When Everything But Anchovies shuttered its doors in downtown Hanover in 2017, Eddie Bogosian was heartbroken.
His mother, Maureen Bogosian, opened the restaurant — commonly known as EBA’s — on Allen Street in the late 1970s and operated it for decades before it closed amid rising costs.
“Since the day we closed, it was a quick defeat,” Eddie Bogosian said in a recent phone interview. “In my heart, I knew how much it meant to everybody.”
Now Bogosian is trying to bring some version of EBA’s back.
A community gathering spot
Eddie Bogosian grew up at EBA’s and believes he started working there when he was 12.
“My mom would not let me get away without coming to do some dishes in the morning,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know if I was getting paid or not, but I was there.”
Like his mother and other members of his extended family, he quickly took to restaurant work. He liked the people and the fast-paced environment.
“Hanover was a very cool melting pot,” Bogosian, now 40, said. “I was born into it. I spent my life there.”
And EBA’s was a gathering spot for everyone. Part of that had to do with its hours, Bogosian said. Over the years, it opened between 7 and 11 a.m., then closed at 2:10 a.m. (always 2:10, Maureen Bogosian said, “because the phones didn’t stop at 2 o’clock and people would be furious if they were on hold”).
The hours, in part, meant that EBA’s drew an eclectic group. There would be Dartmouth College students and sports teams; people who worked in Hanover and those who were searching for a quiet spot to read during the day, Maureen Bogosian said.
“It was a safety net, kind of,” she said. “You didn’t have to worry about anything when you were there. Your kids were OK going to EBA’s.”
Among Eddie Bogosian’s family members who worked at EBA’s was his aunt Amanda Dowd-DeRoy, who oversaw front-of-house operations.
“If you dropped your son or daughter off at a movie in Hanover and they weren’t there when you went to pick them up, you went to EBA’s and found them there,” Dowd-DeRoy said.
There was the Sunday after-church crowd that came for brunch and the Dartmouth alums who would come back decades after they graduated. They came for the chicken sandwiches and salad bar, along with other favorite dishes.
“I knew people by what they ate,” Dowd-DeRoy said. “It was like family.”
Karen Liot Hill first went to EBA’s when she arrived at Dartmouth College in 1996.
“EBA’s quickly became a regular part of my Dartmouth experience,” she said in a recent phone interview. “They were kind of home base for a lot of different groups.”
Like Eddie Bogosian, she referred to EBA’s as a melting pot.
“It was just good pizza and it was cheap,” Liot Hill, now a New Hampshire executive councilor, said. “I think that had a way of really bringing people together.”
In adulthood, Liot Hill settled in the Upper Valley and continued to go to EBA’s. She’d be there for Sunday brunch and children’s birthday parties.
“It was just a place you could go with a big group and feel really comfortable,” Liot Hill said. “There isn’t really another place like that. I don’t think anywhere else has really taken its place.”
A family of four could eat out for around $20 and teenagers with $10 could make it stretch for an evening of hanging out with their friends, those interviewed said.
While EBA’s always had a menu, people weren’t beholden to it — something employees took a lot of pride in.
“If you didn’t see something you like, we’d make it for you,” Maureen Bogosian said. “That’s what we did. Special orders didn’t upset us; that’s what we expected to do.”
As he got older, Eddie Bogosian went from washing dishes to cooking and working as a manager. He was always coming up with different dishes in the kitchen, creating new sauces to see what customers would like.
One that caught on was called Dragon Juice, which he named after a shirt he was wearing when he made it.
“It was a hideous shirt, but I loved it,” Eddie Bogosian said. The sauce was so good “it needed a name right away.”
Customers quickly caught on and frequently requested the barbecue sauce.
“It became a fan/cult thing,” he said.
The years since and Noah Kahan
In the nearly 10 years since EBA’s shut its doors, Eddie Bogosian has worked other restaurant jobs. He now lives in Claremont and works at Windsor Station. EBA’s — and a potential comeback — has always been in the back of his mind, he said.
Enter Noah Kahan.
In mid-September, the Upper Valley-raised musician did an interview with Nardwuar the Human Serviette on YouTube where he talked about EBA’s.
“The greatest restaurant in the world,” Kahan called it, according to a recording of the video. “Rest in peace.”
He mentioned EBA’s family members by name, a favorite dish — a pizza with cheesy bacon fries on top of it — and Dragon Juice (though he referred to it as “Dragon Sauce” in the interview). Kahan talked about the late nights he spent there in high school and how much he missed the restaurant.
“It was devastating to see that place go under because Domino’s came into town,” Kahan said.
Eddie Bogosian was listening.
“Now is the time,” he said he recalled thinking after hearing Kahan’s interview. “This has been a journey I’ve been wanting to go on for a long time. I never wanted EBA’s to close down.”
Eddie Bogosian started brainstorming ideas and decided to start by offering Dragon Juice for sale. He started a website where people could order it, putting the cap at 100, and within a week, most of the slots were taken.
He also provided a form where people could submit their EBA’s memories. Responses have been coming in from across the country.
“The stories that are coming through and the people’s accounts of how much it meant to them … I’ve been ripped apart reading these things,” Eddie Bogosian said. “It was so much more than what was between those walls.”
Along with two cousins (keeping it in the family, as is tradition), he’s launched a line of EBA’s merchandise, including shirts and a Christmas ornament. Plans are in the works for a line of frozen pizzas.
In a perfect world, he’d start EBA’s up as a brick-and-mortar restaurant tomorrow. But, as he knows well, running a restaurant is hard work, and the margins are slim. The goal is to start small and see where it goes, Eddie Bogosian said.
“It’s fun and it’s supposed to be,” he said. “Restaurants are hard work; they’re supposed to be, but you’re supposed to have fun while doing it.”
Dowd-DeRoy is hopeful her nephew can figure something out.
“You’re young and you need energy, and he is young,” she said.
Tapping into something deeper
As the conversation surrounding EBA’s has grown in the last few weeks, Eddie Bogosian has realized that people are longing for more than just Dragon Juice and chicken sandwiches.
“We’ve been missing that third space for a long time,” he said.
When he says third space, he’s talking about the places other than work, school and home where people can gather and spend time together.
“EBA’s was very special, and a lot of people were feeling that,” Eddie Bogosian said. “We gotta protect those places. Not just EBA’s. I think this is a much bigger thing, protecting these places that mean a lot.”
Liot Hill views it as a longing for a simpler time.
“I think when we think about EBA’s, part of the nostalgia is for a time when life was a little more affordable and we could afford to go out and eat a couple slices of pizza with friends and not have to worry about how we were going to cover any of our other bills,” she said. “EBA’s, I think, symbolizes a time when we were a little less stressed. In a way maybe we need a place like EBA’s more than ever.”
Maureen Bogosian and Dowd-DeRoy have also had fun going down memory lane, delighting in the stories that people are sharing.
“It was a beautiful thing to be part of,” Dowd-DeRoy said. “It’s nice to be missed.”
