
Nothing endures forever. After almost 70 years in business, a Maine restaurant is closing. It would be great if it did…
A Maine restaurant will close Monday after nearly 70 years in business.
Cole Farms in Gray will shut down for good after dinner Monday. The restaurant first opened in 1952.
The restaurant recently went through major renovations, but the owner said it has become too difficult to make ends meet.
“My family has owned and run the restaurant since it first opened. I’ve worked at the restaurant, myself, for almost 50 years, since I was 10 years old. We had a formula for Cole Farms that worked for many years, but it’s become increasingly more difficult in the last few years to continue that success,” owner Brad Pollard said in a letter posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page.
Pollard thanked the customers and generations of employees who helped keep the restaurant going for 68 years.
“It’s been a tough and emotional decision to decide to close, but it is the right one,” Pollard said.
Longtime customers were feeling nostalgic on the restaurant’s final day, sharing memories of the iconic eatery.
My earliest recollection of going out to eat at all in any kind of a restaurant was here at Cole Farms,” customer Holly Mains said.
Everyone at the restaurant said they wanted to eat there one last time.
Sandra Simmonds sat at one of the original tables from 1952 to meet a friend for a meal. Simmons said she was thinking about her 84-year-old father, who enjoyed the food but has since passed away.
“Instead of me driving up to Bethel, I’d say, ‘Dad, meet me at Cole Farms.’ So he would drive down from Bethel. I’m driving from Yarmouth, and we’d meet here and he always got the scallops,” Simmonds said.
Alfred Greer said he had been coming to Cole Farms for 60 years.
“It’s just like a second home to me. Since I lost my wife, I don’t like to cook, so I come here. The food has always been great. They’ve always been good to me. It brings back a lot of memories,” Greer said.
The closure is hard on the restaurant’s staff. Many were longtime employees.
“Huge part of my social life whether I’m on the clock or off the clock, so definitely going to miss that,” cook Matthew Fog said.
It was an emotional day for server P.J. Selberg, who had been at the restaurant for three years.
“Last couple days have been really rough, yeah, having to say goodbye to them,” Selberg said.
Pollard said he is hopeful someone else can transform the property into something new that can serve the community as long as Cole Farms did.