After nearly 30 years of business, the owners of a seasonal riverside lobster restaurant in Ellsworth have listed the property for sale.
The Union River Lobster Pot, owned by former state legislator Brian Langley and his wife Jane Langley, is located directly next to the tidal Union River on South Street in downtown Ellsworth. Primarily a seafood restaurant, it features a large open dining room and an adjacent lawn that leads right up to the edge of the river.
The restaurant is listed for sale by itself for just under $1.3 million. But the Langleys also are offering, as an option on the sale, two houses across the street from the restaurant, one of which has a bakery kitchen in the basement that it used to help supply the restaurant. The houses and the restaurant is listed as a package deal for just over $2 million.
The Ellsworth restaurant joins a growing number of well-established restaurants in Hancock County whose owners are looking to sell. Mama DiMatteo’s in downtown Bar Harbor is on the market for $1.55 million while Arborvine Restaurant in downtown Blue Hill — including the abutting Deep Water Brew Pub — has been listed for sale for $2.3 million.
Brian Langley did not immediately return a phone message left at the restaurant Wednesday morning.
Langley told the Ellsworth American newspaper that, even though he and his wife are interested in what sort of offers they might get, they are not in a big rush to sell the restaurant that they have owned and operated for the past 28 years. They are in their mid-60s, Langley told the American.
“I think I’m running it for a few more years,” he told the newspaper. “I think you put it out there and let people know you’re interested in selling before you sell. If the right price comes along, we’re interested in selling; if it doesn’t, we’re happy to keep running it. We love what we do.”
The restaurant is not the only well-known business on South Street that is on the market. Rooster Brother, a neighboring kitchen supply store that draws customers from across a large swath of Maine and even from out of state, is listed for sale for $2.9 million.