4 days Ago
Sea Dog Brewing Company owner Fred Forsley would like to set the record straight after rumors began swirling that the Exeter pub restaurant was shutting its doors. “We’re definitely not closing,” he said. Forsley, who has owned the Sea Dog chain since 2002, isn’t sure where rumors about its future in Exeter originated, but he insisted that the restaurant on Water Street with views of the picturesque Squamscott River isn’t going anywhere.
Sea Dog, which also has a restaurant in North Conway with five additional locations in Maine and one in Florida, opened in Exeter in 2018 in the former Loaf & Ladle building after it received a major facelift. While the improvements to the aging building and Sea Dog’s arrival were celebrated, the Exeter location isn’t immune from the struggles that many restaurants have faced, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and with the sting of rising prices in recent years. One of the biggest challenges, Forsley said, is finding a way to bring back the weekday lunch crowd as consumer habits change.
“Exeter is a great town, but it’s just tough to get people out during the week. I’ve been in the business for 33 years and lunch is not as busy as it used to be. People don’t go out for lunch as much as they used to,” he said.
Sea Dog is hardly alone. According to a report released last year by the digital payment platform Square, nationwide weekday lunch sales fell 3.3% from 2019 to 2023.
The data showed that customers are more interested in spending money eating out on the weekends -- a period which saw a 4.2% increase in business. The national trend squares with what Forsley has seen at Sea Dog.
“Friday, Saturday and Sunday are still strong for us, but it’s getting the lunch business where it used to be and keeping the midweek and early week busy,” he said. According to Forsley, the Exeter restaurant has been slower to bounce back from COVID than locations that see an influx of tourists. “In the tourist areas people definitely came back quicker,” he said.
Brian Castle, a partner and operating owner of the Exeter Sea Dog who joined the restaurant nearly a year ago, echoed the difficulties restaurants have endured in the years since the pandemic, which hit when Sea Dog was still a relatively new addition to town. Brian Castle, a partner and operating owner of Sea Dog Brewing Company in Exeter, says he's optimistic about the brewpub restaurant's future in Exeter. “The bounce back after that was obviously a difficult thing to overcome.
Restaurants were trying to come out of what would almost be like an economic recession for a lot of people,” he said. Sea Dog has hired a new head chef and is offering comedy, live music, new menu items and other features to attract customers. Castle said the restaurant has trivia on Tuesday nights and teacher appreciation nights are now being held on Wednesdays with a 25% discount for teachers.
In addition to its regular dining, the restaurant also offers catering and rental space for hosting events. Castle said the rentals have been popular. “The calendar is definitely filling up.
We have a lot of room for functions and events.” Darren Winham, Exeter’s economic development director, expressed optimism about the local dining environment, but pointed out some of the difficulties restaurants have had as they serve the community. “The Exeter restaurant scene is booming, which is great for diners, but offers significant challenges to restaurateurs.
They compete for customers and staff. The ones that are the most successful offer a welcoming atmosphere, produce consistent offerings that are popular with customers and a convivial staff,” he said. According to Winham, finding and retaining that type of staff is another significant challenge for any restaurant.
“Successful restaurateurs provide an enjoyable working environment and consistently pay higher wages. The latter, of course, is the balancing act with which owners and managers must contend: How do I pay my workers more money without raising my prices to the point I lose customers? I greatly admire the more successful restaurant owners because these challenges are in no way a static matter,” he said..
