(Not So) General Stores: The Robie Store

What makes a general store more than a place to buy pantry items and run into the neighbor down the street? It’s a family-centric quality; it’s an “everyone is welcome here, browse-at-will” vibe; it offers feelings of warm nostalgia while placing a strong emphasis on serving the local community. We feature eight stores on the following pages that celebrate that feeling of community and nostalgia in just the right amounts.

Read more about some of NH’s (not so) general stores:

Harrisville Country Store- Harrisville

Ira Miller’s General Store – Milton Mills

Calef’s Country Store – Barrington

Zeb’s General Store – North Conway

Newfields General Store – Newfields

Old Country Store and Museum – Moultonborough

Mont Vernon General Store – Mont Vernon

It took the new operators of Hooksett’s general store just a couple of years to be named the “2025 Business Leader of the Year” by the local chamber of commerce. But Tim Robie and his family can trace their roots back to the store’s original owners, who founded the business in 1887. 

While the sign outside still says Geo. A. Robie & Son., these days the business operates as The Robie Store, a restaurant and gift shop that serves as an outlet for the family’s farm.

“There are a lot of restaurants that advertise farm to table. But not too many of them can say that they are the actual farmers,” Tim Robie says.

Since 2000, the landmark building that sits by the railroad tracks and the Merrimack River has been overseen by the Robie’s Country Store Historic Preservation Co. Following the retirement of the last Hooksett Robies to operate the store in 1997, the nonprofit purchased the property and has leased it to various operators.

Tim Robie’s family shares common ancestry with the store’s original owners that dates back to the late 17th century. They’re cousins from different branches of the family tree that began with Ichabod Robie.

Tim Robie’s father, Lee, used to visit Robie’s while making stops for the farm’s retail and wholesale business and inquired about it when he discovered the store was vacant. The family has leased the Riverside Street property since August 2023.

The Robie Store sells a variety of specialty foods made in New Hampshire and New England, including local craft beer. Its specialty is all things Robie: meats, cheeses and raw milk produced at the family’s farm 80 miles away in Piermont, NH, which has been worked by seven generations of Robies.

Robie farm-fresh ingredients feature prominently in the menu for the restaurant, which serves breakfast and lunch.

“I don’t know too many places where you can get a bacon cheeseburger, then buy the ground beef, buy the bacon, buy the cheese — buy the stuff that was just used to make that burger,” says Robie, standing
in a walkway toward the back of the store.

Nearby, refrigerator and freezer cases display meats and dairy products. Employee Paul Manning, the store’s resident culinary expert, works in the kitchen, readying pastrami for smoking outside, where he also raises herbs.

“We’re kind of a 50/50 split between serving burgers and sandwiches and our retail,” Robie says. “We also do bulk meats and custom meat orders. If somebody comes to me and wants something special, I can get it for them.”

Customers can get bulk discounts by buying a quarter pig or half a steer. The farm raises chickens for both eggs and meat.

During our visit, a mom with two young children grabs a gallon of raw milk from a display case marked 50 percent off. Robie assures her the milk will be fine even a few days past its marked sale date.

“We want to be a store where people will come and get food for their family,” he says.

Robie also wants the store to continue to be a magnet for presidential candidates. A framed display in the back of the restaurant features dozens of campaign buttons that celebrates the store’s long history as a first-in-the-nation primary destination. Kennedy. Nixon. Carter. Bush. Jackson. Goldwater.

Tim Robie already has logged one presidential primary, though he notes the Democrats were MIA, due to President Joe Biden opting to push the first primary date to North Carolina, freezing out New Hampshire.

“That’s a tough one to discuss with people, but we embrace it,” says Robie, who hosted Robert Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott, and Nikki Haley, among others.

“Donald Trump canceled on me at the last minute. I had that all lined up,” he says.

We bet Trump didn’t know Robie’s smokes its own pastrami. 

9 Riverside St., Hooksett. therobiestore.com