Along the walls of the inside bar at Schooner Landing in Damariscotta hung an assortment of tongue-and-cheek memorabilia, like the tin sign advertising a boat motor so trustworthy buyers would let it take out their daughter.
On the stage where locals flocked for a weekly open mic, there was an assortment of old movie posters and a mug shot of singer Frank Sinatra. Up in the eaves, bottles of tequila and Zima served as monuments to friends who passed away too soon.
One table in the back of the bar was designated as where employees went to take hurried bites of a meal before, during, or after a dinner rush. It’s also where the late Charlie Herrick would tell servers to get off their cell phones with pointed mannerisms as iconic as the restaurant he co-owned with Scott Folsom until Herrick’s passing in 2019.
Behind the employee’s table was a poem inexplicably screwed into the wall titled “Goodnight, Schoon.” I don’t remember what the poem said, but every line ended with a word that rhymed with Schoon, so with a little imagination, it could probably be replicated.
There isn’t much else about the landmark restaurant that could be reproduced, and when it burned down on Sunday, Sept. 1, it seemed the entire community mourned the loss.
A patron once described the restaurant on the Damariscotta River as the town’s living room: a place people went as strangers and left as friends, and friends went to become family. It’s true. It happened to me.
Before I became a reporter I learned a lot of what I know about people down there on the pier slinging drinks, serving, and briefly chopping it up in the kitchen the better part of a decade.
I don’t know a world without Schooner, but a new chapter has begun and what lays ahead for owners Scott and Caleb Jones and the rest of the crew may appear uncertain.
However, I’m here to assure you it is not. There is no one better than owners Scott Folsom and Caleb Jones at the helm of rebuilding the heart of the community and, with the staff they have, there is nothing they can’t navigate.
To the community, let’s do what we do best and put the wind to their back. To the old building, we say goodnight, Schoon. To those who are worried about its return, don’t be: just like the tide, Schooner will be back soon.
(“After Deadline” provides The Lincoln County News reporters a space to reflect on the community they cover.)
