The initials in EXP Band stand for “experienced players” — front man Rob Randlett, bassist Erik Thomas, lead guitarist John Andrews and drummer Curtis Marzerka are all veteran musicians. Their modern country sound, however, arrived a bit late in their careers.
Randlett spent his early years rocking hard, but in 2014 he got some advice from Hillsboro producer Ted Hutchinson that sent him in a southern direction.
“He told me, ‘I know you like doing the rock thing,’” Randlett said recently by phone, “‘but country’s where you need to be, and that’s where your voice suits you. If you do that, you’ll see things will change.’”
Hutchinson had good ears; Randlett guested with Jodi Cunningham’s band a few times, and soon her fans were asking when his band would be coming to town. So piece by piece he put one together and started playing out.
“Everything was modern country,” he said. “Fresh, because it was right on the radio.”
Since then, the group has gigged all over New England, playing NASCAR and Bike Week, while Randlett himself won New Hampshire Country Music Association and national honors — best male vocalist in 2018 and best modern country male and band the following year.
With Covid-19, their schedule has constricted, but EXP is still doing shows. The next one is Friday, Nov. 6, at The Bar in Hudson, a favorite spot for them, Randlett said.
“It’s just a very homey, feel-good type of a place … a small venue, and it’s very relaxing,” he said.
A Nov. 7 date at Concord’s Area 23 has been moved to December, but they will be at the Manchester VFW the following week, on Friday the 13th.
Along with playing Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney and Chase Rice covers, Randlett is an original artist. The Army vet’s latest endeavor is a Bluebird Café styled song circle, fittingly happening Nov. 11 at Tower Hill Tavern in Laconia. He hopes this Songwriters Night event will be the first of many.
“We’re just starting out,” he said. “The music industry is tough right now, along with everything else. Because of Covid, they’re not really allowing full bands inside, but there are solo artists some places, depending on the ownership.”
Tower Hill regularly books Randlett and jumped at the chance to host the event.
“As soon as I posted asking, if I did a songwriters night, would anybody want to do that, he was like, ‘I wanna do it here; we have to do it here,’” Randlett said.
All musicians are welcome.
“It’s kind of like a Nashville thing, but it doesn’t have to be all country,” Randlett said. “It could be blues, rock, whatever you want it to be. If there’s some 16-year-old kid that’s a great songwriter, you know, and his mom and dad want to bring him down to show off his talent, that’s cool. It’s all about bringing musicians together again.”
He looks forward to hosting Songwriters Night on Veterans Day, noting that he hopes to draw attention to a holiday that’s often misunderstood by the general public.
“I thought it was a cool day because military is a big part of my heart and my music. To be able to share this on Veterans Day means a lot to me,” he said.
EXP will appear as a full band on Nov. 6, at The Bar. Randlett is optimistic that it’s a harbinger.
“I think things are moving in a positive direction,” he said. “People are now becoming accustomed to what the outlook is when they go out in public [and] I feel as long as you follow the rules and work with the bar owners, music can continue. When things get out of control and people don’t abide by the rules and do the wrong thing, that’s when problems happen.”
EXP Band When: Friday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m. Where: The Bar, 2B Burnham Road, Hudson
Songwriters Night When: Wednesday, Nov. 11, 6 p.m. Where: Tower Hill Tavern, 264 Lakeside Ave., Laconia More: Facebook.com/EXPBandNH
• Road show: A favorite in their home city of Manchester, Queen City Improv takes its on-the-spot comedy act to the capital for a monthly residency that runs through August 2021. Each QCI show is new, often drawn from current events. At the next one, a BYOB affair, the troupe plans to crown one of its own as President of Concord, because we do need another election. Thursday, Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m., Hatbox Theatre, 270 Loudon Road, Concord. Tickets are $22 at hatboxnh.org.
• Bottom drop: After moving across town recently, the popular Bass Weekly DJ night continues with Josh Teed performing a two-hour set; Teed recently released a new EP. The evening begins with lead-in half-hour sets from Jacek and Versible, followed by Location and Chmura with an hour each. Temperatures will be taken at the door for this safe and sane floor-shaking event. Friday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m., Jewel Music Venue, 61 Canal St., Manchester, $5 cover, more at facebook.com/electricimpulseevents.
• Lively time: Born and raised in Florida, Pete Peterson grew up on Southern rhythm and blues music. He later moved north, married into the region and has become a fixture on the scene with his bands Rhythm Method and Family Affair, both featuring his daughter Yamica. He’s also ubiquitous playing and singing as a solo performer. Saturday, Nov. 7, 9 p.m. Derryfield Country Club, 625 Mammoth Road, Manchester. See facebook.com/Pete-Peterson-Music-NH-690452174323834.
• Sing and sup: Despite the pandemic, hardworking singer and guitarist Brad Bosse is performing nearly nonstop this month, sometimes twice in the same day. Engaging and crowd-friendly, Bosse’s setlist is wide and varied. He can move from a smoothly Sinatra song to covering Notorious B.I.G., then jump over to Sublime’s West Coast reggae and end on a Kenny Chesney country note. Sunday, Nov. 8, 4 p.m., Copper Door, 15 Leavy Dr., Bedford. See facebook.com/BradBosseMusic.
Stand-up novice Will Chu (Yang, a comedian with a special on Amazon Prime) gets his big break as the emcee for a show headlined by his childhood comedy hero Billy G. (Cedric the Entertainer) in this sweet if occasionally uneven movie about starting out in comedy. These aren’t comedians taking big stages in New York or L.A.; Chu and his fellow comics are fighting for time at the local open mic night. Though Chu can regularly get a few minutes (assuming he brings in at least two paying customers), he can’t seem to break in at other clubs. Then his buddy, Quinn (Ken Jeong), a more successful comedian, recommends him for a long weekend gig as the emcee for a show that features Chris (Alex Moffat) and Billy G, a longtime comedy hero of Will’s.
This movie also features a slew of comedian cameos — Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Kathleen Madigan and more — and just a general love of the craft of stand-up comedy (along with a bemused look at the lifestyle). The movie isn’t really a definitive study of all stand-up comedy; it’s more a narrowly focused story about this point in one comedian’s professional development when comedy goes from a side gig to a possible career. There is such a “love of the game” quality to this movie that I found it easy to look past some of its indie scruffiness. B Available for rent.
Save Yourselves! (R)
Sunita Mani, John Reynolds.
Su (Mani) and Jack (Reynolds) head to a friend’s cabin to take a week off from everything — even their phones, even the internet, even social media. Thusly cut off from the world, they try to “work on we,” reconnect as a couple and discuss the future and reset their brain chemistry and a bunch of other vague “authentic”-sounding things. Unbeknownst to them, at pretty much the exact moment they were recording an outgoing message letting people know they were unreachable, aliens were landing on the planet — furry aliens that Su initially mistakes for an ottoman.
This short but fun comedy blends bougie-couple-stuff (they realize too late that all the microgreens in the world are no good when you need non-perishables) and end of the world panic. The fuzziness of the aliens helps to cut down the actual scariness of the situation and the likability of the leads helps to sell the jokes, or really the one joke, which is that modern urban online life does not prepare you for woodsy survival. BAvailable for purchase or rent.
