Tom Boucher

Tom Boucher is interviewed by Mike Morrin (95.7 - WZID morning disc jockey) in the February 11, 2011 edition of New Hampshire Business Review: Tell me about The Copper Door? We're going to be breaking ground for The Copper Door sometime in March. That's the projected date, but you know how construction goes. We plan on opening in early to mid-Novem... ber and The Copper Door is going to be a concept that we think fits nicely in between what T-Bones offers and fine dining segment. People sometimes get a little bit uncomfortable at times with the stuffiness of fine dining. Between trying to decipher what the food content of some of the menu items are to the wine list. They don't necessarily want to be in that real casual environment like an Applebee's, and T-Bones is a step up from there, but the next jump is fine dining. We're filling that niche I think right in between the two. We're taking the best of fine dining but leaving the stuffiness behind. Your restaurants to date have all been about casual dining. Will customers pay a higher price point when the atmosphere doesn't feel upscale? The answer is yes and no. They will pay more than T-Bones because we're going to be delivering a higher level of atmosphere and service along with a chef inspired made-from-scratch menu. I think the term "atmosphere" needs to be defined a little bit more. It's not going to be a fine-dining atmosphere where you're going to have piano music or jazz music playing with servers wearing tuxedos, but it's still going to feel elevated compared to T-Bones or Cactus Jack's. We're going to spend $4 million on this project, so I think people will be quite impressed and surprised when they walk into the building. The closing of C.R. Sparks seems to have left a void for finer dining. Was this part of your motivation to open a restaurant with a higher-end menu? Yeah. I don't think it's a secret at all and I don't think I'm speaking out of turn to say that when C.R. Sparks closed it left a huge void. It was one of my favorite restaurants. I live ...Read More