Owner adds breakfast and delivery to country-themed restaurant

By Max Sullivan

Hampton Union, September 15, 2015

[The following article is courtesy of the Hampton Union and Seacoast Online.]

The Goat Whiskey and Burger Bar located at 20 L Street on Hampton Beach, is now open year-round at Hampton Beach. [Rich Beauchesne photo]

HAMPTON — Hampton Beach’s country bar, the Goat, is going year-round. Owner Al Fleury said the restaurant will kick off the fall season by adding breakfast and delivery.

The new menu and service start Oct. 3, Fleury said. The bar features 50 types of whiskey, 10 custom burgers and live county music. It opened at the former location of the Happy Clam last July on the corner of Ashworth Avenue and L Street last July.

To pull off breakfast Goat-style, Fleury said he’s bringing in a “crazy variation” of a Bloody Mary bar that “hasn’t been done around here.” The menu will have standard breakfast items like French toast, pancakes and breakfast sandwiches, as well as specialty burgers, all available from 8 a.m. until 1 a.m., he said.

“People like to get French toast and giant pieces of bacon when they’re out drinking,” Fleury said.

The new delivery service will run until 10 p.m., drivers going to Hampton and possibly Seabrook Beach, Fleury said.

This won’t be Fleury’s first time doing delivery with his bar businesses. In 2004, he briefly had pizza delivery at Wally’s, his other bar that sits across the street from the Goat on Ashworth Avenue.

“It was literally me running around in my old car,” Fleury said. “This year, I know we have a big staff, we can put a guy who is just in charge of that.”

Fleury said delivery will draw more attention to his kitchen, which he said has received 4.5 stars on Yelp.

“If I was crashing at my house and could get a Goat burger delivered, that would be great,” Fleury said.

Wally’s, also a year-round bar, will join the Goat this winter in offering delivery service, Fleury said.

Fleury opened the Goat to fill a “niche,” he said last summer, as he felt no other bar was tackling the country theme at the beach. The décor features a barn built around the structure, the wood taken from an actual barn Fleury purchased and tore down last year. The Goat was the second new bar opened by Fleury in two years. He opened up Bernie’s Beach Bar located at the opposite end of L Street in 2013.

The Goat exceeded its financial goals by 20 percent this summer, Fleury said, opening the door to the fall and winter months, as well as adding breakfast and delivery.

“We hit our goals and then some,” Fleury said.

While the bar puts a premium on its whiskey selection, Fleury said he’s found many Hampton families coming to the Goat, dispelling the notion that the bar has a “rowdy” atmosphere.

"All different kinds of people go in there. We get families that go in there, trying out stuff with the kids,” Fleury said. “You hear whiskey and moonshine and honky tonk. That’s not what it is.”

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