Pat's Pizza

Farnsworth's Cafe, better known as Pat's Pizza, is the heart and soul of Orono, Maine. Generations of Orono locals, as well as thousands of students at the University of Maine, have grown up on Pat's popular plain Maine fare.

I was a freshman at the University in 1960-61 when I ate my first Pat's pizza, delivered to the dorm. And I was a senior when I first started drinking legally in Pat's tap room.

But Pat's is about much more than pizza and beer. While the food is good and cheap, it's the atmosphere that people want to experience again and again. The first thing that many of my former Orono students do when they come home is go to Pat's to see who's around. It's the most popular hang-out for everyone of all ages.

As my colleague Thom Ingrahan says, "The breakfast crowd at Pat's is Orono without a university" with all the locals and regulars dishing the dirt, talking about town government, the schools, and so on."

The old wooden booths, the scarred tables, the worn floor tiles, the counter, the tap room, and Pat Farnsworth himself haven't changed much over the past forty years.

Hundreds of Orono students have worked at Pat's waiting on tables, making and delivering pizzas.

During last January's ice storm and several-day power outage, Pat's was the only place in town with power and the restaurant was packed more than usual. The whole world had gone black but Pat's had light with people inside laughing, telling stories, eating pizza and drinking beer. As Thom Ingraham said, "It was like a festival in the middle of a disaster."

Pat's Pizza remains a good-humored and human place where no one rushes the customers. It's a politically incorrect, warm environment where everyone's welcome.

For me, as well as for so many other Maniacs, Pat's is like going home to the Maine where we grew up.

-Sanford Phippen

Portland Magazine

Summerguide 1998