Was There Really a Restaurant On the Top Floor Of Key Plaza in Augusta, Maine?

If you know me, you know that I am a huge history geek.

I love almost all history, from the Roman Empire to the Soviet Union.  But, what I really love is the learn about the history of the area where I live.

Since moving to town, I have been obsessed with learning more about Augusta's Key Plaza.  When compared to the much older, five and six story buildings, the modern office building dominates Augusta's downtown

Key Plaza in Augusta, Maine

The monolithic brick and glass building, which dwarfs the other buildings on Water Street, stands 110 feet tall and has 9 floors.

Completed in 1988, about three quarters of the building's 76,000 square feet are taken up by government offices, including the Maine Centers for Disease Control.

In addition to the building itself, the Winthrop Street end of Key Plaza features a cool little plaza.  There are some concrete benches for seating and soil beds that contain some greenery.

Was There Really a Restaurant on the Top Floor of Augusta's Key Plaza?

I was looking at some old pictures of the Whatever Race online.  The pictures, clearly from the mid-80s, showed a Kennebec River filled with "boats" and the banks crowded with spectators.  You could see the nearly finished Key Plaza building looming in the background.

I commented to a longtime local how cool it would be if there was a restaurant or bar in the Key Plaza building.  The view of the race, or whatever was going on on the Kennebec River, would have been amazing.

That's when the person explained to me that there was once a restaurant on the top floor of the Key Plaza building.  The person explained that they did not remember what the restaurant was called, what they served, or when it was there, but they definitely knew there was a restaurant in the building.

Now, I knew I needed to know more.

After a Google search turned up nothing, I asked people on Facebook.

While most of the commenters on my post say they knew nothing about it, one woman did say that she did remember there being a restaurant on the building's top floor.  She explained that it was some time in the 1990s and that it served basic foods like burgers, fries, and sandwiches.

This makes me think that maybe it was intended as a cafeteria for the building's employees.

Do you know anything about there being a restaurant in Key Plaza?  Let us know by sending us a message using our app or by commenting on Facebook.