HATTIE: (Voiceover) Located on the ocean on one of Maine's most famous finger peninsulas, historical Harpswell Inn at Lookout Point dominates a knoll overlooking a quaint cove, which serves as a snug harbor for lobster boats. Susan and Bill Menz are the owners of the inn, the bed and breakfast that sets the standard. They are found every morning in their spacious kitchen, stirring up everything from the classic to the surprising.
SUSAN MENZ (Harpswell Inn): Here we go, Maine blueberry pancakes.
Unidentified Woman #1: Oh, incredible. Oh, my.
SUSAN: How about that?
Unidentified Woman #2: Wonderful.
BILL MENZ (Harpswell Inn): (Voiceover) It is incredible the people you meet, just flat-out incredible. Every day's a new day. And it's exciting.
HATTIE: From all over the world.
BILL: Yes, there are bathrooms to do and there are beds to make and so forth, but it is fun. Have you had breakfast yet?
HATTIE: (Voiceover) All business owners who are the best in the world at what they do make it look easy to the rest of us, and like in every endeavor, the magic is in the detail.
SUSAN: (Voiceover) We have 4,500 people a year, so we don't per se send out Christmas cards or information, but what we do is a wonderful job, we think, when they're there. We're enthusiastic. We promote the area. We advertise. The Chamber of Commerce does a great job, Maine Tourism Bureau.
(Voiceover) We've been written up in many books, Fodor's, as places to stay in Maine; so many books that we don't pay for the advertising. People just come and write us up. We've been in magazine articles. We've been written up by Yankee magazine. We've been written up by the food editor of the London Times.
BILL: Food editor of the London Times.
SUSAN: Connecticut Magazine.
BILL: We'll never forget that one.
HATTIE: Did he or she... BILL: She.
HATTIE: ...write about one of your recipes? She wrote about the food?
SUSAN: Yes. She did.
BILL: Yeah. Yeah.
SUSAN: We were on the front page, full color.
HATTIE: So what was it that stood out in her mind that she says, `I've got to write about this'? What was the dish?
SUSAN: We called it a fisherman's breakfast, and we had 35 people for breakfast that morning. (Voiceover) And I decided to try a new dish, and Bill looked at me...
BILL: (Voiceover) I couldn't believe it. SUSAN: (Voiceover) ...and said, `Are you crazy?' BILL: (Voiceover) Couldn't believe it.
SUSAN: (Voiceover) `You're going to try a new dish with 35 people?' And we usually sit down with the last people...
HATTIE: You do.
SUSAN: ...the last people at the table...
BILL: Right.
SUSAN: ...and talk to them and we were talking in and out, but we usually sit down with the last guests. And we began asking how they liked the breakfast, that they were kind of guinea pigs. And she said, `We love it,' and her husband said, `Well, my wife is going to write you up.' And I said, `Really?' And he said, `Yes. She's a food editor for the London Times. And we just had lunch with Julia Child yesterday.' I said, `Oh, my God.' `If you had told me that, I would never have made this this morning.'
HATTIE: (Voiceover) You've got something. What do you think it is?
BILL: I think it's Susan, without a doubt.
SUSAN: I think it's Bill.
HATTIE: And you've been married to her for 40 years
BILL: Absolutely.
SUSAN: Forty-one.
HATTIE: So you're not prejudiced
BILL: You betcha.