Bob Sweeney, a Vietnam veteran and Boston native who ran Ashley's in Arundel for more than two decades, retired last year after struggling with two torn rotator cuffs and PTSD. He hopes whoever buys the building will continue to run it as a restaurant.

Ashley's Restaurant on Route 11 in Arundel will be auctioned off Monday. "The location is just unbelievable," says its owner Bob Sweeney, who retired last year.

It’s been a year and a half since customers packed Ashley's Restaurant.

Ashley's Restaurant is closed, but the owner's to-do list remains.

Coffee cups sit washed and ready at Ashley's, which will be auctioned off Monday.

With Bob Sweeney in the kitchen, Ashley's became known as the restaurant with homemade comfort food.

Bob Sweeney's business partner, Margaret Jamieson, said Ashley's "was like a club in the morning. ... I felt like I was hosting a party every day.”

The sign above the kitchen door says it all about Ashley's. “It was the kind of atmosphere you just can’t find nowadays,” said Barbara Mulford, Sweeney’s partner, who waitressed at the restaurant.

Bob Sweeney sits at a booth in his restaurant on June 27. The business brought Sweeney to a state he grew to love.