Lena's Italian Kitchen facing changes. Manchester restaurant owner marches on as he prepares to sell his place

Oct. 27—MANCHESTER — For eight and a half years, James Bourque has run Lena's Italian Kitchen at 206 West Center St., but now he is beginning the process of closing up the pizza and grinder shop.

"It's going up for sale again," Bourque said. "I had a heart attack a couple of years ago and it's difficult to get the hours in."

The process of putting the restaurant on the market will go forward after he finishes remodeling much of the restaurant.

"We're in the middle of a remodel," he said, with new wood panels already up on some of the walls, and plans to replace the ceiling tiles.

Before Bourque bought the restaurant, he said, it was called just Italian Kitchen, and he added Lena to the name after the birth of his first granddaughter, who was born a week before he closed on the sale of the restaurant.

This the third restaurant Bourque has owned, he said, having previously bought Acropolis in Wallingford, changing the name to Antinori's after his grandmother's maiden name. He then opened a restaurant in the Parkade.

"When I was at the Parkade, I was renting out kitchen space and doing everything out of a sports bar," he said. "Dealing with the people at the sports bar became too difficult. The rules changed too often."

He said he decided to leave the Parkade, not knowing the Parkade would shut down a month and a half before the sports bar shut down.

Bourque said his health problems also started around this time.

"I had a stroke a couple years before I went to the Parkade," he said. "It was difficult to work until I got through all the physical stuff."

He said he and his wife decided to set up a small pizza place, which became Lena's Italian Kitchen, where his daughter works with him and his wife works Friday nights and Saturdays.

Lena's two most prominent menu items are pizzas and grinders.

The best two grinders, he said, are the meatball and the Italian mix. The Italian mix is topped with genoa salami, cooked salami, pepperoni, capicola, and ham, and choice of vegetables and condiments.

Though he personally prefers the grinders, Bourque said his favorite pizza is the meat pizza, and his wife's favorite pizza is pepperoni and peppers.

"In the summer time we make lobster pizza here," he said. "Nobody does that."

His daughter, Melissa Gutierrez, said her favorite pizza is her namesake, The Melissa Special.

"It's a white pizza with potato and bacon," she said.

With the pizza being a Greek pan-style pizza, he said that some customers like to try to top their pizzas with as many toppings as possible, but he recommends against it.

"It becomes a cake at that point," he said. "It won't taste good, because it won't cook because it's too dense."

Popular entrees, he said, are the chicken and eggplant parmesan, and he also offers a lasagna special.

Lena's serves wings both as an appetizer and side portion with five flavors: hot, buffalo, sweet chili, barbecue, and plain.

"It's pretty balanced," Bourque said about the sweet chili sauce. "It's not too hot. The kick is after you swallow it, but it's not burning hot. It's a nice change."

During the cooler time of the year, they offer multiple soups of the day.

The regular specialty soup available yearlong is the Italian wedding soup, Bourque said.

"Once we get into soup season," Bourque said, "I'll make something else and we'll change every four or five days. I like the pasta fagioli."

Other soups offered include potato soup, and various styles of clam chowder, he said.

Bourque said he doesn't know yet what the future has in store for him after he sells Lena's, but figures he'll find himself a part-time job.

"I'm okay with that," Gutierrez said of her father selling Lena's. "I've been working here eight-and-a-half years. I'm ready for something different.

"I know with his health the way it is, it's hard to be here for so many hours," she said. "When it's just the two of us there isn't much of a choice. It'd be better for him not working so many hours."

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