The Loudon Country Store is returning to life and the new owner says it will be the same as before, but with a bit of a south-Asian twist.

“We will keep the same restaurant and bring a little bit bigger menu – and a little Indian food,” said Parag Patel, who purchased the store at auction in January. Patel owns Milano’s Pizza in Concord and two other eateries up north.

The store at 40 S. Village Road, with two apartments above it, went on the market two years ago in a foreclosure auction. Patel purchased the building and its one-acre lot for $400,000, according to a listing from auction house Paul McInnisLLC.

Patel said the building needed considerable work, including upgrading the plumbing and fixing the kitchen floor. “There are a lot of things to do,” he said.

He hopes to open in a couple of weeks.

The store was previously owned by Plourde Sand & Gravel Inc. with mortgages held by the Great Lakes Finance Co. It was put up for sale in 2023 along with a sand and gravel pit on 87 acres in Hooksett located between the I-93 Welcome Center and the Merrimack River, a 68-acre gravel pit in Allenstown that is not currently being excavated, and a 31-acre former gravel pit that is now a residential lot in Loudon.

Those three sites were sold separately from the store, according to Justin Conway, director of auctions for Paul McInnis.

The store drew attention in 2020 when owner Dawn Plourde pushed back against Gov. Chris Sununu’s mask mandate in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was eventually fined $2,000 for refusing to enforce the mandate but the fine was overturned later by the state Legislature.