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November 3, 2008 Business Maine

Gimmicks gone wild | The tale of a Greenville restaurant, its sandwich promotion and the police chief who would have none of it

Nudity, it turns out, is not always a wise business strategy. Greenville selectmen recently voted to deny a popular restaurant’s liquor license if it continued to encourage hardy patrons to strip down for a free Skinny Dip sandwich.

Up until it received this official rebuke, The Black Frog restaurant had given every diner who opted to run down a nearby dock and take a naked plunge into Moosehead Lake a sandwich with thinly sliced prime rib on a baguette, normally priced at $10.95. Owner Leigh Turner said he had two or three takers a week but that no one ever exposed frontal nudity to customers, the Associated Press reported.

Nevertheless, local police said they had received several complaints and had given three people summons for indecent conduct (all three pleaded not guilty). Police Chief Scott MacMaster told selectmen he would recommend that any establishment lose its liquor license for illegal goings-on, the AP reported. Selectmen said they would grant the liquor license if Turner ended the practice.

MacMaster later complained to the Bangor Daily News that he had been unfairly maligned by people around the world who’ve taken an interest in the story. “You know, I almost feel like the reverend from [the movie] ‘Footloose’ and that there’ll be no dancing in my town, but it’s not that,” MacMaster said. “I have to look at everybody’s safety and I have to represent everybody, so it’s not that I don’t think there should be dancing in Greenville or this or that. It’s a violation of law.”

Turner told a Bangor Daily News reporter that he was shocked by the selectmen’s decision, but would end the promotion. “It’s a no brainer,” he said.

Rebecca Goldfine

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