WESTBROOK – When Peter Profenno first began his signature downtown business, John F. Kennedy was president, gas went for about 30 cents a gallon and the Internet hadn’t been invented yet.

In the decades since, politics, fuel prices and technology have changed dramatically, but one thing that hasn’t changed is that Profenno’s Restaurant remains one of Westbrook’s best-known eateries. This month, Profenno marks 50 years owning his business, and he is planning a party on Sept. 22 to mark the occasion. Profenno’s has lasted half a century – a rarity in the restaurant business – because of four factors, say patrons: The food is good, the prices are reasonable, it provides a homelike atmosphere and Profenno is always there.

Mike Sanphy, a city councilor and president of the Westbrook Historical Society, said Profenno’s is an old-fashioned business that had stood the test of time, even surviving the urban renewal program of the 1970s that, according to critics like Sanphy, gutted the downtown, destroying or running off locally owned businesses. Today, he said, Profenno’s remains a throwback to an old-school, friendly neighborhood way of doing business, which has endured.

“It’s always been a great place downtown there,” he said.

Sanphy said Profenno’s good-natured attitude is part of why the restaurant remains successful. To a man, Sanphy said, everyone who knows Profenno seems to like him.

“I’ve never heard a bad word about Pete,” Sanphy said.

Today, the restaurant, bar and function room at 934 Main St. is a favorite haunt for anyone who lives and works in the city. It hosted Mayor Colleen Hilton’s victory celebration after being reelected in November 2011. Hilton, who grew up in Westbrook, can remember when she was first married 30 years ago, and while building the couple’s first home in Windham, spending a lot of time at the restaurant.

“We were eating all of our meals at Profenno’s,” she said.

Hilton said the atmosphere was “like family” there, and even now she is a frequent patron.

“It’s like a Westbrook hangout,” she said. “It’s like coming home.”

Profenno, by his own admission, fell into the business. A Portland native, he graduated from Deering High School in 1953. He did a brief stint in the U.S. Army, was a cigarette salesman for a year (which he hated), then a chocolate salesman for five years (which he liked), before a chance meeting in Brunswick changed his life for good.

He said he went into a bar for a drink, and behind the bar he found an old high school friend who was running the place for his ailing uncle. They talked for a bit, and Profenno recalled his friend making a convincing case that running one’s own business can be a good gig.

“I said, ‘Maybe this is for me,’” said Profenno, 78.

Then fortune stepped in a second time. The man sitting on the stool next to him, Profenno said, turned and told him that Cardamone’s in Westbrook, then at 920 Main St., was up for sale.

It took Profenno a few months to warm up to it, but he bought the place in 1962, for the whopping price of $1,500. He opened, first as a bar, on Sept. 17, 1962. He liked it so much, he bought the building two years later for $20,000, and by 1970 he was offering a full menu.

“I gradually grew into it,” he said.

But while Profenno’s was popular, Profenno himself “got fed up with it” by 1984, and went into selling used cars instead. He technically retained ownership of the restaurant, but it passed to someone else, who made mortgage payments to the bank and Profenno.

Meanwhile, Profenno opened a car dealership, Magic Motors, on the corner of Warren Avenue and Riverside Street. But the restaurant flagged in his absence, and by 1991, the owner had stopped making payments. Rather than see his beloved restaurant sold off at auction, he gave up the car business and went back to the restaurant.

“I got walking around inside the restaurant,” he said. “I started to enjoy it. I got the feeling back. I guess I needed the rest.”

Apparently, the rest did him good, because he said as soon as he took over the failing restaurant, “business came right back.”

Since then, nothing has changed his mind about where he was supposed to be – not even an early-morning fire on Sept. 25, 2004, that burned the place to the ground. The fire was ruled an arson, but remains unsolved to this day.

At the time, Profenno had bought a neighboring building, at 934 Main St., the former home of Hebert’s Market, with attached barn, and after the fire he decided to move into it and reopen. Profenno said he didn’t advertise the move, and didn’t need to.

“Without telling anyone we were opening, we were mobbed, and we’ve been busy ever since,” he said.

Ron Richard, 47, of Westbrook, started working for Profenno just after the reopening. He works as a chef in the restaurant, helping to bake the Italian sandwich rolls, and prepare the hamburger and more than 100 pizzas the restaurant sells in a typical day.

“Sometimes we run out,” he said.

Richard said he used to go to the restaurant’s old location, first as a patron. For many of Profenno’s staff, that kind of personal connection was what brought them in, like Tracey Plummer, 38, who has been working there for the past six years, waiting tables and making sandwiches.

“I’ve known Peter since I was 16 years old,” she said. “My friends worked for him.”

Steve Scribner, 68, and his wife Kathy have been coming to Profenno’s three nights a week – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday – for dinner, for more than 30 years now, and part of that is due to Profenno himself, whom Steve Scribner called, “a great person. A very caring person.”

And then there’s the food, which the couple said is top-notch.

“We wouldn’t be here three nights a week if we didn’t love it,” Kathy Scribner said.

Profenno himself is happy to still be in business, but he doesn’t know how to explain the secret to his success.

His son, Paul Profenno, 48, who started working there in 1991, puts it very simply.

“It’s not rocket science,” he said. “You serve food and drinks, you treat everybody fair, and make sure the food’s good. I don’t think there’s a lot of magic to it.”

It isn’t magic, just a simple method of doing business that has served Peter Profenno well for five decades. At some point, Paul Profenno will take over, and plans to maintain the good, simple business model. But that won’t happen for a long time. His father still comes in every day, holding court at his seat in the booth in the back under the television, next to the drinks cooler, signing orders, going over the books, managing the workforce, and greeting customers like old friends.

“What am I gonna do,” he asked, “Stay home?”

Peter Profenno is celebrating 50 years in business in downtown Westbrook. Profenno’s opened first as a bar on Sept. 17, 1962, and “gradually grew into” offering food, he said.    
Little remained of Profenno’s following a fire Sept. 25, 2004, that burned the place to the ground. The fire was ruled arson, and remains unsolved.    

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