Whether at the beach on Ocean Boulevard or in the Route 1 space attached to Lamie’s Inn, the Higgins family always found passion and meaning in running the Old Salt.
“I don’t think in 40 years there’s been a day that I didn’t want to go to work,” said co-owner Joe Higgins, three days after he and his co-owner siblings had their retirement party.
Higgins, along with his brother Mike Higgins and sister Kathi Taylor, are set to officially turn the Old Salt and Lamie’s Inn over to its new owners, John and Lori Guertin of New England Hospitality, on May 5. A packed house, including long-time staff and members of the Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce, was there for the retirement party, which closed the restaurant down after its weekly Sunday brunch, on April 26.
The three siblings started the Old Salt at 38 Ocean Blvd. in the former Corona House space with the help of their mother Nancy, who died in 2007. A fire displaced the restaurant in 1999, but the Higgins family reopened the Old Salt in its current location 25 years ago at 490 Lafayette Road, where it became a staple of Hampton’s downtown.
“It’s very humbling,” Taylor said, “To see what we’ve accomplished in 40 years.”
Old Salt’s roots trace back to a Hampton Beach guest house
The Higgins family’s roots in the restaurant business stretch back to 1977, when Nancy Higgins opened the Old Salt Guest House and Cottages on J Street at Hampton Beach. Nine years later, she and her children purchased the former Corona House and transformed it into the Old Salt Restaurant.
Nancy and her children shared ownership from the start, Taylor said, with the siblings then in their mid‑ to late‑twenties. The restaurant embraced a full nautical theme, complete with two large fish tanks maintained by Joe Higgins — one saltwater, one freshwater.
Taylor credited her mother’s instincts for the restaurant’s early success at the beach.
“She was a great businesswoman, that she saw the potential of what could be,” Taylor said.
That momentum was interrupted on June 16, 1999, when a fire destroyed the Old Salt. The family found temporary refuge thanks to Hampton Beach Casino complex owner Fred Schaake, who invited them to operate the Whale’s Tale inside the Casino while they regrouped. The previous operators had left, giving the Higginses an opportunity to keep their staff working and stay connected to customers.
Their long‑term solution arrived in 2001, when they learned a space had opened at the restaurant attached to Lamie’s Inn. The Cat and the Custard Cup had vacated the previous year, Mike Higgins recalled. What began as an effort simply to fill the space quickly turned into something larger when the family was offered the chance to buy the entire building. After struggling to rebuild at the beach, the downtown location proved the better fit.
The new Old Salt opened March 28, 2001, even as the family continued running the Whale’s Tale for two more summers. The Lamie’s space was significantly larger, with a lounge, dining room and multiple function spaces, including the Goody Cole Room and Eisenhower Room.
Taking on the hotel was not an overwhelming challenge for the family, according to Taylor. Her mother was familiar with that work through the original guest house on J Street, and Taylor had gone to college for both restaurant and hotel hospitality.
The Old Salt’s reputation at the beach carried over to its new home. Joe Higgins was later named Citizen of the Year by the Hampton Rotarians for his behind‑the‑scenes community work. Each fall, the staff staged a popular haunted hotel in partnership with Winnacunnet High School students, led by managers Michelle O’Brien and George Hosker‑Bouley.
When Nancy Higgins died in 2007, ownership passed equally to her three children. Taylor described her mother as the family’s “matriarch,” the force who set everything in motion.
“When we had her celebration of life, it was a six and a half hour wait,” Taylor said. “She was an amazing person.”
Old Salt owners ready for retirement, next chapter
The sibling owners say their departure is bittersweet, but that the restaurant is in good hands. No staff is leaving that Joe Higgins is aware of. Familiar faces like O’Brien, hired 36 years ago, won’t be going anywhere.
“They say they’re going to keep the Old Salt going like nobody would know the difference,” Joe Higgins said. “That’s sort of a nice thing.
The past year brought its share of challenges. A 2025 fire caused significant water damage and forced the restaurant to temporarily close. At the same time, costs have nearly doubled since the COVID‑19 pandemic. Joe Higgins said steak‑tip meat has climbed from $9 to $16 per pound, while fresh lobster has jumped from $30 to $64.
Joe Higgins said he will miss the grind, but he knows he has a lot to look forward to in retirement. He has a grandchild on the way, he said, and his camp up north rarely gets used while he works day in and day out at the Old Salt.
“Life is short,” Joe Higgins said. “Do I want to spend time with this grand baby? Yeah, I do. All that comes together.”
O’Brien, who spoke at the retirement party along with others, said the slow rate of staff turnover at the Old Salt speaks to the kind of owners the Higgins family have been. She is not the only staff member who has been there for more than 30 years, and she said younger staff, like local teens, are always eager to return when school ends.
“That says a lot about who they are, “O’Brien said.
At the retirement party, cardboard cutouts of the three sibling owners were on display, as well as a collage of photos from the past placed around the words “never underestimate the difference you made and the lives you touched.”
The matriarch of the family was not forgotten. A table was also set with a candle, menu, flowers, silverware and a photo of Nancy Higgins in her memory.
“I think she would be very proud of how we kept everything together,” Mike Higgins said of his mother. “I think that was her most important piece.”
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald. Reporting by Max Sullivan.
