“The Gathering Place” in Cape Neddick, Maine”


Welcome to The Cape Neddick Inn.

   First established in 1926 as the Triangle Lunch by Octavius and Velma Talpey the location was a combination gas station and lunch stop. The Talpeys owned a farm at this site that was divided by US Route One, which at that time was the only route North in Maine. When the state later completed Route 1A to York beach in the mid 20’s a triangle of land was created between US Route One, 1A and Clark road to the East, Thus the name, Triangle Lunch.

   Tavis and Velma served homemade donuts, pie, chocolate cake and sandwiches, all at 15 cents. Three years later, in 1929, Tavis and Velma sold the business to their daughter, Nina, and son-in-law, Alpheus Spiller, a chef, who called their eatery Spiller’s Inn. The Spillers enlarged the building to its current layout, adding a formal dining room with white tablecloths. Specialties of the house included Spiller’s home grown vegetables, pear and ginger salad, Spiller’s famous shore dinners, sizzling steaks and chicken. Later, the Spillers opened their celebrated, namesake restaurant on Short Sands Beach.

   In 1946, the Spillers sold their Inn and it became Wheeler’s Inn for more than three decades. A copy of the Wheeler’s Inn menu from the 1960s, as well as postcards depicting Spiller’s Inn and Wheeler’s Inn are framed and on view in the lobby.

   In the late 1970s, Wheeler’s was purchased by three local entrepreneurs, who named their restaurant The Cape Neddick Inn. In 1984, the original building was destroyed by fire and was rebuilt the following year on its original footprint. Yellow pine salvaged from an 1800s factory demolition was used to build the lobby, rear dining room, and kitchen floors. These magnificent yellow pine planks measure more than 4-inches in thickness and are pegged. The Tavern and lobby fireplaces were built at this time of local fieldstone. The doors on the dining room were salvaged from the Hutchin’s General Store building (now the Pie in the Sky bakery) and date to the 19th century.

   The Cape Neddick Inn was sold in 2000 to Jonathan Pratt, a chef from Texas, and again in 2004 to local operators who changed the name to Talpey’s Tavern, a nod to the original Triangle Lunch founders.

   The current owner, David Heavner, purchased the property in June 2007 and brought back the Cape Neddick Inn name and atmosphere with a complete building restoration and extensive landscaping to the two-acre, wooded lot. A fieldstone fireplace was also added to the formal dining room at this time.

   The art prints selected for the dining room are all by Maine artists, mostly the Wyeth family, who stopped here frequently in the early 1940s when it was Spiller’s Inn.

   My staff and I welcome you to this Maine landmark and longtime gathering place for locals and visitors alike. We hope you enjoy your time with us and will return often. We are open year round and feature three warm and cheerful fireplaces in the winter season.



Your Host,
David Heavner