Friendly Toast and Arts Alley in Concord Set for Summer Openings

Construction of the Friendly Toast and Arts Alley in downtown Concord is coming along, but there's much more to the structure than you can see below the ground.

“We have over a million dollars of work underneath the ground,” said developer Steve Duprey in an interview with the Concord Monitor. Duprey owns what will ultimately become a multi-venue site between the Concord Co-op and the BNH Stage on South Main Street. “We had to remove bad soils, remove asbestos in the ground, redo utility lines, ancient sewer lines, water lines — nobody thought of storm drainage 170 years ago — move gas lines. It's amazing how complicated it is to do a project in a confined site, on that very small piece of land.”

Arts Alley is replacing the historic Norris House, which was demolished last year. The site will become home to Friendly Toast, a restaurant chain. 

The Concord Monitor also reported that an alley at the site will transform into a courtyard performance space that leads visitors to a renovated Norris Bakery and Homestead Stable Building. This structure will host a “live music and simple food” restaurant called Duke's. 

An elevator and stairs will bring guests to a rooftop deck, where they'll be greeted by a historic diner hoisted into place by a crane. Duprey said the 80-year-old diner was rebuilt outside Montreal, Canada, before being brought to Concord. The diner is awaiting the completion of the rest of Arts Alley before the structure is set into place.

According to Duprey, Friendly Toast is being targeted for an “aggressive” July 4 opening. The remainder of the site development is anticipated to follow this summer.