
Scott McArdle, co-owner of King Eiders Pub in Damariscotta, sits in the restaurant in March 2023, showing off new merchandise. When the military veteran isnt running the business, he is spending time with his wife and three kids or playing the mythical trading card game Magic the Gathering. (Photo courtesy Heather McArdle)
Not everyone knows what they want to be when they grow up, but there may be hints along the way. While King Eider’s Pub co-owner Scott McArdle said he didn’t know when he took a job as a dishwasher at the Damariscotta restaurant in 1997 he would someday own the place, he did know from a young age he liked to interact with others.
“I enjoy talking with people, I feel like I can get along with most people,” he said. “I always have been able to find a way to talk and connect.”
McArdle, of Wiscasset, grew up in Newcastle near Cowshit Corner.
“(Growing up there) was pretty cool,” he said. “There were like six or seven families with kids around our age that all lived within walking distance, that we kind of all hung out here and there.”
McArdle went to Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta and graduated Lincoln Academy in Newcastle in 2001.
Up until he started high school, McArdle had worked with his mother Deb Hamlyn at her business, Maine Way Ice Cream in Damariscotta, which was located where the Chinese restaurant Lucky Fortune is now.
Growing up watching his mother run Maine Way Ice Cream and manage Puffin Stop Convenience Store in Damariscotta was formative for McArdle, he said. Seeing the way she connected with the community was something he resonated with and he realized he was a people person, too.
“I saw what she did and how she could connect with people: see faces, remember people, remember what they drink or eat, it just kind of clicked, it seemed right,” he said.
During his freshman year at LA, she encouraged him to get experience working somewhere else in the community.
He went down the road to King Eider’s, which had been open only for a year or two and began dishwashing with the restaurant’s founding owners, Larry and Sherry Schneider.
“She felt I should get some experience working for someone else,” he said. “So she had me fill out applications and this was the first place I came in.”
The dishwashing gig began what’s turned into a lifelong adventure at 2 Elm St. where King Eider’s is located.
McArdle said that during his time at Lincoln Academy he wasn’t very involved in extracurricular activities, largely because he spent his free time working at the restaurant where there were others near his age.
“I went to Lincoln Academy, I went to GSB, but I would say the closest friends I’ve had for the longest time are from here,” McArdle said, gesturing to the restaurant.
During McArdle’s junior and senior year he joined the wrestling team to prepare himself for enlisting the U.S. Marines, which he did after graduation.
In the service, McArdle was an aviation electrician in charge of the maintenance and construction of helicopter electrical systems.
“I wasn’t very good at it,” he said, laughing. “You’re kind of by yourself staring at wires and components of an aircraft … I missed being around people.”
In 2005, McArdle returned to Maine and began working at Pine State Beverage, a spirits distribution provider based out of Gardiner. During the nearly 18 years as a beer and wine sales representative, McArdle also picked up shifts in the Eider’s kitchen. Eventually, he trained to become a bartender.
“I started in the kitchen but the transition in the front of the house is where I found my home, you know, being out here with people,” he said.
After doing both jobs for nearly two decades, McArdle said he wanted to make the decision to either continue with the restaurant business or to fully commit to Pine State.
“I enjoyed sales, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do,” he said. “I did it and I was good at it and could have kept going. Most people in my position would stay there until they retired.”
Ultimately, McArdle chose the restaurant after he and his close friend, Damon Waltz, who also worked at the restaurant, decided to buy the business in 2022.
“All the pieces just fell into place,” he said. “I still don’t know how we made it work, but it did, and now we’re two and half years in.”
McArdle said he’s had to learn a lot as a restaurant owner. When it comes to the day-to-day goings-on, he tries to bring a good attitude.
“Everybody says check your baggage at the door,” he said. “I always try my hardest to have a positive attitude.”
When McArdle isn’t tending to his duties within the restaurant, he’s reading the science-fiction “Wheel of Time” series or spending time with his wife, Heather, and their three kids, Caleb, Jace, and Emberly. Caleb, according to McArdle, busses tables at the restaurant.
Some of the kids enjoy trading card games like McArdle, who said his favorite game, Magic: The Gathering, is one he’s played since he was a kid.
In the trading card game, players utilize a series of mythical and fantastic creatures to combat one another in duels that can incorporate up to six players.
“There’s a lot of possibilities what you can do,” he said. “They’re still growing the game, there’s so many cars you can collect, and so many different ways that they interact with other cards.”
McArdle and Waltz, who have been close friends since they both started at King Eider’s Pub in 1997, regularly play the popular trading card game together.
“It’s a lot of chance, you never know what you’re going to get,” he said. “You never know how it’s going to play out.”
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