This story first appeared in the Midcoast Update, a newsletter published every Tuesday and Friday. Sign up here to receive stories about the midcoast delivered to your inbox each week, along with our other newsletters.
An Irish pub will be opening its doors on Aug. 4 near downtown Camden, offering small plates, Guinness and what the owners hope will be a lively community setting with performances of traditional folk music.
Tom Ryan, who has experience working both in pubs and as a mariner, has named his pub 8 Bells in reference to the changing of the watch on ships.
“They ring eight bells: that would signify that you’re done with your watch,” he said. “So I thought it was fitting. I’ve always said, ‘That’d be a great name for a pub,’ because you’re off shift; you come and hang with your mates, and you relax.”
Ryan is opening the pub at 45 Mechanic St. He hopes the space will combine the qualities of a traditional Irish pub with that of an ocean-going ship and a community-style hangout.
He himself has deep roots and dual citizenship in Ireland, where his father’s family is from County Tipperary, in the southern part of the country. His mother is from County Armagah in Northern Ireland.
“Every village, every town has a village pub. Every single one. At least one, if not multiple, and it’s not necessarily about drinking; it’s really just about community,” Ryan said. “It’s a space for the town to go to. That’s what we’re hoping to provide here.”
When he was 18, Ryan got his first job working in a pub in Boston. From there, he became a mariner and worked on a variety of vessels over the next couple decades, including tall ships, tugboats and as a maritime pilot around Boston.
But he long dreamed of starting his own pub, and it wasn’t until he moved to Maine and took a job with Lyman Morse, a custom boatbuilding yard with locations in Camden and Thomaston, that he decided to make good on that ambition after seeing the building on Mechanic Street go up for sale.
That structure was first built in the mid-1800s among the historic textile mills in Camden, he said. It most recently served as the office of a mortgage company. It “felt serendipitous” when Ryan and his partner, Abby Kidder, first walked into the space, he recalled.
Now, they have redeveloped the space to include a “snug,” or room for private conversations, and they have sprinkled it with nautical artifacts. But the biggest emphasis of the pub, Ryan said, will be music.
”I plan to have a traditional session over there at least twice a week where players can come in and play; meet here, have a pint and play music,” Ryan said.
The bar will offer a robust whiskey selection with an emphasis on Irish labels and Scotch. Irish beers, including Guinness, will be on tap, along with other beers and ciders. But, as Ryan put it, they “will not discriminate” against those who prefer margaritas.
“We’re going to have something for everybody,” Ryan said.
The food menu will include English and Irish pub-style dishes, coming in smaller sizes more geared toward snacking than full dinner service. Among the offerings will be hand pies from Portable Pie Place.
The bar is expected to be open 2 to 10 p.m. seven days a week and year-round.
“There’s multiple restaurants in town and they’re all great, love them, but I think we’re going to be able to provide a unique space,” Ryan said. “I want to be a place where people can say, ‘8 Bells is open, let’s go.’”
