Ri Ra pub brings Irish culture to Portsmouth

St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, and Seacoast residents should be able to celebrate at a new Irish pub opening soon in the heart of downtown Portsmouth.

The former bank buildings of 22 and 26 Market St. are being renovated to become Ri Ra Irish Pub and Restaurant this month. The renovation will not only make new use of some of the original elements of the historic building, but will also bring in salvaged materials from old Irish pubs across the Atlantic Ocean. 

The owners, David Kelly and Ciaran Sheehan, are two friends who grew up together in Dublin, Ireland. After college, both happened to emigrate to the United States to pursue their careers, Sheehan in architecture and Kelly in marketing for Guinness. They opened their first Ri Ra pub in Charlotte, N.C., in March 1997. The business expanded and now has nine locations.

After close to 20 years in the heart of downtown Portsmouth, Belle Peppers Café permanently closed its Congress Street doors on Feb. 11. A day later, news emerged that The Stockpot Restaurant on Bow Street would close by the end of April. Even more recently, Victory on State Street announced it would close at the end of February.

Belle Peppers owner Larry Trager said he decided to sell the café’s downtown location and focus on his other businesses at Pease International Tradeport. Belle Peppers Too will remain open at 1 New Hampshire Ave. and Tradeport Pizza is still at 14 Manchester Square. Belle Peppers will also continue to offer catering.

time to invest in local farms

With spring nearing, Slow Food Seacoast is helping area residents meet their local farmers. The second annual Community Supported Agriculture Fair will take place at the Levenson Room in Portsmouth Public Library on Saturday, Feb. 14, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The public will have the opportunity to ask questions about Community Supported Agriculture and get information about buying shares in a local farm’s crops for the 2009 summer and fall seasons.

The CSA program is a direct-market approach that has gained considerable popularity in recent years for helping small farms compete with larger ones. Customers buy shares for one season at a local farm and, in return, receive fresh, locally grown produce once a week during the growing season. By investing in local agriculture, consumers can support the presence of small farms on the Seacoast.

Offering fresh seafood at below-market prices, New Hampshire fishermen will cast their lines into the winter farmers’ market in Exeter on Saturday, Feb. 7, in hopes of hooking Seacoast residents on a new way to buy seafood: direct.

This will be the first time in recent history that consumers will be able to purchase local seafood without going through a middleman. Instead of waiting for items caught just miles off the state’s coast to be processed and packaged in places like Portland, Maine, and Boston, Mass., locally-caught products can now be locally-bought products.

“We would like to sell a lot of product locally, and there’s no reason why this product cannot stay right here in New Hampshire,” says Bob Campbell, manager of the Yankee Fishermen’s Cooperative in Seabrook, a venture jointly owned by about 60 local commercial fishermen.