2021 – Page 116

Ribs!

Local experts discuss the delicious variations of this BBQ favorite

Nothing says summer barbecue quite like a plate of melt-in-your-mouth pork ribs, and while it may take another year before the return of Merrimack’s Great American Ribfest, there are still restaurants, food trucks and trailers all across the state serving up ribs in a variety of styles. The options become even more customizable if you’re grilling or smoking ribs at home.

“Ribs are what I think of when I think of barbecue. They’re one of the most well-liked foods and tend to be what’s going to lure people into the hobby,” said Jayna Todisco Coulon, a member of the Northeast Barbecue Society and founder of A Mazie Q, a New Hampshire-based barbecue competition team. “A rack of ribs has all the things you want. It’s a finger food that’s not going to give you any issues with dryness or anything if you cook it correctly.”

From the types of cuts available to the regional styles and cooking methods associated with ribs, local barbecue experts and butchers discuss this staple’s many variations and provide their own tips and tricks for how to cook them yourself.

Pork barbecue ribs from Georgia’s Northside in Concord. Photo by Matt Ingersoll.

Cuts and styles

When it comes to pork ribs, depending on where you go, you’ll encounter either baby backs or spare ribs — the difference between the two is where they are on the animal’s body, said Dan DeCourcey, an award-winning competitive barbecuer and the owner and pitmaster of Up In Your Grill, a food trailer and mobile caterer based in Merrimack.

“Spare ribs are going to be on the front, on the belly. They are going to be flatter and meatier, and they also tend to be fatter,” DeCourcey said. “The baby backs are near the loin area. They are smaller and more curved, and they tend to be leaner because they are not on the belly side. … The baby back ribs basically connect to the spine, and the spare ribs connect to the breast bone.”

You might come across the term “St. Louis-cut ribs” on restaurant menus too — DeCourcey said this refers to spare ribs that have the cartilage tissue connecting to the breast bone removed, resulting in a more uniform rectangle-shaped cut that can be easier to grill or smoke.

One rack of ribs will generally have around 12 individual bones, and some restaurants will give you the option to order them by the full rack or half rack, as well as third or quarter racks.

How the ribs are sauced and rubbed is going to vary depending on that regional style of barbecue. Kansas City style, for instance, is characterized by a much thicker and sweeter sauce, usually containing ingredients like molasses, brown sugar or honey, as well as sugar in its rubs. Memphis and Texas styles are more known for their dry rubs — the difference there being that Texas is much more narrow with their ingredients, while rubs in Memphis will be more complex.

“Down in Texas, they love salt and pepper and just keeping it really simple, whereas Memphis might have more paprika and cumin and all sorts of other stuff going on,” DeCourcey said.

Over at KC’s Rib Shack in Manchester, owner and co-founder Kevin Cornish said he considers his pork spare ribs to be more of a Memphis-style.

“There are certainly some places in Memphis that will sell their ribs sauced, but Memphis style is definitely known for a dry-rubbed, seasoned rib,” Cornish said. “We cook what we call untrimmed spare ribs, so we serve the whole rib together rather than a St. Louis cut.”

Smokeshow Barbeque in Concord, which is all about Texas style, according to owner Matt Gfroerer, offers smoked ribs cooked low and slow with sauces on the side.

“A lot of places will do a rib plate, but what we do is we weigh everything out as close as we can and you pay [for] exactly what you get,” Gfroerer said. “You’ll find that more in Texas as well.”

Georgia’s Northside, also in Concord, nearly always has pork ribs that can be ordered from of its “Meat & Three” menu, according to chef and owner Alan Natkiel. In Londonderry, Greg LaFontaine of the Smoke Shack Cafe said his pork ribs are seasoned St. Louis cuts that can be ordered as a half rack or full rack.

Simple spare ribs recipe
Courtesy of Kevin Cornish of KC’s Rib Shack in Manchester

1 full rack of untrimmed spare ribs

For the dry rub:
3 Tablespoons brown or white sugar (or 1½ Tablespoons of each)

1½ Tablespoons kosher salt
1½ Tablespoons paprika
1½ Tablespoons coarse grind black pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon onion powder

For the barbecue basting spritz:
3 cups apple juice
1 cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup barbecue sauce
Season your ribs generously on both sides with rub, shaking off the excess. Cook in a preheated 250-degree smoker, or in the oven on a wire rack over a sheet pan. Cook for about two and a half hours. At two and a half hours, spritz the top, then spritz every half hour until ribs are done (about three and a half to four hours). Ribs are done by testing the tenderness of the meat — you can do this by twisting between the third and fourth largest bones. The meat should begin to release easily from the bones. Finish off on the grill for a few minutes, adding sauce if desired, or cut up and serve as they are with sauce on the side.

