Six years after it first happened in downtown Bangor, Gibran Graham — now a Bangor city councilor — has relaunched Bangor Lunch Mob, his social media-driven project to get more people to eat at downtown restaurants.
The first of the newly restarted Bangor Lunch Mob events is set for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, at a to-be-named downtown eatery — Graham will announce the location first thing Wednesday morning via the Bangor Lunch Mob Facebook page at facebook.com/BangorLunchMob.
In its initial iteration, the mob visited nearly all downtown lunch eateries. That was 2009 and 2010, however. In the ensuing six years, there have been 12 new restaurants and bars that have opened in downtown, more than half of which serve lunch, including Verve Burritos, Harvest Moon Deli, Umami Noodle Bar, Blaze, The Juice Cellar, Hero’s Sports Grill and Seasons.
“The original idea was born out of an effort to help downtown Bangor restaurants survive after the 2008 recession,” Graham said. “In the past few years, we’ve (had) so much growth and variety downtown that lunch mob didn’t seem needed.”
In the past year, however, Downtown Bangor saw the renovation of West Market Square limit ease of navigability, which hurt several restaurants during the summer of 2014 — usually the prime season for dining out. In 2015 alone, more than 60 inches of snow have fallen in Bangor, which has hurt everyone, and a few weeks of slow business can be extremely worrisome for a restaurant that hasn’t been open for very long.
“Now, with many new offerings in town but such hard weather recently, businesses seem to be struggling again and could use a little help,” Graham said. “That’s what Bangor Lunch Mob is for, to remind everyone of the great lunch options we have and keep them on everyone’s mind while having a little fun in the process.”
For more information on Bangor Lunch Mob and to receive the latest updates on where mobs will be sent to, “like” Bangor Lunch Mob on Facebook. The targeted mob location for each event will be announced the day of the mob and will work with Graham to offer lunch mob-specific specials for the day.
