Phantom Gourmet: Custom Deluxe In Biddeford, Maine

BIDDEFORD, ME - When you're in Maine, there's nothing like fresh lobster, or the official state treat - the Whoopie Pie. When you want those two dishes done differently, you need to visit Custom Deluxe.

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Located on Main Street, in Biddeford, Maine, Custom Deluxe is the realized dream of Thomas Malz and his wife Meghan, a couple that spent years fine tuning their craft in restaurants around the United States. These two are restaurant lifers, working in every corner of the country before meeting at the Greenbrier in Washington DC.

When they decided to go out on their own, Thomas thought there'd be no place like home. So they took everything they learned back to New England.

"When you work at a restaurant you absorb as much as you can, and so every place that I've worked, you take a little of each place and it kind of goes into your bag of tricks" Thomas explained.

That culinary know-how was helpful when designing not only the menu, but also the space itself, with high gold ceilings, exposed brick walls, and decor that will make you feel like you're in a living room. When it came to naming the restaurant, Thomas decided to pay homage to his grandfather's classic Custom Deluxe.

"He had this blue truck he always drove around on a small farm that we had. The truck is gone but when it came time for me to open a business, the name carried over."

The menu at this Custom Deluxe revolves around whatever comes from the local farms and whatever is going on inside Thomas's brain.

"People ask me, 'Oh where does he come up with this?' And I just tell them that it's stuff that he grew up on that goes into one side of his head, comes out the other," Meghan said. "He's amazing with what he does."

On any given day you can enjoy seasonal soups like the Beet Vichyssoise poured tableside, or try a spin on a Caesar salad made with farro and jardiniere peppers. There's sophisticated spaghetti topped with a spring green pesto, simple sides like hand cut fries, and something called Smashed Cucumbers.

"It's our play on the cucumber salad that, if your grandmother ever went into the garden and took a cucumber out and just kind of cut it and put vinegar and salt on it and ate it, it's literally that," Thomas said.

Of course if you're in Maine, you're going to want some lobster, but here it's prepared a bit differently.

"Kind of a different take on your traditional Maine Lobster that you get everywhere around the coast. It's a half lobster with some green tomatoes, cucumbers and then some Greek yogurt, a little drawn butter," described Meghan.

"I think it's a different way of eating lobster than people normally do," Thomas continued. "It surprises people, because once you get a mouthful of cucumber, kind of resets your palate and then, bam, comes the lobster."

While the name of the restaurant may be an homage to Thomas's grandfather, the chicken dish is an amped up version of a dish his grandmother would make with Uncle Ben's and Cream of Mushroom Soup.

"The chicken and egg is Tommy's take on his grandma's chicken and rice casserole," Meghan explained. "It's got some buttered sticky rice, a slow roasted chicken thigh, peas, potato sticks, a little herbed aioli and then a soft egg. It's a big bowl of goodness."

Then there's something you probably wouldn't expect to find: a Chinese Sausage Sandwich.

"The Chinese sausage sandwich comes on a nice toasted bun. It's kind of got that flavor of - if you go to a Chinese restaurant and you get the spare ribs - it's got that sweet flavor to it, but then we add some seared cabbage to it, some pickled onions, some really awesome red pepper aioli, red pepper relish. People just go crazy for it," Meghan said.

If you assumed that at least Steak and Potatoes would be simple and straightforward here, you'd be wrong.

"People think it's the safe dish to get here because it's steak and potatoes, but there's so much more to that," Meghan said. "It comes on top of a nice warm potato salad. It's got a nice red pepper sauce that goes on top of it. It's just not steak and potatoes."

Dessert at Custom Deluxe is anything but ordinary, with a Whoopie Pie Cake topped with fresh berries, or an Ice Cream Cake served with Fruity Pebble Gelato and rainbow sprinkles.

"I basically took the dessert that I would've created when I was like 5 years old and made that," Thomas said.

While his customers are in awe of his food, Thomas is blown away at the privilege he has to cook for them day in and day out.

"I get to come to work every day and create something, and I get to give that to somebody and hopefully it elicits some kind of response. It's not like a painting that hangs on the wall. It's just gone at the end of the night, and every day I start again. I just love doing it."

You can find Custom Deluxe at 140 Main Street in Biddeford, Maine.

Watch Phantom Gourmet on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 and 11 a.m. on myTV38.