Picking your meat

If you want to cook your own ribs, local butcher shops and some livestock farms will sell them by the rack or the pound — and there are indicators you can look for before you buy.

“Like any meat, you want to try to find the right marbling. Big giant monster chunks of fat are going to be too much,” DeCourcey said. “It’s also nice if the bones of St. Louis ribs are straighter … because it makes it easier to cut.”

Todisco Coulon said one of the biggest things she looks out for in ribs are called shiners, or exposed bones as a result of the meat being trimmed down too much.

“You want a meatier rib,” she said, “because a bone sticking out is going to disintegrate when it cooks, and so you’re not going to get as much meat.”

All racks of ribs will start out with a thin membrane on their underside, and there are different schools of thought for either removing it or leaving it on before you cook the meat.

“I generally find that they have a better bite if you pull the membrane off,” DeCourcey said. “The easiest way to do it is you use a butter knife, get a little bit under a corner and then use a paper towel and peel it back. You get better at it over time. Sometimes they are difficult and other times they’ll just come right off at once and you feel like a pro.”

Cornish, on the other hand, said he now likes to leave the membrane on the rib.

“I totally am a firm believer that it helps the rib retain moisture. I think we were peeling it off and it was just another place for moisture within the meat to escape,” he said. “I find that, after it’s cooked for three and a half hours in the smoker, you really don’t notice it’s there.”

Some brands of Cryovaced ribs, like Chairman’s Reserve, are sold with the membrane already pulled off. The Prime Butcher, with separately owned locations in Windham and Hampstead, sells both baby back ribs and St. Louis-style ribs produced by this brand.

Butchers will also sometimes sell pre-marinated or pre-rubbed racks of ribs, or you can get your own customizable rub or marinade to save on prep time.

“If you can imagine it, we can do it,” said Billy Steeves, store manager of The Prime Butcher’s Hampstead location. “We also run a smoker here three days a week, usually on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so we’ll sell ready-to-eat smoked half racks and full racks.”

If you regularly buy pork, beef or chicken, you may have noticed a sharp price increase lately.

A wide-scale labor shortage in the meatpacking industry caused by the pandemic, along with high feed costs, are among the factors to blame, Steeves said.

“Ribs have really been climbing in the last six weeks to two months now,” he said. “We’re up probably 60 to 70 percent. It’s a big number, but ribs are still one of the cheaper things you can buy. … St. Louis [ribs] are usually pretty significantly cheaper than baby backs.”

Fire it up

Ribs from the Smoke Shack Cafe in Londonderry. Courtesy photo.

A good basic rub to use if you’re starting out with ribs, according to Cornish, is equal parts salt, pepper, paprika and either white or brown sugar, and about half the amount of garlic powder and onion powder.

“A lot of times I’ll tell people to take this wherever they want to go with it,” he said.

But you don’t need too many diverse ingredients for the rub to do its job — Todisco Coulon said it’s a good idea to taste-test it for sweetness. If it’s too sweet, it can burn too quickly and leave the ribs with a bitter taste, in which case you’d want to cook at a bit lower level heat.

“I would rub it down 20 minutes to an hour in advance,” she said. “It will look like the rib will have absorbed the rub. It will almost look wet to you, and that’s when you know you’re ready.”

You don’t need a smoker to produce great flavor and texture in your ribs, either.

“If you know your way around a gas grill, you can actually pull off some pretty darn good ribs, especially if you start to incorporate things like smoke tubes or smoke boxes,” DeCourcey said. “You can buy wood pellets, throw them in the smoke tube and then chuck them on the edge of the flame, and they’ll smoke. … Or you can even take tinfoil, throw some wood chips in there, wrap them up and poke holes in it.”

DeCourcey said an approach to ribs that’s geared toward beginners is known as the “3-2-1 method,” or cooking low and slow at around 220 to 225 degrees for a total of six hours.

