LEBANON — Phnom Penh Sandwich Station’s Lebanon location will close later this month to make way for a wider intersection, a municipal project that’s been in the works for years.
The restaurant’s last day in operation on High Street will be Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, owner Sarin Tin said.
After that, Tin will get to work clearing out of the shop and renovating a new location at 129 Mechanic St. where Tin aims to reopen this summer.
The Cambodian restaurant has been serving up takeout sandwiches, curries, pad thai, pho and more in the Lebanon location for nearly 10 years. Tin first started selling food at the Hanover Farmers Market in 2015, eventually purchased a food truck and opened the Lebanon storefront in 2016.
The restaurant has built up a loyal following of regular customers who come by once or twice a week, especially during the lunch hour, Tin said. The move will be bittersweet, but in many ways timely.
“We’re ready to move on to the next chapter,” Tin, a 39-year-old Lebanon resident, said in a Tuesday interview.
Phnom Penh has to leave its location at 1 High St. so the building can be torn down to make space for a new $3.86 million roundabout at the intersections of Mechanic Street, Mascoma Street and High Street.
At long last, the city is ready to start construction this spring on the project, which has been in the works for more than a decade.
The city first launched a study in 2013 to look at the “Mechanic Street Corridor” from Exit 19 off of Interstate 89 to the High Street intersection, according to a consultant’s presentation on the project.
That study concluded that the three-way intersection, which sits on a curve, was “confusing” and “poorly functioning” and replacing it with a roundabout would improve safety.
The Lebanon City Council voted to move forward with the roundabout project after consultants finished the study in 2018.
Project planning has been ongoing since 2018, and elements including dealing with the structure at 1 High St. have taken time, City Engineer Rod Finley said.
Tin has known for several years that High Street could not be a permanent home, he said. In 2018, he opened a second location in White River Junction, but struggled to find an alternative location in Lebanon.
Finally last February, Tin bought the 2,500-square-foot building at 129 Mechanic Street for $400,000. The former dermatology practice of Dr. Georgia Tuttle, a former city councilor, will have to be completely renovated into a takeout restaurant.
Last April, the state took ownership of the High Street building through eminent domain from owner Tracy Pelletier, who had been Tin’s landlord. Because the project involves federal money, the federal Uniform Act of 1970 requires that Tin be compensated for the impact to Phnom Penh.
Eighty percent of the cost of the $3.8 million roundabout project will be covered by funds from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation and 20% by the city.
The $773,000 portion from the city will come from the downtown’s tax incremental financing district, which levies a special tax on new construction downtown to fund infrastructure improvements in the district.
Tin will receive $100,000 to reestablish the restaurant and $250,000 to cover moving costs, according to an update from the city. The New Hampshire Department of Transportation was still reviewing additional cost estimates to renovate the building at 129 Mechanic St. as of the end of December.
After the High Street shop closes on Valentine’s Day, Tin will spend the next few months renovating the new location. In the meantime, Phnom Penh’s sit-down location in White River Junction will be open as normal and Tin hopes some regulars will make the trip over state lines.
Regular customer Lacie Amos-Scheuer, of Charlestown, said Tuesday she was disappointed to learn that the shop will be closed for the next several months, but that she will “absolutely” go back to Phnom Penh when it reopens.
She said she orders delivery or takeout from High Street location once or twice a week when she is studying at Franklin Pierce University’s graduate campus near Centerra on Route 120.
“They have a really unique flavor profile, so there’s not a lot to fill that niche,” Amos-Scheuer said. “The lemongrass flavor that they have on their sandwich, nobody else has that.”
Though he is anxious to get the renovation complete, Tin is optimistic about the future of Phnom Penh in Lebanon.
“We’ve been in Lebanon for a while, so most of our customers know our quality and our staff,” Tin said. “When they find out where we are, they will come.”
Construction on the new roundabout now is expected to start April 1 and continue through Thanksgiving. If there is more work to be done after next winter, final completion is expected in May 2027.
The Mascoma River Greenway bike path, which passes through the current intersection, is included in the design for the new roundabout.
The construction will be completed in phases with different impacts to traffic at different times, Finley said. The city plans to put out construction alerts once a week through the LebAlert system.