Transcription of Woody Hughes for the show Bethel #176
Dr. Belisle: Having spent a fair amount of time in Bethel, Maine, as a skier and runner, walker, enjoyer of nature, I also spent time with this next individual, Woody Hughes, at the Mill Hill Inn in Bethel. I should say, I didn’t spend specific time with you, but at your place of work. Woody is an acclaimed potter. He taught at Dalling College, Parsons School or Design, and has given over 60 workshops across the country and internationally. Woody returned to Western Maine in 2001, where he taught pottery and design at Gould Academy for 9 years, leaving in 2010 to open the Mill Hill Inn. Thanks for coming in.
Woody Hughes: My pleasure, absolutely.
Dr. Belisle: We’re really happy that you’re willing to share your story, because it’s kind of an interesting one.
Woody Hughes: I’m coming back. I am a New Yorker, so I am from the evil empire. But I’ve been coming to Maine since mid ’60s. My real introduction to Bethel was back in ’73 when I attended Gould and graduated in ’75.
Dr. Belisle: I think it’s very interesting because … Well, first of all, I need to just put this out there. Your food is fantastic. When we are out in Bethel and your place is open and it’s serving to people who are not just staying at your inn, we are first in line. We reserved for New Year’s Eve. We brought our kids there. Our kids love your food. It’s just so tasty and interesting, and yet unassuming.
Woody Hughes: It’s an awkward subject for me, because technically I’m not trained, where I’m highly trained as a ceramic artist. So to be running in this realm, it creates a little discomfort for me. My approach is very simple. I use good ingredients, and I don’t try to get in over my skill set. I have once described the menu, i finally found a way to describe the menu. It’s sort of like going to, hopefully, a good potluck supper where there’s going to be lots of different tastes. It’s not always well coordinated in terms of a theme for the restaurant, but you’re going to have lots of different tastes. I think that’s what really sums up what we do there, because it’s Mediterranean at times. It’s Asian at times. It’s salads. It’s all geared towards eating a little lighter and not rushing anyone through a meal. It’s sort of how I eat now at my age, just a little more of a sensibility, a few more sensitivities towards what the food’s going to taste like and how it makes you feel afterwards and the next day, and everything like that.
Dr. Belisle: That’s really important. I know I’m not a meat eater, and I don’t eat a lot of non-rice carbohydrates. So to be able to go to a place in Bethel, Maine, and have the option to eat food that’s not just steak and French fries. I guess I just don’t eat that. But I think that it’s interesting that you would have some reservation about putting yourself out there as a chef, because really all you’re trying to do is put out a nice something for the people that are kind of hanging out in Bethel.
Woody Hughes: An in that serves food, I’m very comfortable with that description of what do. Then as people enjoy the food, more and more people come because of word of mouth or whatever, I honestly feel like I have to really be on my game, and I sort of upped my game a little bit. That’s what I’m working on doing, in terms of all aspects of it, how we serve. But I still want to keep it rather informal. Because when I do go to restaurants, I don’t critique the food, because I honestly feel that their skill set’s much better than mine. But I try to look to see what are they attempting to do, and how does the overall presentation work. That’s where I go. How did that meal feel to me? I’m comfortable critiquing other places in those terms. It basically is how I feel throughout the meal, and how I feel after the meal. That’s where I feel like I frame something pretty nice. When I think about it, my original business plan was to have 18 guests, and have 18 guests invite 18 friends. That was sort of the format that I thought I could manage. As each year it’s gotten a little bigger I have to sort of rethink it, and how far am I willing to take it. I’m only open 3 days a week. I can’t see myself going to 5 days a week, because I do all the prep with my son Aaron. We do all the prep, and he helps me cook on the big nights. So I think that’s my limit. Does that make any sense?
Dr. Belisle: No, it makes lots of sense. It’s interesting, because it’s not just your son Aaron, it’s also your wife Lee. She’s your front of the house.
Woody Hughes: Front of the house.
