Auburn Ruby Tuesday among Maine locations permanently closing due to COVID-19

AUBURN — Ruby Tuesday’s permanently closed the doors at four of its Maine locations, including the one located at 649 Turner Street in Auburn.

Katie Mae, an assistant manager at the Auburn location, said that the Auburn restaurant joined locations in Augusta, Topsham and Westbrook in closing this week.

Mae said that the locations closed because “they couldn’t take the financial hit of doing to-go orders and not dine-in.”

On March 18, Gov. Janet Mills ordered all restaurants and bars in Maine to close to dine-in customers to help slow the spread of the coronavirus in Maine, but allowed restaurants to offer takeout, drive-through and home delivery service.

“Our location in Auburn is about 97 percent dine-in,” Mae said. “We tried to do to-go only, but it wasn’t going to be feasible.”

Mae, who started working at the restaurant four years ago as a server and bartender before working her way into a management position, said that she and the 40 to 50 employees who work at the Auburn location had no warning about the closure and “learned about it on the internet before any of us received a call.”

“I was told it was a mistake at first, and the next day, it was confirmed,” Mae said. “They’ve already changed the locks on the building.”

She said that the closures would be permanent.

With the closure of the four locations, that leaves Brewer, Presque Isle and Waterville as the last towns in Maine with Ruby Tuesday restaurants.

In 2016, the Ruby Tuesday restaurants in Auburn, Augusta, Topsham and Westbrook were among the restaurants in Maine that survived after Ruby Tuesday announced it would close 95 of its 724 restaurants.