Joe's Flat Iron Café

Joe's Flat Iron Café opened July 31, 2023 in Skowhegan's historic Flat Iron district at 65 Water Street, marking a hard-won second act for owner Joe Almand. A year earlier, Almand — then a firefighter — fell about 25 feet while trying to rescue a drone stuck in a tree, tumbled another 15 feet down an embankment, and broke four ribs, both wrists, a bone in his face, and punctured a lung. The injuries ended his firefighting career. He and his wife renovated the first-floor space and named it for the wedge-shaped Flat Iron building it sits in, turning out lattes (the pistachio is a local favorite), breakfast sandwiches built on house bagels, pastrami sandwiches, and biscuits in a clean, warmly decorated room open seven days a week.