CABOT – Dan Wyman played fiddle tunes as chatter from the bar a few yards away ambled into the corner where he performed. A couple sat at a table right in front of him, listening and watching closely.

The only other eyes gazing upon Wyman belonged to the animals depicted on the feed bags shelved just over his left shoulder – a couple of sheep, a rangy horse, a gangly foal, a hungry-looking chicken. Pairs of work gloves hung from a wall as if ready to applaud when the St. Albans musician was done playing.

Music venues such as Higher Ground in South Burlington hang posters of previous big-name concerts they’ve hosted. The venue Wyman was playing on this sub-zero Saturday night in January displays spark plugs, spray paint, sheep feed and shooting supplies. He was performing at The Den at Harry’s Hardware, the shop that calls itself New England’s “first and only bar in a hardware store.”

Cabot is a town of 1,500 residents in the northeastern corner of Washington County, on the edge of Vermont’s remote Northeast Kingdom. Even its residents admit there isn’t much reason to go there unless you work at the Cabot Creamery, or maybe if you’re taking a short cut between routes 2 and 15 on the aptly-named Vermont 215 that runs through the center of town.

For a venerable business such as Harry’s Hardware to survive in the 21st century, diversification is key. That’s why there's a bar with eight beer taps and live music every weekend. It’s hard to sustain a hardware store or a bar in a small town, but a hardware store with a bar? That could work.

“I knew that people would like it. I didn’t know people would love it,” said Johanna Thibault, who opened The Den with her husband, Rory Thibault, when they became partners in Harry’s Hardware in the summer of 2017. “The number of people that say, ‘Thank you’ is just awesome.”

Making their own fun in Cabot

Harry’s Hardware was low-key just before 4 p.m. on a Saturday in mid-January. Alia Clary worked behind the counter/bar, chatting with Cabot resident Judy Pransky, who was buying a respirator mask. After Pransky left with her purchase, Clary talked about how The Den at Harry’s Hardware came to be.

The store has been in Cabot for decades, but the most-recent owners, Bobby and Stephany Searles, who run the adjacent Cabot Village Store, were ready for a change. “Town brainstorming,” as Clary called it, led the Searles and Thibaults to form a partnership and open The Den at Harry’s Hardware.

Clary, a Brattleboro native, first came to Cabot years ago to attend The Manifestivus, an annual music festival begun by Pransky’s son, David Pransky, when he was in the band Toubab Krewe. Many small towns like Cabot, according to Clary, are struggling to hold onto their identities.

“Their hearts have died a little bit,” she said.

Cabot is seeking to avoid that fate. The Den at Harry’s Hardware is a big part of Cabot’s new identity.

It's an outing for people to have a beer, socialize and hear music in the dead of winter, according to Clary, who also runs an herb farm two miles from the store. “One of our intentions of having the bar here is it’s a gathering place.” She said the store that stocks toys strives for a family atmosphere.

A few minutes later, a couple came in to buy pints of Vermont beer and a can of Rust-Oleum. Soon after, Lauri and Ted Croft of Elmore sat in the tractor-seat bar stools after a day of snowshoeing at Groton State Forest.

“We wanted to stop by and see what it’s all about,” Lauri Croft said. “I like the idea that you can sit here and have a nice beer, and you can buy just about anything here. When was the last time you saw Lincoln Logs for sale?”

Harry’s Hardware is also home to Sarah’s Country Diner, a restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch. The store is striving as much as possible to be all things to all the people of Cabot.

“In a rural place,” Clary said, “you have to make your own fun.”

Vermont beer and Jack Daniels

Johanna Thibault joined Clary behind the bar that night as Wyman played traditional music in the corner near the store’s front window. “My husband and I did not move here to run a hardware store,” Thibault said, smiling at the thought.

The Thibaults, who came to Cabot two-and-a-half years ago, are certainly busy enough. They’re raising two boys while Rory Thibault serves as state’s attorney of Washington County and Johanna Thibault teaches at Vermont Law School, where the couple met. Rory Thibault, who served as a judge advocate general for the U.S. Army, remains in the U.S. Army Reserves and reports one weekend a month as well as two weeks a year.

The Thibaults knew Cabot had something special and wanted to help revitalize the town, to give people a place to come together as friends and not just to yell at each other every Town Meeting Day.

“It totally works, I think, because it’s an old store,” Thibault said of the homey shop that has served Cabot for generations. Musicians told them soon after The Den opened that it would be a great spot for music, so now performers play on Saturday nights and a jam session takes place Sunday afternoons.

The crowd around the bar that Saturday night included Cabot resident Jack Daniels – yep, that’s his name, though he stood near the bar holding a glass of wine instead of whiskey. He lives up the hill from The Den and loves stopping by.

“The bar exceeded my expectations. It’s beautiful,” he said as Wyman played in the background. “You have to support your local establishment.” If not for music at The Den, “we’d be home watching football right now,” according to Daniels.

“Johanna is wonderful, her husband is wonderful,” he said. “This and the (Cabot Village) store next door are truly important to our community.” He laughed at the notion of what’s come to be an unofficial slogan of the hardware store that offers beer, wine and hard cider but discourages heavy drinking: “If you get hammered, you will get nailed.”

Thibault said she and her husband knew they had the right idea when people told them they came to Cabot solely to visit The Den at Harry’s Hardware.

“It made us realize we created something,” she said.

If you go

WHAT: Harry’s Hardware

WHEN: 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Mondays-Wednesdays; 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Sundays

WHERE: 3087 Main St., Cabot

INFORMATION: 563-2291, www.harryshardwarevt.com

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at 660-1844 or bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.