ABOUT US
Barnacle Billy's
A LANDMARK EATERY FOR MORE THAN 60 YEARS
Home of “luxury lobster,” Barnacle Billy’s, tucked along the edge of picturesque Perkins Cove, will delight you with their classic lobster and seafood offerings and keep you coming back with their warm comfortable hospitality and inviting view of “The Cove.” Boiled lobster with drawn butter has been Barnacle Billy's calling card since we opened our doors in 1961. Generations of Ogunquit families and Perkins Cove visitors have returned year after year making this landmark their touchstone for quintessential Maine coastal fare. So much so it is kind of a rite of passage, “I ate my first “Billy's” lobster when I turned four!” Run by generations of the Tower family, founded by the cove legend, the late Billy Tower and his wife Bunny, and then by their children, and their own children.
New England coastal fare includes Maine lobster rolls, hot lobster sauté, hearty clam chowder, Lobster stew, steamed clams, lobster or crab salad rolls & salad plates are ever-popular lunch and dinner favorites. More than seafood, ‘Billy’s” also offers fresh summer salads, barbeque chicken, corn on the cob, grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, and tempting desserts. Their signature beverage? Their Rum Punch, of course. Speaking of punch, a Myers rum floater is an optional add-on for those in a festive spirit!
Extensive indoor and sundeck seating offers our guests splendid views of both the beauty of Perkins Cove and the Atlantic Ocean beyond.
Barnacle Billy's, Etc.
MORE "BILLY'S" TO LOVE
The companion restaurant to the original Barnacle Billy’s in Perkins Cove, Barnacle Billy’s Etc. is a perennial favorite of Ogunquit locals and visitors alike. Here, extensive patio dining offers sweeping views of our beautiful heirloom gardens and the back of Perkins Cove where pretty boats sway gently on their moorings. Spacious indoor dining rooms overlook “The Cove” on cool days a large stone hearth crackles and pops warming the brisk Maine air.
At Barnacle Billy’s Etc. guests can enjoy a slightly more leisurely dining experience with full table service and extensive menu (link) selections including classic lobster and seafood fare and classic beef preparations. Described as, “truly a down east experience,” menu offerings such as bacon-wrapped scallops, steamed mussels, rich fish chowder with chunks of fresh haddock, fried scallops and clams, baked stuffed lobster, Atlantic swordfish, salmon filet, shrimp and tenderloin ‘Surf and Turf,’ chargrilled NY Sirloin steaks and charbroiled filet mignon, chicken, and burgers.
BARNACLE BILLY'S & BARNACLE BILLY'S, ETC.
TWO GREAT MENUS
Please note: We do not take reservations.
Both restaurants offer seating on a "first come, first serve" basis.
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Barnacle Billy's
Open Daily until Sunday Night Oct. 26!
Phone: 207.646.5575
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OUR HISTORY
Barnacle Billy's History
By William R. Tower, III (Tim)
Our father bought Barnacle Billy's in 1960 from Leon & Lillian Perkins. It was called the Brush & Needle then, a shop that sold art supplies, women's clothing and local trinkets including dried starfish and sand dollars. Leon was a striker on our father's 40' harpoon tuna boat, the Isabelle J. when he wasn't fishing out of his own lobster boat in Perkins Cove. Our father, Billy, used to fish out of Perkins Cove as well during the early to later '40s on the "IJ". Later, our father had the Isabelle J. II built in Bass Harbor by Chummy Rich. This boat was an eastern rig design that he used for seining the herring, mackerel and pogies found in the coastal areas of Maine and New England. After the four of us were born, Meg, two years after me and Court & Cathy two years after Meg, in 1955, Billy & Bunny, our father & mother, decided that there wasn't enough money in fishing to raise such a family. Billy sold the IJ II in 1957 and started working as a salesman for a box company out of Boston, Massachusetts called Rand Whitney owned by the Kraft family. (Robert "Bob" Kraft came to the restaurant to give me his personal condolences after Billy's passing in 2013.) The idea of a restaurant came in 1959, materializing in 1960 when Leon & Lillian sold the building and the land "from the thread of the stream to the high tide mark in Oarweed Cove" to Billy.
I was nine years old when Barnacle Billy's opened in 1961. At the time, I started working there bussing tables and lobstering out of my first lobster boat, a 12' skiff. Later, the rest of us, including Meg, Court & Cathy also worked there. Ogunquit was a dry town then. It wasn't until the later '60's that alcohol was introduced. It started as wine & beer. Later, the full bar was initiated. In 1967, the deck over Perkins Cove was added to the existing building. Still later, one evening, the family and part of the crew came together to invent the Barnacle Billy's rum punch. Our mother's recipe won the evening. The same ingredients and portions are used today...
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Barnacle Billy's Original
Phone: 207.646.5575
🕒 Open for the 2024 Season!
Barnacle Billy's, Etc
Phone: 207.646.5575
🕒Open for the 2024 season!
