FORT KENT, Maine – The Mooseshack restaurant, known in the St. John Valley for its pizza, subs and wings, will relocate to East Millinocket this summer. The Fort Kent restaurant will close on June 22 and the East Millinocket spot will open on July 1.
The restaurant announced the decision via Facebook on April 1.
Becky Lawn, who owns the restaurant, said it would be difficult to manage both restaurants simultaneously, as she always covers for workers when they take time off. The Fort Kent restaurant has a crew of five, including Lawn. They are open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with three workers on each shift.
Although the Fort Kent restaurant will close, Lawn will continue to own, and rent out, the 76 East Main Street building.
The Mooseshack’s aesthetic is heavily influenced by the region’s logging and potato farming industries. Logs are used for beams and potato barrels are used for lights. The barrel lights are held up by the grapple arms that were used by farmers to grab potato barrels and load them onto flatbed trucks.
“We’re trying to bring a little piece of history into the building,” Lawn said, “and we’re trying to do the same thing [in East Millinocket].”
The Fort Kent restaurant made national news in 2014 when Kaci Hickox, a nurse who returned to live with her boyfriend in Fort Kent after treating patients in Africa suffering from the Ebola virus, mentioned that she was looking forward to having one of their pizzas during a press conference.
The Mooseshack first opened in St. Francis in late 2008. After six years, Lawn opened a second location in Fort Kent. The Fort Kent location was much busier, which led to the closure of the St. Francis location after running both for five months.
“I had intentions of running both of them, because I did so well in St. Francis,” Lawn said. “But it was just too much and I had to focus on Fort Kent because it’s a bigger community, and the business was better there.”
With these challenges in mind, Lawn said it would not be realistic to operate both the Fort Kent and East Millinocket locations, which are over two hours away from each other.
The East Millinocket location will also be closer to Lawn’s primary home in Medway. She said she has grandchildren living with her, but has to travel to Fort Kent from Thursday to Saturday each week to manage the restaurant.
Lawn purchased the East Millinocket space last November. The new space, located on 112 Main Street, will be roughly three times larger than the Fort Kent restaurant, which is about 900 square feet. She said she hopes to expand on what was available in Fort Kent by adding a pool hall, and by raising the ceilings and offering indoor cornhole games. She also hopes to add outdoor seating.
And while Lawn is excited to bring the restaurant closer to her home, she said it was not an easy decision to make.
“It was a tough choice,” she said. “I love Fort Kent. It’s such a great community. The whole community has been so supportive of my business, and I do so well up there. It was really a tough, tough decision to make.”
She said she hopes that East Millinocket has the same type of close-knit community that she grew accustomed to in the St. John Valley.
“I just can’t say enough good things about Fort Kent,” she said. “We have our regulars every night; it’s the same crew. People come in and they know my staff. It’s so friendly, and we’re just going to miss that. We’re going to really miss it.”
