Portsmouth Common Man Closes Its Doors

The Common Man restaurant chain announced Wednesday that its Portsmouth location has closed its doors after five years in operation.

The reason given for the closure was that the lease was expiring and the building no longer fit the company's needs. Since the Common Man doesn't own the building, it decided that pouring money into renovations didn't make financial sense.

As recently as two years ago, the Common Man talked about building a larger lounge and a roof deck after owner Alex Ray acquired a single-story wooden building next door to the 96 State St. restaurant. But that never came to fruition.

The Common Man said it will continue to search for another location either in Portsmouth or elsewhere on the seacoast that will better suit its needs.

Below is the full text of the Common Man's announcement:

To the Portsmouth Community:

For almost five years, we’ve had the pleasure of serving our own spin on classic American fare to local residents, downtown business people and visitors at our Portsmouth home in our state’s beautiful seacoast area.

As a new restaurant in town back in 2009, we were welcomed with open arms and enjoyed spreading our wings and venturing out to New Hampshire’s coast.

When we opened, we knew our State Street location would be a trial building for us as we learned to fit in and grow in the community. Our lease is about to expire and at this time, we have decided not to renew it and have closed The Common Man Portsmouth.

While we so appreciate the support the community has given us from the start, and enjoy a great relationship with our landlord, we feel the building no longer fits our needs and because we don’t own it, it doesn’t make fiscal sense for us to remodel it.

We can’t thank our employees enough, who we call our STARS, for their tremendous efforts in introducing us to the community, “WOW”ing guests and building a steady stream of regulars who enjoyed their service and excellent food. We value their loyalty and remain loyal to them, working to provide transfers within our 16 other restaurants across New Hampshire, or assisting them in finding employment elsewhere.

We will miss this beautiful site, friendly guests and supportive community, and we continue to search for another location within Portsmouth and surrounding seacoast towns that will better suit us.

Thank you for being welcoming patrons and neighbors over the years.  We hope to see you at our other Common Man homes across New Hampshire as you travel our beautiful state. We are eternally grateful that you gave The Common Man a chance to become a valued part of this vibrant community.

Sincerely,

The Common Man family in New Hampshire