The Binge (TV-MA)
Vince Vaughn, Skyler Gisondo.
In some respects this endearingly stupid comedy from Hulu isn’t so unlike the standard tale of teenagers trying to get to a party so one of their number can tell somebody they like them (see also Superbad or Booksmart). In this case, BFFs Griffin (Gisondo) and Hags (Dexter Darden), joined by onetime bud Andrew (Eduardo Franco), are trying to get to a wild party so Griffin can ask Lena (Grace Van Dien) to prom. The catch is that this party is happening on Binge night; similar to Purge night of The Purge movies, on Binge night Americans can load up on as much alcohol and drugs as their bodies can handle, but only once a year. On all other days, mind-altering substances, even beer, are illegal. For newly minted 18-year-olds Griffin and Hags (18 being the age when you can start participating in The Binge), this is their first chance to get totally wasted and make bad choices. For their school principal Mr. Carlsen (Vaughn), who is also Lena’s dad, it’s an opportunity to spread his “say no to everything” message. Like Bueller vs. principal fights for decades, it becomes an evening of crazy adventures and adult overreach.
The concept is dumb but the theme is classic and, as with most of this kind of movie, what carries it through is the sweetness of the friendship between Griffin and Hags. Also, the movie benefits from Vaughn leaning in to the Vaughnily off-kilter quality of his not-so-responsible adult. Come for the many many names for drugs, stay for the musical number. I’d still rather watch this than another The Purge movie (and this one-night-a-year setup might actually make more sense). B- Available on Hulu.
Wild Nights with Emily (PG-13, 2018)
Molly Shannon, Susan Ziegler.
Emily Dickinson (played by Shannon as an adult, Dana Melanie as a teenager/young adult) is in this sweet and funny biopic a woman in a long-term, though somewhat hidden, relationship with Susan (Ziegler as an adult, Sasha Frolova as a teen), her sweetheart from school days who marries Emily’s brother so that they can stay close. Emily is an ambitious writer in a world where ambition and innovation from a woman don’t necessarily work out. It takes her death and some repackaging by her brother’s mistress (Amy Seimetz doing solid wide-eyed comic work) to get Dickinson into the public eye and then Susan’s daughter/Emily’s niece to attempt a more accurate portrait. At times the movie has a bit of a Drunk History feel but it makes Dickinson more of a recognizable human and Shannon brings a liveliness to her reading of Dickinson’s poems and letters. B+ Available on Hulu.
Connery, Sean Connery
Remember the recently departed Sir Sean Connery, the standard-setter for the James Bond character, in 1964’s Goldfinger (PG technically; Common Sense Media rates it as 13+) which will screen starting Friday, Nov. 6, at Chunky’s Cinema Pub in Manchester (707 Huse Road) and Nashua (151 Coliseum Ave.). The movie will screen Friday through Monday, Nov. 9, and Wednesday, Nov. 11, and Thursday, Nov. 12, at 6:30 p.m. in Manchester and Friday, Nov. 6, through Sunday, Nov. 8, and Wednesday, Nov. 11, and Thursday, Nov. 12, at 6:45 p.m., according to chunkys.com on Nov. 2. Tickets cost $4.99.
Film Movie screenings, movie-themed happenings & filmed events
Venues
Bank of NH Stage 16 S. Main St., Concord 225-1111, banknhstage.com
Capitol Center for the Arts 44 S. Main St., Concord 225-1111, ccanh.com
Cinemagic with IMAX at 38 Cinemagic Way in Hooksett; 11 Executive Park Drive in Merrimack; 2454 Lafayette Road in Portsmouth; cinemagicmovies.com
The Music Hall 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth 436-2400, themusichall.org
Red River Theatres 11 S. Main St., Concord 224-4600, redrivertheatres.org
Wilton Town Hall Theatre 40 Main St. in Wilton wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456
Shows
• Red River Virtual Cinema Red River Theatres is currently offering indie, foreign language and documentary films via a virtual cinema experience. See the ever changing line-up on the website.
• Live Trivia Back to the Future Trilogy (21+) at Chunky’s Manchester on Thursday, Nov. 5, and Sunday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m. and at Chunky’s Nashua on Thursday, Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m. Teams of up to six players; reserve a team spot with $5 food vouchers.
• Warren Miller’s Future Retrovirtual screening via the Music Hall Portsmouth Saturday, Nov. 7, 7 p.m. Access costs $30.
• Live Trivia Hamilton (21+) at Chunky’s Manchester on Thursday, Nov. 12, and Sunday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m. and at Chunky’s Nashua on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 7:30 p.m. Teams of up to six; reserve a team spot with $5 food vouchers.
• Lucinda Williams in studio concert series livestreamed event offered by the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord. Tickets start at $20 per event (with add-on options). Remaining shows include “Southern Soul: From Memphis to Muscle Shoals & More” on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 8 p.m.; “Bobs Back Pages: A Night of Bob Dylan Songs” on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 8 p.m.; “Funny How Time Slips Away: A Night of ‘60s Country Classics” on Thursday, Dec. 3, at 8 p.m.; and “Have Yourself a Rockin’ Little Christmas with Lucinda” on Thursday, Dec. 17, at 8 p.m.
• Dr. Mabuse The Gambler, Part 1(1922) This silent film directed by Fritz Lang will screen at Wilton Town Hall Theatre on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 2 p.m. with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis. Admission is free but a $10 donation is encouraged. The movie, the first of two parts, is a crime thriller set in Weimar-era Germany, according to Rapsis’ website.
• Dr. Mabuse The Gambler, Part 2 (1922) Catch the second half of the film on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town hall Theater. Admission is free but a $10 donation is encouraged.
• Flash Gordon (PG, 1980) Cinemagic will screen the Fathom Events 40th Anniversary screening of Flash Gordon on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 4 p.m. at its locations including Hooksett, Merrimack and Portsmouth. Tickets cost $13.25.
