NEWINGTON — Moe’s Italian Sandwiches is returning to Newington, with assistance from the founder and chief executive of Wilcox Industries.
The locally founded sandwich joint will lease the former TD Bank property from owner Jim Teetzel, the head of Wilcox Industries less than a mile away.
The 67-year-old business was opened by cheese salesman Phil “Moe” Pagano on Daniel Street in downtown Portsmouth, its flagship shop still in operation. Today, the business is run by his granddaughter, Cheryl Pagano, and Moe’s has franchises scattered throughout New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts.
Town property records state Teetzel purchased the 2033 Woodbury Ave. site for $1.4 million in October 2024.
What to know about next Moe’s location
The new shop will replace the recently closed Moe’s location inside the former Mobil gas station over the town line in Portsmouth. The building, which abuts the Portsmouth Housing Authority’s Gosling Meadows neighborhood and is adjacent to The Crossings, has been razed to make way for the new Seasons Corner Market and Shell gas station.
Cheryl Pagano’s change-of-use request was unanimously approved by the Newington Planning Board on Monday, April 13.
“We were very crowded,” Cheryl Pagano said of the former Moe’s in the old Mobil station. “We’re really excited about having all this space.”
Pagano signed a two-year lease for the Newington property. The shop will include interior seating, though no outdoor seating is presently planned, according to Pagano.
“This site, I think, is going to function great for a restaurant. It functioned great for a bank, so there’s no changes proposed,” said town planner John Krebs.
The company began selling franchises in 1993.
Where are Moe’s locations?
The Newington Moe’s will join the company’s two shops in Portsmouth and locations in Concord, Dover, Durham, Exeter, Lee, Manchester, Plaistow, Raymond, Rochester and Seabrook in New Hampshire. In Maine, there are Moe’s shops in Berwick and Sanford, while the company additionally has a location in Newburyport, Massachusetts, totaling 16 locations overall.
Last year, Rosalie and Phil’s opened at Short Sands Beach in York, Maine, as an offshoot of Moe’s Italian Sandwiches. The town’s zoning ordinance prohibits chain restaurants from opening in York, ruling out Moe’s as the name for the new business.