The wait is finally over for residents driving up and down Route 101, watching a construction site change from a pile of dirt into a bright, new restaurant – complete with a coppery front door.

On Wednesday, the Copper Door opened to the public as the third installment of Tom Boucher’s Great New Hampshire Restaurants Inc., which includes T-Bones and Cactus Jack’s.

“It has been a dream that we would open something at this level and this style,” said CEO and owner Boucher. “I was rereading the introduction and vision for our business statement to the bank, and it’s unbelievable. The proposal was written about a year ago, and there’s not one word there that we didn’t follow through on. The whole concept. It’s pretty neat; it really is.”

The Copper Door, which has been in the making since Boucher got the approval for the eatery in February, will fill the niche in town for “elevated casual” dining, Boucher said. The restaurant, at the intersection of Route 101 and 114, was approved as part of the Bedford Hills development.

From the restaurant’s simple, shiny front door to its zinc bar tops, the concept was intended to be classy but not pretentious, Boucher said.

“When my daughter came home from college, we took her through the building, and the first thing she said was, ‘It feels so homey,’” Boucher said. “That’s exactly what we’ve been trying to go for.”

Boucher’s wife, Dana, a freelance artist and interior designer, has crafted the details behind the cozy establishment and came up with the restaurant name.

“She did the whole thing,” Boucher said. “My partner, Mark (Fenske), did the entire layout, the infrastructure and the equipment design of the entire building. My wife did all the interior design. She picked out the chairs and the tables and the lightings and color, the millwork style and door style.”

The building architecture, which Boucher described as a shingle-style craftsman bungalow, is warm and inviting. Hardwood floors and large vaulted ceilings echo the “elevated casual” look Boucher was going for.

“Visually, people are stunned at how it looks,” Boucher said. “It’s just so tastefully done, and it’s something unique. You’re not going to find a restaurant like this unless you go into the city.”

The Copper Door, Boucher’s first try at building a brand-new brand and establishment from the ground up, really formalized for him when the walls and trusses went in, he said.

“It’s been very rewarding, because you’re able to create everything from scratch,” Boucher said. “There isn’t one thing that we didn’t have to create, choose or decide. When they say ‘from the ground up,’ it literally is. I’m walking around, looking at the bark mulch that I picked out, the type of stone that we used, the type of handles for all the doors. It’s endless, but it’s fun. I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

At times, Boucher said, he didn’t know if he’d be able to open before Christmas.

“The only setback was that October snowstorm, and to be honest with you, I truly thought we were dead in the water and we would not open until the spring … if we had run into a cold snap and an early winter,” Boucher said. “Just the opposite has happened. We couldn’t have asked for better weather.”

Paintings of barns and farms ornament the restaurant walls, and a stone, double-sided fireplace provides an added touch of warmth.

The menu’s mix of comfort food and inventive bites of fine dining will satisfy a variety of palates, Boucher said.

“I really like the things that are a little bit different,” Boucher said. “I’ve been eating food that my mom made for 47 years, and we of course have that upscale comfort food, which is great for people that don’t want things that are a little bit edgy. … (Executive Chef Zack Martineau) came up with some really unique items, but at the same time, the whole menu isn’t full of that. There’s some things like buttermilk fried chicken, but it’s upscale.”

Boucher was most pleasantly surprised by the Golden Beet Carpaccio, he said, which is an appetizer.

Prices on the menu range from $8-$13 for an appetizer or bar food, $8-$16 for lunch, and $13-$36 for dinner, according to the Copper Door Web site. The menu touches on everything from “the Original Delmonico Steak” to caul fat-wrapped meatloaf.

“I think that just hearing from our employees, they feel we’ve nailed it,” Boucher said. “From the uniforms to the table settings – you’ll see when you come in. It’s upscale, but you’re not intimidated.”

For more information on the Copper Door, visit www.copperdoorrestaurant.com or call 488-2677.

Maryalice Gill can be reached at 594-6490 or mgill@nashuatelegraph.com. Follow Gill on Twitter (@Telegraph_MAG).