It was the spring of 1976. Bob Fish was the king of the wharf in Boothbay Harbor. I was back in the harbor after a few years away, mostly at Sugarloaf.

I had been here during the summers of ‘71 to ‘74 working as mate and living aboard a 53-foot 100-year-old schooner, the Mary E.

I came to town that spring with a couple of guys, Larry Sullivan and Joe Williamson, who had opened a restaurant/bar at Sugarloaf three years earlier.

Our friend, Michael Jarrett, who owned a seafood business here and at Sugarloaf, had persuaded us to come to Boothbay Harbor for a visit.

While here, Sullivan and Williamson spotted a little restaurant on the wharf called Robin’s Luncheonette. It was for sale. Sullivan and Williamson bought it and rented the space it sat on from Fish.

Williamson came up with the name McSeagull’s Eatery. I thought the name was silly and would never fly.

It flew.

McSeagull’s Eatery opened for the first time Memorial Day weekend, 1976.

“That first summer we ran it as Robin had, a ‘Blue-Plate Special’ joint, three meals a day, seven days a week,” Williamson said. “We actually had a sign like McDonald’s that said, ‘Serving over 10,000,’ that we changed every week. That summer I think it went over 50,000.”

The eatery sold box lunches for people planning to take boat trips, and a take-out window was established, manned by Jarrett, with the help of yours truly.

We served hamburgers and hot dogs, lobster and crab rolls, fresh, hand-cut french fries and frappes. “And tuna rolls,” said local, Susan Paige. “You gave us a choice of onions or celery. Don’t you remember?”

I don’t. But I do remember a little old man named Jimmy Lynch, and his dog, stopping by daily for handouts, which were readily given in the form of hamburgers, fries and frappes – to him and the dog.

Sullivan and Williamson began renovations after Labor Day and applied for a liquor license. A long battle ensued. The Boothbay Harbor Board of Selectmen denied the application, restricting the licensing of McSeagull’s to a restaurant with no liquor.

The case went to Superior Court the next summer. The judge in the case ruled that the decision of the selectmen was unreasonable, and that their intent was to control the number of licensed liquor operations in Boothbay Harbor.

On June 29, 1977 the license was awarded.

McSeagull’s Eatery became McSeagull’s.

The combination of location, good food and friendly, gregarious proprietors made McSeagull’s an instant hit in town.

The fact that Williamson and Sullivan were from “out-of-town” didn’t deter the locals, because the two made a point of ensconcing themselves into the community. Wallflowers they were not.

The pair had already made a name for themselves at Sugarloaf, where they ran the popular restaurant and bar, Tufulio’s (their take on Italian for “Two fools”.) Their outgoing, likeable personalities drew people to them.

Large drinks, served in shaker glasses at the bar by a young local man, Chuck Fuller, also helped make the restaurant a popular watering hole.

Sullivan attributes the success of the early days of McSeagull’s, at least in part, to Fuller.

“McSeagull’s thrived under the careful, watchful eye of Chuck Fuller. He helped make it the success it was,” he said.

Fuller went on to become the manager of McSeagull’s and Tufulio’s at the tender age of 20.

Local “celebrities,” like Fritz Rockwell and Herb Maynard, became fixtures at the bar.

Rockwell, known for the patch over one eye (rumored to have been shot out by a jealous husband) and his penchant for bars, was also an accomplished painter and sculptor. He was known to barter his paintings for beer at the bar. Anyone who had the foresight to purchase one of his paintings for a few dollars, or a few beers, was lucky.

The owners also purchased a boat that summer and named it the S.S. McSeagull. She was kept tied up to a wharf in front of the restaurant, and a lot of people in town still remember some good times on that little “yacht.”

Williamson and Sullivan sold the restaurant in 1980. It has survived a few owners over the years and continues to thrive today with much of the same ambiance that drew people to it in the beginning

McSeagull’s is still flying.

Aside from renovations expanding the size to accommodate the ever-growing patronage, proprietors Ralph and Elena Smith have tried to retain the atmosphere.

“When we first took over, around seven years ago, we sat here in the dark one night and made the decision to forgo a lot of changes. We wanted to keep serving great food and providing good entertainment,” Ralph Smith said.

After the restaurant was sold in 1980, Williamson and I loaded up an old Volkswagen bus and drove cross-country to San Francisco, where we met up with Sullivan.

But that’s a story in itself, that ends with me taking a Greyhound bus back to Maine, alone.

When I first came back to Boothbay Harbor, in 2002, I went to a local bar for a beer. The bartender was a woman I recognized from back in the day at McSeagull’s.

I asked her if she remembered a life-size, framed drawing of a nude that hung outside the ladies room door. It had been purchased by Williamson, and I often wondered what had become of it.

“The one of you?” she asked. I told her it wasn’t me. She laughed and said, “Everyone thought it was.”

As I was leaving I recognized another woman from “back in the day” coming into the bar. I laughingly told her what the bartender had said about the drawing.

She said, “That wasn’t you?”

Suzi Thayer can be reached at the Boothbay Register, 207 633-4620, or at sthayer@boothbayregister.com