Tony and Jenn Adams had wanted to open an arts venue together since they met, but it took 20 years and a move halfway across the country to find the perfect place: a shuttered American Legion hall in Deer Isle.
A popular site for dancing, parties, wedding receptions and community events for 60-plus years, the hall had been empty for about two decades when the Adamses saw it. Jenn Adams wanted to tour the property just to get the idea out of her system, she said, but as soon as they saw it they knew it was right.
For the last year, the couple has run the Deer Isle Music Hall & BBQ there as a music venue, wood-fired barbecue joint and event space open later at night and year-round on an island that tends to slow down in the winter months.
After a year of interior renovations, the building now features a stage, updated bathrooms, a kitchen and a green room. But it’s still recognizable, and the Adamses included tributes to its past in the decorations.
“The first time they walked through the door, you could visibly see a wave of nostalgia roll over them from memories they had in this building back in the day, and that still happens in a way that’s really cool,” Jenn Adams said of local customers in their mid-60s. “On the flip side of that, people in their 30s are like, ‘Woah, this is actually a cool place to hang out.’”
The Adamses and their two teenagers moved from Chicago to southern Maine in 2019 to be closer to her family, then came to Deer Isle for Tony Adams to take a job that ultimately didn’t work out.
When the music hall opportunity appeared, they found it would be easier to open as a restaurant with featured music, so he drew on his experiences organizing whole hog roasts as a youth in Michigan — which, he said, has a surprisingly rich barbecue tradition from the midcentury Great Migration bringing thousands of southerners to the area to work in car factories.
Here in Maine, smoked turkey, pulled pork, chopped beef and jackfruit are available all week with several housemade sauces, joined by brisket on Saturdays. On the side is macaroni and cheese made with smoked cream cheese, coleslaw, baked beans, family recipe cornbread, collard greens and more. Almost everything is cooked in the smoker.
The stage hosts local, state and national bands plus members of the Adams family themselves in their band Sunset Crossing, one of two acts-in-residence along with J.B. and the Low Tide Funk. It’s been easy to attract talent to the stage, Jenn Adams said, but housing national acts in the summer is a challenge.
It’s a smaller town in the colder months — roughly half the homes in town are occupied year-round — and people who work seasonally may not have the funds for events in the off season, but the couple said that, like other local businesses, they’re committed to finding a way to stay open through the winter sustainably.
“Initially, we looked at it like this building, and this business, was specifically for year-round families,” Jenn Adams said. “So if we came in and made it only for summer people, we wouldn’t really be doing service to what the spirit of this place is.”
In future years, they hope to see more people coming from over the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge, more bands on the stage and more menu items. Though the music hall serves food, it’s not a requirement for coming to see a show.
“Don’t feel like we have an expectation about what your experience should be, other than hopefully awesome,” Jenn Adams said. “I just want people to be in the room.”
Maine acts this season include King Kyote, Juke Joint Devils, Darlin’ Corey, and River Bottom Funk Band; national artists include Ashley Wineland and Circus Mutt.
The music hall will host a free anniversary show on Saturday, June 14 featuring Chris Ross at 5 p.m. and Sunset Crossroad at 7 p.m. with special guests including Dickie Larrabee, Burt Leach and Chris Ross.
