Fireworks Restaurant in downtown Keene plans to reopen this summer

Ryan Spencer, The Keene Sentinel, N.H.
·2 min read

Apr. 30—Fireworks Restaurant in downtown Keene is preparing to reopen, according to Adam Berube, the new owner and former general manager there.

The Italian-inspired eatery, which former owner Matthew Blau closed in late 2020 due to financial difficulties stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, could reopen by early June, Berube said.

"We're going to reopen as the Fireworks everyone knew and loved," he said Friday.

The restaurant at 22 Main St. will have a similar layout and will offer the same Italian-American cuisine with a "fusion flare" — including its specialty brick-oven pizzas — that former customers will remember, Berube said.

"Time has allowed us to be able to gather the resources necessary to reopen," Berube said. "It's going to be under new ownership and I really look forward to welcoming back the great people of the Monadnock Region and Keene."

When Blau closed the restaurant about a year and a half ago, he said in a Facebook post that the closure was only temporary. Fireworks had struggled financially during the pandemic and revenues had fallen by about half of what they had been before the pandemic, he said at the time.

Blau previously told The Sentinel that he put Fireworks up for sale earlier in 2020 because he had moved to Ecuador and felt that the restaurant should have local ownership.

Blau brought Fireworks to Keene in 2011, three years after opening the restaurant's first location in Brattleboro. He owned both locations until 2016, when he sold Fireworks in Brattleboro to its general manager, Erin Sprandel. (It has since been renamed Echo Restaurant and Lounge.)

Berube said he worked at the restaurant from when it first opened in 2011 to 2017. When Fireworks reopens, customers will recognize many of the staff, he said, since he plans to rehire several former employees. Berube added that the eatery plans to employ 15-20 people to start.

"We look forward to welcoming back familiar faces," Berube said.

Ryan Spencer can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1412, or rspencer@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @rspencerKS