Dr. Belisle: She is so enthusiastic. She runs around. She has her phone in her apron pocket, or whatever. She’s right there. She’s having a conversation with you. You’re eating off of pottery that you’ve created. So it’s not just about, when I say the food is fantastic, it’s also about, it’s the vibe. It’s the fireplace as you come in. It’s the little bar that you have, the great drinks. It feels very warm.
Woody Hughes: It’s supposed to feel like we’re all family. I can start with my bartender Ashley, who I’ve known for 13 years, and I taught at school. I’m that familiar with her. Our relationship is like father-daughter, whatever. Whenever people come in, and then she recommends waitresses, so I’ve never had to place an ad and had someone come in from the outside. I don’t want to say I’m too exclusive. But they all recommend somebody. So it stays, birds of a feather are all in our building. We’re very informal in that way and we’re very comfortable around each other. I think that lends itself to a really pleasant experience. Lee, this is her first year as front of the house. Before she came, I was always cooking, but I was never aware of what was going on in the building. I always had to ask one of the waitresses, “How’s it feel out there? What’s going on out there?” Now I’m so pleased that I have someone out there who can set that stage, make that work. Because, once again, we don’t have very many rules in terms of how we serve and what my expectations are from the girls. I think it’s really clean, in good repair, in terms of appearance, and be yourself is really my only instructions. We’re going to give a few more this year so we make sure that our service is up to speed. But I like that nature, because these kids are all individuals. They’re all special. They all have a story. I want that to be part of the place, as much as anything.
Dr. Belisle: It seems as though, for you, although you’re not teaching at Gould anymore, there is still an educator aspect to your personality, to your persona.
Woody Hughes: Absolutely. It’s exactly the way I taught. I was really hands-off. When I taught pottery, I gave very short demos, and then I would just constantly visit students as they were grappling with whatever I introduced. It’s the same thing when we work in the kitchen or wherever else. I don’t have that many instructions. You’re just sort of thrown in, and I’m there, and then your skill set sort of grows around you in sort of a natural way. I don’t try to force it. I always back them up. If someone gets in the weeds because it’s too many tables, or it’s too this, we all have the capabilities of walking out into the dining room, help someone bus, bring plates out, visit a guest. Those are everyone’s instructions. Everyone’s skill set is growing in a pretty natural, organic way. It goes in many different directions. Everyone has a different strength. I don’t try to curb that. I don’t try to really change anyone from who they are. Then we all start out pretty similar, so I think it’s been working. I have a crew now of about 6, and they’ve been with me for a full year now. I think I’m doing something right. I’m keeping them. I’m paying them well. We’re making all the little adjustments throughout the season to keep people happy that we need to make. I talk to each person individually, “What do you need from me? This is what I need from you. These are the changes I see that we need to take place. Can you do that?” That was the conversation that we had with every employee one on one for the startup of the year last week. I think it works.
Dr. Belisle: It almost seems as though there’s a parallel between what you are doing and creating the Mill Hill Inn and Mill Hill Inn restaurant kind of from good clay. You start with a good something in front of you on the wheel, and then you give instructions as to how the wheel is used, and how to put your fingers in there. But then you really rely on each individual to make their own piece, make their own bowl, make their own whatever it is.
Woody Hughes: The importance of Lee, because now she’s my eyes, or the eyes, not mine, the eyes of the place, then she can make the adjustments. Lee and I are complete opposites. I see the big picture. She sees the details. Between the two of us we really, I think, cover most bases that need to be covered. The kitchen’s just a studio. Pottery is a process. It’s a process that’s repeated. There’s many elements to the cycle to make a pot. It’s just like a kitchen. I’m getting a lot of satisfaction out of doing the kitchen as if it were a studio. I think that’s what keeps it fresh. Because I always ask everyone’s opinion. It doesn’t look like I’m listening. Sometimes people get frustrated. Because I usually divert my eyes, and I don’t really respond. But I’m taking it all in. And then I usually address it a day or 2 or a week later, what I liked about what they said. But I usually don’t react at the time. I think that’s probably a fault of mind, where I probably need to say, “I heard what you just said. I’m going to think about that.” But I don’t. I just sort of … But everyone has input. My bartender Ashley, once again, it’s her bar. Wherever you want to take it, I’ll tell you when the bottom line starts to get pinched. But what direction do you want to take it. I’m hands off. But we can’t get crazy. We’re in Western Maine. We’re only open 3 days a week. We don’t have endless people pouring through the door. You have to really craft a solution that is also nimble.
