Osteria Poggio on NH Chronicle
 

Osteria Poggio in Center Harbor is being featured on NH Chronicle this week. Wife and I took a cooking class there today, Sweets the Chef very personable and great food! https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...00063496965474

Heard so much about the place, my wife and I went last year, wasn't impressed. Gusto's & Bernini's food is much better, JMO.

Anyone try the new concept yet

..... Poggio's new biergarten & pub pavilion
 

A very large, very well constructed, outdoor ...... pavilion ....... is the word that comes to mind to describe this new addition, next to the circa-1820 Coe House mansion for www.poggioscraftkitchentaphouse.com new biergarten and pub which was landscaped and constructed over the last three months. Build it big, build it best, build it to last 'n last ..... very much a huge post & beam, barn structure!

What a build ..... looks like a 200-year old, post and beam, great big barn with all four sides, open, and a smaller attached, enclosed kitchen and serving shed. It is a very interesting and impressive construction build and looks like it will be there for at least the next two hundred years as an outdoor, roof covered biergarten and pub ...... wow! ...... :cheers:

Lake Winnipesaukee motor boaters with the big money will have a very nice, new place-to-go, walking about 1/8-mile up the hill from the Center Harbor town docks which has a "3-hour limit on docking of any boats from 8am to 10pm, and no docking or tying up of boats from 10pm to 6am/$250.00 Fine".

Looks like a lot of Italian style food.

First time diners
 

We went the other night to check out the new pavilion which we hope will be a welcome addition to dining options in Center Harbor. There was music and it was loud enough that it precluded any conversation at the table. The beer was very good. The food (smash burger and chicken parmigiana sandwich were unremarkable). I will surely give this place another try but would suggest that the musical acts keep the volume a bit lower so the people who aren't there for the music can hear each other. I wish them all the luck. It could become a great gathering spot but they have some work to do (granted they have only been open a couple of weeks now).

Food was NOT good in the new beer pavilion
 

The new pavilion is beautiful and the beer was good. The food was awful. I like the owner Sweets and I really want this place to do well but it is not going to make it when you make the chicken parm sandhich with 3 frozen chicken fingers and the burger was practically burnt. That is not what I expect for what I paid.

Any updates on the Biergarten?

Though I don't think Poggios itself would be our cup of tea, it sounds like the pavilion might be.

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Pulled in a few a couple weeks back on a nice Sunday around 1pm...the biergarten was a ghost town so we left. Would like to give it a shot, but not sure why you wouldn't want to be making money on a nice Sunday in the heart of summer with an outdoor venue like that.

Excellent Meal...
 

...We went there this past Friday night for our anniversary. We had a great experience for our anniversary there several years ago, so we decided to try it again. When I made the reservation, I had asked for a "nice table". When we arrived and I gave the name to the hostess, she said, "oh yes, I have a very nice table for you as you requested". Great table in the front of the dining room looking right out at the lake.

We split an appetizer of Asiago garlic knots, which were obviously home-made and excellent. We also split a Caesar salad...again, very good. My wife got a shrimp, clam, and pasta dish. It was "shrimp-scampi-ish", but it was served on home-made ribbon pasta. I had a taste of it and it was excellent.

I had another pasta dish, (I forget the style of pasta, but it was frilly on the edges), which was with grated lamb and sausage in a red sauce and it was fantastic.

The pastas were definitely home-made and the menu indicated that all of the meat/chicken came from a local farm. It was also evident that they have changed their vibe from a more formal restaurant, (Osteria Poggio), to be more hip...Poggios Kitchen and Bier Garten. For 7PM on a Friday night, they were not crowded at all...I hope their new strategy is successful.

Went to the Biergarten on Saturday. Gorgeous day and environment was a 10 but food and service need some serious help. 3 beers, a burger, wings, and pretzel sticks wasn't cheap and was very very poor quality. It takes a lot for me to even post a review, let alone one that's going to come off pretty negative but the goal in posting this is so that others have expectations and hopefully owners see and make corrections. Would be nice to see this place thrive as it's a great spot in a good location.

