Who Moved Where on Maine Street? Downtown Brunswick's New Addresses Heading Into the Holidays

Count the new signs in downtown Brunswick this year and the list looks long. Look at the names on those signs and the list gets short. Moderation Brewing, Black Pug Brewing and Hatch on Maine were all here in 2025. Each of them moved this year, and each move opened a space that a neighbor filled. Businesses already in Brunswick moved up the block, moved closer in, or moved into larger rooms.

That matters for the holiday season ahead. If your sense of "the brewery near the corner" or "the gift shop by the bank" dates from last year, a few of those mental pins now point to the wrong door. Here is the chain, link by link, followed by the November dates worth planning around.

The chain, in order

The moves happened in a sequence, and each one depended on the one before it:

1. Cool as a Moose closed its Maine Street shop around the end of April, which emptied 128 Maine Street.
2. Moderation Brewing left 103 Maine Street for the former Central Fire Station at 21 Town Hall Place, soft-opening there on May 23.
3. Hatch on Maine moved two blocks from 96 Maine Street into the old Cool as a Moose space at 128 Maine, with a grand opening on June 5.
4. Black Pug Brewing left 30 Bath Road in late June, after calling it home since 2018, and took Moderation's former space at 103 Maine.
5. Holy Chic Maison opened at 96 Maine Street in Hatch's former spot, at the start of October.

Five steps, four addresses, and only one business that wasn't already operating somewhere in Brunswick last year. The Portland Press Herald covered the brewery swap as a pair of businesses getting new homes in the same story, and that's an accurate way to see the whole year.

Moderation's move put a 1919 building back in daily use

The biggest change in the chain is the building Moderation moved into. The Central Fire Station on Town Hall Place dates to 1919. It was designed by architect Edward Leander Higgins and served the fire department until the replacement station opened in 2023, according to the Bangor Daily News.

Rehabilitation started in spring 2025. The finished project puts Moderation on the first floor and five affordable apartments upstairs, as PenBay Pilot reported ahead of the June 19 grand opening and ribbon cutting. So a building that sat waiting after 2023 now has a taproom downstairs and people living above it, a block off Maine Street.

If you haven't been yet, a few practical details from Moderation's taproom page will help:

• Food comes from rotating food trucks, plus snacks, pies and charcuterie on site. You're also welcome to bring your own.
• Drinks include Moderation's own beer, guest taps, wine and sparkling, digestifs, and craft nonalcoholic beer and cocktails.
• Hours are posted as Tuesday through Thursday 3 to 8 p.m., Friday 3 to 9 p.m., Saturday noon to 9 p.m., and Sunday noon to 6 p.m. The brewery notes those are subject to change.
• The beer garden is listed on Moderation's homepage as open all year, weather permitting.

The brewery's earlier plans for the building included a basement community kitchen and a park alongside the beer garden. For now, the food truck setup and the beer garden are what you'll find when you walk over.

Black Pug moved onto Maine Street

Black Pug's half of the swap brings a brewery that used to be out on Bath Road right into the downtown walk. Its contact page lists the taproom at 103 Maine Street, open Thursday 3 to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday noon to 9 p.m., and Sunday noon to 8 p.m., and closed Monday through Wednesday. The brewery describes its beer as small-batch, and online orders can be picked up at the Maine Street address.

Put the two schedules side by side and they fit together neatly. Moderation opens Tuesday through Sunday. Black Pug runs Thursday through Sunday. From Thursday to Sunday, two breweries are pouring within a short walk of each other. Early in the week, Town Hall Place is the one with the lights on.

Hatch on Maine tripled its room

The retail half of the chain follows the same pattern: a business already in town moving into more space. Hannah Beattie moved Hatch on Maine from its home of 12 years into 128 Maine Street, and the new shop is three times the size of the old one, according to the Harpswell Anchor.

The extra room went to more of everything. The Anchor's tour covers women's clothing from Tribal, Cut Loose and Habitat, men's Liverpool and Long Wharf shirts, candles, glassware, Portuguese dinnerware, lobster-shaped cutting boards, and an expanded run of toys and baby outfits up to children's size 10. "I try to have all price points," Beattie told the Harpswell Anchor. "I try to work with artisans as much as I can. I love having locally made things."

For holiday shopping, that means the gift stop many of us already knew now carries about three times as much under one roof, two blocks from where it used to be.

The one true newcomer took the space Hatch left

96 Maine Street didn't stay empty long. Karen and Perry Schwarz opened Holy Chic Maison there, a European-inspired home and gift boutique, at the start of October. That followed three months of work on the space, as the Portland Press Herald reported. The Brunswick Downtown Association marked the opening with a ribbon cutting on October 9.

Karen is a lifelong painter and decorative artist, and the couple spent years making furniture, wreaths and artwork and selling at an antique and craft mall before opening their own shop. So even the newcomer has local roots. It just has a storefront now.

Pleasant Street saw the goodbyes

The Maine Street moves all ended with the space refilled. The losses this year came around the corner on Pleasant Street.

Tess' Market announced that its Pleasant Street shop would close June 30 after 71 years, as its owners retired. Tess' was known for pizza, Italian sandwiches and wine, according to the Portland Press Herald. Holy Donut, which moved into the former Tim Hortons on Pleasant Street in 2024, announced August 23 as its last day in Brunswick, as the Press Herald also reported.

On Maine Street, every space that opened up in the chain was filled by a business from the same few blocks.

A November built around the new addresses

The changes show most clearly on the calendar, since several of the coming weeks' events happen at the new spots. Here is what's scheduled from Halloween into late November:

The Sip & Shuck is the most hands-on of the bunch, with oyster lessons from Mere Point Oysters on Moderation's events page. The Brunswick Winter Market opens its 2026/2027 season on November 14 and runs Saturday mornings at Fort Andross through the winter, with local growers, bakers, seafood sellers and craftspeople.

Two Saturdays make an easy downtown loop. On November 14, start at the market at the bottom of Maine Street, walk up past Holy Chic Maison at 96 and Black Pug at 103, and keep going to Hatch at 128. On Small Business Saturday, November 28, shop the same stretch in daylight and finish at Routine's evening social on Stanwood Street. The Brunswick Downtown Association also hosts its yearly tree lighting at the Town Mall, and its tree lighting page is the place to watch for this year's date.

Hours and event lineups change with the season, so check each business's own page before you head out.

I keep my own running list of which Midcoast storefront became what, and this year Brunswick's list needed more updating than most. Whether you're trying to figure out what an empty space on your street might turn into, or you're wondering how a building like the old fire station gets a second life, I'm always glad to compare notes. Tyra Hatcher is a quick drive over from Bath. Let's Connect.