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Brothers Sean Deangelis (left) and Christopher “Bear” Wiest are opening The Shack, a new barbecue in Waldoboro, Jan. 7. The restaurant’s slogan will be “Get Down with the Smoke-Down.” (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
By Dominik Lobkowicz
Two brothers opening a new barbecue joint on Route 1 in Waldoboro on Tuesday, Jan. 7 will be offering a menu that focuses on meat, spice, and smoke.
Brothers Christopher “Bear” Wiest and Sean Deangelis are opening The Shack at 816 Atlantic Highway, in the former location of Annie O’Rourke’s.
Wiest and Deangelis have been cooking for almost three decades all around the country, sometimes together and sometimes on their lonesome as far away as Alaska and Hawaii.
“Twenty-seven years man, it doesn’t take long to get around the way,” said Wiest.
“It sure doesn’t,” said Deangelis.
The two have cooked in multimillion dollar restaurants, according to Deangelis, and Wiest said he worked as the sous chef for the governor of Michigan for a year and half.
“We’ve worked from hotdog carts to five star dining,” Deangelis said.
After years of sharing their creations with restaurants that absorbed them without giving due credit, Wiest said the two began what became a five-year search for the right spot to open their own restaurant.
The criteria were a small, quaint, good location where the two could do something that was not already being offered in the area.
“This place popped up,” Wiest said.
The two had several concepts in mind as they looked, but barbecue was their first choice, Deangelis said. “This is what we wanted to do,” he said.
With their own industrial smoker already out on the deck and plans to add two more by summer, the brothers will smoke all their own meat and cheeses and make nearly everything in the restaurant from scratch.
“We do small batches of everything, but it’s all homemade and its all delicious,” Wiest said.
With the exception of a couple of dressings, “everything is made in house, down to the ketchup,” Deangelis said.
The restaurant’s current smoker can handle about 90 pounds of meat at a time.
“It’s not going to be enough, we can already tell,” Wiest said.
Meat is definitely the focal point of the menu, from the High Five – pulled pork, hamburger, pastrami, brisket and bacon topped with bacon cheddar coleslaw and candied jalepenos – down to the salads, which all have options for meat along with them.
Starters include potato skins with bacon and cheese or “Shack Style” with pulled pork, pepperjack cheese and caramelized onions, brisket chili and cheese fries, and smoked chicken wings, while entrees include a dozen different burgers and sandwiches such as pulled pork and chicken or a beer battered buffalo burger.
Daily specials will be offered for both lunch and dinner.
Aside from sides, every single item on the lunch and dinner menu comes with at least the option for meat except for grilled cheese and the jalepeno and cheddar cornbread.
The same goes for breakfast, with the exception of a veggie-lover’s wrap.
Wiest and Deangelis will be opening The Shack for breakfast just on Saturdays and Sundays, offering items like smoked pastrami hash with eggs, chicken fried steak with sausage and bacon gravy, two eggs, and a biscuit, and several different breakfast wraps.
Everything will be available for takeout, the brothers said.
Wiest and Deangelis expect their food will be a bit of a change from what the area is used to, something they’ve witnessed even before opening with difficulty in ordering the spices they use.
“Nobody anywhere near us uses the spices that we use,” Deangelis said.
The brothers have made a number of changes to the interior of the restaurant, including opening a window into the kitchen, which will give customers a chance to see the brothers work the line and witness the lingo and banter the brothers have developed with years of practice.
“It’s a personality thing – we’re back there squawking at each other,” Wiest said.
Another change is some picnic table dining inside the restaurant, which Deangelis said is supposed to reflect the casual nature of the restaurant.
“If you can’t sit down with your neighbor and enjoy a good place of [expletive] barbecue, you need to go somewhere else,” he said, laughing.
Another change is the expansion of the bar. The brothers are still seeking a beer and wine license, but are not sure if they will offer liquor since the restaurant is aimed at being kid-friendly.
There is a game room with pinball, electric darts, a claw machine, and arcade games, too, Wiest said.
In the winter, The Shack will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, until 10 p.m. on Fridays, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturdays and from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays.
The kitchen will likely operate on those hours, but the restaurant may stay open later if there is a game on or if it is hosting fundraisers, bike runs, or other events, the brothers said.
For more information, call 790-8081 or email theshackinmaine@gmail.com.
