To the editor:

Last Wednesday night when I learned that Lilee’s Public House was closing, the place was packed with three parties on the wait list, and it was only 5:30 p.m.

I looked around confused and tried to make sense of this conflicting information.

The answers to my confusion lay in what was not reported in the report you printed last week. I wish your reporter had acknowledged that we are not just losing our local pub; we are losing an establishment that paid a genuine homage to Brunswick’s history.

From the Grand City sign hung over the bar to the turn-of the-century era photographs of Maine Street with giant elms and women dressed in bonnets and petty coats, Lilee’s is truly Brunswick’s public house. It’s where artists, laborers, professors, students, your best friend’s mother, old lovers and winos all intermingle on equal ground.

For a town that prides itself on being named one of the top 20 small towns in America, we need to take a look at this great bait and switch.

Every Maine Street needs a pub with an “old timey” feel. Lilee’s is that. Without it, there is a hole in our schema of what our “small town” Brunswick is, and should have always been.

I worked for Chris Pillsbury briefly years ago at Back Street Bistro. He is as hardworking as they come; yet he never loses sight of others. I knew Chris would never speak ill of anyone. He is a true gentleman.

So let’s celebrate the last week by thanking the crew at Lilee’s. Let’s stuff their pockets with cash and drink until the last bottles on the shelf are gone, paying honor to Brunswick’s true public house.

Heather P. Seymour,
Topsham

letters@timesrecord.com