Your search for a cozy centrally located Maine hotel can stop with The Bradley Inn. Located a couple of minutes from the scenic Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, The Bradley Inn offers comfy rooms on a family-run garden oasis, as well as great Maine food at its MidCoast Maine location.

Centrally located in Bristol Maine, the Bradley Inn is a warm, family-run inn near Pemaquid Point Lighthouse — and also near so much that is the essence of coastal Maine. Think waterfront lobster shacks, island cruises, rocky shorelines, and small towns.

The beauty of the Bradley Inn? You feel pretty far away from civilization, near Pemaquid Point, and yet since you are in the Bristol Maine area, you are really just minutes to several village enclaves, even the towns of Damariscotta or Newcastle, or the South Bristol area. In fact, with its central MidCoast Maine location minutes from the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse you could easily take day trips to Boothbay Harbor, St. George, or Camden!

Next best thing about the Bradley Inn? You feel part of the family. In fact, you nearly become part of the family at this cozy MidCoast Maine inn. Tony and Laura Moskwa are the owners as of March 2017, and they live across the street but are always on-site. Laura heads up the kitchen for scrumptious breakfasts included with the room night, while Tony helps out serving – when he’s not out repairing something. They are assisted by their son, Ross, a trained chef, who runs the kitchen (other than breakfast), and his wife, Clarissa, who both live in the building. Laura’s sister Kim spends summers on the property helping out as needed.

From left, the Moskwa family at the MIdCoast Maine Bradley Inn: Son and chef Ross, owners Tony and Laura, Laura’s sister Kim.

Friendly, family-run MidCoast Maine inn

Aside from the cozy, friendly, warm ambiance that compliments any road trip or travels through Maine, there is also the history at The Bradley Inn. The building’s property – with the main house and several cottages – sprawls across a beautiful property nearly at the end of the road on the Bristol peninsula of MidCoast Maine. If you don’t make the left turn as you head to the popular Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, you’ll drive onto the property.

The Bradley Inn, with 12 rooms in the main house and 16 total, counting the outlying cottages, was built in the early 1900s. It was originally a boarding house but became an inn in the 1920s. Since purchasing the inn, Laura and Tony have been busy refurbishing rooms, adding some modern amenities (USB ports!) while keeping the historic touch that is such a delight.

After a fruit starter and your first cup of coffee, one breakfast may be morning soft tacos — with the requisite edible flower.

And food is a huge deal at The Bradley Inn. Laura’s breakfasts are a three-course feast, decorated with edible flowers and coming with daily changing home-baked goodies and bottomless coffee. Dinners, although more limited during my stay in July 2020 due to COVID-19’s damper on tourism, are a combination of Maine fare and some “California” themed items (like soft tacos) since Ross trained in Northern California where the family lived prior. Ross is in fact obsessive about fresh, local fare, even taking a personal handoff of a freshly harvested bag of oysters for dinner or heading out to the seashore to harvest his own seaweed for a meal.

“I want people to come here and immerse themselves in this atmosphere,” Laura said. “They should feel pampered and have great food…. We are the foodies.”

Community hub and drop-in diners

The Moskwas just finished a new fire pit seating area on the back lawn, while a covered porch also beckons guests to relax with a book or beverage. There is also a living room with plush furniture, which is a gathering spot for guests (Note: During my Pandemic visit, some meal service had been altered to minimize contact, masks are required indoors, tables spread out for distance, and of course fewer people actually hang out in the living room. A table at the entry offers hand sanitizer to guests, and keyless check-in was implemented, with other contact-minimizing changes such as request-only housekeeping and amenity replenishment.)

With 16 rooms, a large living room, a spacious bar, and a good-sized dining room, The Bradley Inn has become a go-to for some cycling and photography groups, a niche the Moskwas developed. This is however their first go at inn ownership – a dream they both had, with Laura saying they were “young enough to do it and too old not to.”

As new owners at The Bradley Inn in MidCoast Maine, they have met guests who have been coming there for 30 years or more. But it seems they have won over the community with their welcoming touches and creative food, as community members drop by for dinner or visitors to Pemaquid Point Lighthouse stroll in for lunch.

Rooms still being remodeled at The Bradley Inn

Since the inn is closed between about November and April, the couple was thrown straight into opening the inn when they purchased it in March 2017. Meaning they have had just two winter seasons to remodel. I stayed in the newly remodeled Puffin’s Nest (formerly Wild Rose). On the third floor, it was a delightful corner room allowing marvelous flow-through breezes. The remodel had removed wallpaper covered with little roses and a carpet to transform the room into a clean, simple yet cozy affair with a sleek wood floor – one I’d definitely choose again. As with most historic inns in Maine, there is no elevator, so choose your room based on personal needs – there are two on the accessible first floor.

One of the larger third-floor rooms with a King bed, vaulted ceilings, and a fireplace.

They supply fresh-baked cookies upon check-in (non-pandemic, afternoons), American-made and environmentally friendly vegan amenities, fresh flowers on a desk or table, USB plugs, a water pitcher and glasses, and free Wi-Fi throughout (sometimes a tad finicky if used during busy phases).

One touch I loved on The Bradley Inn’s website was the “Rooms Comparison Chart.” Sometimes at inns and B&Bs, rooms have cute names, but you end up trying to puzzle out which has what and can be forced to click in and look at every single one. For Maine’s Bradley Inn, you can quickly select rooms that meet certain personal criteria such as view or bed size, and then go look at just those. One missing touch on such a thorough chart would be room size in approximate square feet since that fact is on each room’s page.)

The Bradley Inn’s location and historic ambiance indeed make it a top choice for a centrally located MidCoast Maine stay.