Dr. Belisle: How did you come to be at Gould Academy in the first place? If you grew up in New York, and then you came to Maine to go to school, why choose Gould?
Woody Hughes: It’s interesting. There’s a moment in life when you’re not doing well as a kid sometimes. I found myself in that situation, where nothing was really working for me. A neighbor from down the street, it’s funny, she’s an artist, and she lives in Portland. She works in a very good restaurant in town to support her art. She went to Gould. When my time to get in a little trouble came up, it was a solution for my family, because Nancy did something very similar and moved up, and probably was introduced to art, like I was, at the Academy. It became both our lives. That’s what’s sort of unique about Gould. Almost all my adult skills, whether it’s recreation, whether it’s what I read or how I read or where my politics are, or the fact that I learned to make pottery at Gould that became my career. The Academy saved my life. I give it 2 checks. Because back when I returned when I was 45, in 2001, once again, it centered me. There’s a pottery term. It centered me and started out a new chapter in my life. It did it twice. Whether it’s Bethel, or Western Maine, or the Academy, when I speak of Gould Academy, I still use the word “we,” as if I’m involved in it. That’s what it means to me. I’m still connected to it emotionally, even though I’m 5 years out.
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Dr. Belisle: When you tell me that Gould does a lot with the arts, it makes me really happy, because I think that you don’t hear a lot about pottery, for example, in public schools. Sometimes kids who are in a public school setting, or even a private school setting if it’s not quite the right one for them, their learning doesn’t match up with the way that the teaching is occurring. It sounds like because Gould, for whatever reason, it sounds like Gould finds a way to individually reach the kids who go there.
Woody Hughes: Well, yes. I mean, Gould, especially back in my day, there was a lot of lateral movement in the day that permitted you to follow activities that interest you. When I first started teaching at Gould, I always thought what we did the best website, I’m going to give Lorenzo Baker the nod for this phrase, work with the negative spaces. The classes being a positive space. The sports being another positive space. It’s all the negative space in between these bigger programs. I honestly believe that website the most accurate statement I’ve ever heard describing Gould. Because that’s where you have the one-on-one contact with the kids. That’s when you’re on weekend duty. That’s when you take them up Mount Washington. Those are when all the things really come in. When you cruise through a dorm when you’re not on duty and you end up in a couple different conversations. Coming to the studio, I used to walk through the studio around the start of study hall, nothing more to just blow through there, but I might spend 10, 15, 20 minutes, depending. But those were the times. That’s what we’re really good at. There’s 50, 70 faculty, I think, that would probably agree with that statement. That’s what we’re good at. At the same time, Gould’s really upped the academics, and covering those bases, too. Not being in a core curriculum class, being in an adjunct class, I never felt the pressure from that. I just knew I had what I think could have been the best job there, because every kid wanted to be there. I had them for a full year. I could really have a special … I could change the pace based on their needs, where they were in their year, where they were with their academics, and I still had plenty of time to work with them in that year to get them to a place where I was satisfied with what I could get across to them.
Dr. Belisle: Out in Bethel, there actually is a sense of space. I don’t know, negative space maybe even. There’s this openness. There’s the mountain, of course. That’s there. Then there’s not just the mountain that people ski up. There’s lots of mountains and lots of … All around, there’s rivers and there’s streams, and there’s large fields, and there’s just a sense of vastness at times that I think maybe living on the coast I didn’t really experience, or haven’t really experienced. Does that also impact the way that you are living your life, or the way that you taught students when you were at Gould?
