The wind off Garrison Cove was wicked on New Year’s Day. The temperature on Bailey Island was in the low 20s, with a wind chill that made it feel like single digits. The sun had set by 4:15 p.m., and the temperature continued to drop in the cold blue of evening.
But inside Cook’s Lobster & Ale House, yellow lamplight glowed from every table and a small gas fireplace warmed the back section of the mostly empty dining room. The bar was standing room only, with winter coats, scarves and knit caps draped across the back of every stool, a clear indication of the intent to stay awhile.
Connection through cold
When Nick and Jennifer Charboneau bought Cook’s in 2015, the couple committed to not only honoring the restaurant’s place in the community, but also expanding it in a way that would serve the town and the people who live here.
While summer brings tourists and money and showcase events like the Bailey Island Fishing Tournament and a legendary Fourth of July party, the Charboneaus knew Cook’s had the potential to fulfill another need — the need for a gathering place where the island community could stay connected through the cold months.
Under their ownership, Cook’s has been a year-round restaurant, open Thursday-Sunday even after the crowds leave. And while some islanders avoid the restaurant during the tumult of summer, they embrace Cook’s as a winter hangout.
‘The bar is the place’
On Thursdays, the bar fills up with regulars. Bartender Johnathan Kushiner said it’s the best time for new residents to meet their neighbors and get to know the community.
Moe Labbe stops by often. He lives just up the road near Mackerel Cove, so the location cements Cook’s as a favorite spot to meet friends.
“If they weren’t here, I’d have to go to Brunswick,” he said.
It’s not uncommon to find Harpswell Select Board Chair Kevin Johnson touching base with constituents from a barstool. His uncle, Maurice Cook, built the restaurant in 1955. When the Charboneaus took over, Johnson helped renovate the kitchen. He built the new pine bar with its unique live edge.
“We ended up just kind of building a new place around the old place,” he said.
On Fridays and Saturdays, the dining room is all about families and couples, while the bar stays packed with people celebrating the end of the work week.
Gary Meierdiercks and Martha Simpson live near Cundy’s Harbor. For years they have come to Cook’s every Friday or Saturday night through the offseason.
“We don’t come in the summer ’cause you can’t get a table,” Gary said.
The couple likes to grab a high-top table in the bar and soak in the atmosphere — the people, a game on the big-screen TV.
“Everyone comes here. The bar is the place,” Martha said.
Less lobster and tourists, more burgers and snowdrifts
According to the Charboneaus, longtime managers Jason Richards and Kevin O’Kelley are the key to a smooth operation in the offseason.
Most days it’s just the two of them in the large dining room. Back in the kitchen it’s a small crew, even on a Saturday night.
David Holowach works the grill. He’s a volunteer with the Orr’s and Bailey Islands Fire Department, and patrons often ask how his training is going when he drops off food at the pass-through window.
Nick Brady, of Cundy’s Harbor, works one day a week in winter. He prefers the excitement of summer, with double the staff in the kitchen and three times the servers.
Colby Nadeau, of Brunswick, has worked at Cook’s for three summers and one fall, but this is his first winter. He’s covering the bake station and carefully transfers a haddock filet from the oven onto a plate.
T.J. Ouellette started with Cook’s in 2009 and now runs the lobster and salad station, pulling bright-red crustaceans from the cooker in a cloud of steam.
Lobster actually isn’t a big seller at Cook’s this time of year.
“People from Maine can get a lobster from their father or their uncle,” Nick Charboneau said.
Instead, the restaurant sees a spike in burger and Reuben demand, and while the lobstermen who make up so much of the island community may not buy back their catch, sales indicate they do like their haddock sandwiches.
Every so often a ticket comes through to the kitchen indicating that a customer has bought a round for the cooks.
Brady grabs the “ahooga” horn near the fry station, while Nadeau and Holowach and dishwasher Andrea Darling ring cowbells. Back at the lobster steamer, Ouellette clashes pot lids together as the crew shares their appreciation for the tip.
When power outages hit Harpswell, as they often do, Cook’s stays open if Richards and O’Kelley can field enough staff. Access to a warm place and a hot meal can be a game-changer for locals during bad weather.
Cook’s does close when the snow piles high enough to make roads hazardous. The restaurant sits at the end of a spit of land between Garrison Cove and Merriconeag Sound, with little protection from the wind. The resulting snowdrifts can make opening tricky after a storm.
“There’s times you can’t get in the back doors. It’s up over the building,” Nick Charboneau said.
Winter’s kickoff
The restaurant isn’t exactly busy in winter, but profit isn’t the point — summer takes care of that. Being open in winter serves a different purpose.
It knits the restaurant more deeply into the fabric of the community. It’s the only place on the island, and often the only place in Harpswell, where locals can gather of an evening to enjoy a meal or a drink in the bar or a conversation with neighbors.
Those conversations often include the restaurant’s owners. The winter “gives us an opportunity to reconnect with a lot of the regulars, which we really like,” Jen said.
The Charboneaus had long careers in the hospitality industry in Vermont, but Jen, a Lewiston native, “desperately wanted to move back home.”
They found their dream in Cook’s. Ten years in, the business is thriving, and the Charboneaus have cemented their commitment to Harpswell with the purchase of Live Well Farm, an event venue on Harpswell Neck.
Events and fundraisers are a defining aspect of Cook’s commitment to the community, and there is always at least one day in the offseason when the restaurant is packed to the rafters. Every December, a dinner and auction for the Harpswell Heating Assistance Program pulls in friends and neighbors from throughout the islands and the peninsula.
The signature event goes back decades, and the Charboneaus didn’t hesitate to continue the tradition.
“It’s like the kickoff of the winter season,” Jen said. “It brings everybody together that one last time before everyone hibernates or the snowbirds leave.”
O’Kelley has taken on the daunting task of organizing the fundraiser. He starts making calls for food and auction donations as early as August.
O’Kelley grew up in a low-income area of Alabama and still remembers the hamper of food his family received from their local church.
“Giving back means a lot to me,” he said. “If I can do it for someone, hands down, I’m going to.”
The 2025 event raised a record sum, expected to exceed $40,000 when all the funds are collected.
“We learned quickly, being here in Harpswell, that people take care of each other,” Jen said. “It’s pretty remarkable to see how the community comes together in times of need.”
The Charboneaus also have used Cook’s to support Harpswell residents through emergencies and medical crises. They raised $20,000 to help the town rebuild after the devastating storms of January 2024.
“They’ll do anything for anybody and they have,” Johnson, the regular and town official, said of the couple.
Ever since Maurice Cook expanded a simple seafood shack into a full-service restaurant, Cook’s has been both a mainstay and a through line for this small coastal community. The oldest restaurant in town, it has history tucked into unexpected places. A lobster gauge sealed into a divot in the bar top. Names of current and former staff doodled in black sharpie along the inside of the check rail in the kitchen. The same knotty pine booths that have filled the dining room for decades.
Jen marvels still at “the importance of this place in so many people’s lives,” whether they have experienced a major life event there “or every generation of the family has worked here.”
“It blows my mind the amount of connections this has to people in so many different ways in their life,” she said. “I love it all.”
Cook’s Lobster & Ale House is located at 68 Garrison Cove Road on Bailey Island.
