Soda Shoppe set to reopen with new management, staff

LACONIA — The Soda Shoppe is set to make a months-long awaited comeback after abruptly closing in August. According to Jason Fiore, the new manager, diners could be returning to the downtown restaurant as soon as by the end of the month. The restaurant has been owned by David Raptis since 2007.

“Me and David teamed up after the management that was there just got up and walked out,” Fiore said. “I've gone in, looked at it, taken over the daily operations for it, doing the necessary repairs, bringing in a brand new staff." Fiore is hopeful the restaurant will be "open within a couple weeks.”

Former employees weighed in as to what caused the Soda Shoppe to close over the summer.

Many employees worked under different owners, but there was a common thread of building maintenance issues, especially when it came to the air conditioning unit and duct work.

One former waitress mentioned a light fixture falling and nearly striking a customer, while another mentioned an incident in the early 2000s when the septic system bubbled up near the ice cream machine. More recently in 2022, the building's ice machine broke, and staff had to bring bagged ice from elsewhere to keep things running smoothly. That same month, several employees cited an incident where duct work fell out of the ceiling. For some, this was the final straw after years of similar problems and rotating management.

“It was the duct work,” Fiore said in a second interview. “If you go there, there's the duct work that came down."

Fiore added that he had been trying to help fix things up before that incident.

“Our ice machine got delivered a week before everyone walked out,” Fiore recalled. “The ice machine is brand new. All the maintenance stuff is your basic upkeep that anyone ... can fix.”

These maintenance issues, according to multiple employees, only compiled with other common stressors found within the restaurant industry.

“I know how stressful it is in the kitchen, on the front and being a manager and an owner of a restaurant,” said Fiore, who has worked in the service industry since he was 14. “I don't know what was on the previous manager's plate, but I'm sure the last thing on his mind was replacing ceiling tiles when he's working 50-plus hours a week. The stress builds up, and it was a breaking point.”

The restaurant sits in the building under the downtown parking garage. The structure of the building is a bit of a property oddity. Brandon Borghi acquired the space in 2016, and now owns the bottom floor of retail spaces, while the city owns the concrete parking garage structure.

“Some of the leaks are things I can't remedy because it's the city's property,” Borghi said. “Previous ownership groups that owned the building were off site, so they didn't have the ability to put much care into it. I moved here around the same time we got the building. I want to make it nicer.”

Borghi added that he has had a good relationship with the city since purchasing the first-floor property.

The maintenance issues mentioned by former employees dated long before Borghi took ownership of the retail space, and even before Raptis purchased the business in 2007.

“I can't speak to why the other folks left. Dave cared for the place in his tenure of owning it,” Borghi said. “Sometimes the folks that worked for him probably didn't see that. Sometimes there's a disconnect between owners and employees for whatever reason.”

Fiore and the Borghi stated they are committed to fixing up the building and keeping it properly maintained.

“I saw the drop ceiling and I said, 'Oh jeez, there's some duct-work issues,' but I didn't get a call about it,” Borghi said last week of the August incident. “The new manager has my contacts. I went in yesterday, we got a plumber addressing things, we're repainting the whole ceiling and putting up the duct work.”

Although there are numerous repairs being done to the building, Fiore stressed the importance of maintaining the Soda Shoppe's character, all the way down to the menu items.

“We don't want to take away the integrity, the way it's been,” Fiore said, adding that he's received numerous Facebook messages from customers telling him not to change things too much. “The only thing that's changing on the menu is we're taking out dinner because we're not going to have dinner available for a bit.”

“We want to keep that place, which is like an institution, still in business,” Borghi said. “It takes a village. The city is great. In my space whenever I have issues, they address it right away. What was consistent in the old group managing it wasn't reaching out or advocating for anyone.”

As for Raptis, he's looking to retire, according to Fiore. Raptis declined to be interviewed for this story.

“The restaurant that's just opened in Nashua, that's his 100th restaurant he's been a part of,” Fiore said. “He's done. He wants to retire, transfer everything over and enjoy life.”