Woody Hughes: Certainly the way I live my life. I don’t need to go very many places. It seems like I go weeks and weeks without leaving Bethel. I almost say I’m on the island of Bethel. [inaudible 00:52:09] Sunday River, I’ll run up there to ski. But it’s the counter to what I used to have to do when I lived in New York, with commuting, the L.I.E., surburbia, and that. So to remove myself from all those distractions I find a huge part of my life. I have a dog I take a walk with in the woods every day, or I ski with every day. So I get out into these spaces. Not like I used to, because the inn takes up time, so I’m staying close to home. But the Nordic skiing will be at a ski center in town versus going back country. Because the work has gotten very big. So I don’t get out. But I wrote down my favorite hike is Rumford White Cap. It was on a questionnaire. I think that is a very doable hike. I send a lot of my guests up there, and they all come back raving about that space. Once again, that’s an easy hike with a 360-degree view. You’ve got the great view of the outback of Maine, going up into the Lake District. So that’s the … I rely on the space from the quality of my life in Bethel, for sure.
Dr. Belisle: You came back to Maine in 2001?
Woody Hughes: Yes.
Dr. Belisle: And you were 45. What happened?
Woody Hughes: I was teaching in New York, but I went through a divorce. I went on for a year after that, living in the house, because the studio was there, and my ex-wife moved up to Portland actually. I sent my son to Gould the year before, and then the job opened up. The pottery job opened up. There was a young woman from the South who was freezing to death up here. She lasted 3 years. The job opened up. Without thinking about it, I just said, I just agreed. I probably should have negotiated a little harder. But I know I needed a change, because I was not drifting, I was sinking back home. I needed … Once again, it was like a life jacket being thrown to me. I knew it. I didn’t think for a second. I just agreed to it. Get me out of here. I always wanted to come back to Bethel. I said it in high school. “Wouldn’t this be a hoot of a job,” or “Wouldn’t this be the coolest thing.” I remember being laughed at a little bit at 18. Now I think, eh, screw ’em. Anyway, it’s just … It turned out to be right. It really did. It was nice to give back. It’s a little bit of a cliché. But it was nice to return where you start, and you brought in your sensibilities, because you’ve been through it. I think I was strong at that, creating special relationships with the kids I was working with. I did that well for a while. I burned out. I’m not going to … It was good to leave. But when I was on, I really felt like I covered it pretty well.
Dr. Belisle: Well, we hope that you don’t burn out with this latest job at the Mill Hill Inn. I’m hoping that people come to visit you. But now I want not too many people to come to visit you. We want it to feel comfortable.
Woody Hughes: It will be, because I will turn people away with the best of them, ask them to return next weekend. I will explain to them, for all the reasons, from my sanity, to the capabilities of what we can do, to the number of guests we already have. It’s not a bottom line project. That’s nice to have that pressure off me. It doesn’t have to work every single night, financially. It can be sort of a soft trend upwards, is what I look for. I don’t crunch numbers.
Dr. Belisle: Woody, how can people find out about the Mill Hill Inn?
Woody Hughes: We have a darn good web page, I believe, millhillinn.com. I don’t print very many brochures anymore. But the webpage, I believe, is printable. I believe it can go on an iPhone. There’s a video or 2 associated with it, so you get to get visual, you get tours of the building, the rooms. You get to hear and see … I’m interviewed in a couple of these. You get to see what the flavor of the place is going to be. I think it’s important, because once again, we’re rather informal. You’ve got to make sure that people understand that when they come. I think they do, and a lot of people appreciate just being able to be this relaxed. Hopefully I bring that kind of comfort to that situation.
Dr. Belisle: Well, we appreciate you’re taking the time to come talk to us today. I know that you’re just starting your season, so things are busy. So this is really a great privilege to have you on Love Maine Radio. So thank you.
Woody Hughes: Very good. I appreciate this, too.
Dr. Belisle: We’ve been speaking with Woody Hughes, who is the owner of the Mill Hill Inn in Bethel, and also an acclaimed potter. Keep enjoying what you’re doing, and keep doing a great job with it.
Woody Hughes: I’ll stay the course.