Alisson's at 50: Kennebunkport restaurant celebrating a half-century in Dock Square

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — A lot has happened in Kennebunkport during the past 50 years. The town that in 1973 was a quaint and quiet community is now, in 2023, an international tourist destination, whose population swells in the summer and fall and during the holidays.

Throughout those five decades, Alisson’s Restaurant has been right there in the heart of Dock Square, serving its popular lobster rolls and clam chowder and giving residents and visitors an inviting place to gather and dine.

Next month, on Nov. 13, to be exact, the restaurant officially will hit that 50-year mark as Alisson’s. That was the day in 1973 when a local couple, Francis and Beatrice Condon, bought the Chat and Chew Restaurant and Smith’s Market. They renamed the store Dock Square Market and called the restaurant Alisson’s.

Alisson’s Restaurant. Say it out loud. Does it bring a song by a certain folk singer to mind? You know, a lengthy tune played on WBLM at noon out of Portland every Thanksgiving?

It should.

The beloved restaurant is named after the Condons’ first grandchild, Alisson. Back in 1973, when Alisson was three years old, her uncle Scott used to serenade her with his rendition of “Alice’s Restaurant,” the quirky, sprawling late-1960s song by folk legend Arlo Guthrie.

With a new restaurant on their hands, and uncle Scott’s rendition of the Guthrie classic to inspire them, the Condons named their new breakfast-and-lunch stop “Alisson’s Restaurant.”

In 1984, the Condons sold the market and restaurant to their daughter and son – Alisson’s mother, Pam, and her uncle, Mike. Pam Padget and Mike Condon closed the market, expanded the restaurant, and, with Mike’s wife, DeeDee, have remained at the helm ever since.

The restaurant’s namesake keeps a low profile, according to Pam, so not too many people know who Alisson is or what she looks like – but all three of her children have worked at the place named after their mother.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the restaurant, the family is donating $25,000 to be divided among the town’s public assistance fund and four Kennebunks-based nonprofit organizations: Community Harvest; The Community Gourmet; the Kennebunkport Heritage Housing Trust; and the Education Foundation of the Kennebunks.

“It’s our way of thanking the community for their support all these years,” Pam said. “A party just wasn’t going to be enough to say thank you for everything.”

'Red Hands': Kennebunk author reveals the secret life of a Romanian refugee in Maine in new novel

50 years of memories at Alisson’s Restaurant

Pam and her daughter, Ashley Padget, who has managed the restaurant for several years now, recently looked back on the past half-century during an interview in their second-floor office overlooking the shops and shoppers of Dock Square. Their restaurant had just opened minutes earlier and already was quickly filling up with near-noontime diners.

When asked to share one of their most treasured memories of the four-generation family business, the Padgets are quick to name an individual who passed away decades ago but remains vivid in their hearts – Emmy McLean.

McLean was a gentle and beloved resident with special needs. He helped both Alisson’s and the pharmacy across the street with their everyday needs, sweeping the front walk, running errands to the bank and the post office, directing traffic with a sheriff badge pinned to his chest, and more.

McLean did these things for years and was a cherished figure among the restaurant’s staff and townspeople. He helped the restaurant and pharmacy, and the restaurant and pharmacy helped him too.

“It was just one of those really heartwarming stories about how the community used to take care of their own,” Pam said.

McLean died in the early 1990s, but he remains prominent at Alisson’s, where local artist John Gable’s painting of him is framed and hung in the area where patrons first wait for a host to take them to their seats in the dining room. In the painting, McLean is seen sporting his trademark ball cap and pushing his broom past the restaurant’s front window.

McLean is an example of how it has been the people who have made the family’s ownership of the restaurant memorable for them all these decades. In addition to locals and tourists, the restaurant has even had celebrities eat at their establishment over the years – Oprah Winfrey, Tom Bergeron, and the currently ubiquitous Taylor Swift among them.

“But we’ve always been a local place,” Ashley said, emphasizing the family’s appreciation for the regulars who have eaten at the restaurant over the years.

Albracca home in York: Want to rent out the historic property. It’ll cost you $25K a week.

Consistency is the secret sauce for Alisson's success

Both Pam and Ashley agree the COVID-19 pandemic was, hands down, the single most challenging chapter in the half-century history of Alisson’s. While the global health crisis caused many businesses in the hospitality industry to either close temporarily or permanently, Alisson’s stayed open by offering curbside takeout service and outdoor seating.

Those outdoor seats were underneath a town-approved tent that was located not adjacent to the restaurant but instead across the parking lot in the back. In all kinds of weather and circumstances, servers had to pick up orders in the kitchen and carry the meals and drinks to the patrons across the parking lot.

“They clocked ... about seven miles a day,” Ashley said.

While the restaurant has undergone a few renovations over the years – with plans to renovate and expand the kitchen slated for this winter – the food and atmosphere have remained a constant.

So too have the restaurant’s two most popular items off the menu. According to Ashley, the restaurant sold approximately 30,000 mugs of chowder between September 2022 and September 2023. Also during that time, the restaurant sold 42,000 lobster rolls.

“That’s a lot of lobster,” Pam said.

Especially when you multiply that number by 50.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Alisson's Restaurant celebrating a half-century in Kennebunkport, Maine