Big Bean opening in Exeter: Yes, Newmarket faves and more are on the menu
EXETER — Downtown is welcoming a new eatery on the block, one that owners Jon and Arley Wells hope will become "a staple of Exeter."
The Big Bean Café will open its doors Thursday, July 27, at 163 Water St., offering favorites from the menu of its Newmarket location and much more. The restaurant will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., seven days a week. The owners plan to extend those hours to late evening in the future.
“We are where we belong,” said Jon Wells. “We’re very happy to be here.”
Taking over the former location of The Tavern at River’s Edge, the Wellses spent the past six months renovating the space.
“People can expect to come into a really vibrant, clean pub-style atmosphere with all the things they know and love about our Newmarket place,” said Jon Wells. “The art, the music … smells of the kitchen filling the room. They can also expect the same great food we’ve been cooking for 27 years to be coming to the table.”
Down the 18-step flight of stairs — just off of FlyBy Cafe's entrance — is a fully revamped 2,700-square-foot space with 95 seats. The interior features modern lighting to juxtapose the original rustic brick walls. The 7-foot windows overlooking the Squamscott River will allow plenty of natural light during the day. An ADA accessible entrance is available on the other side of the building by the water.
“Our genre is good food, good service in a cozy, comfortable neighborhood feel,” said Jon Wells.
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Big Bean offers ‘a culinary melting pot’
From its Down East French Toast (cinnamon swirl French toast stuffed with maple walnut cream cheese and topped with fresh fruits) to The Smurfette (English muffin with homemade nut-free basil pesto, tomato, veggie sausage, two poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce), the owners said the restaurant will have something for everybody.
Arley Wells said the restaurant offers a “very unique and creative” menu. Each creation is a collaborative effort between the owners, workers and sometimes even customers, she said.
“The way it makes it to the menu is that we have specials every two weeks,” she said. “The way we do our specials is that we come up with a theme — say '90s cartoon characters or Led Zeppelin songs or whatever. When they go on the menu for good, they keep the name.”
One of the restaurant’s classics, Spock, is named after the famous character from “Star Trek.” The Spock is three scrambled eggs with onions, peppers, sausage and cheddar topped with Hollandaise and served with home fries and toast.
The Mighty Quinn — named after the previous owner’s daughter — is a salad with spring mix, goat cheese, maple walnut, dried cranberries, apples, croutons and grilled chicken with a side of homemade balsamic dressing.
“The names of the specials tell a story,” Jon Wells said.
Rather than focusing on a specific cuisine, he said the restaurant offers “a culinary melting pot." From its salsa to cream cheese, almost everything served at The Bean is homemade from locally sourced ingredients.
“Our menu is very Mexican/Spanish themed … but it’s not a Mexican restaurant,” he said. “We can do an Asian dish, we can do a Greek dish, we can do a Mediterranean dish, we can do classic American fare, we can do Irish. It doesn't matter. We can do whatever we want, put it on our menu and it belongs.”
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More than just a breakfast spot
When the Wellses took over The Bean in Newmarket seven years ago, the restaurant had already established itself as a go-to breakfast and brunch place for locals.
“One of the big things we did when we took over was, we really had a great breakfast menu, we’ve added a lot to it … but the lunch menu was really lacking,” said Jon Wells. “The Big Bean prior to us owning it would be really busy for breakfast then it would just kind of slow down and fizzle.”
Over the past years, Arley Wells said they have expanded the restaurant’s lunch and dinner menu for an all-day fare.
“We’ve added a lot of tacos, flatbreads and quesadillas,” she said. “We’re updating our menu again so our Newmarket location and Exeter will have the same menu.”
The lunch menu includes The Godfather (flatbread with Buffalo grilled chicken, red onion and tomato with house cheese blend and bleu cheese) and Babe (pulled pork quesadillas with chipotle BBQ aioli, red onion, jalapeno and cheddar cheese).
But The Bean does more than just pub food, they said, offering customers upscale dishes for a nice night out.
For dinner, the entree menu includes Fleetwood Tips (grilled steak tips with mashed potatoes and bourbon sauce) and Vincent Vega (Cajun shrimp over creamy polenta topped with cilantro lime drizzle).
“We have a little mix,” said Arley Wells. “Whether you want a nice dinner or just flatbread and beer, we have that too… (the restaurant) definitely has a relaxed vibe.”
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Owners hint of Durham return in the future
This is The Bean’s latest location, with its first and original being at 118 Main St. in Newmarket, where it has been for the past 27 years. The Wellses are the third owner of the restaurant and the first to expand it beyond its original spot.
The restaurant's previous second location was in Durham, when the couple opened it in 2019. The couple changed gears when the spot in Exeter became available and closed the Durham spot in June to focus on Newmarket and Exeter.
“Customers can also expect to see a lot of familiar faces,” said Jon Wells. “Our entire Durham staff has come over to Exeter … nobody lost their job during the transition because we have such a great staff that we care about so much and they care about us.”
However, he noted that Durham won’t be seeing the last of them.
“We absolutely loved our time in Durham,” said Jon Wells. “They can count on seeing us again."
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: The Big Bean Café to serve breakfast, lunch and more in Exeter NH
