Secret Spot to reopen at North Beach: Owner humbled by community support after fire

HAMPTON — The Gozzos have been getting more and more questions from curious customers about when their longtime North Beach smoothie shop will finally reopen.

The Secret Spot’s new location at 560 High St. has been under lease since last fall and is set to open in time for the Fourth of July. The Gozzos have been working for six months to flip the former convenience store and realty office into a cafe serving smoothies, sandwiches, and the fruit for which they’re best known ? a?aí.

Passersby have been known to check in on the progress, owner Jon Gozzo said. Often it’s to lend a hand, he said, but he also senses many are eager to see the shop reopen.

“They are, and we are,” Gozzo said. “I get a lot of messages. When’s it open?”

Most of the work was finished Wednesday, June 26, at the new shop, and Gozzo said what remained was some cleanup and setup, as well as permitting Friday. He said he and his family are making their best effort to be open next week, even if a few kinks need to be worked out.

“We might not have everything perfect or everything in stock, but we’ll have something,” Gozzo said. “Next week, for sure.”

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The Gozzos have been selling a?aí bowls at the beach in Hampton since 2007. Gozzo said he was the first person to sell a?aí in New Hampshire when the Brazilian fruit was less known. The fruit is sold at shops around the region today, and the Gozzos’ success eventually led to a second location called The Spot in Durham.

The Secret Spot closed after its original space, at the corner of High Street and Ocean Boulevard, was destroyed in a 2022 fire. It took more than a year to find a new home in the former Carey & Giampa office and its adjacent convenience store. The Gozzos took the space with plans to make it one large unit. The space is a short walk from North Beach and the former Secret Spot.

The work came with challenges. For one, Gozzo said the Secret Spot only received two-thirds of what it lost in the fire from its insurance company, which was a big hit. On top of that, Gozzo suffers from common variable immunodeficiency.

Gozzo said he has been in and out of the hospital this year, including in June when his work to reopen this month was interrupted. When he is not in the hospital, he said his condition makes it difficult to do physical labor that he would have handled himself when preparing his new space.

“That’s stuff that, maybe, if I was back in 2007 when I built that (original location) out, or even 2010, yeah, I could probably do,” Gozzo said. “I can’t do that stuff. I mean, I could, but I’d still be in the hospital.”

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Community members stepped up to help Secret Spot reopen

Gozzo said finding the help to get the work done was not hard, given his ties to the Hampton community. Gozzo, a Connecticut native, has made Hampton his home with his wife, Sarah, and their twin daughters Maeve and Lyona. That has included coaching lacrosse at Winnacunnet High School and running the Quiznos in North Hampton before opening the Secret Spot.

A GoFundMe page set up by surfer Ralph Fatello has raised more than $18,000 for the Gozzos and is still collecting donations. Gozzo said valuable work was offered for free, including by former student-athlete Kyle Palmer, who Gozzo once coached. Palmer finished the electrical work for free, while local plumber Harry Goldberg did the plumbing at no cost.

Other free work included the completion of the deck, counter, and other details that Gozzo said he could not have done himself. Ryan Leibundguy, Cam Dyment, Bill Higgins, Joe Evans, Duffy McCarthy, and many others offered their services for free to finish the work.

Gozzo said he was in the hospital for four days with a lung issue last week when his wife sent a picture of a crew that had gathered to finish the deck, which was the last big piece to complete before opening. He said the image was moving.

“People I don’t even know helping, and that’s something that’s been emotional for us,” Gozzo said. “It’s hard to accept help, but the community pulled through.”

Gozzo has said he still hopes to reopen at his former location when the owners rebuild.

In the meantime, he looks forward to opening in July and seeing his daughters start working at the Secret Spot as it returns to serving acai and smoothies at North Beach.

“We have made our footprint here,” Gozzo said. “It’s just been so humbling for us.”

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This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Secret Spot to reopen at North Beach in Hampton two years after fire