Nestled into a stretch of a Route 1 dining-out desert is a quirky new takeout that’s bringing New England’s spicy urban fare north.
Joe Dube and his fiancee, Amanda Adams, opened The Cooperage in Bridgewater over Memorial Day weekend, featuring their jalapeno-infused take on a menu familiar to locals through their weekly specials.
In the 33 miles between Houlton and Mars Hill there are few dining options, and the Massachusetts couple is already surprising people with their innovative offerings.
Already popular are the offbeat Rattlesnake Burger, Thai Chili Chicken Poutine, hand-breaded fresh chicken tenders, Dube’s secret recipe bacon jam and a blueberry cheesecake milkshake made with cheesecake ice cream, wild Maine blueberries and graham cracker crumbs.
Opening a restaurant in a town of 520 is a big change for Dube, who was previously a chef at several of the busiest restaurants in a city of nearly a quarter of a million people.
“It’s a very different market from Worcester, the second largest city in Massachusetts,” Dube said. “Although we already have people coming here from Van Buren, Caribou and Presque Isle.”
Initially, the Massachusetts couple kept the menu established by previous owners to give people what they expected from the take-out restaurant.
They are slowly introducing his inventive culinary creations, first through weekly specials, as a way to see what people like and what foods are most popular.
The specials always include Dube’s favorite: poutine. He’s tried beef fajita poutine with seasoned ground beef, grilled peppers and onions, jalapeno aioli and cheddar cheese sauce, and Thai chili chicken poutine, made with sweet potato waffle fries, Thai chili tempura chicken, asian slaw and Yum Yum sauce.
“The Thai chili poutine special did really well and didn’t take long to sell out,” Adams said.
Unlike many County restaurants offering poutine, Dube always includes the traditional cheese curds — bite-size pieces of fresh cheese with a springy or rubbery-like texture. Previously, The Cooperage used shredded mozzarella.
“I’m very much a traditionalist when it comes to certain things,” Dube said. “Poutine traditionally gets cheese curds.”
Dube and Adams are developing a new menu and there will be an entire poutine section, including the traditional, country fried chicken with sausage gravy and cheese curds that everyone has loved. He hasn’t settled on all the versions he will include, he said.
On the new menu will be a build-your-own burger option and the popular hand-breaded fresh chicken tenders made with a base of clam fry and panko, with spices like paprika and cayenne.
They’ll also include specialty items like the Rattlesnake Burger — topped with cheddar cheese, crispy jalapenos, bacon and jalapeno mayonnaise — which was inspired by his last restaurant that offered a rattlesnake pasta, Dube said.
“It’s not really rattlesnake,” Dube said. “Everybody asks, ‘where do you get rattlesnake?’”
In trying to keep the transition simple and maintain some previous menu offerings, they began with frozen tenders and gradually switched to Dube’s own fresh version, priced at five tenders for $5.99 or three for $3.99.
“People rave about the chicken tenders. We go through 60 pounds of chicken in five days,” Adams said.
The menu includes a long list of seafood options from lobster rolls and whole belly clams to scallops, shrimp and haddock. But the tenderloin clams, priced at $13.99, are among the most popular.
The popular dairy bar includes soft-serve ice cream, twisters, similar to a Dairy Queen Blizzard, specialty milkshakes, sundaes and soda floats.
Adams, whom the employees have dubbed, “the Dairy Queen,” handles the dairy bar along with two other employees.
It takes her back to a time when she worked at a dairy bar years ago, she said.
“It’s really fun every day,” Adams said.
It was Dube’s annual summer visits to a family camp in Bridgewater that drew the couple north,
“My family has a camp on Snow Road in Bridgewater and I’ve been coming to The County for the Fourth of July for 12 years or so,” Dube said.
The former owners of the seasonally-operated restaurant were friends of Dube’s family and when their children started leaving home, they were thinking about making a change, he said.
The couple bought The Cooperage and moved from Worcester to a home in Houlton in May, just three weeks before opening.
Dube’s long experience, along with Adams and their five employees, has made the transition much easier. The actual operation of the restaurant is easy because he’s done it for so long, he said.
“I know how to cook, how to order food, keep it organized, how to keep it clean, how to follow health codes,” he said.
He started working in restaurants when he was 17 as a dishwasher, then moved on to server and cook. He ran several small pizza shops, then worked as a line cook for many years. He was the chef at The Boynton, a busy Worcester restaurant, and most recently he was the chef at Ellers Restaurant in Worcester for about a year and a half.
“He’s very creative with specials,” Adams said.
The business side of things is a bit more stressful, he said.
They plan to stay open until as close to Thanksgiving as they can and then decide if they will operate year round.
The Cooperage is open Sunday and Monday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is closed Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I wanted to give people a place to go. The community needs this,” Dube said. “People are always looking for a place to eat and everything is closed on Sundays and Mondays. That’s why we stay open.”
