By Carol McCracken

At 12:45 this afternoon, an employee of the café Others! was held up at gun-point by a man in his early 50s, wearing a bulky jacket and hat with ear flaps. He had a bushy mustache with salt and pepper hair. The robber pointed the gun at the employee and said: “Empty your cash register.” Then he told the employee to “get down on the floor and don’t call the cops.” She obeyed.

Brad McCurtain, owner of the Others!, told MHN the sequence of events about 2 hours after the incident happened. McCurtain who has a securities business on the second floor of the building at 15 Monument Square said he’s normally in the café, but had just stepped upstairs to his office about 15 minutes before it happened. McCurtain had just returned from taking his employee home because she was shaken by the incident. But he continued to wait on customers who entered the Others unaware of what had just transpired. McCurtain who has been in business there since 1981, since he was surprised because there has never been any trouble since he’s been there – especially involving a hand-gun. Furthermore, he said the police response was very prompt.

Three years ago McCurtain and his cafe were the focus of an in-depth article published in the “Portland Press Herald.” He has always supported worthy causes, such as “needy local children to farmers in other countries.” ‘An investment banker who founded Maine Securities Corp., Others! is not intended to make lots of money he said in the article. But it’s his “social return on capital.” The name Others! came from the founder of the Salvation Army. “It’s not about me. It’s not about you. It’s about others,” McCurtain also said in the article.

Meanwhile, someone close to the situation said this robbery could be connected to another armed robbery that happened last night at Salon Burke at 550 Congress Street.

(editor’s note: MHN highly recommends the carmalized apple pie and delicious chicken soup (as good as my mother’s) at the Other! – eaten in that order. Highly recommended!