We are a unique blend of bookstore, cafe and bar for downtown Portsmouth. We currently offer full table service for in house dining providing homemade soups, salads, sandwiches, small plates and assorted baked goods. If you're thirsty grab a cocktail, beer, glass of wine or sip a tasty espresso beverage or cozy cup of tea. This along with a highly selective variety of used and discount remainder b
ook titles available for purchase is what makes us unique. The owner, Dave Pelletier, envisions Book & Bar as providing a safe and creative feeling of community. If you leave here feeling as if you just found a treasure, made some friends and can't wait to return then we have accomplished our goals. Come visit and bring a friend. We encourage you to relax inside or on our beautiful patio while sipping a beverage of your choice and of course, reading a book. Here is some information on how we got to where we are today through the original owners creativity and experiences. The bookstore resembles original creator John Petrovato’s two Boston area shops, Raven Books in Harvard Square and on Newbury Street. The bookstore stocks around 15,000 well selected titles with an emphasis on literature and the arts. The Raven’s are not musty bookshops but have established themselves as two of the best shops in the country. In fact, as opposed to the growing trend of bookstores closing, both Raven’s have had their best year yet in 2011. The Raven won The Boston Globe’s “best of the new” in 2010, and The Boston Phoenix’s reader’s poll in 2011 and has been featured on MSN’s website and a dozens of other literary journals and magazines. Jon Strymish recently sold New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton, MA. NEMB was a highly respected as well as the largest independent bookstore in New England for the past 2 decades. Jon has retired but still fulfills his passion of keeping community ties strong through music and art. David Lovelace’s store, The Montague Bookmill, has become an iconic cultural presence in Western Massachusetts. The bookmill had been co-owned with both John Petrovato and Jon Strymish over the past 20 years. The bookstore, café and performance space has been featured numerous times in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and Yankee Magazine. After selling the Bookmill, Dave wrote and published a book with Penguin.
