Cap'n Simeon's Galley - Fresh Seafood, Oceanside

Cap'n Simeon's Then & Now

The Frisbee family has operated Frisbee's Store since 1828 - the oldest grocery store in the U.S. run by the same family. The building you enter when you come to our restaurant was the original Frisbee's Store. The beams date back to 1680 and were assembled with wooden pegs instead of nails. As the only store in Kittery Point, Frisbee's naturally became the gathering point for locals and visitors.

Deciding to open a restaurant in 1969, we cast about for names and remembered Cap'n Simeon's Store. When George S. Wasson wrote the novel in 1903, he used fictitious names to thinly disguise his direct (and occasionally unflattering) use of local places, characters and events. Pepperrell Cove became Killick Cove and Frisbee's store became Cap'n Simeon's Store. Yet Wasson truly recognized the store's importance as a community center.

The name "Cap'n Simeon's Galley" was a perfect choice. We hope that the present Cap'n Simeon's reflects the same hospitality that the old store did. Come on in!

The Frisbees: Frank II, Frank III & Evelyn

Cap'n Simeon's Galley

90 Pepperell Road (Rte. 103)

Kittery Point, ME

(207) 439 - 3655

Unless one takes a deliberately circuitous route, the northbound traveler enters Maine at Kittery. It is only natural in this case then that the town has come to be known as "The Gateway to Maine." But for many it is more than a threshold to Vacationland; those who venture off the throughways find in Kittery an atmosphere that is the very essence of old New England, a quiet, colonial charm that has been carefully preserved in a modern age.

Kittery is also the state's oldest community. It was incorporated in 1647 as a 96-square-mile area in the sprawling tract of the New World. It had been granted by the Council of Plymouth, England, to Sir Ferdinando Gorges in 1622, although no one is certain the exact date the first settlers appeared.

The first people to plant a settlement were members of the Champernowne and Shapleigh families who had left their homes in Kingsweare on the River Dart to make their lives in the New World. They chose Kittery as the name of their settlement, after the section of Kingsweare occupied by the influential Champernowne family, long known as Kittery Point.

The little seacoast settlement grew and survived the hardships of frontier life. Kittery's influence grew as the frontier era passed and the colonial era emerged. William Pepperrell was colonial Kittery's most prominent citizen, who earned knighthood by his brilliant leadership in the siege of Louisburg in 1745 during the French and Indian War.

Revolutionary War fame was gained by Kittery as a shipbuilding center. Captain Jones personally supervised the outfitting of the famous sloop-of-war "Ranger" here. This reputation for building fine ships remains to this day in Kittery as the Naval Shipyard plays a key role in the development, manufacture and repair of America's nuclear submarine fleet.