A longtime, landmark restaurant in Bucksport is closing April 1 and seeks a buyer, its owner announced Monday.
George MacLeod, now 75, said he and his family are looking for a new generation of ownership to take advantage of the business’ location and popularity.
“It’s a tough but necessary transition,” he said. “We’re hoping to make it as brief as possible.”
Numerous restaurants in downtown Bucksport have now closed, gone up for sale or changed hands in the last several years. MacLeod’s was a long-running staple among them on Main Street for 45 years.
MacLeod and his wife, Katherine, opened the restaurant in 1980, serving fresh seafood, inventive homestyle recipes and pie. They started out with a shoestring budget, two household cooking ranges, a rickety cooler and dining room tables hammered together from salvaged plywood, he said in a press release.
Forty-five years later, customers travel just for the restaurant, and the owners estimate they have served more than a quarter of a million slices of French chocolate silk pie.
The restaurant once offered lunch and dinner six days a week, but reduced hours to just dinner four days a week during the pandemic.
George MacLeod said he sees lines at the door when it’s closed, and the customer base exists for the restaurant to thrive. Its key location between Bangor, Belfast and Ellsworth is an added attraction that’s been key to success, he said.
MacLeod and his son Connor, the restaurant’s general manager, said they are committed to helping a new owner get things running in time for the coming tourist season and employing their crew. They credited their customers and staff for the decades of success.
“We’re all family,” George MacLeod said.
The building at 63 Main St. is also for sale and includes apartments on the second and third floors, according to MacLeod. The listing and sale information was not live as of Monday afternoon.
