Tall tales and local flavor

The lobstermen, clam diggers, boat builders, and other folk alighting from their vehicles are the second wave of customers who flow in and out of this eatery from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week. They settle in with mugs of coffee at four wood-grain formica tables rafted together across the front dining room.

Welcome to Tall Barney's, home of the infamous "liars' table," where locals gather to shoot the breeze and swap stories, some as tall and exaggerated as the gentle, mustachioed giant for whom the small-town restaurant is named.

Born in 1835, a descendant of Beals Island settler Mainwaring Beal Jr., Barnabas "Barney" Beal stood around 6 feet, 7 and weighed 300 pounds. He is said to have killed a horse with a single blow. Legends abound and differ wildly, depending on the teller.

"All of us are fishermen and we all lie," declared Dwight Carver, a lobsterman and great-great-grandson of Tall Barney, referring to the half-dozen men assembled this morning at the liars' table. "This is where we gather mornings and afternoons. This is our social hangout. We don't have a bar. We have a restaurant. If we had a bar, there would be trouble."

John Lapinski, a New Jersey transplant and Tall Barney's latest owner, surveys the scene. He and his wife, Linda, bought the restaurant three weeks after hearing a story about the legendary eatery on National Public Radio in 2002.

The Lapinskis had run an insurance agency for more than 20 years and were hungry for change.

"I was on my way home from rehab. I was sober, but I wasn't clear," recalled John Lapinski, drawing guffaws from the liars. "I called Linda from the car and had her get on the Internet and find Jonesport."

Linda Lapinski found the town and discovered that Tall Barney's had been awarded "four grease stains," as opposed to stars, in a greasy spoon survey.

The couple has expanded the Down East fare that was served here for decades. Seafood platters, accompanied by crispy coleslaw and hot biscuits made from scratch, feature crab, clams, shrimp, scallops, and lobster harvested locally.

Linda does all the baking, turning out homemade muffins, cookies, cakes, and pies daily. She sought some of the recipes from older women in the Beals Island-Jonesport community.

They haven't changed the decor much. The back dining room boasts long tables where the Beals, Alleys, Smiths, Carvers, and other old family clans gather for Sunday dinner. In the front room the liars' table fills the space as it has for decades.

"I came here to be changed, not to change," John Lapinski said softly.

The Lapinskis have made their share of mistakes, like trying to make clam chowder with mahogany quahogs instead of long-neck clams. But their warmth, wry humor, and effort to keep things the same have gone over well with locals.

"If we had to have flatlanders come in," Carver summarized, "we couldn't have had two better flatlanders."