Nothing happens — but nothing with a Sofia Coppola laid-back charm — in the light dramedy On the Rocks, a movie written and directed by Coppola. Dean (Marlon Wayans) comes home from a business trip, climbs into bed and starts kissing Laura (Rashida Jones). It’s a normal husband/wife moment until she says “hi”and he sort of startles awake a little, says something like “oh” and then collapses asleep. What, Laura wonders, did that mean? Did he not know where he was, not know who he was kissing, not want to be kissing her? It’s the sort of thing that you might laugh about over breakfast unless, like Laura, you’re already in something of a rut — caught in the repetitive tasks of taking care of their kids and apartment and not making any headway on a book she’s trying to write. And Dean has started a new business where he works all the time and has a hot coworker, Fiona (Jessica Henwick). Then the odd little moment becomes a “sign.” Both the exact right and exact wrong person to talk this over with is Felix (Bill Murray), Laura’s father. He loves her and says the stuff Laura probably needs to be reminded of — that she’s great, that Dean is lucky to have her, etc. But he also has some not-great history in the fidelity-to-Laura’s-mom department (which Laura has clearly not gotten over) and he enthusiastically embraces the “what’s up with Dean” mystery as sort of a father-daughter project. He suggests tailing Dean and spying on Dean in a variety of ways and while Laura doesn’t 100 percent support the idea she doesn’t completely shut it down, either. Maybe that all sounds like “something” but it is, like the best Seinfeld plots, nothing, really, in the wider scheme of these characters and this story. Even the “is Dean cheating?” central question feels rather low stakes the way the movie presents it. There are lots of nice little details in this movie: Laura can’t seem to connect with Dean so she defaults to talking about kid stuff, there is never not a series of things on the floor she feels obligated to pick up, she makes extremely well-labeled folders during a rare quiet moment at her desk in lieu of writing (ahh, trivial organization as a form of procrastination — it accomplishes nothing but it feels so good). This isn’t some momentous examination of romantic turmoil or familial relationships. It’s a collection of little, well-realized moments performed (primarily) by two skilled actors: Jones, who is great at being a person caught in a funk but still capable of being a loving and empathetic person, and Murray, who appears to be having fun. “Dad-ness plus martini” is how I would describe his character. He clearly has bigger flaws — Murray gives us a person who can be light and charming and also exasperating and unknowingly hurtful all in the same scene — but the movie isn’t here to do a deep dive into them. This movie is awash in crisp-looking cocktails and I sort of feel like a piney gin and tonic is what this movie basically is: refreshing, not too serious, classic and with just the right amount of bittersweetness. B Rated R for some language/sexual references, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, On the Rocks is an hour and 36 minutes long and distributed by A24. It is available on Apple TV+.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (R)
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat returns to America just in time for, you know, All This in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, the semi-scripted, candid camera sequel to his 2006 film. As you may have heard, this movie features Rudy Giuliani, who basically walks himself into this elaborate prank for no good reason. Mike Pence also delivers a brief (unintended) cameo during what is apparently a real scene from the February 2020 CPAC event (the Conservative Political Action Conference). News reports from the event suggest that what happens in the film more or less did occur: Borat (Baron Cohen) dressed in a Trump costume and brought his 15-year-old daughter Tutar (Maria Bakalova, who is really 24 years old according to media reports and who is getting some Oscar talk? What, 2020?) to give as a gift to Pence. Photos on several news sites show a Trump-figure being marched out of the hall by security while Pence speaks — and, in this movie, we even get clips of Pence’s speech, such as when he talks about how great America is doing at keeping the coronavirus at bay, for extra surrealness. This gag is part of this movie’s necessarily more plot-heavy story than what I remember in the original film; as is displayed, Borat can’t walk around the U.S. without people trying to get selfies and hear him say “my wife.” So we get a framework that involves Kazakhstan’s leader attempting to get into Trump’s circle of strongman besties by giving Pence a present, originally a monkey but when he doesn’t make it to the U.S. alive, the gift becomes Tutar, the teenage daughter that the long-imprisoned Borat recently reconnected with. Despite Borat’s attempts to shoo her away, Tutar follows Borat to America. When Borat fails at giving Tutar to Pence, Borat decides to try to give her to Giuliani. Along the way are a series of “real” scenes — from interviews to less formal interactions — that feature a lot of people smothering smiles and/or horror in reaction to Tutar (whose initial ambition is to have a fancy “wife cage”) and Borat in a variety of disguises. I kinda want an oral history for the making of this movie, which seemed to start in the pre-Covid world but ends up deep in 2020 with all the expected mess (internet conspiracies, anti-mask rallies and of course, so very much racism). Some of these scenes are painfully cringeworthy — probably a sign that just in general I’m not one for candid-prank-style entertainment. But there is also just a sense that people were more aware of the gag this time around, though to what degree is unclear — oftentimes the look on people’s faces suggests they know something is up even if they don’t know exactly what. (I don’t know if that makes what happens in some scenes better or worse. Are people hamming it up for a camera they know is there? Or showing their true selves? Or, again, is this whole thing just Not For Me at this point in 2020?) I especially wanted to know more about Borat’s interaction with the woman to whom the movie is dedicated, Judith Dim Evans, who appears in the movie but has since passed away and whose family sued over the appearance (though the lawsuit has been withdrawn and the case dismissed, according to Hollywood news sites Deadline and Variety). Evans meets a deeply offensively costumed Borat in a synagogue and ends up hugging him (she comes across as kindness personified). There is a website about her story — she was a Holocaust survivor and an educator — which was apparently put up by this movie’s producers, according to Vulture.com. Vulture and Deadline report that after filming Baron Cohen broke character (or had crew members break character) to explain the point of the bit (which, though very Borat-ily done, is an effort to combat Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism). Though I get that it’s not the point of what Baron Cohen is doing, I wish we could have seen some of this post-filming interaction. (Johnny Knoxville included some of the “breaking character” moments in the closing credits of his candid camera-ish Bad Grandpa, which made that endeavor feel more comfortable to me, the viewer. I suspect providing that kind of emotional closure is exactly why Baron Cohen doesn’t include these moments — and, as far as I can tell from news reports, doesn’t tend to ever break character.) There are funny elements here. For me, the funnier parts were the scripted scenes between Borat and Tutar. While I can’t even begin to wrap my brain around any award chatter for Bakalova, she is a solid component of this film — game and giving a genuine performance of her character. I don’t entirely know what to make of this film or that its final message is the dedication to Evans and urging the audience to vote. I feel like Baron Cohen has things, possibly very earnest things, he really wants to say but I’m not sure this mid-aughts character is the clearest or even the funniest way to do it. B- Rated R for pervasive strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity and language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Jason Woliner with a screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Peter Baynham & Erica Rivinoja &Dan Mazer & Jena Friedman & Lee Kern, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (full title) is an hour and 35 minutes long and distributed by Amazon Studios via Amazon Prime.
Featured photo: On The Rocks (R) Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (R)
Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam (Ecco, 241 pages)
To be human in the 21st century, at least in the comfortable, fleece-lined pockets of the first world, is to suffer a palpable loss: the constant, energizing churn of adrenaline.
It was the consolation prize when we were booted out of Eden, the furious cycle of tension and release that the brain comes to crave when fight or flight is no longer a choice that dictates survival, but more like an aftertaste of road rage. We miss this adrenaline. Its loss helps to explain our fondness for a genre best explained as “apocalypse wow.”
Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind belongs in that genre like Moby-Dick belongs in the genre of animal books, which is to say that it’s technically correct to shelve it there, but that would be an insult to the novel’s grandeur.
Alam has produced a marvelously taut and suspenseful story of two families thrown together as an unspecified calamity unfolds. It flirts with many contemporary themes — racism, climate change, disease, even over-reliance on technology — but not preachily or self-consciously so. At its heart throbs a sophisticated thriller, understated in its telling, which makes the punch it delivers all the more satisfying.
Amanda and Clay are an unremarkable couple: parents of a 13-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy. Amanda is an advertising executive whose reliable thrill is feeling needed on her job; Clay is a professor at a New York City college. When they’re together, he drives the car, “not so new as to be luxurious nor so old as to be bohemian.” They’re the Griswolds, better educated, without the hijinks.
We meet the family en route to a week’s vacation in a secluded Long Island house they rented from Airbnb. (“Step into our beautiful house and leave the world behind,” the listing enticed.)
The house has a pool and is near the ocean; Amanda and Clay have no greater ambition for their vacation than to spend time together before their young teens descend into constant disdain.
