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The Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce is lighting up downtown tonight with holiday festivities during the 27th Annual Christmas Stroll. As WHAV previously reported, events include Pentucket Bank’s Santa’s Village. a promenade of ice sculptures, cookie decorating, S’mores and Pearl Pop-Up Camper with hot cocoa, cider and donuts. Columbus Park will also be lit up with blue and white lit trees for Elsa’s Wonderland. Covanta donated a 30-year-old blue spruce for this year’s Christmas Tree.
When Harbor Place’s newest tenant, Barrio Tacos, opens for business next spring, the family business based out of Cleveland, Ohio hopes to bring a new sense of community to the downtown district with its ninth restaurant. Maggie Osborn, who co-owns the 4,000 sq. ft. space with her husband Dan, tells WHAV the Atkinson, N.H.-based couple was tasked with bringing Barrio to the East Coast by her brother, who operates the other locations and Haverhill was first on their list. “I started looking in Haverhill first, because Haverhill just reminded me so much of what Barrio is back in Cleveland, Ohio: In these neighborhoods that are diverse and about community,” Osbourn told WHAV.
Tacos, tequila and whiskey are coming to the downtown Haverhill riverfront next year. Barrio, the Cleveland, Ohio-based restaurant chain, is coming to Harbor Place at the edge of the Merrimack River. Owners Maggie and Dan Osborn of Atkinson, N.H., have started construction inside a 4,000-square-foot space long set-aside for dining space at the 2 Merrimack St. commercial building. “We couldn’t have found better partners in Dan and Maggie and a better restaurant for our waterfront space at Harbor Place,” said Ronald Trombley, managing director with the Greater Haverhill Foundation.
Jimmy K’s Diner is on the move—up North! Three months after announcing plans to expand their Plaistow Road location this fall, the popular breakfast and lunch spot confirms they’re breaking ground on a second location in Seabrook, N.H. with the intention of opening by Sept. 1. The new restaurant will be located at 264 Lafayette Road in Seabrook, Jimmy K’s said in a social media post last week. Plans for the second spot comes on the heels of their relocation from 101 Plaistow Road to a space a few feet behind their existing space near the New Hampshire border.
Heads’ up, Haverhill: KidsFEST 2019 is coming! This year, the annual family-friendly street fair is returning to the city’s downtown business district on Saturday, May 4, held on the stretch of Washington Street between Casa Blanca restaurant and The Tap. According to Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce Events Director Melissa Seavey, the scaled down affair was orchestrated in an effort to appease downtown neighbors so they can go about their business on a busy Saturday when the event takes place between 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Seavey is optimistic about consolidating the event, which carries a “Dr. Seuss” theme, to a smaller area. “Here’s hoping that we have the perfect location for a downtown event,” Seavey says. In addition to live music from acts including Thomasina Glenn and Be Imagine’s Bliss and Chaotic Sanity, Creative Haverhill holds its first juried youth art show at 90 Washington St., with art on display from artists in grades pre-K through 12.
Harbor Place’s newest neighbor The Compound is ready to pump up Haverhill—and the gym is opening for business Sunday with all group fitness classes that day taking place free of charge. Owned and operated by Haverhill’s Anthony Ruiz and Lawrence’s Oscar Moscat, The Compound, occupies the 6,400-square foot space underneath The Harbor Place Residences. As the co-owners tell WHAV, custom gym equipment is being shipped from Lithuania as interior renovations are completed, and a formal grand opening is in the works for later this spring. Prioritizing both the mental and physical aspects of fitness, The Compound is a niche gym, Moscat tells WHAV. “The Compound is basically an environment for everyone who loves weightlifting and fitness but doesn’t like the distractions that come with that,” Moscat said.
The Merrimack Valley’s very first Chick-fil-A restaurant, under the leadership of Grant Stoffel, opens this week at 73 Pleasant Valley St. (Courtesy photographs)
Merrimack Valley foodies, here’s news to cluck about: The area’s first Chick-fil-A fast food location officially opens for business on Thursday—with owner Grant Stoffel giving away a year of free meals to 100 lucky fans. Located near Target on Pleasant Valley Street—a stone’s throw from The LOOP shopping complex—the 5,000 square-foot free-standing restaurant features seating for 116 and a two-lane drive thru, Stoffel tells WHAV. With the company since 2005, Beverly’s Stoffel comes to Methuen after seven years as head of the Northshore Mall location in Peabody. The business owner—who became one of the company’s youngest-ever franchisees at 23—tells WHAV he’s most excited to offer Merrimack Valley locals healthy, fresh food and a new standard of service—with a smile.
Rohan Patel owns and operates the Bruster's ice cream shop at 130 Main St., in Haverhill. (WHAV News photograph)
I scream, you scream, well … Haverhill’s foodies know the rest! Pittsburgh ice cream chain Bruster’s Real Ice Cream is getting ready to make its mark on the Haverhill restaurant scene, with the opening of the company’s very first local scoop shop at 130 Main St., in the plaza across from G.A.R. Park and City Hall. Counting Domino’s among its neighbors, Bruster’s is owned and operated locally by Nashua, N.H.-based franchisee Rohan Patel. Acting as the store’s general manager, Patel told WHAV he anticipates opening for business the first week of December, with a 24-flavor menu of hard ice cream, cakes and other frozen novelties available through walk-up counter service.
