Regulars at Hunter’s Breakfast in Wiscasset are thinking about where they will try for breakfast and lunch, now that the Route 27 business is closing for good. The last day is July 7.

Owner Laurie Ezzell said Wednesday, June 28, emotional burnout from being her mother Evelyn Thomas’ caregiver had a lot to do with the decision to close. “I’m just drained,” Ezzell said. Thomas died last month at 62.

Ezzell said she just wants a job she can leave at the end of the day, not the responsibility of owning a restaurant. She bought the business five years ago. Her mother worked there a few years, and Ezzell said her daughter Gabby Leavitt, 13, a high honors student at Wiscasset Middle High School, has worked there since she was 8. Leavitt has dreams of going to Harvard, Ezzell said. “We’re so very proud of her.”

Ezzell will miss those who work and eat there. They will still see one another but it’s not the same as seeing someone every day, Ezzell said.

Ezzell served Nobleboro’s Daphne Clark and her father Raymond Waltz breakfast Sunday. The two eat there at least twice a week. Waltz also comes in Saturday mornings for breakfast with his son, Wiscasset Code Enforcement Officer Stan Waltz. In the summer, for lunch, Clark gets the lobster rolls. Her father likes hot dogs or hamburgers, both with grilled onions.

What has kept the three coming back over the years? The food and the nice women who work there, Clark said. When it closes, she thinks she and her family will try a restaurant in Union.

John Chapman of Dresden isn’t sure where he will try; he’s thinking maybe the Lobster Shack in Wiscasset. On Sunday, Chapman was having coffee with Ezzell’s husband Dan Ezzell. Both men said the food at Hunter’s is fast, good and generous.

Chapman said he was a little sad the restaurant is closing. But he sold the Marketplace Cafe in Wiscasset about four years ago and understands a restaurant is a lot of work, and has more overhead than people realize, he said. He and Ezzell said if you get supplies yourself, you cut out the distributors but have to travel to get those items.

After the restaurant closes, the cook, Alna’s Cindy Allen, will spend time with her granddaughters and clean out her attic this summer. “But I’ll definitely be doing something in the fall,” she said about work.

Ezzell said she has already had a couple of job offers. Hunter’s Breakfast opened 10 years ago, she said.