WILLOW CREEK — The Dry Dock, Dean Moreau’s restaurant at Thorne’s Bend, has been named one of “10 Great Maine Watering Holes” in the May issue of Down East magazine, giving Willow Creek its first statewide tourism spotlight in years.
The feature, part of the magazine’s annual “Best of Maine” package, praises the pub’s “generous bowl of fish chowder — thick with haddock and salt pork” and its “warm, unpretentious atmosphere that speaks to the town’s shipbuilding roots.”
Moreau, who opened the Dry Dock in 2010 in the renovated Thorne & Sons boat shed, said the recognition came as a surprise. “I did not even know they were coming,” he said. “A woman showed up with a notebook, ordered chowder and a Blueberry Ale, and stayed for two hours talking.”
Moreau left Willow Creek at 18 for culinary school in Portland and spent 15 years working his way up through kitchens in Portland and Boston, most recently as a sous-chef at a James Beard-nominated restaurant in Boston’s North End. He returned home to open the Dry Dock in the old boat shed, keeping the original hewn beams exposed and hanging period photographs of the shipyard on the walls. The private dining room is named the Lydia Barnes Room, after the last sloop launched from the shed in 1882.
The magazine also noted the pub’s wall of historic mill photographs and its “dock” — a pine counter where solo diners can eat and chat with the cook.
Selectwoman Eleanor Vance called the feature a major win for the town’s tourism efforts. “People read Down East and plan trips around these lists,” she said. “We had better be ready for company.”