It is a testament to Alam’s gorgeous writing that we don’t abandon the couple before their first night in the home, such is their level of ordinariness and the depths to which we are exposed to it. Case in point: Nearly half of Chapter 3 is essentially a shopping list, things that Amanda bought at the supermarket. (“She bought two tumescent zucchini, a bag of snap peas, a bouquet of curling kale so green it was almost black.”)
There is rich detail, however, in the recitation of locally made pickles and unsliced hard salami, and Alam does not trade in superfluous words. It’s rare that he even indulges in concluding dialogue with “said.” By the time Amanda and Clay are startled by an unexpected knock at the door on their second night at the home, we are vaguely fond of them and their well-behaved offspring.
At the knock, Amanda reacts as many mothers unacquainted with firearms would, saying to her husband, “Get a bat.”
Her husband, amiable and clueless, first thinks of a flying mammal. “He understood then, but, where would he get a bat? When had he last held a bat? Did they even have a baseball bat at home, and if they did, had they brought it on vacation?”
The couple finally quiet their alarm enough to open the door to a handsome, well-dressed couple in their 60s, apologetic but quietly insistent on coming in. They explain they are the owners of the home (Amanda had only corresponded with a man using the initials GHW in his email address), and that there has been a widespread power outage in New York and they had nowhere else to go. They are hoping to stay in a basement suite until the next day when they can figure out what has happened and what to do.
There is another detail here, which is that Amanda and Clay are white; the couple at the door, GH and Ruth, are Black. While Amanda and Clay are not overtly racist, there is present the innate fear of “otherness,” the biological impulse that drives tribalism in our constant search for safety.
There is also the heightened sensitivity of parents, whose No. 1 task is to keep their offspring alive. Alam, himself a father, understands this, writing of Clay, “Sometimes, looking at his family, he was flooded with this desire to do for them. I’ll build you a house or knit you a sweater, whatever is required. Pursued by wolves? I’ll make a bridge of my body so you can cross that ravine.”
Amanda and Clay struggle with how to respond to the unusual request, the genesis of which is unconfirmable because the internet and phones are no longer working. It is the first of many encounters in which Alam poses a silent question to the reader: What would you do?
As the story unfolds, the stakes take on a quiet urgency. Something is off in the world right now; that’s clear from the strange behavior of animals, the arrival of unwanted guests, and the disappearance of cell service.
But Amanda and Clay can’t get an answer without leaving the seemingly safe confines of the house, which may seem the obvious thing to do, except for not having GPS, not knowing anything about the area, and not knowing whether there is electricity, gas or even safety beyond the borders of the property. But they’re also not sure if they’re safe at the house, or what sort of catastrophe caused Amanda’s phone to send four breaking news headlines, the last one of which ended with garbled letters.
Leave the World Behind could be an apocalyptic thriller, or a mystery, or a study in unfounded alarm. Its true genre is not revealed until the final pages. A story that simmers long and eventually boils, it is a delightful respite in a year in which we all long to forget the world, at least for the duration of a book. A+
BOOK NOTES The biggest publishing event of 2020, we’re told, is the forthcoming memoir of former President Barack Obama. The first of two volumes, A Promised Land, published by Crown, comes out Nov. 17 and is said to be 768 pages. Its website, obamabook.com, promises “a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy.”
While there are no doubt many Americans who are interested in a lengthy, historical treatise on the presidency, it’s unclear whether we’re up for this so soon after an exhausting election.
For anyone who prefers to forget about politics altogether for a while, there is the genre called “speculative fiction,” loosely defined as fantastical writing that transcends reality, science fiction included. (Another way to describe it in two words is “Ray Bradbury.”)
One forthcoming book that is getting some buzz is The Arrest, by Jonathan Lethem (Ecco, 320 pages), which the publisher says is about “what happens when much of what we take for granted — cars, guns, computers and airplanes, for starters — quits working.” It’s set in rural Maine, so extra appeal for New Englanders, and will be released Nov. 10.
Another new title set in New England is Peter Heller’s The Orchard (Scribd Originals, 199 pages). It’s billed as a suspenseful coming-of-age story that takes place in Vermont’s Green Mountains. Curiously, it’s only available on Kindle. For a compelling physical book by the author, check out his 2012 novel, The Dog Stars, chillingly set in a world in which a flu pandemic has killed off much of the population. (Knopf, 336 pages.)
Also out this month is a new Stephanie Plum novel from Janet Evanovich. Fortune and Glory (Atria, 320 pages) is categorized as both humorous fiction and a crime thriller.
I usually swipe left on promos from the Epitaph label anyway, so this Los Angeles emo quintet owes me one. I’m not just being a jerk here; it’s no longer necessary for me to pretend that I can deal with more of the shimmery, downer guitar lines I’ve heard on so many OG emo albums. Much as I respect their workaday dedication, bands like Silkworm and Drive Like Jehu make me feel claustrophobic, like I’m stuck sitting in a musty room with way too much sun pouring in. But whatever, not knowing anything about this band I gave this record a shot, figuring it couldn’t be more morose than its predecessor, 2016’s Stage Four, which revolved around singer Jeremy Molm’s mom’s bout with cancer. This is fine with me, to be honest; the triple-speed punk-popping “Reminders” is melodic and hellish at the same time, coming off like a Partridge Family hit played at 78 RPM. “Deflector,” on the other hand, sucks, but in a good way, scoring enough post-hardcore points to keep me tuned in until the fade. I’d rather listen to this garbage than Pennywise, put it that way. A-
Dave Douglas, Marching Music (Greenleaf Music)
By the time you’re reading this, the 2020 election will be over, and its inevitable counter-reactions will have already begun to surface. I endorse the Nov. 6 timing of this record, because whichever way the political winds blow, regular people do need to make their voices heard. Jazz trumpeter Douglas, who owns and operates the Greenleaf Music imprint, put together a great quartet for this album, which musically documents the unprecedented protests of our scarily delicate time. It’s not like anything I’ve ever heard from Douglas, and in fact I almost hesitate to lump it as jazz: Son Lux guitarist Rafiq Bhatia figures heavily in the sound, tabling doom-metal-inspired heaviness and trippy Nels Cline-ish incidentals to this rich, solemn outing. It’s not difficult to grok where the band’s sentiments lie, of course; “Whose Streets” is the standout track, hinting at aftermath as it brilliantly evokes a windswept, litter-strewn cityscape thoroughly doused with hope. A+
Retro Playlist
I’ve talked here previously about how the coronavirus has presented record buyers with the chance to broaden their horizons, to try testing out things they might not normally listen to. You should know by now that I have no real agenda, aside from a wish to have all music legally banned from public places except for 1920s-1940s swing, as it might put everyone in a good, or at least presentable, mood.
You should consider yourself lucky in that regard. Can you even imagine how gross this quarter-page would be if I were some sort of irrepressible superfan of the Rolling Stones, or some other way-too-popular band about which literally billions of words have already been written by wonks and nerds? Just picture it. I mean, if that were the case, and I totally loved the Stones (I don’t), by now I would have filled this “casual stream-of-consciousness” space with random babblings about “super-rare” bootleg versions of “Mother’s Little Helper,” covering such obscure trivia as the time Stones’ amazingly boring drummer Charlie Watts left this or that drum roll out of the version the band played in 1986 at the Philadelphia Spectrum. People actually do write stuff like that.
