Article published May 23, 2004

Mix of new and old has people talking about the city's center Main attraction

After years of taking a back seat to malls and big-box retailers, downtown Nashua has suddenly become a legitimate place to see, be seen and spend.

The Main Street area stretching from City Hall to Railroad Square has begun to benefit from that all-defining social phenomenon known as “the buzz.”

Granted, this social murmuring hardly equates to that heard in the hot-spots of Miami, New York and Boston. But the recent additions of a few high-end restaurants, a bookstore and other shops - complementing familiar businesses and eateries - has made downtown proper the focus of considerable local chatter.

“I bring people from out of town down here and they’re impressed,” Nashua-based attorney James McNamee said. “You used to have to bring people to Portsmouth.”

McNamee recently enjoyed lunch with fellow attorney Jannette Mooney outside Cooking Matters. They sat at a latticed steel table on a bricked Main Street sidewalk, absorbing sunshine and the downtown vibe.

Cooking Matters is a year-old gourmet food shop in the Woolworth’s building. The legendary five-and-dime store closed about a decade ago, several years after the Pheasant Lane Mall opened on the city outskirts and at a time when the downtown hardly inspired a whimper, let alone a buzz.

Of course, eateries and stores did exist, and some even thrived. But with the excep-tion of perhaps Martha’s Exchange, with its expanded brewery and restaurant, few businesses exuded an in-vogue feeling.

Now a burst of new niche stores and high-scale restaurants, a gentrification of buildings and walkways and the steady offerings of longstanding shops have people heading downtown again.

“It’s definitely much better. The restaurants are more upscale, and there are more of them,” said Michelle McGadden, a lifelong Nashua resident.

“They’ve really cleaned up everything. It looks a lot nicer and there are all the little things, like a hair salon, plus the old stuff, like the diners.”

The restaurants alone seem to generate excitement.

Of the nearly two dozen people interviewed for this story, many credit Michael Timothy’s, Villa Banca and Skol with bringing a sophistication to downtown dining. Others expressed an appreciation for the mid-priced offerings of Martha’s, while some enjoy a good sandwich and beer outside Nashua Garden.

“I remember the only place to eat downtown was the Modern,” McNamee said of the landmark restaurant that closed in 2001. Now, “The food options are great.”

The downtown’s numerous shops also drew praise. Many appreciated the blend of familiar businesses such as Alec’s Shoes with the luxurious, such as Pompanoosuc Mills furniture store, and the new, such as Blackbird Books and Cafe.

McGadden was able to mix gastronomic and shopping excursions on a recent noontime break from work. She selected a gift for her nephew at Bippity Boppity Baby before heading to lunch at Martha’s, aiming for an outdoor table.

With warm weather now prevalent, it seems good food is almost secondary to outdoor seating downtown. Several restaurants offer sidewalk dining, and although these exterior options pale in many respects to Newbury Street’s fashionable cafes, they still lend to the age-old art of social posing. Eat outside on a warm night and you tacitly compel others to see your good fortune.

Craig Lubin of Londonderry and Nina Lepak of Weston, Mass., recently ate outside the City Room Cafe on West Pearl Street. Colleagues at Progress Software at nearby Indian Head Plaza on Temple Street, they enjoy having several dining options within walking distance of work.

“I’m from New York City. This reminds me of New York,” Lubin said, pointing at the sidewalk table.

This sort of experience is why the downtown has markedly improved since he moved here eight years ago, he said.

The energy from Main Street has also shot down other streets. West Pearl Street showcases a voguish lighting and furniture store, ArcLight; two trendy eateries, Skol and City Room Cafe; and old standbys such as Burque Jewelers, Fortin-Gage Florists and R.B. Croteau Photography.

This taste of commerce is underscored by tree-lined sidewalks and the bustle of tenants who rent apartments overlooking the street. It almost has the feel of a little SoHo, Nashua-style.

Lisa Gilham would almost agree; she contends East Pearl Street should hold the SoHo designation. She’s confident enough that the street will sustain the liveliness of the area that she will soon open Manhattan on the Pearl, a martini bar targeting the over-30 crowd.

“I want to help raise the bar of the downtown,” Gilham said. “Nashua won’t compete with Manchester, but (with) Boston.”

Philip Scontsas, owner of the Main Street staple Scontsas Fine Jewelry and Home Decor, does see the bar elevating. The retail and dining experiences attract not only Nashua residents, but people from far west of the city and areas north of Boston, he said.

This renaissance is a result of restaurants and shops marketing themselves as “offbeat,” he said.

“Our downtown has finally realized they shouldn’t be something they’re not,” Scontsas said. “And that’s made it hip. Be independent, unusual, and that vibe catches on, as opposed to being homogenous like a mall.”

Indeed, many downtown stores present a specialty - furniture, eyewear, jewelry, antiques and even New Hampshire-oriented merchandise - and stick with it. This individualism is preferable to the cookie-cutter sameness of malls, and does in fact create a certain stylishness, many downtown shoppers said.

“A lot of people think of the Pheasant Lane Mall when you mention Nashua,” Boston resident Tom Donahue said. “But that’s not this area. It’s not really commercial.”

Scott Jangraw, co-owner of Cooking Matters, said he and partner Tony Adams try to convey this unique experience - a presentation contrary to chain stores - for customers from the moment they walk in the door: “products, the smell of food, people using laptops, coffee and the outdoor tables.”

He sees a thirst for this kind of shopping.

“I hear from customers that they’re really, really excited about the downtown,” Jangraw said. “They’re sick of the malls. The downtown is starting to change; people are drawn to the shops.”Wanted: Culture
Although a good downtown vibe relies heavily on good commerce, it isn’t entirely dependent on it. Other major components of a modish scene are people and culture.

The people are certainly coming, but according to many, the downtown still lacks culture. Several people cited the lack of an arts center as a major failing, and they think the downtown will remain ordinary until one opens.

Sharing a cigar with three other attorneys in Castro’s Smoke Shop, Nashua resident Todd Whitney rattled off his wish list: an art-house cinema and a performing arts center.

“When you get those two, then the whole thing improves,” Whitney said.

Diana Erickson, a Blackbird Books and Cafe employee, believes the downtown could benefit from a cerebral upgrade. The downtown has “no dominant interest in poetry readings, or any obvious signs of intellectualism,” she said.

An academic atmosphere would stimulate the city, but the structure of Nashua is not like Boston in that it can’t fit a university downtown, Erickson said.

“This would help the social scene,” she said. “Young people talk about politics and social change, and that’s lacking here.”

Shortcomings aside, all this chatter about the downtown’s transformation invites the asking of a significant question: Is the downtown truly hip?

“That depends,” said Sarah Trombly, a Blackbird Books employee. “Hip as in relative to Boston? Manchester? New York? It is an upcoming area. Nashua is a lot better now.”

Seymour Feldman, a Blackbird customer who overheard Trombly, said he does find the downtown “getting more and more hip.” To confirm this, Feldman recalled how the area recently gave him, a man in his late 70s, the opportunity to meet “an interesting beauty from Scotland.”

Finishing lunch outside Cooking Matters, McNamee and Mooney tried to put the hype into perspective.

“ ‘Hip?’ I don’t know if I’d define it as hip,” Mooney said. “You don’t have an Armani Cafe with beautiful people hanging outside. We’re more a Dress Barn hip.”

Added McNamee: “A blue-collar hip.”