It’s Baaaack! Old Town’s “Grille” scheduled to reopen under new name

 August 10, 2006

The sudden closing of one of Old Town’s favorite dining spots last week caught many local residents by surprise.  The Chocolate Grille’s denouement came so fast, in fact, that many of its former patrons only became aware of the situation when they drove into the parking lot of the restaurant and saw the “Closed” sign taped to the front door. That same day, the “Chocolate Grille” sign was removed from its pedestal next to the road, making clear that “business as usual” was no more.

But as baseball legend Yogi Berra once said, “it ain’t over, til it’s over.” As proof of that statement’s veracity, The Chocolate Grille is scheduled to open sometime this month, according to site owner, Paul Gervais.

“We’re going to take a couple of weeks to clean the place up,” Gervais said. “We’re going to clean the kitchen, the carpets, the walls, the floors, get everything in shape. We’ve retained most of the same kitchen staff. We’ll be bringing back some of the same menu, but we’ll also be adding some items that I don’t think Old Town has tasted yet.”

But in talking about the future of the restaurant, Gervais made it clear that it would be his wife, Martha, at the helm.

“It’s her baby,” he said.

In taking her place at the forefront of the restaurant’s reopening, Martha Gervais will have the help of her son, Paul, Jr., who is a student at UMaine. She will also be including Old Town residents in the family project by allowing them to choose a new name for the restaurant.

“We realize the significance of the restaurant to the people of Old Town and the surrounding areas,” she said in a written statement given to The Times. “We have been working diligently this past week to get it ready to open by the end of August. Since this came as such a surprise to all of us, we would like to give each of our patrons an opportunity to name the restaurant.”

Anyone interested in entering a name for the restaurant should send their entry to “Name The Restaurant Contest” at P.O. Box 353, Brewer, Maine, 04412. The winner will receievr on free meal per month for a year at the new restaurant. In the event that more than one person enters the winning name, the multiple winning entries will become part of a general drawing. Entries must include the name and address of the participant. The contest will end on August 15.