Style & Culture |

Woodman’s owners set to unroll burrito joint in August

By Zach Dionne

Posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009, 12:00 am

Zach Dionne

'Every single thing that goes into the burrito, we're making,' said Abe Furth.

Zach Dionne

Heather and Abe Furth, Orono business owners, make burritos.

Abe and Heather Furth might know more about burritos than some people know about anything. The two are also successful entrepreneurs; they’ve co-owned Woodman’s Bar & Grill in Orono with Mark Horton since its creation in 2004.

Combining the ingredients of burritos and entrepreneurship, the Furths, married 27-year-old Orono residents, have a classic recipe for their new breakfast and lunch joint, The Bean, which will open this August at 2 Mill St., above Dr. Records.

“We want it to be a fun place to hang out,” Mrs. Furth said, adding The Bean will also be a good fit for an in-and-out lunch experience. Burritos will cost $5 or $6.

The niche is fast casual dining, a thriving market spearheading national growth in the restaurant industry, according to fastcasual.com.

Statistics aside, the Furths’ love for burritos shone on a Tuesday morning as they readied a sample of their upcoming establishment’s signature product. After four hours preparing fresh ingredients the night before, Mrs. Furth was almost set to serve burritos for lunch.

“Every single thing that goes into the burrito, other than the tortilla, we’re making,” Mr. Furth said.

The ingredients are basic: homemade salsa and guacamole; sour cream; rice; black or pinto beans; chicken, chorizo, steak or a vegetarian option; and three choices of 12-inch tortillas for “a real fat burrito,” according to Mr. Furth.

“The more simple, the better. You want to have choices, but you don’t want it to overwhelm you,” he said, assisting his wife with the final touches on the ingredients in their sun-lit kitchen as Bob Marley and Bob Dylan provided the background music.

The Bean will utilize a few easy tricks: Leave out the lard, steam the tortillas and use “super tender” steak. It’s not right to used canned salsa and taco beef is unacceptable, Mr. Furth said.

Are the Furths crazy to open a new business in this economic climate? They contend that with friendly service, a great product and consistency, business will thrive.

“There’s hardship everywhere, but I feel like there’s a lot less of it in Orono,” Mr. Furth said. He views the recession as an opportunity for quality ventures to lift off. “Banks want to lend money to good candidates at competitive rates, and people need something positive. People are really embracing small businesses.”

“Orono is kind of an underserved market,” Mrs. Furth said. “We just have so many people and not very many businesses.”

“There are great businesses already, but there’s a real need for more,” her husband added. “We were able to start Woodman’s because there’s a lot of opportunity in Orono.”

The Bean will have an assembly line counter setup, as in Subway. Tabletop instructions will show how to properly handle the chunky burritos. Housed in a 161-year-old building, the inside of The Bean will be built from scratch after an interior demolition.

The restaurant will feature free wireless Internet, a couch area and a long, library-esque table. Customers will enjoy natural light with massive front windows. Mr. Furth is pondering an “old-school Nintendo system” in the corner. The walls will be adorned with retro, West Coast-style murals.

The Furths plan for an efficient 30-burrito-per-hour benchmark for The Bean. It will be open seven days a week, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Bean will be staffed by five part-time employees; Mrs. Furth will be manager.

“We get bored when we’re not working,” she said. They haven’t taken a vacation in four years. The Bean will be The Furths’ second business that’s open all week. “For us, our work is fun.”

The Furths, both University of Maine graduates who have been together since their early college days, planned to start a burrito business before creating Woodman’s. They took a road trip to the West Coast in 2001 and became burrito-addicted in the San Francisco area.

“We started eating a lot of burritos because they’re everywhere, they’re pretty cheap, they fill you up and they’re healthy,” he said of the trip. The Furths said although the Orono and Bangor area has several Mexican restaurants, the focus is typically on baked entrees – authentic, West Coast-style burritos are scarce in New England.

In 2008, Mr. Furth returned to the West Coast, traveling to Portland, Oregon on a burrito research expedition.

“We traveled around eating burritos for five days,” he said.

“Eating seven burritos a day,” his wife added.

“Yeah, at least,” he said. “I didn’t finish them all. But I did gain like eight pounds.”

Later on Tuesday, the Furths were set to drive to Rockland to visit Rock City Coffee as a potential coffee supplier. The Bean will feature smoothies, baked goods and coffee in addition to the signature burritos.

“Anything that we can buy local, we’ll buy local,” Mr. Furth said. The Bean will represent its distributors, from local eggs to homemade mugs, with wall decor. The Furths also aim to use The Bean’s prime location and foot traffic on Mill Street as a jumping-off point for the rest of Orono’s downtown, highlighting other stops like Rose Bicycle, Dr. Records and the Black Bear Brewery.

“All things that a lot of people don’t know about,” Mrs. Furth said. “We want to make downtown Orono more vibrant, a place that people want to be.”

As lunch was served, the product spoke for itself. The burritos demand to be eaten vertically, carefully, with the aluminum foil gradually unwrapped with progress, hot sauce continually dashed along the way. Each bite is a mouthful of delectable, fresh ingredients; the dedication is evident in the bursting taste. Flavor and attention to detail powers the burrito from end to end.

The burrito satisfies – now the Furths aim to follow suit with The Bean.