“It’s three hours in the smoke chamber, then you wrap the ribs in foil and put them back in for two more hours,” he said. “Some people like to add some pats of butter, maybe a little honey or a few tablespoons of apple juice, and basically that creates a braising liquid inside the wrap.”

After the two hours wrapped in foil, the meat should start to pull back from the bone and be very tender. The final step of the 3-2-1 method involves applying a slather of barbecue sauce and cooking unwrapped again, this time for one final additional hour.

Other optional techniques you can apply to your ribs include what’s called a binding agent, or an ingredient like mustard that you can add to help your rub stick on to the meat. Adding a spritz of something like water, apple juice or apple cider vinegar periodically as the ribs are cooking can also help them to further retain more moisture, Gfroerer said.

“You can follow the 3-2-1, but then there’s a million variations thereof,” DeCourcey said. “It’s such a rough guide … and after a while you start to learn what to look out for.”

Are they done yet?

You can generally tell when ribs are ready when they gently pull away from the bone. If you use a thermometer, the internal temperature should be around 200 to 205 degrees.

“What I’m looking for is how they feel when I pick them up and how much the meat recedes from the bottom bone,” Todisco Coulon said. “Ribs that fall off the bone are overdone.”

Cornish said he’ll often twist between two of the larger bones on the rack as a test.

“If I feel that the meat is starting to kind of separate and pull apart, then I know it’s pretty close to done,” he said. “You want it to basically come clean off the bone when you take a bite.”

Then there’s the “bend test,” which involves either picking your rack of ribs up either on the end or in the middle, or taking a pair of tongs and lifting it from one side of the rack.

“You want it to bend nicely. If it doesn’t bend enough, it’s underdone,” DeCourcey said. “If the meat starts to crack a little bit, it’s probably just about right.”

But as DeCourcey has discovered, some of his customers prefer fall-off-the-bone ribs.

“Even with some of my regulars, I’ve learned that they like fall-off-the-bone, and if I know they’re coming, I’ll leave some on for them for a little longer,” he said.

Where to get pork ribs

This list includes local restaurants where you get a ready-to-eat plate of pork spare ribs or baby back ribs, as well as catering companies available for hire that offer ribs on their menu. For the at-home barbecuer, local butcher shops, farms and corner markets selling ribs by the rack or by the pound are included here as well. Do you know of another local business not on this list? Let us know at food@hippopress.com.

• 603 Smoke’n Que (603bbq.com) is a Merrimack-based barbecue catering company offering a variety of smoked meats, including St. Louis-cut ribs.

• The Alamo Texas Barbecue & Tequila Bar (99 Route 13, Brookline, 721-5500, alamobarbecue.com) offers half racks of baby back ribs that come with two sides and either traditional or candied jalapeno cornbread.

• Arnie’s Place (164 Loudon Road, Concord, 228-3225, arniesplace.com) offers dry-rubbed, slow-cooked St. Louis-cut spare ribs, available in quarter-rack, half-rack or full-rack sizes and served with cornbread and your choice of two additional sides.

• Backyard Brewery & Kitchen (1211 S. Mammoth Road, Manchester, 623-3545, backyardbrewerynh.com) offers baby back ribs in its house “bar-b-brew” sauce, served with fries and a pickle slaw.

• Big Kahunas Smokehouse (1158 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 935-7400, nhkahuna.com) offers smoked pork ribs, available in half-rack or full-rack sizes, with your choice of two sides and a signature sauce like spicy Caribbean barbecue, pineapple habanero or Bali sweet soy sauce.

• Boogalow’s Island BBQ (boogalowsbbq.com) is a Danville-based food truck and mobile catering service offering a variety of authentic Jamaican and backyard barbecue options, including dry-rubbed and slow-smoked pork ribs.

• Border Brewery & Barbecue (224 N. Broadway, Salem, 216-9134, borderbrewsupply.com) offers St. Louis-cut ribs over smoked bacon macaroni and cheese on its barbecue menu.

• Brookford Farm (250 West Road, Canterbury, 742-4084, brookfordfarm.com) offers pasture-raised pork spare ribs that can be purchased at the farm store or online.

