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PORTSMOUTH — Tuscan Market at 14 Market Square will soon shed its name and become Napoletana Pizza and Bar, a change in the works since the business completed renovations in spring 2022.
The rebranding of Tuscan Market will be highly visible in the center of downtown activity in Portsmouth, on the ground floor of a building widely known as a former coffeehouse.
Slight menu changes are on the horizon, too, though the business’ management assures it will remain a Tuscan Brand-owned and operated dining location.
“I think it’s a good concept for something this size,” said Ryan Lewis, general manager.
Early last year, Tuscan Market, operating on the first floor of 14 Market Square, closed its doors for its renovations and temporarily removed its beloved outdoor dining tables stationed around the Chamber Collaborative of Greater Portsmouth’s information kiosk, a move that ruffled some feathers before the seating was returned.
Tuscan Market, upon returning from its brief hiatus, unveiled a new 15-seat bar and oven imported from Italy, used to create Neoplitan-style pizzas. Though the pizza oven imported from Italy is in the back of the house, the EarthStone oven facing customers in the front of the house heats up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that takes roughly three hours to reach.
With a continued focus on pizza, the business is set to become the first Napoletana Pizza and Bar location in the Tuscan Brand portfolio of businesses.
“When we reopened last year, we kept the name Tuscan Market but changed the concept, which was kind of confusing,” Lewis said. “This is the rebrand that’s more representative of what we’re actually doing.”
When will Napoletana Pizza and Bar launch in Portsmouth?
Lewis, general manager of the business since its reopening last year, said signage for the soon-to-be-renamed business should be ready in early September. At that time, the business will reveal its new logos and new apparel for staff, while also starting its menu changes.
Tuscan Market offers an all-day food menu featuring pizzas, grilled fish and meat, paninis, pasta dishes and salads. After transitioning to Napoletana Pizza and Bar, the business will split its dishes up by offering a lighter fare lunch menu and a separate dinner menu with different entrees.
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Ideas are still being brainstormed by management on potential food and beverage menu additions, including a potential “Tiki Tuesday” drink theme or the addition of soups to the fall menu.
“As far as what we’re doing now and what we’ll be doing as Napoletana, it’s not going to be drastically different from what we were doing as Tuscan Market,” Lewis said.
Napoletana Pizza and Bar’s location in Market Square is a short walk from Toscana Italian Chophouse & Wine Bar, another Tuscan Brand restaurant on Pleasant Street in Portsmouth.
How Tuscan Brands came to Portsmouth
The historic 1800s brick building at 14 Market Square has seen its fair share of changes in recent decades.
Cafe Brioche, a beloved coffee shop had operated in the building for two decades when in January 2004, its co-owners abruptly closed it, leaving a surprising note on the door to inform the public. They had been operating the business for a year and a half after purchasing it from co-founder Paul Norton.
The first floor wouldn’t be empty for long. By spring 2004, city coffee shop Breaking New Grounds, founded in 1993, moved in. Breaking New Grounds, loved by coffee drinkers near and far, closed and sold the property for $4.25 million to Joseph Faro, founder of Tuscan Brands, in January 2019.
Faro opened the first Tuscan Kitchen restaurant in Salem in 2010, then opened the flagship Tuscan Market in Salem two years later. A Tuscan Kitchen was opened on Lafayette Road in Portsmouth in March 2017, though that location was closed and is now occupied by Tour, a golf-themed restaurant and bar.
Tuscan Brands’ holdings includes Tuscan Kitchen locations in Salem, Boston and Burlington, Massachusetts; Tuscan Market locations in Salem and Portsmouth; Bar Toscana in Boston; Tuscan Sea Grill & Bar in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
More on 14 Market Square’s past and present
The commercial space at 14 Market Square wasn’t always known for coffee and food. Prior to its coffeehouse days, Wm. D. Grace Drug Store, also known as Grace’s Pharmacy, operated in the building from 1886 until 1921, according to the Portsmouth Athenaeum.
Next came Frank R. Johnson’s Candy Shop, followed by Albert W. Moulton’s Candy Shop, then sit-down restaurant Teddy’s Lunch.
The Athenaeum previously reported that the building was home to a host of other businesses in the past, including a grocery store, dental practices, law offices, insurance agencies, Kelly Davis Architecture, Kingsbury Photos and a massage therapy business.
The notable property is owned by developer Mark McNabb, who recently faced opposition from the city’s Historic District Commission for a plan to add workforce housing units to the building, expand the attic and create a curved rooftop addition.
More: Rooftop workforce housing in ‘very sacred’ Market Square? Portsmouth board members object
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