To rendezvous with everyone on our trip to Acadia National Park, we gathered at a hotel in Orono, ME, and needed to check out the local town for dinner. While Orono is primarily known as the home of the flagship University of Maine campus, it also has a small downtown alongside the Stillwater Rier, with older wood-frame and brick buildings house independent shops, cafés, restaurants, and bars. Here’s where we found a good little spot for dinner: Woodman’s Bar and Grill.
With both a nice indoor dining room and an outside patio (the latter of which was full; the weather was perfect for outdoor dining), Woodman’s is essentially a gasto-pub: your basic pub ambiance, a rather good assortment of regional beers, and enough of a broader dinner menu that you could come here for a nice family gathering in addition to just stopping in for a beer. In other words, perfect for a nice pre-hiking dinner. Getting quickly seated (and you could tell from the staff interactions that Woodman’s is family-owned), we relaxed with beers from nearby Orono brewing (mine was a Tubular, their standard IPA) while looking over the menu.
While most of the menu was upscale pub fare, they had a few specials, and in my case, I went for the daily special: chicken marsala. The first thing I noticed here is that while a lot of places are downsizing portion sizes in response to food costs, Woodman’s is still serving up a generous portion; indeed, if I wasn’t on a hiking trip, I think would have been a bit more food that I usually like. As far as quality? This was an enjoyable dish. I’m more of a fan of sautéed chicken cutlets than breaded, but the version at Woodman’s was breaded. But it was a decently-executed breaded cutlet, the dish nicely composed, and the sauce pleasant (although I do like a slightly stronger Marsala wine flavor). Add in a nicely-done mashed potato base that was just the exact amount of lumpiness that I like, and I’d definitely consider having this if I ever find myself at Woodman’s again.
Two of the other diners in our group opted for the same item, the bolognese off of their usual menu. This was a classic preparation, made from a mix of veal, pork, and beef made into a nice ragu, mixed with campanelle pasta, and served up with a dollop of burrata cheese and some garlic bread. The pasta was nice, still slightly al dente and not overcooked, and the ragu really highlighted the flavors. This was a solid dish, and exactly what I want in a good restaurant ragu.
And our guide, Steve, usually eats vegetarian with a bit of a pescatarian lean. He ordered the fish tacos, but asked for them with tofu instead of fish, and the resulting tofu tacos were nicely done: nice crisp packets of breaded tofu, served up as tacos with some cabbage slaw, queso fresco, candied jalapenos, and cilantro-lime sour cream. A pleasant enough vegetarian option.
Overall, I liked Woodman’s. It’s the sort of small-town restaurant that really serves just about everyone: the folks looking for a quick dinner, people wanting to stop in for a beer and maybe a few snacks, and even the folks going out for a nice, more formal dinner. Add in a friendly and welcoming staff, and this is one of downtown Orono’s spots to consider visiting.
