Kettlehead's Meredith location, opening Saturday, plans to be known for food as well as beer

MEREDITH — Since its founding in Tilton in 2017, Kettlehead Brewing Company has been marching southward, opening a brewing facility in Franklin and a brewpub earlier this year in Nashua. For its fourth location, which is opening this weekend, the company did an about-face, with its first venture to the north.

Kettlehead Brewing’s Meredith store, the largest and most culinarily-inclined of its locations, is taking shape within an historic building vacant for several years after a well-loved restaurant there closed.

The restaurant and tavern will be located at 8 Plymouth St., between George’s Diner and American Legion Post 33. The two-story, brick building was once home to Mame’s, in operation for more than three decades until it closed nine years ago.

Ben Horning, director of restaurant operations for Kettlehead, said the company has been eyeing Meredith for nearly two years. The town is attractive because of its bustling tourism activity, the market opportunity for a craft beer restaurant and because of the supportive nature of townspeople and the other businesses.

“We’ve always wanted to move up here because of the summers, we love this area, the community of everyone working together,” Horning said. “It’s very small, although it’s large.”

Not only was Kettlehead interested in Meredith, the company was specifically eyeing the former Mame’s location. It took about 18 months of conversations, but they finally struck a lease deal with the owner, and have spent months on a thorough renovation.

“Everything in this building has been touched,” Horning said.

The building — which dates back to 1825, according to Horning — was actually two different structures that were joined together sometime prior to the opening of Mame’s.

Kettlehead has put in a new kitchen, bar and dining area with 53 seats on the first floor, and the second floor has another bar, a game lounge with pool tables, foosball and televisions, high-top tables and couches. The total seating capacity is 132.

Fans of the brewing company’s Tilton location will feel most at home in the second-floor tavern area, which will feature a pub-style menu. The full-service restaurant will be more entree-focused, with pricing around $30 for items such as steak frites, salmon paella, Bolognese tagliatelle and mushroom risotto.

Though the focus is on brews, the Meredith location will have a full liquor license, and beverage offerings will include wines and hard ciders as well as mocktails and non-alcoholic beers.

Meredith already has one brewery — Twin Barns, located near the traffic circle at the Route 3/106 interchange — but Horning feels there’s more than enough room in town for more.

“We’re trying to get in on the ground floor before more come in,” Horning said.

For several years, Kettlehead has been performing a kind of culinary sleight of hand, presenting itself as a casual, unfussy place to get a beer and something to eat, but employing some serious chef techniques behind the scenes.

Both Horning, who joined the company as a chef in Tilton in 2019, and Eric Davis, who will lead the kitchen in Meredith and has been cooking for Kettlehead since 2020, have worked in high-end, big city restaurants, and are combining classical French skills with the brewing company’s decidedly nonchalant sensibilities.

“We’re still using that technique of scratch work, and making it more fun,” Davis said.

In Tilton, the kitchen staff would tip their hand a bit with daily specials, which were something of an experiment to see how much French technique they could sneak into a dish without alarming their clientele. The entree menu in Meredith will feature some of the best results from those trials.

“We’re showing our background a little more, having fun with the food,” said Horning, noting the feedback they’ve gathered from previous specials has resulted in a menu "that would please everybody.”

Davis said he has designed each dish so it can be altered, as much as possible, to fit a diner’s specific needs, such as gluten-free, vegan or accommodating certain allergies.

Kettlehead’s Meredith location will be hosting its grand opening on Saturday, Aug. 10. Hours will be 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday and closed on Mondays. Those hours might be reduced slightly during the off-season, depending on customer demand.