The Bounty Taverne provides entertainment for various age groups

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Mike Levesque has plenty of company each night. That’s because he manages the Bounty Taverne and Fitzgerald’s Lounge at the Main Street Holiday Inn in Bangor.

Hired as manager in July 1990, Levesque supervises about 20 employees who provide entertainment for many Bangor-area residents, plus hotel guests. The Bounty can seat 230 people, Fitzgerald’s 50.

Open 8 p.m.-1 a.m. daily in summer and closed Sundays and Mondays during the off-season, the Bounty Taverne has long been well-known for its nightclub atmosphere. The name “Bounty” refers to an infamous mutiny, of course, and a deck replicated from an 18th-century sailing ship forms the backdrop for the dance floor in the nightclub.

According to Levesque, the Bounty’s clientele usually ranges in age from 21 to the early 30s, with 40-somethings particularly turning out for Rock `n Roll Night each Thursday. A deejay provides the music, which most nights encompasses hip-hop or top 40 dance tunes.

During the summer, the Bounty offers chemical-free entertainment for young people ages 16-23 each Sunday and Monday night. There’s also a dance contest, in which “one of the talents from the Fox (WWFX 104.7-FM) emcees the contest and entertains the kids between numbers,” Levesque said.

Tuesday night is Ladies’ Night at the Bounty, while Friday is Buck Night ($1 for domestic beers and well drinks purchased between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.). The nightclub has two bars and several TVs.

Fitzgerald’s Lounge, located on the second floor, has a greenhouse where patrons like to sit and relax. The lounge is open “Monday through Friday, from three-thirty to whenever, and it’s open from 5 (p.m.) to whenever on Saturday and Sunday,” Levesque said.

The Erin Co. promotes its employees from within its own ranks, as Alice Swett can attest.

“I started working for the company the day that Pete and Larry’s (Lounge) opened” at the Odlin Road Holiday Inn, Swett said. That was in March 1984, and she was hired as a bartender.

A year later, the company named Swett as the manager of Pete and Larry’s, a popular lounge in the Greater Bangor area. She managed the lounge since then — and several employees who were also hired 10 1/2 years ago are still working there with her.

“About half of the staff has been here for more than 10 years,” Swett said. “That’s unusual in the entertainment industry; usually there’s a high turnover. We’ve got a solid group of people who’ve been here a long time.”

Open from 12 noon-1 a.m. daily, Pete and Larry’s attracts a clientele that changes from weekday to weekend. During the week, “we see many businesspeople in here,” Swett explained, “and the crowd runs 30-45 in age. Weekends tend to be a comparatively younf crowd,” people in their 20s and 30s.

The atmosphere, the food, the camaraderie, and the entertainment all draw people to the lounge. A deejay provides the music on Sunday and Monday, while live entertainers perform Tuesday through Saturday. The acts come from Boston, Toronto, San Diego, New York City, and Florida and perform music “from the ’60s and ’70s, (and) a touch of Irish,” Swett said. “There’s a lot of Irish on the circuits they play.”

The lounge serves “a fairly full lunch menu until 10 o’clock on weekends and nine o’clock on weekdays,” she said. The menu includes nachos, chicken fingers, and cheese sticks. Pete and Larry’s also serves drinks ranging from coffee, non-alcoholic frozen drinks, sodas, and juices to various liquers.

The lounge can seat approximately 110 people, with many opting to enjoy the attached greenhouse. This “has a lot of appeal,” Swett said. “When people come in, that’s the place that fills up first.”

Many customers have frequented the lounge since it opened, according to Swett. “We’ve got customers who have been here as long as I’ve been here,” she said. “It’s a wonderful place to come and relax.”

Tom Mann works when many people sleep. That’s part of his job as manager of the Pete and Larry’s Lounge at the Ellsworth Holiday Inn.

Mann was the assistant manager at the Bounty Tavern in Bangor before he was promoted to his new position last winter. Pete and Larry’s opened in Ellsworth last February; the lounge quickly proved a big hit with area residents.

The lounge is open 4 p.m.-1 a.m., seven nights a week. Live entertainers perform Tuesday through Friday, while a deejay provides music Saturday through Monday.

“We’ve found this is unique to this market, providing live entertainment on a nightly basis,” Mann stated. He books the entertainers, “mostly single acts or duets” drawn primarily from Maine. One act comes from Canada, another from Massachusetts. The venue ranges from folk music to classic rock and golden oldies.

Pete and Larry’s offers its clientele a special feature: an exterior deck that overlooks Card Brook. The deck can seat 125 people and remains “open until we close, if people care to sit out there,” Mann said. “It’s a great place to relax on hot summer evenings.”

Mann has found the clientele to be “mostly local, from Ellsworth and its outlying towns. Our customers are running from 25 to 40 in age, a little older than a normal lounge crowd. The type of entertainment that we provide is a big attraction for them.”

While Friday and Saturday “nights are our busiest during the week,” Pete and Larry’s also offers a chemical-free night each Sunday for “people age 21 and under,” Mann said. “If you’re older than 21, you can’t get in.”

“The kids love going into a club-type atmosphere and dancing. They feel like it’s their club for the night, which it is. We serve sodas and juices, no alcohol,” he said.

The lounge has an hors d’oeuvres menu and sells pizza made at Charlie’s Pizza of Ellsworth. Many hotel guests also relax at the lounge, located near High Street.

While studying at the University of MAine at Presque Isle for her degree in physical education, Gray apprenticed at the Holiday Health and Racquet Club in Bangor in 1980. The Weston native went on to work elsewhere, but three years ago, she was living in Bangor and routinely exercising at the same Odlin Road fitness center.

That was when Keith Mahaney, brother of Erin President Larry Mahaney, asked her to consider the Peter and Larry’s position in Waterville. “I said that I wasn’t experienced in managing a lounge, but he felt I could, so I came down here,” Gray said.

She left her position 1 1/2 years ago, then returned to it last May. She now manages a lounge that employs 15-20 people, including waitresses, bartenders, a disc jockey, and security personnel.

Pete and Larry’s Lounge is open 7 p.m.-1 a.m., Tuesday through Saturday. The Killarney’s Pub located in the Waterville Holiday Inn is also open Sunday and Monday, so “our guests can enjoy the atmosphere there when the lounge is not open,” Gray said.

Each night, a deejay plays music that Gray described as “contemporary rock dance. On Wednesdays, we do a live broadcast” from 9 p.m.-1 a.m. with a deejay from WABK 104-FM in Augusta. In fact, the lounge’s own deejay, Stephen Colella, works at WABK.

Pete and Larry’s draws a clientele ranging from 21-60 years in age, with “most people falling between 21 and 40,” Gray said. “We see people here from Augusta, Waterville, the Skowhegan area. We get a fair number of hotel guests.

“We don’t serve any food except for popcorn,” she said. Drinks include domestic and import beers, as well as traditional liquors.

The lounge, which can seat 140 people, has a large dance floor, three bars, and a greenhouse that overlooks Main Street.