GLOUCESTER — The owner of The Cupboard Restaurant for the past 60 years expects the seasonal restaurant, a Stage Fort Park landmark, will reopen this month for ice cream after some septic system work is done, but this will be the last year for the iconic Gloucester eatery.
The family-owned restaurant at 41 Hough Ave. has remained boarded up this season, announcing on Facebook in May it was waiting for a new septic system to be installed, with plans to open as soon as possible.
The septic system upgrade is moving forward.
The Board of Health Septic Review Committee voted 3-0 in favor of variances for plans for what the restaurant’s engineer described as a $100,000 upgrade to the septic system during a June 27 meeting carried on Zoom. The committee also voted for a variance to allow the restaurant to use the new system’s tanks temporarily as tight tanks until a leach field can be installed adjacent to the restaurant’s picnic table area.
Owner Cynthia Carter, 87, said the restaurant’s closing is “sad but true.”
She said she was 26 when she took over the business in 1964 from Everett and Pearl Neilsen.
Everett Neilsen purchased the business in the early 1930s, Carter said.
She said the existing system never overflowed, but she said the city deemed it had failed. She thought the process to fix it would be quick, not realizing she would need an engineer and approval from the Board of Health.
“Things are moving along,” she said, though not as quick as she had hoped.
“I hope to be open sometime this month,” Carter said, but when the restaurant known for its fried clams, hamburgers, hot dogs and ice cream reopens, it will only be dishing out ice cream.
Carter, who was born and raised in Gloucester and winters in Valdosta, Georgia, just to the north of the border with Florida, understands the eatery is iconic to Cape Ann.
“People say to me it’s spring because The Cupboard is open,” Carter said.
The reason she is closing is because it’s time, given the job entailed 16-hour days without a day off. She has not taken a break during the summer since the family has run the restaurant.
“I’m old and my kids have said they have had enough,” said the mother of two grown sons and two grandsons. Her eldest son just turned 60 and he served as the fry cook for 40 years, she said.
Carter said she had no criticism for the city whatsoever.
During the June 27 Board of the Health Septic Review Committee meeting, John Judd, an engineer with Gateway Consultants representing the restaurant, outlined the upgrades to the septic system.
The seasonal restaurant only opens for about 90 days between June 1 and Labor Day, Judd said. It does not have public restrooms inside with outdoor picnic tables out back and seating for 26 inside, Judd said.
“We are in my opinion overdesigning this system for this seasonal use,” Judd told the committee.
The plan Judd described involves a pressure distribution system with a grease trap, something the restaurant does not have now.
“We have a pretty significant upgrade in treatment for this system,” Judd said.
Committee members asked if there was any way to move the system up and away — more than 200 feet — from a portion of the parking lot subject to coastal flooding, or if the system could be enlarged, raised or moved up the hill, but Judd said this would be cost prohibitive for a seasonal business that does not generate a lot of cash. He estimated the new system is going to cost $100,000.
The committee approved the variances for the septic system upgrade with the condition a wastewater treatment system would be required if ever the business is expanded or sold to another owner.
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@northofboston.com.
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@northofboston.com.