Alexandra Stewart turned to the local retailers lining the streets of downtown Concord this April when she needed teacher appreciation gifts – elated that, now, she has not one but two new stationary stores to visit.
When her knives grow dull, she packs them up and heads to Things Are Cooking to get them sharpened. When she craves fresh air or a change of scenery, she’ll venture to the brick walkways of Main Street for her daily walk.
“I kind of just come down to be down here,” said Stewart, a teacher at Bow Memorial and a mother of two who moved to Concord before the pandemic.
She and her daughter, Izzy, wandered through the network of colorful tents and browsed the rows of vendors at Market Days on Thursday.
Hosted by InTown Concord, Market Days is the peak of downtown festivity, with shops and restaurants spilling out onto the street and sidewalks. Attendees – from college students just home for summer break to local parents and people who work downtown every day – pointed to Main Street’s little shops, historic charm and festivals as what they think it does best. In addition to a desire to have more live music, they also hope more restaurants will come and that establishments will stay open later.
For Stewart, events are a magnet, from the book festival to First Fridays.
“I feel like there’s always something going on, which is really nice for the size of the city,” she said.
Roxy Mailhot knows Main Street well. Mailhot, of Allenstown, has lived in the Concord area her whole life and comes downtown daily to her real estate office on the corner of Park Street.
Market Days aside, she said downtown has been feeling more lively. It’s a nice pairing with the city’s well-cared-for old buildings.
“Every time you drive down here,” she said, “You’ve got something new to see.”
Mailhot likes Main Street best in the evening. But she also sees room for improvement.
Just this week, she got dinner with a friend at a nice restaurant, followed by a drink at Rooftop Social.
As they finished up their meal, she said, the restaurant staff were closing the place down around them. It was almost nine: closing time.
“I feel like the restaurants here don’t stay open that late,” she said.
At that hour on a Thursday evening, only ten places serving food or drink still have the lights on. Weekend nights have a few more options, although not by a lot, according a Monitor analysis of downtown businesses.
Mitch Taranow, who lives in Contoocook with his wife, Arlene, said Concord used to be a “ghost town” after 5 p.m. They work on Warren Street.
“Ever since the last redo, there’s more people, more young people, especially in the evening, eating outside,” said Taranow. “It used to be a place where people came to work and go home. Now, it’s not. If you sit outside at nine o’clock on a Friday night, there are people walking by constantly. That was never the way it was.”
The culinary scene, too, has shifted over the years, although Stewart, of Bow, said she craves more options.
When Yamas Greek Eatery opened this spring, she said, getting a table was a battle.
“I think people were so – literally, pun intended – hungry for more options and excited for that possibility,” she said.
Less than a quarter of the storefronts on and around Main Street, about 24%, are occupied by restaurants – including coffee shops, cafes and bars – per the Monitor’s analysis.
Retail, on the other hand, makes up almost a third of the spots downtown.
As Haley Ducharme, 20, waited in line with two friends for a caricature artist at Market Days, she said she frequents the secondhand shops downtown. Stores on the whole, she said, keep downtown alive with their friendliness and festive displays.
Still, she and her friends and fellow Concord High alumnae Lindsey McLaren and Lilah Castellano, miss the frozen yogurt shop they’d gone to as kids. They said they wouldn’t mind if Orange Leaf came back to town.
Matt Skoby, who teaches English at Concord High School, finds himself going downtown for music.
“I know it’s important to support local musicians as well, and I have some friends that are actively playing, so I like to come support them,” said Skoby, who used to dabble in the music scene himself.
Arts Alley, the Capitol Center for the Arts and the BNH Stage offer performances across all genres, but even so, multiple people mentioned wanting more live music, especially outdoors and at restaurants.
“I think that would draw people,” said Arlene Taranow, with her dog, Winston pressed against her legs.
Still, the Taranows are impressed with what Concord already has.
“Show me a place this small that has so many gems,” Mitch Taranow said.
To share your thoughts on downtown, take our community survey.
Check out the Monitor’s interactive map of Main Street and the surrounding area.
Read the On Main project here.
