RiRa Irish Pub to Offer Outdoor Dining

Popovers on the Square is not the only downtown Portsmouth restaurant that wants to have outdoor dining this summer.

Next week, RiRa Irish Pub will offer its patrons six tables with umbrellas that can seat up to 26 people right in front of the Market Square restaurant, according to Tim Murphy, RiRa's assistant general manager.

The restaurant has already purchased the tables and chairs and they are clearly visible to the right of the main entrance. Murphy said the city took photographs of the outdoor dining area with the tables and chairs set up on Wednesday to get a visual of what it will look like.

Murphy said RiRa is just waiting for City Manager John Bohenko to sign their permit. As soon as that happens, the Irish pub will begin serving patrons lunch and dinner al Fresco. But Murphy said they will not be serving any alcohol. Murphy said RiRa applied for an alcohol license from the city, but the city did not grant it.

Thus far, City Manager John Bohenko said the city has approved outdoor alcohol service for the District, which is the former Pesce Blue, as part of the city's pilot program. Popovers on the Square's application to provide alcohol service as part of its outdoor dining proposal will go before the City Council Monday night, he said.

Murphy said RiRa's outdoor dining area will be not cordoned off to the general public and its layout will be very similar to the outdoor tables that its next door neighbor, Breaking New Grounds, has set up.

Eventually, Murphy said RiRa will use a temporary barrier of some kind.

"Our goal is to just do it right," Murphy said.

Murphy said RiRa has been planning to do outdoor dining at its Portsmouth restaurant for more than a year and many of its customers have said they want it. Murphy said just recently the restaurant posed a question to its Facebook followers asking them if they would like outdoor dining and the affirmative responses were overwhelming.

Over the past month, a great deal of attention has been paid to the application submitted by Popovers on the Square owner John Tinios to do outdoor dining with alcohol service. Tinios withdrew his application at one point and the resubmitted it to the city in early June.

He previously told Portsmouth-NH.patch.com he expected to offer outdoor dining with alcohol service, pending final council approval, in July.

Murphy said outdoor dining for restaurants like RiRa makes a great deal of sense. He said one warm, summer days many customers prefer to eat at restaurants that offer decks or outdoor dining. Such was the case on Thursday as temperatures soared into the mid-80s. RiRa's lunch time crowd was small.

Murphy said on a day like Thursday, the outdoor dining area would be full of customers from lunch time until closing.