You won’t get that kind of thing on my watch, no sir. I prefer sticking to the meta, and today’s theme is all-girl bands that were reviewed in past columns. You already know about ’80s band the Go-Go’s, of course; they were featured in a Showtime documentary this past July and need no further examination. I’d much rather re-raise a little awareness about Japanese band Shonen Knife, the original female answer to the Ramones for decades now. Last year they released their jillion-zillionth album, Sweet Candy Power, and it was, thank heaven, nothing new. “Opening track ‘Party,’” I said last June, “is simply the Ramones’ ‘Go Mental’ wearing wax lips.” Now, that wasn’t an actual diss, for the record; I just can’t express affection properly, you see.
Nor unfounded disdain. In 2013 I really wanted to toss Au Revoir Simone’s album Move in Spectrums out the car window because the girls were from Brooklyn (and plus the fact that they proved once and for all that all-guy hipster bands hadn’t cornered the market on purposely terrible indie-pop), but it wasn’t to be. There were a couple of hooks in there, so I just left it at that in my mini-review, leaving out the part about their being an absolutely dreadful band.
And that’s how I missed out on a Pulitzer, fam.
PLAYLIST
A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases
• Onward we go to the next general-CD-release Friday, Nov. 6! You should be paying attention, because there are tons of new CDs coming out before ChristmaRamaHanuKwanzaa, after which will be nothingness and epic fail, when, like every year, all the good albums have been released and I have nothing to write about in this space except for goat-demon thrash-metal bands and reissues of 1960s Lawrence Welk albums. So what’s first this week? Why, it’s Neil Young & Crazy Horse, because they haven’t released a new album in like a whole two weeks or whatever, so here it is, the new album, Return To Greendale! Will Neil Young solve all our problems by singing about politics, like in the 1960s? Let’s hope so, because the corona-whatever is really harshing my mellow, so if he could do that it’d be great (Oh, whatever, I don’t know, you shouldn’t listen to me, because I’ve always hated Neil Young. I think of him as the Billy Jack of room-temperature rock, a fragile but indefatigable put-upon soul who gets girls because he can swear in Chippewa. If it hadn’t been for Richard Nixon, Neil Young would be working at a Denny’s, and that’s literally the thing I hate most about Nixon). Anyway, what does this whiny-voiced fraud want from me today, a review of his new single, “Falling from Above?” Sure, I’ll bite, I’m at the video right now. Ha ha, he looks like Rex Trailer. Oh boy, it’s a (spoiler alert) mid-tempo (spoiler alert) bar-rock tune that’s (spoiler alert) totally boring. Dang it all, he used the word “freedom” in the song to make fun of Americans or whatever, which means I have to drink a shot. Oops, there’s a sloppy, stupid harmonica part. Drink! OK, I’m drunk, because wimpy constitution, let’s move along.
• Wow, even at 52 Australian-British singing lady Kylie Minogue is hot, but enough about substance, let’s talk about style, namely whatever style people will hear on her new album, Disco. I predict the style will be what I like to call “awesome house-pop,” but you never know in what sort of craziness an artiste will indulge. Right, there ya go, as I predicted, the new single “Say Something” is awesome; totally ’80s-throwback stuff, like early Madonna. On the video, she’s riding a badass-looking horse and throwing sparkle-bombs at some Blue Man Group people or whatever. I love her, really.
• Well, how do you like that, my Kylie-inspired good mood continues into another blurb, as U.K. folktronica band Tunng will release its seventh full-length, Dead Club, within 24 hours of this issue’s street date. The single, “A Million Colours,” is sort of like an art-rock version of Gorillaz, with lots to like about it. What’s that you ask? What happened to the folktronica part? Right, what, you expect genre bands to stick to their given genres? Please don’t be difficult.
• Time to close up shop at the Snark Garage for the week, but not before I mention Meteors Could Come Down, the fourth album from LAL! LAL is an electro-world band, consisting of musicians from Uganda, Bangladesh, Barbados and India. The title track is super dreary but awesome, a Tricky-like trip-hop tune with an organic feel. OK, the more I hear of this the more I like it. This is awesome, go buy it.
Pairing beer with food shouldn’t be that hard — but sometimes it is.
You can get as in-depth with pairing beer with food as you can with wine. I don’t, personally, but similar to wine, the right brew can elevate the overall eating experience. But it doesn’t need to be complicated.
Especially as our palates turn to richer fare, comfort food and homestyle staples, you do want to think about your beer choices and how they might impact your taste buds. For example, I wouldn’t opt for a rich coffee stout with pizza and I wouldn’t choose a juicy New England-style IPA with apple pie.
I suggest spending a minute to think about what you’re going to be eating and what you’d like to drink. I don’t think you’ll need a chef or a sommelier to break it down for you. You’ve got this.
You want to think about what you want the beer to do for your experience. Do you want it to complement the flavor profiles of the foods you’re eating or do you want it to stand on its own?
Aside from Thanksgiving, which, wow, is just three weeks away, you’re probably eating a lot of chicken wings and chili while you watch football and you’re probably enjoying more roasts and stews as the weather has cooled. Thinking about chili and wings, both of which tend to have a little (or a lot of) spice, you’ve got a few options.
IPAs, in general, such as the Hazy Rotation New England IPA by Great North Aleworks in Manchester or the Damn Sure Double IPA by Henniker Brewing, tend to stand up to spicy food, without completely overpowering your palate. IPAs tend to be able to stand on their own more than other brews, but if the food you’re eating is more subtly flavored, IPAs can take over, so be careful.
Saisons can be a versatile choice for pairing with food — they’re often fruity and spicy on their own. They also vary greatly from brew to brew — just something to keep in mind.
Pilsners and lighter brews are just fine too, but I do tend to think you’ll lose their nuanced flavor in the face of spicier foods.
With a beef stew, I tend to move toward drier stouts, such as Irish stouts or American stouts, like Stout #3 by Throwback Brewery in North Hampton, that offer complex layers of flavor but without much sweetness. I’ll save sweeter stouts with notes of chocolate, fruit and coffee, such as the Black Cat Stout by Portsmouth Brewery or Stoneface Brewing Co.’s Porter with Chocolate & Cherries, for pairing with dessert.
Brown ales, like the Paradigm Brown Ale by Kelsen Brewing Co., are another nice choice for pairing with stews and roasted meats.
Thinking about Thanksgiving, you know the fare is going to be rich, sweet and slathered in gravy. With that in mind, I’m looking for something a little lighter, like a Pilsner or a fruity wheat beer, both of which allow you to appreciate the buttery goodness of mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie and mounds of stuffing — and also turkey. Another interesting option for Thanksgiving is to explore the world of sours — the tartness from sours can cut right through rich, fatty foods.
If you really want to get it right, ask the brewer or the beer expert at your local store. They’ll be able to tell you exactly what kinds of foods pair well with their beers.
