Around New England

The Empire Strikes Back:  Maine Restaurant Owner Defies Governor, Opens Restaurant, Loses State Licenses

May 2, 2020

A Maine restaurant has closed indefinitely after the co-owner defied the governor Friday by reopening and then lost state licenses to operate.

Rick Savage went on Tucker Carlson Live on Fox News Channel on Thursday night saying he planned to reopen his restaurant the next day despite an executive order from Maine Governor Janet Mills and calling on all restaurant owners in the state to do the same.

“We never should have never been shut down in the first place,” Savage said during the show Thursday, April 30. “… It’s time to go back to work.”

Asked what he thought the governor would do in response, Savage responded:  “I don’t think she’s going to do anything because she’s in over her head,”

He also gave out the governor’s cell phone number on the air.

On Friday, May 1, more than 150 people came to his restaurant, Sunday River Brewing Company, in Newry, according to the Bangor Daily News.

Newry is a town of a little more than 300 in western Maine, just north of Bethel and near the New Hampshire border. The restaurant is not far from a well-known ski resort called Sunday River.

Maine has been relatively lightly hit by coronavirus – 55 deaths out of 1,123 cases as of 11:45 a.m. Friday, May 1, according to the state, out of a population of about 1,344,000.

Source: State of Maine coronavirus web site

But Governor Mills, a Democrat, in March ordered most businesses to close until May 1 — and on Wednesday, April 29 she prolonged the closures – extending a “Stay Safer At Home” executive order through May 31.

The governor’s reopening plan also has phases that may significantly limit the capacity of Maine businesses to operate this summer. Many restaurant owners say they fear that if they lose the vital summer season their businesses will be severely damaged or will have to close permanently.

Savage said in a television news interview Friday, May 1 that his restaurant has already lost $650,000 of revenue because of the original shutdown.

The governor’s announcement that she is extending the shutdown another month led Savage to announce he was going to reopen anyway, which he did on Friday, May 1. Also that day he gave a video interview to The Sun Journal of Lewiston, Maine. He said he expected to prevail.

“And I think you’re going to find that the state’s going to cave to us,” Savage said. “… If not, then the Maine economy’s gonna be in the tank for 10 or 15 years.”

Shortly after 4:30 p.m. Friday, Savage said in a television interview, state officials took away his health license, which he said automatically takes away his liquor license. The health license is needed to serve food, and the liquor license is needed to sell liquor.

In the late afternoon he initially said he planned to stay open and pay daily fines to the state, but later in the day he closed.

A Facebook post from Savage on Friday night, May 1 says the restaurant is closed indefinitely.

Savage is asking people to donate money to the cause through a Go Fund Me web page called Maine Back To Work Fund.

As of 6 a.m. Saturday, May 2, the page had raised $57,782 of a goal that started at $10,000.