Rob DeGennaro stood by the entrance to his new Bucksport restaurant on Thursday as the dinner rush began, joking with diners before walking them to their tables at Stowaways Town Tavern and Ugly’s Bar.

He spoke as if they were all old friends, though the place has only been open for two weeks.

But in that time, the restaurant has attracted far more traffic than he expected – lines were out the door for the first three days – and already drawn repeat customers, with an early record of five return visits in one week.

“We didn’t get a chance to have a soft opening,” DeGennaro said.

The family-oriented restaurant opened this month in the highly visible building at 63 Main St. that had housed MacLeod’s Restaurant for the last 45 years. With a vast menu reminiscent of home cooking, generous

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