Dover-Foxcroft restaurant closed indefinitely after attic blaze relights

By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff

DOVER-FOXCROFT — A Dover-Foxcroft restaurant is closed indefinitely after an attic fire that restarted after it was believed to be out.

The fire started about 1:50 p.m. Tuesday at Chew 62 on North Street, according to the Dover-Foxcroft Fire Department.

The fire was found in the building’s attic and was quickly extinguished, according to early reports. The owner of Chew 62 said in a Facebook post that the fire was extinguished “before it got to the point of no return,” adding that quick work from the firefighters means “the dream remains alive and intact.”

However, the restaurant posted later that “the attic fire managed to rekindle,” and that the restaurant would be “closed indefinitely while we work through the next steps in our journey.”

Tejai Lee opened Chew 62 in early January 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lee bucked the pressures that forced other restaurants to close, and even opened a second business, the cocktail and dessert lounge Tap 62 on West Maine Street in Dover-Foxcroft, in June 2022.

Lee told the Piscataquis Observer the “62” in his businesses’ names refers to the Bible verse from Galatians 6:2: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

BDN writer Valerie Royzman contributed reporting to this story.