What’s in My Fridge Relic Twenty-8 Imperial Stout by Bent Water Brewing Co. (Lynn, Mass.) I’ve been loving the stouts by Bent Water over the past few weeks, and the Relic Twenty-8 is another tremendous choice from this brewery. This is a perfect imperial stout that is rich, fruity and complex. A seasonal offering for the holidays, Bent Water makes this with toasted coconut and blackberries and those two flavors balance each other quite well. But I’m also picking up notes of dark chocolate and maybe a little coffee, too. This is decadent and, at nearly 12 percent ABV, a brew best savored during a quiet afternoon or evening by the fire. Cheers!
Featured photo: Kelsen Brewing Company’s Paradigm Brown Ale pairs well with richer foods. Courtesy photo.
Alex Waddell of Hopkinton is the owner and pastry chef of Crémeux French Patisserie (707 Milford Road, Merrimack, cremeuxfrenchpatisserie.com), which opened in Pennichuck Square over the summer. Crémeux’s concept is modeled after that of a Parisian pastry shop, with a menu of macarons, eclairs, croissants, lemon honey tarts and other classic French pastries, in addition to freshly baked artisan breads, gourmet teas and coffee, and Belgian chocolates shipped from overseas. Originally from Florida, Waddell got his start working at The Grazing Room at the Colby Hill Inn in Henniker as a teenager. He went on to attend an intensive professional program in French pastry at Ferrandi, an internationally recognized culinary arts school in Paris, before later returning to New Hampshire to open Crémeux with the help of his family.
What is your must-have kitchen item?
A bowl scraper, because it has so many uses in the kitchen. Honestly, it’s something that I can’t ever see myself not having.
What would you have for your last meal?
It would probably have to be my grandmother’s orange duck. She really influenced me as a kid with her French cooking, and I remember her orange duck was so killer. It was definitely one of my favorite things to eat.
What is your favorite local restaurant?
Mint Bistro in Manchester. I love to go there for the sushi, but they do a lot of other dishes really well. It’s a really good restaurant to go out to on a Saturday night.
What celebrity would you like to see trying something in your shop?
I would say Gordon Ramsay. I’m confident enough that he would like my pastries.
What is your favorite thing on your menu?
We do a version of a croissant that I love that’s called Kouign-amann [pronounced “queen-a-mahn”]. … It’s made with croissant dough that’s caramelized on the outside … and has a gooey, buttery center. It’s a traditional pastry from the Brittany region of France.
What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
Farm-to-table cuisine is big right now. People are trying to go more local with food, and there are definitely a lot more farm-to-table places popping up.
What is your favorite thing to cook or bake at home?
During the Christmas season, there’s one dish that I absolutely love making, called porchetta. It’s basically a big slab of pork belly with a bunch of aromatic herbs put in.
Dark chocolate crémeux Courtesy of Alex Waddell of Crémeux French Patisserie in Merrimack
If using an electronic scale, weigh the chocolate, then chop into small chunks. Add the chocolate to a medium-sized mixing bowl and set aside. Weigh milk and heavy cream together in a small saucepan and set aside. Separate your eggs and add into a medium mixing bowl. Once the yolks have been separated, measure the sugar directly on top of the yolks and whisk quickly until homogenous. Place the milk and cream mixture on a burner set to medium-high heat. Using a rubber spatula, stir occasionally to prevent scorching the milk and cream. Remove from the heat once a very weak simmer has developed. Pour half of the heated milk and cream mixture over the yolk and sugar mixture, being sure to whisk quickly. Once half of the milk and cream mixture has been poured out over the eggs, return all ingredients to the saucepan. Setting the heat to low, use the rubber spatula to stir in a figure eight motion, constantly scraping the bottom of the saucepan. Slowly bring the mixture up to exactly 82 degrees Celsius (or 180 degrees Fahrenheit). Once temperature has been reached, pour the mixture over the chopped chocolate. Let it sit for two minutes before mixing with an emulsion blender until smooth. Place plastic wrap over the top (be sure it’s touching the mixture with zero air pockets) and set overnight in the refrigerator to set.
How local eateries are handling the change in season
Even as the 1750 Taphouse in Bedford broke ground on a new outdoor patio in May, managing partner Charlie Waitt knew there needed to be a solution for the colder months ahead.
“We knew this wasn’t going away anytime soon,” he said. “As we were coming out of summer, we would say the old Game of Thrones phrase ‘Winter is coming.’ We’ve got to do something.”
Waitt had heard of a few New England businesses with heated dome-shaped “igloos” during the winter, including The Envoy Hotel in Boston’s Seaport District, which has them on its rooftop. On Oct. 8, the 1750 Taphouse posted photos on its Facebook page of four heated igloos the restaurant purchased from the Florida-based company Gardenigloo USA, announcing that reservations for each would be available the following day. The post garnered more than 100,000 views overnight. Nearly a month later, Waitt’s staff is still fielding dozens of calls per week from customers wanting to make reservations inside the igloos. Others are contacting him from as far away as New York and Ohio — restaurateurs with questions of their own about how the igloos work and where they can get them for their establishments.
“I didn’t expect it to take off like it did,” Waitt said. “Weekends are jam packed, and we’re seeing weekdays being booked up too. That’s business we never would have had.”
Outdoor dining has been a saving grace for thousands of restaurants in New Hampshire during the pandemic in what has already been a tough year for the industry. Add the elements of a New England winter and many restaurateurs are now having to pivot operations even more.
“I think everyone is trying to extend dining outdoors as long as they possibly can, but once snow starts to fly and we start to get into those bitterly cold winds in December and January, I’m just not sure how much that’s going to buy you, frankly,” said Mike Somers, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association.
On Sept. 24, Gov. Chris Sununu announced the release of updated guidance for the state’s restaurant industry, which included easing the six-foot rule between tables as long as dividing barriers are in place, effective Oct. 1. Solo performing artists are also allowed back inside restaurants and function centers as long as they maintain an eight-foot distance from any table.
“The approved barriers are going to be a huge game-changer for a lot of businesses and, I think, will allow for greater occupancy for some,” Somers said.
On Oct. 29, Sununu announced that, starting Oct. 31, restaurants would be required to keep a temporary database of their customers to assist the state’s contact tracing team. Basic information from dine-in patrons such as their name, phone number and day and time of arrival are to be collected from one person per party and kept for a period of 21 days. The announcement comes less than a week after potential community exposure notices issued by the state Department of Health & Human Services at restaurants in several cities and towns, including Concord, Portsmouth, Atkinson, Lincoln and Peterborough.
As the winter season approaches, local restaurateurs discuss the steps they’re taking to prepare for it, and what more they say needs to be done to help keep their businesses afloat.
Constantly adapting
Each of the 1750 Taphouse’s four igloos is set up on the patio. To keep track of the high volume of reservation requests, Waitt said, three designated times per igloo are available each evening — 4:30, 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. — for maximum parties of six. Since the eatery is open for lunch on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, there are additional reservation opportunities at 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. Parties are given approximately one hour and 45 minutes, while the remaining 15 minutes between reservations is spent thoroughly sanitizing and disinfecting the inside of the igloo. Zippered flaps are open on both sides of the igloo for cross-ventilation.
“We’re taking reservations six weeks in advance right now,” Waitt said. “We take a $50 deposit over the phone that goes on a gift card. We hold that gift card until the night of your reservation, give it to you as you walk in, and then you use that gift card toward your bill that night.”
