Arthur Peter Brountas, a longtime Bangor businessman, restaurant and bar owner, and former Bangor mayor and city councilor, died last week, Oct. 31, at the age of 90.
His death was announced by his family in an obituary published in the Bangor Daily News on Saturday.
Brountas was best-known as the longtime co-owner of the Main Tavern, formerly known as Peter’s Candlelighter Restaurant, which he first owned with his brother, George, and later with his son, Peter. According to Peter Brountas, though his father was, in theory, retired, he still came into the tavern every day to open the business, up until Oct. 30, the day before he died.
“He actually came in for coffee the day he died, though he didn’t open. He came in every day, though. That’s what kept him going. He made sure everyone was taken care of. He was always just the hardest worker,” said Peter Brountas.
Arthur Brountas was a member of Bangor’s large Greek community — one of six children of Peter and Penelope Brountas, themselves first-generation immigrants from Greece. The Brountas family was instrumental in the construction of St. George Greek Orthodox Church on Sanford Street in Bangor, where Arthur Brountas was a 3-year-old parishioner when it opened in 1930.
The extended Brountas family owned a number of businesses in Bangor, starting with a fruit cart in the 1890s, before opening in 1903 the popular Bangor Candy Kitchen on Main Street (later renamed Brountas’ Restaurant, which closed in 1984) and, in the 1930s, Peter’s Spa, at the corner of Union and Main.
[A new look for the Main Tavern, downtown Bangor’s oldest business]
According to his obituary, as a child, Arthur Brountas worked in his family’s businesses, and sold copies of the Bangor Daily News on street corners. He was in the crowd in 1937 when gangster Al Brady was shot by FBI agents on Central Street. Upon graduating from Bangor High School in 1946, Brountas served in the U.S. military in Japan under Gen. MacArthur’s occupational forces.
When Brountas returned from military service in 1948, he took over Peter’s Spa, renaming it Peter’s Candlelighter Restaurant and going into business with his brother, George Brountas. The brothers also opened a Greyhound Bus terminal adjacent to the restaurant, which they operated together from 1950 until 1982. They later purchased the building, known as the McGuire Block, at the corner of Main and Union streets.
Of the four Brountas brothers, three of them (George, Nicholas and Arthur) served on Bangor’s City Council, and all three served a term as mayor, with Arthur serving from 1978 to 1979.
“He loved Bangor. He grew up here. He bought the bus station because he wanted to get the buses off the street and into a lot, because he wanted clear up the traffic and to make the city better,” said Peter Brountas. “He just always wanted to give back.”
In 1982, Arthur’s bought out his brother, George, and renamed Peter’s Spa the Main Tavern. In 1992, Arthur’s son Peter went into business with his father as co-owner of the Tavern, as it is colloquially known. The Greyhound Bus terminal moved to Hermon in 2012, and the Tavern expanded into the terminal’s old space.
Today, the Main Tavern is likely the last vestige of what was once a small local empire of Greek-owned businesses, which, for many decades, were among the most successful in Bangor. Peter Brountas still runs the Main Tavern with his partner, Debbie Michaud.
Arthur Brountas was married for 61 years to Maria Gianibis Brountas, and they had three children: Penny, Jean and Peter, all of whom survive him.
Follow the Bangor Daily News on Facebook for the latest Maine news.
