When a restaurant opens, there is excitement and curiosity. But when a restaurant closes or doesn’t seem to be reopening, there are questions. And questions lingered about one of the most well-known restaurants in Scarborough’s Pine Point neighborhood.

That would be Bayley’s Seafood, a popular local hangout for nearly three decades. A series of unfortunate events has marred the restaurant’s operations, leaving summer visitors and year-round residents alike wondering what’s going on.

According to MaineBiz, it began with the death of the company’s patriarch in 2021. There were plans to reopen the restaurant in 2022, but owners were greeted with burst pipes and large-scale cleanup and restoration work.

However, the summer of 2022 did not go as planned as Bayley’s Seafood had difficulty finding contractors and completing work on time. These delays and other issues resulted in the loss of the 2022 summer season.

Since that lost summer, the owners have tried to resolve many of the issues the restaurant faced in order to reopen. But faced with the operational issues and staffing problems faced by so many other places in the service industry, the owners of Bayley’s Seafood seem to have thrown in the towel.

The restaurant, located at 165 Pine Point Road, is currently being offered for lease by the Fletcher Group. The listing states that the restaurant is turnkey, meaning minimal to no repairs are required to open.

Perhaps the next restaurant to take over the space will serve the community for another three decades.