The igloos are close to seven feet tall and about 11 feet in diameter and are made of a vinyl plastic material that feels like a thick shower curtain. Four hundred pounds of sandbags are around the outside of each dome to keep it in place.
Inside, the igloos have a remote control with adjustable LED lights in a variety of colors and patterns, as well as a space heater for you to adjust the warmth to your liking. Two of the igloos also have low-top tables and cushioned patio furniture.
“People are having a lot of fun in them,” Waitt said. “It’s a more intimate setting. … They feel like they’re hanging out in their own living room, eating dinner and just relaxing.”
A few weeks after the igloos went up, the 1750 Taphouse also added vinyl plastic dividers between several of the tables inside, and clear dividers between every few seats at the bar.
In Londonderry, 603 Brewery is also expected to have heated igloos on its patio from the same Florida company, likely starting on Nov. 13, according to marketing and events manager Morgan Kyle. Four of them were introduced last winter, just before the start of the pandemic. This year, there will be eight that will all operate on a reservation system, for maximum parties of six. Professional cleaning crews have been hired to sanitize them after every reservation.
“They’re all going to be spaced out. There will be four closer to the building, and then four more that are a little farther away in a zig-zag pattern,” Kyle said. “We’re going to have people reserve them online through the website on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.”
Other local eateries have taken unique steps to prepare for the colder weather from inside. Grill 603 in Milford, in addition to putting up plexiglass dividers between each of its booths, has installed UVC light sterilization filters into its HVAC system, designed to kill and genetically alter bacteria and viruses. Air purifiers have also been installed with UVC lights in them.
Surfaces are regularly treated with a quaternary ammonium sanitizer, which owner Eric Griffin said is a more effective and less toxic alternative to bleach.
“It was something that I had known about from a previous career,” Griffin said of the UVC filter installations. “When I used to run big yachts in Washington, D.C., where we had a touring party company, and we had put UVC light filters on our water system there.”
Although most of his patrons were understanding of the new contact tracing measures by the state, Griffin said Grill 603 experienced about a 40 percent drop in sales over the weekend following the announcement.
Tom Boucher, CEO of the Bedford-based Great New Hampshire Restaurants, which includes each T-Bones, Cactus Jack’s and Copper Door location in the Granite State, said air purifying systems to eliminate nearly 100 percent of all viruses on surfaces have been purchased. Between two and three have been installed at each restaurant, depending on its size, with one purifier covering approximately 2,000 square feet in the restaurant’s bar or dining area.
Each location is also currently in the process of building a “Santa’s Workshop” shed that will be placed outside near the entrances. Those are expected to be ready in the coming weeks.
“They’ll be heated, they’ll be lit, and we’ll have an employee in there selling gift cards during the holiday season,” Boucher said. “This way, if customers that perhaps aren’t comfortable inside to purchase a gift card, they can do it outside, and we’ll have dedicated parking spaces real close. … We just thought that it would be a nice, fun thing for people to help keep them in the spirit.”
Even before Sununu’s Oct. 29 announcement on gathering information from restaurant patrons to assist in contact tracing, Boucher said tablets have been purchased for each T-Bones, Cactus Jack’s and Copper Door location. They’re being used to record the first name, last initial and phone number of one person per party and each bar customer. The following Monday after the announcement, Boucher reported that virtually every guest over the weekend was understanding of the new measure — many had seen it on the news and were not too surprised, he said, although a few across the board were bothered by it.
“If [the Department of Health & Human Services] has a situation in some of these restaurants, they don’t have to necessarily do a broadcast release, because they’ve got the names and numbers of people that visited on whatever days they might be concerned about,” Boucher said.
Booth dividers at The Post Downtown. Courtesy photo.
Vikki Johnson, who owns The Post Downtown on Main Street in Concord and The Newell Post Restaurant on Fisherville Road, said booth dividers have been installed at both locations with the help of a carpenter. Each one is made with a wood frame that was stained to match or complement those of the existing booths, with plexiglass inserts.
Dividers have been implemented at all four Red Arrow Diner locations, according to chief operating officer Amanda Wihby, including three in Manchester, 11 in Concord, eight in Londonderry and 14 at its largest restaurant in Nashua. The outdoor tables have been removed at all of the locations except in Manchester — those have been kept for people utilizing takeout.
“The Manchester location usually seats 36 people,” Wihby said in an email. “Without the dividers, we were at 11 seats, [but] with the dividers, it added an additional eight seats.”
Some restaurants are putting the focus back on takeout rather than full indoor dining, once it becomes too cold to eat outside. During the early months of the pandemic, Revival Kitchen & Bar in Concord became a popular spot for its takeout specials, like burger and beer combos, cocktail mixes and hand-cut steak and wine pairings. Owner and chef Corey Fletcher said he plans to start increasing the social media interaction for those types of specials once again, while keeping the indoor dining capacity at around 60 to 75 percent and encouraging reservations.
Stalk, a farm-to-table bistro in Dover, recently announced it would cease all dine-in operations starting Nov. 14, and will tentatively switch to takeout only around Dec. 3. A section of the eatery’s website will also be available for people to find food-related gifts for the holidays, from marinades and spice blends to barbecue sauces, vinaigrettes, jams and more.
A “better than expected” summer
Thanks in part to a mainly dry summer and additional outdoor seating, some New Hampshire restaurants were able to rebound in sales, especially those with large patios or parking lots.
“It’s no doubt still been a challenging year all around, but I think for some folks that had limited to significant outdoor dining, the summer was much better than expected,” Somers said.
At its peak, Grill 603 had about 70 outdoor patio seats, according to Griffin, including two tables that were added this season.
“We were right about where we were last summer,” he said. “I never would have guessed that, if you had told me in May that we were going to pull out of it and have a pretty solid summer like that. It was pretty surprising.”
He said he plans to keep the patio seats open as long as he possibly can until enough significant snowfall forces its shutdown, but he’s also not ruling out reopening them if it warms back up.
“We had a run of 70-degree days in February one year, and I put patio furniture out and people were flocking to it,” he said. “So it just depends on what Mother Nature throws at us.”
Boucher said Great New Hampshire Restaurants, collectively as a company, also experienced a much better summer season from the sales of each restaurant than he was expecting. The newest T-Bones restaurant in Concord, the company’s sixth overall, opened the week after Labor Day and is now generating the greatest revenue.
“We ended our third quarter, at the end of September, down only about 10 percent year-over-year, which I was very, very pleased with,” Boucher said. “That being said, about 20 percent of our revenue is takeout … and then roughly another 20 to 30 percent, depending on the location, was outdoor dining.”
In May, each T-Bones, Cactus Jack’s and Copper Door restaurant set up rented tents in the parking lot, which added dozens more seats in addition to the existing patios. The tents came down last weekend, following a recent drop in turnout due to cold nights, but Boucher said traditional outdoor dining on patios and terraces will continue for as long as possible.
Waitt said the 1750 Taphouse has broken its own sales records multiple times in the last several weeks, and that’s not just due to all the attention it has received from the igloos.
