Our History
Woodman's Bar & Grill was established in 2005 by Abe & Heather Furth and Mark Horton. Their plan was to open a local restaurant and bar, providing the best service possible along with great food and drinks. Since then, Woodman's has become legendary for accommodating both the local townsfolk and the college crowd, and has won numerous awards for the areas best Burger, Steak, Cocktail, and Best Bar.
Abe, Mark, and Heather celebrating University of Maine’s graduation for the first time in 2006.
Meet the New Owners
In 2023 Woodman's was purchased by Dewey Hasbrouck, Jessica Nickerson and Chris Jandreau. Their goal is to continue the great food, drinks and customer service Woodman's has become known for, while also enhancing the lives of their employees.
Dewey and his wife Emily have lived in Orono, Maine (where Dewey grew up) for the past 12 years. They have two children; a son, Leo (13) and a daughter, Stuart (10) and own two other restaurants - Moe's Original BBQ in Bangor (est. 2012) & South Portland (est. 2014).
Chris Jandreau and his wife Jamie live in Windham, ME. They have three children; a daughter, Rilynn (3) and newborn twins Porter and Avery. Chris began working at Moe’s Original BBQ in Bangor when it opened in 2012, right after graduating culinary school. He made the move to Portland in 2014 to open up Moe’s Original BBQ in South Portland, where he is now the general manager.
Jessica Nickerson and her husband Dalton live in Bangor, ME. They have one son, Malcolm, who is a year old. Jessica grew up in the Bangor area and found a love for Woodman's while she was in high school at Orono. She began her career at Moe's Original BBQ in 2012, when the Bangor location opened, and now serves as the operations manager for both Bangor and South Portland.
Their Hospitality group is two years into a mission to improve the lives of front-line service industry workers in Maine by paying a true “living wage” and creating sustainable “Good Jobs”. The approach is modeled after MIT Professor Zeynep Ton’s book “The Good Jobs Strategy”. The book outlines how model retailers (Costco, for example) view employee wages as an investment rather than an expense. They pay higher wages, attract (& keep) great employees and operate more efficiently to become more profitable than traditional low-wage paying restaurants. His goal is to create more “Good Jobs” in the state of Maine - while ALSO attracting more employers to implement the model of higher wages & “Good Jobs.”
Dewey and Jessica with Orono Brewing Company’s Woodman’s Red Ale.