The finer detail - several of the desired beers were not available...NBD. Asked for pretzels and beer cheese and was told they were out but could give us pretzel sticks and we obliged. Then I watched as they grabbed them from a case where they were likely sitting for an extended period of time since they were very hard and stale. I think the sticks were only $5, and I don't know why I continued to eat them, but I did. My wife got a burger and asked for it "medium" and was told they only cook it one way since it's a "smash burger". This $19 burger came out looking like a mini rubber hockey puck, very likely reheated in a microwave, no where close to a smash burger and not even close to filling up the bun. Thankfully (sarcasm) it was supplemented with the most basic potato chips from a bag, very likely Lays. Wings were $14, not great but edible...wouldn't get again.

Overall - we're glad we went. Everywhere has high costs right now due to inflation but the quality didn't match up with the price at all. If stopping back it'll likely be for just a beer unless hearing things have changed.

Actually, they always match up.
An establishment with better service and quality would need to raise the prices even higher to stem the demand of the customer base or see that service and quality degrade.

Not always, which is why I said it didn't match up here. A 4 ounce frozen burger patty cooked like a hockey puck with some lays potato chips isn't worth $19, especially without being "served" (order at the bar counter and throw away/clean up your own dish).

Other business with higher quality service and product are probably underpricing... they'll have to adjust to keep profits and staff going.
They used to use a formula that food was 1/3 of the menu price... but with food prices going up quickly... and labor supply so tight that establishments are recruiting from other establishments... that formula probably will not stick. It never did in higher end establishments that set their prices to the point of keeping the customer base in check.

The solution to cheap eats is FOOD CARTS.

Low overhead, lower price.

Low ambiance too, alas.

Not for those on a first date: more for those who are simply hungry.

I haven't been in since the remodel, but I was told that McDonald's placed a self-serve cashier in the system to lower the cost of counter help.

I know my bank pushes using my debit card, I suspect that even the cost of the ATM network is something they are looking to discharge.

self-serve...
 

Yes, I've been in a couple Dunkin Donuts and 1 McDonalds where there were only the kiosks to order and pay for the food. Was also in an airport bar in LaGuardia a month ago and it was QR code only to order and pay.

Automation is only going to continue to expand as the replacement for many low-skill jobs.

I travel a fair amount and something I see a lot all over the country is bars and brewery type places bringing in one or more food trucks instead of having their own kitchen. I love the idea, different types of food on different days and if one of them sucks they are not invited back.

Tough to pay for that Pavilion with food carts. They got themselves in a jam with a business plan that is not consistent. The structure they built is gorgeous and expensive, but the view and the food are not gorgeous and worth paying a premium

I have held off from weighing in on this, mostly because I like Sweets. (Who doesn't?) However, FlyingScot hit on the issue with OP. He was gifted a great menu and concept from Kevin, but his lack of discipline caused him to become distracted over time. First the menu was changed in which popular staples were removed, then he waited too long to resume normalcy after the government-imposed shut down. Then, with the success of another local Italian restaurant, Gusto, it was decided to again change the menu and ultimately the concept. It's as if he's constantly searching for the next great thing when he had it from the beginning - solid menu, solid food, good bartenders, nice atmosphere.

The straw that broke the camels back for me was last Thanksgiving, when we ordered some items to be picked up at noon. They weren't ready, and when they were, they were terrible. The explanation I got was that he was doing a lot for a local food pantry. (So I'm thinking to myself that I'm supposed to feel better that you f'd up my order so that non-paying customers were well fed. Great.) Either you run a business or run a service organization. Again, another example of a lack of discipline. We haven't been back.

I would love to see the OP succeed, but the writing has been on the wall for some time that it will not.

Annnd.... they are closing
 

Their Facebook page today:

https://www.facebook.com/osteriapoggioNH

Not surprised.

Didn't they just build the Biergarten thing?! That had to cost some crazy moolah.

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I think it’s because they were too pretentious and called themselves a Kitchen instead of just Restaurant. lol. Follow the latest fad with sheep and this is what happens. ha. Any predictions on what type of place will be coming in?


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Could someone connect the dots?

Sweets took over from Kevin...who owns it? Both? It would seem that it's not jointly owned, unless someone bought out Sweets...

From the FB post, seems Sweets is moving on. So maybe Kevin owns the building?

I'm just trying to understand the backstory.

I went for the first time last month. Interesting place a lot more casual than I expected.