• Brothers Butcher (8 Spit Brook Road, Nashua, 809-4180; 142 Lowell Road, Hudson, 577-1130; brothers-butcher.com) offers plain or chipotle barbecue baby back ribs that are priced by the pound.

• CJ’s Great West Grill (782 S. Willow St., Manchester, 627-8600, cjsgreatwestgrill.com) offers a one-pound rack of smoked barbecue ribs that’s served with fries, coleslaw and baked beans. The ribs can also be ordered as part of a barbecue combo sampler plate, along with your choice of smoked brisket, pulled pork, barbecue chicken or beef tips.

• Concord Beef & Seafood (75 S. Main St., Concord, 226-3474, find them on Facebook @concordbeefandseafood) offers marinated and unmarinated baby back ribs, sold by the rack.

• Derry Restaurant & Pizza (111 W. Broadway, Derry, 432-2107, derryrestaurantandpizza.com) offers half racks or full racks of barbecue baby back ribs. They can also be ordered as part of a combo plate with barbecue chicken breast.

• The Flying Butcher (124 Route 101A, Amherst, 598-6328, theflyingbutcher.com) has a wide selection of pork options available for purchase, including baby back ribs.

• Gauchos Churrascaria Brazilian Steakhouse & Butchery (62 Lowell St., Manchester, 669-9460, gauchosbraziliansteakhouse.com) offers a variety of meats, including full racks of baby back ribs, that can be ordered online. Orders placed before noon will be ready for pickup or local delivery that day beginning at 4 p.m.

• Georgia’s Northside (394 N. State St., Concord, 715-9189, georgiasnorthside.com) offers barbecue pork ribs served with three fresh market sides that change daily, as well as add-on sauce options like barbecue, smoked jalapeno mustard and Parmesan peppercorn ranch.

• Grill 603 (168 Elm St., Milford, 213-6764, grill603.com) offers St. Louis-cut ribs on its dinner menu, dry-rubbed with its signature spice blend, slow-smoked and served with house macaroni and cheese and fresh coleslaw.

• Heritage Corner Market (1380 1st New Hampshire Turnpike, Northwood, 942-9963, heritagecornermarket.com) has various cuts of pork available for sale, including marinated ribs.

• Hickory Stix BBQ (hickorystixbbq.rocks) is a Londonderry-based food trailer and mobile catering service offering multiple barbecue options, including half-rack or full-rack-sized St. Louis-cut ribs.

• J&B Butcher (259 E. Main St., E. Hampstead, 382-0999, jandbbutcher.com) offers several cuts of pork, including racks of baby back ribs that are sold by the pound.

• KC’s Rib Shack (837 Second St., Manchester, 627-7427, ribshack.net) offers third-rack or half-rack-sized pork spare ribs, available with cornbread and two additional sides of your choice. The ribs can also be ordered as part of a combo plate with pulled pork, barbecue sausage chunks, Texas beef brisket or bone-in chicken breast, as well as in bulk, by the half rack, third rack or full rack.

• Lemay & Sons (116 Daniel Plummer Road, Goffstown, 622-0022, lemayandsonsbeef-bbq.com) offers a variety of fresh meats, including ribs, out of its specialty store, The Steak Out.

• McKinnon’s Market & Super Butcher Shop (236 N. Broadway, Salem, 894-6328, mckinnonsmarkets.com) offers a wide selection of meats for sale, including baby back ribs.

• Messy Mike’s Barbecue & Catering Co. (messymikesbbq.com) is a Derry-based mobile food trailer and catering service offering multiple slow-cooked barbecue options, including St. Louis-cut ribs available in half-rack or full-rack sizes. Find them most Thursdays through Sundays, from 11 a.m. until they are sold out, in the parking lot of Rockingham Acres Greenhouse (161 Rockingham Road, Derry).

• Mike’s Meat Shoppe (1009 Upper City Road, Pittsfield, 435-0002, find them on Facebook) offers several cuts of meat available on any given day, including full racks of spare ribs and baby back ribs.

• Mr. Steer Meats (27 Buttrick Road, Londonderry, 434-1444, mrsteermeats.com) offers a variety of specialty meats for sale, including house marinated and baby back ribs

• Paradise Farm (468 Center Road, Lyndeborough, 345-0860, paradisefarmnh.com) offers a variety of pasture-raised pork products, including spare ribs. Find them at the Milford Farmers Market every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 300 Elm St.

