Kittery's Lovebirds Donuts owners 'over the moon' about opening Portsmouth shop

PORTSMOUTH — Best known for its vegan sweet treats, Lovebirds Donuts in Kittery will expand its market and open up a second location in Portsmouth this fall.

Co-owner and co-founder Tamara Monroe said Friday that Lovebirds Donuts’ new digs will be at 33 Vaughan Mall, taking over the space inhabited by the WaterMonkey store, which closed last July and sold apparel, home décor, jewelry and much more in its 27-year-long stint downtown.

No grand opening date is officially set yet, Monroe said, though she’s ecstatic to join a “future-focused” Portsmouth market she has known her whole life. Her mother was raised in the city and she grew up in Berwick.

“We anticipate it’s going to be quite busy from the start (with everyone) walking around downtown right now, especially post-COVID, everyone is just so excited to be walking about and have some sort of normalcy again,” she said.

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The announcement was made Thursday on the business' Instagram and Facebook pages, after a post was shared earlier in the day teasing the announcement with a message saying, "Something sweet is happening ..."

“We're over the moon to share with you that this fall we'll be bringing our donuts and coffee to a second Lovebirds branch (get it? birds? branch?) on Vaughan Mall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire,” the business wrote.

Lovebirds will offer its full array of artisan doughnuts and pastries in Portsmouth, with delectable options such the raspberry cheesecake and vanilla Pride Party doughnuts and the cinnamon-sugar Monkey Muffin bread with vanilla icing, as well as an assortment of coffee beverages.

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Some savory menu options could be thrown into the mix, as well, Monroe said, whipped up in the “Lovebirds lab.”

“We also do have some fun ideas in the works just to kind of add to that lineup but still keeping that theme,” she said.

Monroe and her husband, Ryan MacDougall, opened Lovebirds Donuts in Kittery in the spring of 2019, located at 450 U.S. Route 1. Both had lived in Boston prior to their venture, employed in the marketing and finance spheres. When they weren’t traveling, they could usually be found in a kitchen baking, brewing or trying new foods and flavors. 

According to their business' online biography, MacDougall worked in his parents’ breakfast restaurant starting at 13 years old, where he first developed a desire to work with food and spent a decade afterward cooking and managing restaurants along the Maine coast. Monroe worked in local restaurants as a high schooler and college student, yearning, just as MacDougall did, for a business to call her own.

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Upon opening, both hoped to soon lay the groundwork to open a second location in the Seacoast region. Even as all businesses struggled to navigate the coronavirus’ uncharted waters, the husband and wife team found that COVID-19 didn’t drastically disrupt their ambitions.

“We didn't find it derailed our timeline too much,” Monroe said. “We felt like two years was enough.”

Located on both sides of the border, now Port City residents with a sweet tooth and fans of Lovebirds Donuts won’t have to extend their commute with a trip over the bridge to Kittery.

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“With Portsmouth specifically, because we’ve had a lot of request and demand for the downtown area, we found that people who may live and work downtown may not want to come to Kittery and the bustling downtown area, but people still want our coffee and doughnuts,” Monroe said. 

Lovebirds Donuts’ Kittery location is currently open on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m., and Friday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. The business is closed on Tuesdays.