Hancock eatery a joint labor of love for couple

When Adam Bishop and Deidre Dority were working long hours in restaurants on Mount Desert Island, barely seeing each other and relying on hastily written notes to communicate, they knew there had to be a better way to make a living.

So when they heard from a friend of a friend that a small market in Hancock was for sale, they jumped at the chance to own their own business.

“We could really picture ourselves here,” Dority said one afternoon after slipping a cauliflower pie into one of the ovens at Mano’s Market on Route 1 in Hancock.

Last September, Dority, 27, and Bishop, 29, bought Mano’s from previous owners Nicole Purslow and Charlotte Humenuk, who opened the gourmet provisions shop in the summer of 2004.

They kept the name but changed the menu a bit and also made the seasonal business a year-round operation.

Before purchasing Mano’s, the couple lived in the Bar Harbor village of Town Hill. He was chef at Red Sky, an elegant restaurant in Southwest Harbor. She also worked in local restaurants and was a personal chef to a family in Northeast Harbor.

They met in Bar Harbor, where Dority grew up and Bishop attended College of the Atlantic.

Together, they put their expertise to use at Mano’s, where they sell home-style entrees ranging widely from flank steak and chicken potpie to crab cakes and pork enchiladas with salsa verde. They also make specialty sandwiches such as roast beef with caramelized onions and horseradish mayonnaise and curried chicken salad with walnuts and grapes.

They also sell wine, beer, locally produced eggs and goat’s milk yogurt and a variety of cheeses including brie and Stilton blue.

From the coffee cake to the twice-baked potatoes, everything is made from scratch. That means Bishop and Dority are still working long hours, but now they are doing it on their own terms.

Each day, one of them will wake up at 5:30 a.m. to start baking for the morning muffins-and-coffee crowd. Then they get started on the lunch menu, which varies depending on what fresh, local ingredients are available.

While one is preparing food or waiting on customers, the other is taking care of their daughter, Greta, a vivacious 3-year-old who likes ballet and chocolate chip cookies. After having dinner together as a family, they clean up the shop and get ready for the next day before retiring for the evening to their home above the store.

The days are long, but the work is rewarding.

“It feels good because we are investing in our own thing,” Bishop said. “The ultimate goal is to have some stability and at the same time do something we enjoy. And I feel good about providing people with quality, nutritious food.”

Mano’s Market on Route 1 in Hancock is open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.