Emmett Soldati is ready for a new chapter.

At 23-years-old, he opened Teatotaller, a coffee shop housed in a bright pink storefront that payed homage to his newfound sobriety. He wanted it to be loud and vibrant, an overt space for the community to come together in his hometown of Somersworth. Since then, he’s painted buildings pink in Concord and Dover.

On Tuesday morning, the Teatotaller signs came down, with Totally Tea + Coffee put up in their place.

With a new name, Soldati hopes to find new owners, too. After 13 years, he’s looking to sell the business.

“I have been through it all. I’ve seen it in every phase,” he said. “I am just getting to a point personally where I’m ready to pass the baton onto someone that wants to go and bring it onto new heights.”

Soldati knew the time had come because, in a sense, he watched Teatotaller weather the storms.

At the cafe’s inception, Soldati was a young entrepreneur with little experience and he’d lie awake in bed every night running through that day’s decisions.

Then, he expanded, opening new locations in Dover and Concord and choosing to close the original Somersworth locations. 

Owning and operating a cafe that he called a “queer, hipster, oasis,” combined with his open political views drew him into the public spotlight. 

A few years into the business, he noticed Meta, the parent company of Instagram, deleted Teatotaller’s account, stating that the profile violated a community standard.

Years of followers, connections and content was gone, with no concrete explanation. So Soldati took Meta to court.

The case began with a small claims case in Dover District Court, before it escalated. A six-year legal battle ensued, progressing to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. He represented himself throughout the endeavor and won.

That wasn’t the only time his business made headlines, either.

In November of 2022, the Concord location hosted its first drag story hour, featuring a drag queen from Massachusetts who went by the name Juicy Garland. In response, members of a far-right extremist group stood on Main Street in protest of the event – while hundreds mobilized with a counter demonstration in support of the cafe.

Less than a year later, another group of white nationalists descended on downtown Concord with a similar stunt.

On Father’s Day in 2023, a several members of NCS-131, a white supremacist organization, circled Teatotaller’s first-floor glass windows chanting and performing Nazi salutes in masks and black outfits.

No arrests were made that day but in response, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella charged Christopher Hood and 19 unidentified members of the group with discrimination.

The charges say the protest attempted to coerce Teatotaller to engage in unlawful discrimination against Garland, who was performing at the time, on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.

The case remains ongoing, despite attempts by NCS-131 to have the charges dismissed. 

These incidents never swayed Soldati, though. Teatotaller has continued to host drag story hours and other events.

Creating a community space for events and performances has been at the core of Teatotaller’s mission, even in its infancy.

One of Soldati’s favorite days at the cafe was 12 years ago. He was being pitched left and right to host performers and start programming, so he hosted a music night at the Somersworth location.

About eight people showed up in total, he said. But among the crowd was a musician Kelley McRae, whose performance has stayed with Soldati since.

“Literally every single person in that room looked at each other, they were all strangers to each other and thought, we are witnessing probably one of the most incredible musical moments of our lives,” he said. “I feel like I am witnessing history happening in downtown Summersworth or in Concord or in Dover, and it’s always like a show, a performance, a gathering. And that just felt really special.”

In that same vein, Soldati isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

He has a concept for a prospective buyer, someone he hopes will continue Teatotaller’s mission of providing a collaborative, community-oriented cafe. But Soldati isn’t rushing the hand-off – he doesn’t know what his next chapter will entail yet, either. 

“The goal is to really use this runway in this moment for me to see who else is out there that jives with it and wants to, themselves, scale a company and a business and a cafe and be at the epicenter of community in their hometown and see what comes of it,” he said.

He assumes some may not even realize the lettered sign hanging above his storefronts in Dover and Concord will have changed. He purposely asked the same artist to design the replacement.

He wants to reassure regulars that business won’t stall in the transition, as well. Totally Tea + Coffee will continue to be open six days a week, with new events in the works.

And he hopes in the process to bring in new customers. Soldati underestimated Concord as a tourist destination, and he feared that the quirky caricature of Teatotaller undersold his business as a cafe with special coffee roasts, a full menu of breakfast sandwiches, overnight oats and soft pretzels.

Totally Tea + Coffee is pronounceable, simple, still inclusive and a fresh focus for the next rendition of the business.

“At the end of the day, Teatotaller is really about me. I’m a teetotaler,” he said. “But that name, I really want to make sure I’m taking it with me so that the company is left stronger for whomever is stepping into that.”