Grace McIntyre, 24, right, is pictured Thursday with Norm Elvin, founder of China Dine-ah, who still owns the property. McIntyre is opening a daycare, Grace’s Busy Bees Learning Center, at the site of the former restaurant at 281 Lakeview Drive in China. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
CHINA — The building that once housed a staple of central Maine’s dining scene is being given new life and reopening as a daycare center.
Grace’s Busy Bees Learning Center, a daycare for children ages 6 weeks to 10 years, opens Monday at 281 Lakeview Drive, which was formerly home to China Dine-ah until it closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After almost five years of vacancy, the stands and tables that previously accommodated up to 100 customers at a time had to make way for classrooms and playpens.
According to 24-year-old Busy Bees founder Grace McIntyre, the daycare, which has a capacity of 65 children, will open for the first time this week after a quick floor-to-ceiling renovation.
Much of the work was done by McIntyre and her husband, Zachary, she says, after receiving the blessing and support of China Dine-ah founder Norm Elvin.
Owner Grace McIntyre, 24, is opening Grace’s Busy Bees Learning Center in the former China Dine-ah at 281 Lakeview Drive in China, Maine. McIntyre is pictured in the daycare’s nursery on Thursday. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
“The building sat empty for about four or five years. Norm was never willing to sell or rent the space since the restaurant closed; he turned down every offer,” says McIntyre. “I showed him my plan, told him what I wanted to do, and he was on board almost immediately.”
Elvin, 70, started China Dine-ah in 2006 after running G&E Roofing since 1975, largely just to see if he could succeed in an industry he knew nothing about. After about a decade at the helm of the iconic restaurant, he sold the business to the owner of Lisa’s Restaurant & Lounge in Augusta in 2014.
Elvin bought the land back after Dine-ah closed in 2020. Elvin says he hesitated for years to sell or lease the shuttered restaurant, largely because of the emotional value the building has. Anything that would fill the space would have to serve the community and be able to sustain itself, he says.
“I had to prove whether or not I could do it, and I certainly could,” says Elvin. “But when the restaurant closed, I wanted to make sure the building would still be an asset to the city of China.”
In previous conversations with China Town officials, Elvin says, he kept hearing about the need for another daycare in the area. Many local daycare centers are fully booked and have long waiting lists, he says. So when McIntyre contacted him with the idea of opening Busy Bees, they got to work very quickly.
Talks about the daycare began around April, McIntyre says, with the goal of opening in time for the start of the school year in September.
The renovations began in May and were completed almost two weeks early, McIntyre said, largely because she and Elvin made it a point to do as much of the work themselves as possible and to hire local contractors and companies to do the work they couldn’t do themselves.
The couple built playgrounds, demolished booths, ripped out carpets and replaced floors. The work cost about $200,000 and took just three months.
Owner Grace McIntyre, 24, is photographed Thursday at Grace’s Busy Bees Learning Center in the former China Dine-ah at 281 Lakeview Drive in China. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
“I would say 80% of the work here was done by my husband and I,” said McIntyre. “We did all the demolition ourselves – I actually learned how to sawtooth. We had some friends who helped us occasionally, but we pretty much had to tear down the whole building.”
When it opens next week, Busy Bees will employ seven full-time teachers and eight substitute teachers, McIntyre says. Although the daycare has a capacity of 65 children, McIntyre is working through the permitting process to increase that number to 100 next year.
Although nearly every aspect of the old Dine-ah has changed, some parts of the building’s history remain. In the bar, which once played live music and hosted late-night parties, ceiling tiles decorated by patrons over the years remain in the roof above a renovated game room.
Grace McIntyre looks at memorial tiles with personal messages engraved on the ceiling of the China Dine-ah room, which once housed a bar and a hall for bands. McIntyre said she is keeping the tiles in her new daycare in the room and will likely add more. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
McIntyre plans for each preschool graduating class to design their own tile each year. “When the kids come back in 18 or 20 years, it will be another piece of Chinese history,” he says.
Although the bar stools, kitchen equipment and bandstand have been removed, Elvin is happy with Dine-ah’s new ownership, largely because of that sense of continuity.
“I realized that the Dine-ah had died and a new life had begun,” said Elvin. “Once I realized that, I felt good.”
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