Around New England

There Goes the Neighborhood – Little Town in Maine Gives Up the Ghost on Being Dry

April 2, 2019

A tiny town in northern Maine that has been mostly dry for generations has voted to let restaurants serve alcohol on the premises.

Or make that “restaurant,” since it has only one.

The vote at annual town meeting in Allagash (population 236) was 38-10 to allow sales of liquor to be consumed on the premises on days other than Sunday, and 34-14, to allow it on Sundays, according to the Bangor Daily News.

Selling booze at a liquor store has been legal since the early 1990s, with one catch:  There are no stores in town.

Residents of Allagash, which is in extreme northern Maine, so far up that it’s north of Quebec City, in February expressed dissatisfaction with a movie named after the town that is going to shot in far-off western Maine. The movie is the latest in a long list of products named for Allagash without actually have a local connection to the town.

The owner of the town’s one restaurant has repeatedly suffered the indignity of being asked for Allagash beer, which she can’t serve because the town is dry.

Now, if a state agency approves a liquor license, she can.