Fire guts topless coffee shop in Maine; owner was seeking to make it more like a strip club

Fire guts topless coffee shop in Maine

VASSALBORO, Maine — A topless coffee shop in Maine has been gutted by fire.

The blaze was reported at about 1 a.m. Wednesday at the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop in Vassalboro, just north of Augusta. Fire marshal’s investigators are trying to determine the cause.

Owner Donald Crabtree says he spent $277,000 buying and renovating the building, a former motel. It wasn’t insured.

He and six others, including his daughters and their babies, escaped unharmed.

The fire happened only hours after Crabtree met with town planners to discuss making the coffee shop more like a strip club.

The shop raised the ire of dozens of residents when it initially went before the town planning board. Someone recently called police to complain that a waitress was outside the business without a shirt.