Who's Planning Downtown Manchester's Nights This October?

"There are so many great things happening in Manchester that people simply don't know about," Jessica Martin told NH Business Review this month, after she was named the first executive director of Visit Manchester. "There are hidden gems all over this city. Why should they be hidden?"

Martin's group is the newest one working on downtown, though it isn't the only one. For the past five months, a network of downtown business owners has closed part of Hanover Street on the last Friday of every month and turned it into a block party. Their last date of the season, Oct. 30, comes a month after Visit Manchester's launch. Taken together, the city's fall calendar now comes from two organizations, one built by the businesses themselves and one built to promote them. October is the first month both are working at the same time.

Final Friday Started as One Afternoon on Hanover Street

Final Friday is run by the Downtown Manchester Collaborative. Organizers call it the next step for Shop the Block, a single yearly gathering that they stretched into a monthly series for the warmer months. The first season ran five dates: June 26, July 31, Aug. 28, Sept. 25 and Oct. 30. Each one runs from 4 to 8 p.m. on Hanover Street between Elm and Chestnut, and the street is closed to cars from 3 to 9 p.m.

The rules show who the event is for. Organizers said they were not looking for food vendors. Instead, they encouraged the restaurants and businesses on Hanover Street to take part, and those businesses could choose to offer food and drink specials. The street fills with live music, local vendors and community groups, and the kitchens already on the block handle the food.

The group behind it started small. Manchester Ink Link reported in October 2024 that the collaborative began that March with a handful of restaurant owners. By that fall it had nearly 100 members, all business owners and managers, in a free and nonpolitical network. Nick Carnes, general manager of Shopper's Pub, was named as one of its organizers. Its stated goals are more foot traffic, support for local businesses, a better public image for downtown, and community pride. That same 2024 profile listed its work around Comic Con, the Taco Tour and downtown trick-or-treating.

Every date happens rain or shine. The collaborative hasn't published a 2027 schedule, so Oct. 30 is the last confirmed Final Friday for now.

Visit Manchester Brings a Concord Track Record

Visit Manchester is a destination marketing organization, the kind of group many cities use to promote tourism. It describes its mission as promoting Manchester as a place to visit, eat, shop and stay, attracting visitors, supporting local businesses and strengthening downtown. Its tools are marketing, tourism promotion, public relations and what it calls "signature events."

Martin's résumé explains the events piece. She became executive director of Intown Concord in 2020, during the pandemic, where she helped rebuild the organization, supported downtown businesses and brought back large-scale events. She has lived in Manchester for more than a decade. Joseph Wichert chairs the organization. He said her experience with businesses, community groups and downtown districts would help as the group gets started.

The group introduced itself at a Sept. 30 launch party at The Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., presented by Brady Sullivan Properties. Ticket sales went toward Visit Manchester's future community events. Those events haven't been named yet, and local coverage hasn't reported a budget. For now, Visit Manchester is a new organization with a director, a chair and a website at visitmanchesternh.com. Its first calendar is still to come.

Martin's "hidden gems" line applies to downtown right now, because several of the newest places on Elm Street opened this year.

Elm Street Added Places at Both Ends

The newest spots sit at opposite ends of Elm Street. Neither is on the Hanover Street block where Final Friday happens.

At the south end, The Grey Dog took over 657 Elm St., next to Marathon Sports near Lake Avenue. Owner Michael Demicco used to get tattoos in that same space. He kept some of the old shop's flair, including a giant mural of Brodie, an Australian cattle dog, and lined part of one wall with old whiskey barrels. He told the Union Leader:

"I call it craft casual. The working man's martini lounge. The classy dive if you will. I have $20 cocktails and $80 pours of whiskey. I also have Michelob Ultra and High Noon."

The bar had a slow opening in April and celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon-cutting in August. The drink to ask about is "Picnic in the Park," a tequila cocktail with pickles, watermelon, passionfruit, pineapple, Amaro Nonino, scorpion bitters and Tajín. The kitchen makes its own pasta for rotating dishes and serves pork belly Thai-chili tacos, deviled eggs and charcuterie boards. Demicco said the homemade cannoli "fly off the shelves." He said the bar brings more options to "this end of Elm Street."

At the north end, Without opened at 889 Elm St. on Aug. 12. Business NH Magazine described it as a nonalcoholic bar and restaurant, the first of its kind in Manchester. Founder Dan Haggerty summed it up in Ink Link as "just a restaurant/cocktail bar that doesn't serve alcohol."

Two more August openings are farther from downtown. Karsyn's Gelato and Bakeshop opened Aug. 14 at 171 Kelley St. It continues the Bakeshop on Kelley Street, which, according to WOKQ, announced in June that it would close but that "another chapter" was coming. Karsyn's serves homemade baked goods, gelato and espresso drinks. On the north side, bb.q Chicken opened its second New Hampshire location on Aug. 20 at the North End Shops at Livingston Park, 545 Hooksett Road, serving Korean fried chicken and rice bowls.

October Gives Both Groups a Full Month to Work With

With Visit Manchester's launch behind it and Final Friday's finale still ahead, October has a dated event almost every week:

The Rex shows up twice this fall. It hosted Visit Manchester's launch on Sept. 30 and holds the TEDx program three weeks later. Downtown's last Friday of the month lands the night before Halloween this year. Plan for Hanover Street to close to cars at 3 p.m. that afternoon, with the party running until 8.

The two groups divide the work. The Downtown Manchester Collaborative owns the Hanover Street block party, and it hasn't said yet whether Final Friday comes back next year. Visit Manchester now has a director and a launch behind it, but it hasn't named any signature events yet. The first list Visit Manchester publishes will show whether it plans to promote the events that already exist, like Final Friday, or build new ones of its own.

If you live in Manchester and want to know how a new downtown calendar like this tends to affect the streets around it, I'm glad to talk it through over coffee on Elm Street. Connie Distasio follows what's opening and closing across the city, and I'll give you a straight answer, quickly. Let's Connect.