HARRISON — Back in 1996, friends and business partners Gary Searles and Frank Meissner opened the Olde Mill Tavern on Main Street with two goals. One was to establish a place in town where locals could go to a bar and dine out. The second was to sell it to new proprietors as soon as possible.

Searles and Meissner pulled off their first objective fairly quickly. It took 26 years before the time became right to realize the second.

Over the last dozen years or so the tavern has become synonymous with the live local music scene, starting with Searles’ son Chris and the development of his house band The Afterburners.

“We started live music about 2004,” Chris Searles told the Advertiser Democrat. “Some of the guys who worked in the kitchen began playing after we finished work for the night.”

That was back in 2004. Several members have cycled in and out of the band since then, but The Afterburners’ reign as house band continues. Starting around 2011, Searles began inviting other bands to provide live entertainment. Among them was Milltown Roadshow, a trio of musicians that used the stage to springboard a devoted following centered around the tavern.

“Olde Mill Tavern is very supportive of local and regional music,” Milltown Roadshow founder Terry Swett of Bridgton said. “They know it’s one of the highlights that their customers have come to expect.

“The best part is its ambiance. Regular followers congregate there. It is a special place and when we look out at the crowd we realize that besides the warm and inviting atmosphere, 90% of the people in the room are there to see and hear us.”

Swett was a customer most of his life, going back to his youth when the restaurant was known as The Kubby Hole and his musical tastes developed listening to the folk and country rock performers. Later, his brother and sister-in-law operated it as the Cracked Platter.

“At some point while I was off traveling something changed and it closed for a short while,” recalls Swett. “Then Gary Searles acquired the place and with the help of some beautifully creative minds, friends and family, transformed OMT into the outstanding restaurant and tavern that never feels stale.

“Milltown Roadshow considers the Olde Mill Tavern our mother church. When they started bringing in outside performers, they gave us, a fledgling trio, a chance. They kept inviting us back when we were just figuring it all out. They helped lay the foundation for us to grow as a band and develop a following.”

Searles says that other musical acts are staples at the Olde Mill Tavern, including the Anderson-Dole Trio, Bruce Marshall, Brazen Cane and the Cobblestones. It also holds an open mic on Tuesdays. He hopes the tavern’s eventual new owners continue with its live music tradition.

“We have three other businesses we want to focus on,” Searles said of the family’s decision to sell now. “After some up and down years, the tavern is doing incredibly well, so much that it’s almost hard to walk away from. But it’s time for us to move on.”

Several other well known restaurants around Oxford Hills have either sold or closed over the last year with some, like Smokin’ Dave’s Backyard BBQ of Norway and Melbys Market and Eatery of Waterford, switching to the food truck business and others, like Ari’s Pizza and Subs of Norway, with its owner opting to retire.

Those types of scenarios will not play out at the Olde Mill Tavern. Searles says his family will continue to operate the restaurant for as long as it takes before the right owners walk in the door.

“For the most part, business there has been brisk for as long as I remember,” Swett said. “But when it was remodeled I think they [Searles] nailed it and created nothing short of a masterpiece. I pray it never changes.”

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