Andrew Volk, the owner of Hunt & Alpine, gave us the inside scoop on how bar and restaurant owners in Downtown Portland are feeling heading into the summer months.
Author: Samantha York (NEWS CENTER Maine)
Published: 6:03 PM EDT May 20, 2025
PORTLAND, Maine — The bar and restaurant scene in downtown Portland has changed significantly in the last few years. Between the COVID pandemic, rent prices, tariffs, and questions around this year’s tourism season, many owners are bracing for an uncertain future.
We sat down with Andrew Volk, the owner of Hunt and Alpine, who opened his Portland bar more than a decade ago, to discuss all those changes and what the future looks like.
Here is part of our conversation:
Q. Back in 2013, what drew you to Portland and the Old Port?
Andrew: Who doesn’t want to live here? We live in Vacationland.
I didn’t want to come here to open a bar. I moved here to kind of return home to New England. Craft cocktails were very much a thing in 2013. They didn’t have a home here in Portland yet. I knew it was going to be happening here, so it was very much a matter of being able to build the space, get people to come in, and get people excited about it.
Q. It was an uncertain time during COVID. It’s an uncertain time now because of tariffs. How has that impacted business for you?
Andrew: I think uncertainty is exactly the right word, you know, look in restaurants and bars, there are a lot of uncertain things. There’s a lot of pressures coming from all sorts of different directions. And the fact that there’s even more pressure and perhaps unneeded pressure on prices is the scary thing.
Q. Have you heard from other business owners about concerns that they’re having or what’s the pulse, I guess, of this area?
Andrew: I think that everyone is uncertain … Are people going to come to Maine because of what’s happening in the country and what’s happening in the global economy? I don’t know.
I think when I talk to other business owners around town, that uncertainty of prices mix with the uncertainty of what is business going to be like is really scary. The best we can do is prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
Story: HERE
