WILLOW CREEK — Dean Moreau, owner and chef of The Dry Dock, announced this week that the restaurant will launch a winter dinner series beginning in January 2027, featuring guest chefs from Portland, Bangor, and beyond.
The series, titled “Thorne’s Table,” will run on the second Saturday of each month from January through April, with each guest chef crafting a multi-course menu built around Aroostook County ingredients. Moreau said the idea came from the realization that the restaurant’s busiest quarter — foliage season — leaves the winter months as a long, quiet stretch that strains his year-round staff.
“We close for two weeks in January because there’s simply no business,” Moreau said, standing in the restaurant’s exposed-beam dining room. “But the kitchen still needs to be maintained, the staff still needs hours, and frankly, sitting idle for four months is a waste of a perfectly good wood-fired oven.”
The series has already confirmed four chefs, including a James Beard semifinalist from Portland and the head chef of a noted farm-to-table restaurant in Camden. Tickets will be limited to 40 seats per dinner, priced at $125 per person, with optional wine pairings.
Eleanor Vance, who has been advocating for exactly this kind of off-season programming, called the announcement “exactly the kind of thinking Willow Creek needs.”
“A destination restaurant that can draw people here in January — that’s a game-changer,” Vance said. “That’s how you build a year-round economy.”