photo/Jessie Banhazl
Name: Tom Higgins
Age: 67
Hometown: Lowell, MA
Drink of Choice: Twisted Tea
As you’d expect, the nightlife options in Old Orchard Beach dwindle considerably during the off-season, but this tourist town hardly hibernates. The Brunswick (a.k.a. The Swick) has bands every weekend year-round. The Whaler hosts a comedy open mic every Monday. And GFB Scottish Pub never stops rockin’, hosting live bands or karaoke 365 nights a year.
“The locals don’t want to come down here during the summer, because it’s like a hundred thousand people,” said Bob Greenlaw, who opened the pub in 2013 with his wife Kelly. “In the wintertime we get a lot of visiting nurses, blue-collar people, and transient people that do the winter rentals. We get people from all over the country, all over the world, but we rarely have a problem. I mean, we’ve had like one fight.”
Mike Hayward, “one of the best blues guitarists in the whole state of Maine,” Bob attests, hosts an open blues jam every Sunday night. “When I was 16 years old, I heard his music playing out of a bar,” Bob recalled. “I wasn’t old enough to go. It took me about a month, but I grew a full beard. I walked up to the door one Sunday after, and I went in and ordered a Budweiser and watched Mike Hayward play blues. Now he plays here.”
Another reason to hit the Beach this winter is Bob’s nano-brewed craft beer. There are usually at least a couple varieties in various styles on tap or in cans. Bob takes brewing very seriously: GFB stands for Good Fucking Beer.
Free parking is also a big attraction in this town, and GFB has its own lot. “Nobody has a parking lot down here, and people on motorcycles like coming here because they can park right outside,” said Bob. “We just play pool and just have a great time.”
Apparently there’s also limited motorcycle parking available inside the pub. This month’s featured regular, Tom Higgins, arrived for our interview right on time. The front doors opened and Tom rode straight in, parked his Harley in front of the stage, stepped off and sat on a barstool to take our first question…
How’d you end up at GFB?
I’ve been in Maine since 2012. I got my daughter the hell out of Lowell. Too many gangs back there. I found that people up here are so much nicer. My daughter was doing things on her own. So, it was like, “OK, fine. I’ll grab a pool stick.” I started coming down here, playing pool with Bob. Met Bob and his wife [Kelly]. Nice people. Next thing you know, we all became pretty good friends.
I met so many people down here, good friends and stuff like that. It is kind of like a meeting place, yeah, and we come down here, and we hang out here just about all night, until closing time, and a lot of times wind up back at somebody’s house, have a couple of extra drinks and what have you.
What do you do for work?
I’m retired. Used to work for Shanklin Corporation, and I was there just a little over twenty years. I built machines. A lot of times I wound up building prototypes, which was very cool. I love to work with my hands. Now I work around the house. This winter I’m gonna be out in the garage working on a little bike that a friend of mine left me after he passed away. Me and my late friend Bob used to take long rides. We’d take long rides and wind up in different places. And we always wound up back here towards the end of the night.
Is there a biker culture here?
Yes, we get the biker clubs. Everybody seems to get along. So it’s a good night. It’s not like coming down here to brawl. One night when I biked to GFB, I pulled into the parking lot and saw both doors wide open. Shot in through both doors. The band is on stage in the middle of a set, and they didn’t miss a beat. I pulled in, the crowd’s going wild, clapping and cheering and stuff like that. I get off the bike. Bartender runs over and hands me a beer.
Drink of choice?
It’s Twisted Tea, but I started getting heartburn. One night I had heartburn so bad, I actually thought I was having a heart attack. I chewed down about six or seven Tums, and I waited — “OK, not a heart attack; it’s the Twisted Tea.” Now I take the medication, because I’m not gonna eat bland foods like the doctor wants me to. You only live once.
Know an interesting bar regular? Send them our way at theregularsmaine@gmail.com.
