Iconic seafood restaurant in Scarborough has closed
Bayley’s Seafood Restaurant in Scarborough has closed.
Bayley’s Seafood Restaurant in 2005. (Photo by Derek Davis)
The restaurant, which opened in 1995, announced its decision on Facebook under the heading, “A Difficult Goodbye 
.” Its last day of service was Aug. 20.
The social media message went on to say, “”This has been an incredibly meaningful chapter, and we are so grateful to everyone who supported us, shared a meal with us, celebrated with us, and made memories inside these walls.”
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The restaurant, at 165 Pine Point Rd., served a casual menu of Maine seaside classics, including fried clams, fried haddock dinners, lobster dinners and fisherman’s platters. Many considered it a Pine Point institution.
In a telephone call, owner April Bayley said a combination of factors led to her decision, including the difficulty in hiring help; higher costs, including insurance; nearby competition, and the challenges of procuring local seafood. “It was tough,” April Bayley said. Bayley said that when her fisherman father Stanley Bayley, was alive, they had an in-house supply of seafood.
Stanley Bayley launched the restaurant with his wife (and April’s step-mother), Nancy Bayley. When he died about five years ago, the restaurant closed for a time. A pipe froze during that interval. “It took the whole kitchen down,” April Bayley said. She eventually reopened Bayley’s Seafood Restaurant with the help of her sister-in-law, Erica Bayley.
“We just thought we’d do it for dad,” she said. “We just figured maybe try to get it going again, which was crazy, because everything (in the restaurant business) is so different now.”
They ran it for about one year before making the decision to shutter for good. “It’s all right though,” she said. “Dad would have been proud.”
Vincent Clough and his wife Susan Bayley, members of the extended Bayley family, own other Scarborough businesses, some of which also use the family name: Bayley’s Lobster Pound, The Bait Shed, Stern Seafood Restaurant, and Bayley’s Campground Resort. All of those are open for business, Vincent Clough said.
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Tagged: restaurant industry, seafood
Peggy Grodinsky has been the food editor at the Portland Press Herald since 2014. Previously, she was executive editor of Cook’s Country, a now-defunct national magazine that was published by America’s. More by Peggy Grodinsky