“For us, if there’s been any silver lining from this, it was that it accelerated a lot of the plans we had and put them in motion a lot faster,” Waitt said. “We built the patio, we revamped our menu and our service model, and we brought in a lot of great new people who are just as passionate about making the restaurant successful as we are.”
At Georgia’s Northside in Concord, a takeout-only Southern kitchen and craft beer market, owner and chef Alan Natkiel has enjoyed a massive increase in food sales compared to last year.
He initially closed for nearly three weeks before reopening in April with a retooled business model, implementing an online-only ordering system through the restaurant’s website and installing a pickup counter out in front of the door.
For Natkiel, being transparent with his customers is absolutely essential in the throes of a pandemic — that’s why every several weeks he’ll put out a post on Facebook updating them with his service protocols. He and each one of his four other staff members also take turns getting coronavirus tests every two to three weeks on a rotating basis.
Downtown dining
Expanded outdoor dining on public sidewalks and parking spaces downtown became a major lifeline this summer for many city restaurants in New Hampshire. Most of these regulations are set to end this month, but despite the onset of the winter season, a few municipalities have voted on or are considering extending it even further for interested businesses.
In downtown Manchester, the jersey barriers that accommodated outdoor seating space for restaurants and other businesses along Elm Street were scheduled to be picked up this week.
But according to Lauren Smith, chief of staff for Mayor Joyce Craig, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted late last week in favor of extending them for those that want them. Most have elected to keep the barriers, she said, with the exception of Boards & Brews and The Shaskeen Irish Pub & Restaurant. Each business that is keeping the barriers will be responsible for removing snow from inside the enclosed space from the street, but the city’s Highway Department will still plow snow from the sidewalks.
Nashua’s parking restrictions to accommodate outdoor dining on Main Street are currently set to expire on Nov. 15, but according to city economic development director Tim Cummings, there have been talks to possibly get them extended.
Concord’s outdoor dining permits are also valid through Nov. 15. While city health and licensing officer Gwen Williams said no extensions have been discussed, the city council has been working with the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce to award grants of up to $1,500 to restaurants to help offset any expenses related to increasing capacity indoors, such as dividers.
Chamber president Tim Sink said the grants come from money that was going to be used for the city’s Fourth of July fireworks display, which was canceled.
“The council recognized that the end of outdoor dining in Concord put restaurants in a tough position,” Sink said. “[The fireworks cancellation] created a small pot of money for something like this, and so they contacted the Chamber to see if if they’d like us to manage the grants.”
Within the first couple of days, Sink said he already received multiple inquiries from Concord restaurants. Grant applications through the Chamber’s website are available through Nov. 20.
More aid needed
Although Boucher did acquire Paycheck Protection Program [PPP] funds back in April, Great New Hampshire Restaurants did not qualify for either of the state’s Main Street Relief Funds, even as it approaches half a million dollars in extra expenses since the start of the pandemic.
“It’s not just masks and sanitizer,” he said. “It’s the tents that we’ve rented, the tables and chairs, the propane heaters, the dividers, the amount of signage we’ve had to print, the amount of times we’ve had to change our menu and our website, and the labor that’s gone into all of that. … These are all expenses that never existed before.”
Boucher said he and members of two other local restaurant groups — The Common Man and the 110 Grill — are working with state officials to propose a new fund, which would target businesses that did not get any relief from the first two rounds, and that have accrued Covid-19-related expenses in excess of $100,000.
“This winter, I’ll be grateful if we’re down 20 to 25 percent, but we won’t make money doing that,” he said. “We’ll probably barely break even, and some stores will lose money.”
According to a nationwide survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association in September, 40 percent of restaurant operators think it is unlikely their establishment will still be in business in six months if there are no additional relief packages from the federal government.
“I think New Hampshire has fared a little better than some other states that are still under lockdown,” Somers said, “but without that federal assistance, whether it’s another round of PPP or another program, some of these businesses are not going to make it to the spring.”
On Oct. 1, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the $2.2 trillion Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act 2.0, which includes a $120 billion grant program to support restaurants with fewer than 20 locations by helping to cover cost of rent, utilities and employee salaries. According to Jenni Muns, a spokeswoman for Rep. Annie Kuster, who is one of more than 200 co-sponsors of the bill, the grants would total the difference between a restaurant group’s 2019 revenues and expected 2020 revenues. The bill remains part of ongoing negotiations with the Senate.
Featured photo: The 1750 Taphouse in Bedford recently installed four heated dome-like “igloos” on its patio for you to enjoy its food outside all winter, like the tater kegs with house beer cheese, crispy bacon, Parmesan and scallions. Photo by Matt Ingersoll.
• Wine & chocolate: Join Appolo Vineyards (49 Lawrence Road, Derry) for its next chocolate and wine weekend, featuring Kevin Miller of KRM Chocolates in Salem. From Friday, Nov. 6, through Sunday, Nov. 8, reservations are available to taste up to five Appolo wines along with a box of KRM Chocolates. The socially distanced tastings will be held outdoors. Pairings are $15 per person and advance registration is required — visit appolovineyards.com/book-online to book your designated time.
• Turkey talk: The Hollis Social Library will present a virtual demonstration on Zoom on Monday, Nov. 9, at 6 p.m. featuring Chef Liz Barbour of The Creative Feast. Barbour will lead a discussion about the many types of turkeys available and the ways to prepare them for a Thanksgiving dinner, and then demonstrate two of her favorite side dishes. Visit hollislibrary.libcal.com to pre-register the event for free. Virtual attendees will receive a confirmation email with a link to the live webinar. Zoom accounts are not required to access the event.
• Meet The Kitchen Witch: Sweet Hill Farm (82 Newton Road, Plaistow) will host a socially distanced book signing on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., featuring Dawn Hunt, a.k.a. “The Kitchen Witch,” of Cucina Aurora in Salem. Hunt will be presenting her new cookbook, A Kitchen Witch’s Guide to Recipes for Love & Romance, which explores food’s roles in self-love and interpersonal relationships with personal anecdotes, spiritual techniques and more than 50 original recipes and illustrations. Featured foods include cinnamon crumb pound cake, avocado chocolate mousse, pomegranate mimosas with muddled raspberries, stuffed zucchini pinwheels, pork loin roast with cherries and red wine and much more. Admission to the signing is free, but masks are required for attendees. Visit cucinaaurora.com.
• NHLC recognized: The New Hampshire Liquor Commission was recently named one of the top 10 retailers in the country by Beverage Dynamics magazine, according to a press release. The magazine recognizes off-premise retailers, such as liquor stores or supermarket chains, that demonstrate innovation and superior beverage alcohol industry knowledge. The state Liquor Commission was featured alongside the other top winners in the July/August issue of the magazine. The Top 100 Retailer Awards were also presented to winners at the fourth annual Beverage Alcohol Retailers Conference, which was held virtually this year, on Sept. 15.
• Playa Bowls comes to Manchester: Playa Bowls, a New Jersey-based chain offering açaí bowls, poke bowls, smoothies and juices, opened its first location in New Hampshire on Oct. 31 at the North End Shops at Livingston Park (555 Hooksett Road, Manchester), according to a press release. Its 99th store location overall, Playa Bowls is open for indoor dining and takeout, as well as curbside pickup through DoorDash, Postmates and Grubhub. Visit playabowls.com.
