Mulligan’s bar, a longtime institution in downtown Biddeford, will close for good this weekend after nearly 30 years in business.

Co-owner and manager Jake DeLois confirmed that the bar’s last day open will be Sunday.

“As heartbreaking as it is, because we love everyone who comes here and everyone who works here, it’s time to close the doors,” he said Wednesday.

DeLois said the pub hasn’t turned a profit since 2021. Mulligan’s had announced in January that it was closing its kitchen, citing increasing financial pressures from rising food prices and recently increased staff wages.

“We never really recovered from the pandemic,” he said. “We probably should have closed three or four years ago.”

Originally known as Shelley’s, the Lincoln Street bar was bought in 1997 by George Sharkey, who renamed it Mulligan’s, after his other restaurants in Windham, Portland and South Portland.

Sharkey made it what it is today, Biddeford-Saco Chamber of Commerce Director Alex MacPhail said. Under his ownership, Mulligan’s became known for its inexpensive food — including $5 steak specials — sports on the TV, and friendly conversations with neighbors and strangers alike.

For many Mulligan’s regulars and Biddeford residents, the bar closing marks the end of an era. 

Patrick Goulet, a stand-up comedian and co-founder of The Comedy Mill group, likened Mulligan’s to the namesake bar in the popular 1980s sitcom “Cheers,” where “everybody knows your name.” 

“It was a place where you felt like it was home,” Goulet said Wednesday. “It’s sad to see it go.” 

Goulet and other members of The Comedy Mill were fixtures at Mulligan’s over the past few years, performing every Wednesday night. 

“Mulligan’s opened their arms to us,” he said. “It’s been something that I think was embraced by the community. It was something special.” 

Biddeford native Dominic Deschambault began going to Mulligan’s in his early 20s, and said the pub was always known as the place to go the night before Thanksgiving.

“It’d be like a mini reunion of sorts, people coming home from college or from away,” he recalled. “That was always nice.” 

Beyond reuniting with friends, Mulligan’s was a place to “come as you are,” enjoy the comfortable atmosphere and strike up a conversation with a stranger. 

“You’d be sitting at the bar and someone would come up and start a conversation, and then someone else would come over, and soon enough there would be five people having a conversation,” Deschambault said. 

After Sharkey died in 2017, the pub was purchased by DeLois and his father, Joe, who tried to keep the original owner’s vision alive. 

But when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and businesses had to close their doors, Mulligan’s suffered. 

“Covid changed everything,” Joe DeLois wrote on social media in January. “Realistically, we should have closed three years ago, but my affection for the place, our workers and our customers delayed the inevitable.”

Despite his disappointment at the closure, Deschambault commended the DeLoises for their efforts to keep the pub open in difficult times.

“It’s a tough situation,” he said. “I want to applaud them. It was kind of a catch-22.”