BANGOR, Maine —Thanks to fast service by the Bangor City Council on Monday night, a bar and lounge on Main Street will be able to create an outdoor beer garden.
The council amended code language to allow Nocturnem Draft Haus to serve food and alcohol outside, in the backyard of the popular specialty beer establishment.
It’s unlikely that many people, including those who walk across it on a daily basis, know that the 123-foot-wide, 52-foot-long concrete and brick area behind Nocturnem and off Broad Street is a public park, and fewer know it also has a name: Pickering Square Park.
Nocturnem owner Gene Beck didn’t know, but due to a desire to expand his business to include an outdoor beer garden-cafe type of area, he knows all about it now.
“I’d done some research on using that area out back, but we found out it was actually a city park and you couldn’t do that,” Beck said.
Beck then sought assistance from a couple of Bangor city councilors and Bangor City Solicitor Norm Heitmann.
“We have all these funky little nuances with city of Bangor ordinances and codes,” said Heitmann. “Our ordinances say you cannot consume alcohol in parks.
“There are two exceptions: Bass Park and the golf course. And then some time ago, we made exceptions for West Market Square with the outdoor eating venues.”
That was in 1991, when the Bangor City Council established a 10 p.m. outdoor drinking curfew for downtown businesses utilizing sidewalk space to set up tables and chairs. Last month, the council extended that curfew to midnight.
“I remembered Whig and Courier used to have tables set up out front and that was just across the street, so I worked with a couple councilors to see if we could get this changed,” Beck said.
The Bangor City Council unanimously approved the change Monday night.
“Literally, it’s right outside their back door and it’s already somewhat enclosed and self-contained,” said Heitmann. “It only made sense to make that an exception.”
Now Beck just has to create a plan to put up a fence around the area and add some tables and chairs, and file those plans with the Maine State Liquor and Lottery Commission.
“I was going to start working on it today, but my laptop decided to turn into a big paperweight,” Beck said. “I think we can possibly get this going pretty quickly, though. Mid-July is my target.”
Nocturnem is open 3 p.m. to midnight, Monday through Saturday.
Good Deal! kudos to Bangor for allowing a super successful business to expand! Gene runs a great place!
Three days ago this paper ran a story about the problems at Pickering Square. Now it’s suddenly a good idea to sell alcohol there? Really?
So locals are supposed to be adversarial? It’s not like Nocturnem got the nod over some other applicant in a dirty backroom deal.
So they now have about 5,000 feet of prime location and real estate to occupy for a profit. Boy their property tax bill better go up big time. If not, I would think the Sea Dog that has been paying taxes for years would probably be pretty upset that the city of Bangor allowed a non tax paying property “tap” (pun) into their business. Same for most of those other bars downtown.
When are the rest of our city parks that we have paid for and maintained for years going to turn into for profit private business entities?
I think Cascade Park, Fairmount Park, or Broadway park would be a great place to have a beer garden, better yet, a concert venue. Yep, let’s go to city hall and get that done. How can they possibly say no to one and yes to the other.
Have you ever been to this “park”? Because it’s nothing like an actual park, as the ones that you listed are. It may officially be called a park, but in reality it is a square, like West Market Square. Squares were designed for drinking, dude!
Stop and think. The people who the city is having problems with in Pickering Square are not the type who can afford to go drink beer in this type of establishment.
The problem area is across the street, this is the backside of the building that has frontage on Main St.. The owner wll be responsible for his area
You shoudlresearch a concept called “Eyes on the street”. Cheapest policing there is, and effective too.
Love the business aspect but without police officers how
will the noisy drinkers be controlled? Is this a residential or a red light
area? The City is concentrating on growing (Great!) but cannot hire police
offers willing to step into the melees created by this growth. City council –
please look at the entire scene, not just the public opinions.
this is not the crowd from the bounty days! The ‘crowd’ that Nocturnem draws are of a much more sophisticated nature, really nothing to worry about.
cooler people how nice, a better brand of drunks.. The Elite oh my!!!!
As I type this, there are only three comments that have been posted so far about this article. One of them (by Nathan Sockalexis) expresses happiness for the business owner and excitement at the prospect of a beer garden. One express cynicism over the the collaboration between Nocturnem and the City Council (Bangorian: “This smacks of locals helping each other out.” I had to read that a few times to make sure I wasn’t missing some subtle sarcasm.). And both Bangorian and 422de express concerns about the potential problems with serving alcohol outdoors (422de: “Is this a residential or a red light area?”).
Why are some Bangor-ites (not to be confused with Bangorian) SO FREAKED OUT by the idea of people having fun (or even hanging out) in the downtown area? Allowing someone to consume a beer outdoors is not a stop on the slippery slope down to red light district status. I mean, it happens all the time, even in big cities like Boston, New York, and every city and town in Western Europe, without regularly leading to on-site “melees,” riots, prostitution, drug deals, or gang shoot-outs. And I am talking about places that don’t even have 24/7 armed police presence!
Relax, people. There’s no need to worry about political corruption, “noisy drinkers,” or the wholesale breakdown of law and order in our fair city just yet. It’s just that people enjoy drinking beer outside for the three-ish months a year it’s actually warm enough to do so without a sweater on. It’ll be alright. Promise.
Agreed. Nocturnem is not a saloon. They serve high-end and very tasty draft beers and snacks. The clientele is pretty sedate and I’m sure they will appreciate the outdoor venue.
So they pass laws according to how people act when drunk. is that what your saying…
I suspect Bangorian is wondering aloud why some folk’s entanglements with City Rules get resloved very fast while others linger generations.“We have all these funky little nuances with city of Bangor ordinances and codes,” Its all about who you know.
My experience with city staff has always been positive. If you have a question or problem they are there to serve. Just ask.
No if we can add wine to the list. Love the atmosphere but hate beer!
Nocturnem has very nice wine list, too.
Go into any major city in the world and this is a common scene. Gene is a responsible business owner who will monitor what is going on outside. Great decision!
Its 9 dollar beer night!! now served outside…sweet.
PBR’s for everyone!!
Now that is progress. That is the attitude business people like to hear from their elected officials and denizens of city hall. Way to go Bangor!
Marketing downtown Bangor as a place to get drunk is genius!!!!!
Yeah… the Pickering square crowd could bring the drugs of their choice and you could have dueling revelers night.
Just because you can drink outside does not mean you have to get drunk… I think you will find the problems if anything will NOT be with the people at this establishment. But with the people who tend to drink/drugs and then walk the streets of Bangor,come on people. get with the real world… it is a classy place. get over your own problems
If it’s public property, and you can drink in public, whats to stop someone from draging in a lawn chair with a bottle of allens to join in the revelry?
This place is not for everyday folks you understand..
I think I’ll open a beer stand in the square, 2 dollar beer. and cheap draft.
You can’t spot zone, yet you can spot amend a ordinance for one business…
I remember when JB tried to make Cabellas pay sales tax for online sales in Maine because they opened a store in Maine. The lawyers handled it quite nicely by explaining that they made a law that exempted LL Bean from it yet no one else which was illegal..(-;
Why the heck not… sounds like fun… after all the Judy’s biker crowd won’t pay those prices… so it shouldn’t be too much of a big deal.