My guess is that the Biergarten put them into debt they could not service. Sad, but several members have reported their disappointment, so as BiggD noted, not surprising

I don’t know if it would be called a beer garden but I would think the new outdoor structure behind the Broken Spoke would have a lot more traffic than one behind Osteria Poggio.


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I have not been to the Broken Spoke, but my take on the OP Biergarten is that it suffered from being "stuck in the middle" without a consistent marketing plan--a gorgeous expensive structure but with lousy views and subpar food/service (as reported by others). I would guess they needed an all around excellent experience to pay for the construction

Poggio’s leased the restaurant area, did not own property. Property is owned by 2 other people. The Biergarten is owned by them along with owner of Notch brewery. I suspect they already have a plan for the space. Time will tell.

Not the first restaurant in this space to not make it. I hope another restaurant fills the space

Something other than Italian food, tough to compete with Gusto's.

gusto's doesn't do dinner but agree a lot of Italian but before I think it was more seafood with last one. Tough to survive the winters. Only moderate scale left in Moultonborough or Center harbor for dinner is Canoe.

I thought Gusto's was doing dinner on weekends?

Lemongrass

The High Octane (since 2020) has a Garage - for bands etc.

As for the Biergarten at OP - it seems Twin Barns with zero view and beer only does just fine filling their parking-lot styled Beer Garden. I don't think it's the view or the location I live nearby and never go to OP - - - it's always been a bit pretentious with sporadic hours.

forgot them and it has become my favorite. Must have been a senior moment

I think people lose focus on what got them to where they are at.

Another example - Beans and Greens has some kind of Beer Garden now, it seems to be all they hyped this and most of last year. Live entertainment all the time.....right down the road and noone I know has ever been as they were a farm stand, taken over by out of staters and now no more farm stand, or atleast one that had any produce at all these last couple years. If you re-invent what was in theory working you better be sure of the new before you ruin the old.

I get trying new things, and diversification, but there is finite money for a limited amount of time per year, I don't see how business owners lose focus on these things...

I dont believe the new Beans and Greens owners own the farmland, so they dont have much choice but to reinvent the wheel at that property.

We gave up on the OP years ago but somehow always went back hoping for better results.....kinda like hoping that cheating girlfriend would be true this time around but ........ there are only so many second chances you can give.

I applaud Sweets for his dedication and passion. The restaurant business is ruthless and I wish him only the best. Please don't take any comments as a personal attack. Take this lesson and succeed in your next endeavor.

First and foremost, the location is spectacular, but the building (with the exception of the bar) is too old and stuffy, in my opinion, for the summer lake crowd. It's a large building and difficult to cover the overhead I'm sure. That's a tough obstacle. Is the restaurant there a formal dinner place, a bar, a beer garden, or what? Outdoor seating and the garden were great, but so limited by seasonality and weather and it probably would have made it with a few more years to establish itself.

We need something new here. We have plenty of Italian, pizza, etc..... For being near the coast there's not a great seafood, farm to table, or fun unique place that you can visit regularly. Any ideas folks?

Finally, the cupola atop the building is such a missed opportunity to be the Lakes Regions most coveted dining spot for any anniversary, birthday or special occasion. If you haven't been up there, the view is incredible!!! The perfect spot for an intimate dinner for two ....and the perfect marketing draw to create buzz... It's not for everyone and it has it's pitfalls, but ITS UNIQUE AND COOL. People would pay for the experience. It could easily be on Chronicle or other media outlets that would bring people in.


And for any restaurant, don't forget the LOCALS who get you through the slow winter months. They strayed from that and paid the price. Just my two cents.

Ever since the William Tell closed there's been a clamor for them to reopen.

Ain't happenin', but someone should open up a restaurant with similar food.

Swiss is good, German also: can the two be combined?

I heard today from a contractor working there that Gusto's was taking it over.

That would be amazing. Fingers crossed!


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That would great but hard to believe they would have three places within 100 yards

I believe they will either sell or rent their original spot. With the house dining and beer garden, I think this would be perfect.

Someone posted on Facebook, Gusto's Taphouse opening in April in addition to their other restaurant.

Depending on the overhead.
 

Personally, I think all 3 could work. Cafe, market, and restaurant.

More?
 

There's more here than this thread. For example, there's a Gusto in Bedford, NH. Where else?