Popovers on the Square is coming to Epping

By JASON SCHREIBER
Union Leader Correspondent

May 06. 2013 11:53AM
EPPING - A popular Portsmouth café and bakery will soon be opening a second location in the Brickyard Square shopping center.

Popovers on the Square, located in the heart of downtown Portsmouth, is expected to open an even larger restaurant in July in the Epping shopping center at the junction of Routes 125 and 101.

The new 3,200-square-foot restaurant, to be named Popovers on Brickyard Square, will be about 800 square feet larger than the one in Portsmouth, said Matthew Clark, general manager for Popovers.

Popovers has been hunting for a new location for a second restaurant in the area and inked a deal for Brickyard Square about two weeks ago. The shopping center is being developed by Waterstone Retail of Needham, Mass.

"We've been looking for the right location and we came close to a couple of different spots. We were very selective about where we were going to put our second spot," Clark said. "This was just a good location and a good fit for us. It's close to our home base, but not too close."

Popovers, which is owned by Seacoast restaurateur John Tinios and master baker Steve James, was drawn to Epping because of the region's commercial and retail development in recent years.

The menus of coffees, wines, European-style pastries and desserts, soups, sandwiches and salads will be similar to the ones offered at the Portsmouth restaurant, which opened in 2006.

However, Clark said that while the Portsmouth location focuses more on its breakfast and lunch menus, the new Epping restaurant will still offer breakfast and lunch but place more emphasis on dinner since it'll sit at the end of a retail building near the new O'Neil Cinemas. "It'll go hand in hand with the movie theater," he said.

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