunswick, The Great Impasta relocated earlier this spring from its longtime home on Maine Street — where it had operated for 40 years — to a new space on Pleasant Street. The move added 30 much-needed seats, helping owner Leyna Valek accommodate growing wait times and long lines.

Rather than hiring a moving company, Valek kept the move in-house with the support of her family. She never really considered using a moving company. “With my family we’ve always worked together,” said Valek.

Moving the big pieces of kitchen equipment out of a basement was the biggest challenge, Valek said.

Silly’s restaurant, which ended its run on Washington Avenue in Portland in 2019, is still in the process of moving to a smaller space in Standish, closer to where owner Colleen Kelley lives. Kelley, who has owned Silly’s since 2002, first bought a food truck, and then eventually decided to buy a building in Standish to house a new, much smaller incarnation of Silly’s. She hired a moving company to bring her equipment to the new space, while the items she no longer needed were auctioned with PCI Auctions, which specializes in restaurant equipment.

Kelley will be the prep cook in the new Silly’s, and said the much smaller space will be easier for her to manage. The new location will have 16 seats inside with another 24 seats outside, compared to 200 seats total in Portland. Kelley said she is still looking for staff for the Standish incarnation of Silly’s, and when she is able to hire, she hopes to open quietly, so the restaurant doesn’t get slammed while it’s finding its footing in the new space.

Kelley partly attributed the delay in opening a new Silly’s to personal tragedy she suffered before and after she closed the restaurant in Portland.

HELPING HANDS

Chez Rosa kept some of the furniture Old Vines left behind, but replaced the existing kitchen equipment with their own, newer appliances. The couple used professionals to tackle the kitchen move, but relied primarily on their staff to handle moving chairs, tables and glassware from their former location. Pilot House, The Lost Fire and other area restaurants generously offered extra hands for the move.

“The community was really great,” Saraya said. “When they found out, so many business owners reached out, and they’re like ‘Hey, if you need us, I can bring my staff. I can bring my truck.’ ”

In the end, though, Chez Rosa mostly used its own staff to help with the move. To begin with, it meant the restaurant could keep staffers on the payroll for the three weeks Chez Rosa was shut down. Also, Saraya and Robinson were concerned about liability if they relied on outside volunteers.

The couple said that the timing of logistics as well as the challenge of moving heavy equipment into a basement kitchen were the biggest challenges they faced.

“You’re really relying on people to get things done and projects finished when they say they do,” Robinson said about logistics. As with many moves and renovations, but with the added stress of it being their livelihood, the couple had to navigate among electricians, plumbers, painters and inspectors, each on their own schedule but all requiring careful coordination.

After difficulty finding movers, the couple reached out to Independent Restaurant Supply, which sells professional kitchen equipment.

“Almost nobody wanted to do it because (the kitchen) is in the basement and it’s very, very heavy equipment,” Saraya said.

Independent Restaurant Supply quoted $2,500 for moving around 15 pieces of equipment, including a dishwasher, ice machine, freezer, three refrigerators, fryer and flat-top grill. While moving isn’t typically a service the company offers, “I have a good relationship with anyone that I do business with,” owner Dan Bornstein said, “and if I can help them out, I’ll help them out.”

With the move itself over, Robinson and Saraya are eager to focus their energy on interior design — they want to make the space theirs and give it more charm — and expanding the menu with, for example, new takes on steak frites and new pasta dishes.

Five years ago, Chez Rosa was set to open in Kennebunkport just as the COVID pandemic reached Maine. But the rocky start in 2020 is behind them; the move to Kennebunk earlier this month has cemented their place in the community.  “We’re just super grateful to be in this space and that this is 100% ours,” Robinson said.