Town's Newest Restaurant Closes Its Doors

The owner of North Hampton's newest restaurant, The Heritage Smokehouse, has officially shut down his business after seven straight weeks of losses made it near impossible to continue.

Luke Wenrich isn't "ashamed of any of it" and doesn't regret taking the chance on something which he's "passionate," although he said it's "sad" his first business venture struggled as badly as it did since it opened on Sept. 24.

"It didn't make any sense — any business sense — for us to continue to lose money at the [rate that] we were," said Wenrich. "I would've loved to have stuck it out through the winter, but honestly the rate of money we were losing so far was way beyond what we [could handle]... We spent everything that we had to try and make it work. Unfortunately, it's sad, but true. We sold our vehicles and we don't have any more assets."

The Heritage Smokehouse, located at 184 Lafayette Road, officially closed last week, joining Smoke Stack Grille and Porkez as restaurants that recently failed to gain traction within the building.

Wenrich said visibility was the likely culprit, as he said traffic on the northern end of North Hampton is "pretty quick" and made it tough for his business to "separate" its smoked comfort food identity from the barbecue joints that preceded it at the location.

It was also difficult for Wenrich to do much marketing or get heavily involved with the community due to the fact that he worked seven days a week in the restaurant to help keep labor costs down. His wife Nicole, the restaurant's general manager and hostess, was also there most days.

Wenrich said they did have small flurries of customer activity, including one on the day an article about the restaurant published on Hampton-North Hampton Patch. Other days the restaurant would have only a handful of customers or would go several hours without guests, though.

"We were just losing money every week to the point where it was putting us in the situation where both of us had to go back to work," said Wenrich, who had been staying with his wife in a motel next to the restaurant. "Unfortunately it's a sad predicament we're in.

"We don't have any more means to do it. It didn't make sense to go and try to take out a loan and put my wife and I in further over our heads, especially with the uncertainty of that location. It's unfortunate because I really like the area [and building], too. The area was nice. It was a good area."

The Wenriches will move back in with family in the Merrimack area, which is where they're from, as they look for employment opportunities. The duo hope to open another restaurant or business in the near future, and Luke Wenrich said they have "got to keep [their] heads up" as they look for "whatever opportunity presents itself."

"We appreciate everyone who gave us the opportunity to serve them," said Wenrich. "Unfortunately, we were unable to sustain the business."

Anyone with unused gift cards purchased from The Heritage Smokehouse can receive a refund if they have a receipt for the purchase, according to Wenrich. Wenrich said the restaurant handed out complimentary gift certificates, although those certificates don't have any cash value and aren't redeemable for money.

Seacoast Media Group was running a Limelight deal involving the business, and Wenrich said Seacoast Media Group is handling that program's refunds.

Wenrich said anyone who has questions about refunds and anyone who would like to contact him can reach him at luke@theheritagesmokehouse.com. The business' main phone line was still active Monday, although Wenrich said no one will be at the restaurant to answer the soon-to-be-disconnected line.