Rick and Gail Leiser Built Galyn’s. Their Son Is Carrying It Forward

May 3

“Making it this far, this long… that’s what we’re most proud of.”

On a street just off the center of Bar Harbor, Galyn’s has been serving dinner for four decades. The story of how it started is not complicated. Rick and Gail Leiser were working at the same restaurant in Memphis, part of a national chain. He was the general manager. She was a server. They wanted something different. Something of their own.

They considered Alaska. They considered Maine. With a baby and a car, Maine was easier.

They drove up the coast, stopping in towns along the way, until they reached Bar Harbor. One night, they had dinner in a restaurant called Vagabonds. The space had potential. Not long after, they bought it.

That was 1986.

The restaurant has changed over the years. A patio became an enclosed dining room. Windows were opened up. The bar moved. But the structure, and the idea behind it, has held. One restaurant. One location. No expansion plan.

“We don’t do this to be rich,” their son Stephen said. “We just try to do one place really well.”

Stephen grew up in the building. He started in the kitchen, washing dishes in middle school, working shifts around football practice. Over time, he moved through the front of the house, bartending for years before stepping into the role of general manager. “This is the only thing I’ve really known,” he said. “And I’m happy to keep it going.”

The kitchen has its own continuity. Chef Larry Jones has been there since the beginning, coming north from Tennessee when Rick and Gail decided to open. The menu reflects that long view. Seafood anchors it, with fresh fish arriving daily and dishes that have stayed in rotation for years. The basto, a layered seafood stew. A Maine combination plate with lobster, crab, and scallops. A pork chop that regulars order without looking at the menu. And a blueberry apple crisp that has outlasted most trends in dessert.

There are other details that stand out. Reservations are still taken by phone and written down by hand. The walls are lined with artwork collected over decades, not for sale. The dining room fills with a mix of first-time visitors and people who return every year and already know what they’re going to order.

“It’s not a turn-and-burn place,” said Stephen’s wife, Joie. “There’s thought behind everything.”

For the Leisers, the restaurant has never been separate from the rest of their lives. It raised three children. It dictated summers, weekends, and holidays. It also became a place where other people built their own traditions.

“It’s like welcoming people into our house,” Stephen said.

Joie put it another way: “For a lot of people, it’s like coming home every year.”

Famous for:
Classic American seafood and their signature blueberry apple crisp.

17 Main St, Bar Harbor, ME | galynsbarharbor.com