• Parker’s Maple Barn (1349 Brookline Road, Mason, 878-2308, parkersmaplebarn.com) offers a half rack of maple baby back ribs that’s served with two eggs, home fries and toast.

• Porkside Farm (10 French Pond Road, Henniker, 748-3767, porksideathenniker@gmail.com) offers a variety of its own pork products, including spare ribs. Find them at the Concord Farmers Market every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to noon near the Statehouse on Capitol Street. Phone or email orders are also accepted.

• The Prime Butcher (201 Route 111, Hampstead, 329-7355; 58 Range Road, Windham, 893-2750; primebutcher.com) offers multiple cuts of pork, including both baby back and St. Louis-cut spare ribs, sold by the pound either marinated or unmarinated.

• R & J Texas-Style BBQ on Wheels (183 Elm St., Milford, 518-0186, rjtexasbbqonwheels.com) offers a variety of barbecue options, including racks of ribs with your choice of sides.

• Ranger’s BBQ (rangers-bbq.com) is a Nashua-based food trailer and mobile catering service offering a variety of slow-cooked barbecue options, including dry-rubbed ribs that come in quarter-rack, half-rack or full-rack sizes, served with your choice of a side and homemade sauce. When they’re not catering for a private event, Ranger’s BBQ can be found on Daniel Webster Highway in Nashua, near the Tyngsboro, Mass., state line, on weekends.

• Smoke N’ Butts BBQ (smokenbuttsbbq.com) is a mobile food trailer and catering service specializing in smoked meats, including dry-rubbed pork spare ribs, available in quarter-rack, half-rack or full-rack sizes. Find them on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, outside of The Farmer’s Wife (20 Main St., Candia).

• Smokehaus Barbecue (278 Route 101, Amherst, 249-5734, smokehausbbq.com) offers half- or full-sized slabs of baby back ribs, that come with bread and your choice of two sizes, like collard greens, hush puppies, french fries and macaroni and cheese.

• Smoke Shack Cafe (226 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 404-2178, smokeshackcafe.com) offers St. Louis-cut pork ribs that are available in half-rack or full-rack sizes, each of which comes with your choice of two sides. The ribs can also be ordered as part of a combo plate with another meat, like brisket, pulled pork, pulled chicken or Italian sausage.

• Smoke Shack Southern Barbecue & Ice Cream (146 King St., Boscawen, 796-2046, ss-bbq.com) offers quarter-rack, half-rack or full-rack-sized baby back rib plates that are served with cornbread and one or two additional sides. The Smoke Shack also operates concessions at New England Dragway (280 Exeter Road, Epping) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway (1122 Route 106 N, Loudon).

• Smokeshow Barbeque (89 Fort Eddy Road, Concord, 227-6399, smokeshowbbq.com) offers slow-smoked pork ribs, with three different sauces available on the side and additional sides available a la carte.

• Tim’s Drunken Sauces and Rubs (timsdrunkensauces@gmail.com, find them on Facebook) is a mobile food trailer offering a variety of barbecue options, including ribs. Find them at 244 Elm St. in Milford most Tuesdays through Sundays, as well as at a few local breweries.

• Up In Your Grill (upinyourgrill.com) is a Merrimack-based food trailer and mobile catering service specializing in a variety of meats, including slow-smoked Kansas City-style baby back ribs. When he’s not catering or prepping for a private event, Up In Your Grill owner and pitmaster Dan DeCourcey posts on social media where he’ll be vending roadside. Dates vary — follow him on Facebook @upinyourgrill for updates.

• Wicked Good Butchah (209 Route 101, Bedford, 488-5638, wickedgoodbutchahnh.com) offers a variety of specialty cuts of meat, including baby back ribs.

• The Wine’ing Butcher (16 Sheep Davis Road, Pembroke, 856-8855; 28 Weirs Road, Gilford, 293-4670; 81 Route 25, Meredith; wineingbutcher.com) offers a variety of specialty cuts of meat, including tender baby back ribs.

Featured photo: Ribs from the Up In Your Grill food trailer, based in Merrimack. Photo courtesy of Dan DeCourcey.

NH Gives (and gives)

On June 8 and June 9, the New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits hosted its annual NH Gives online fundraiser. According to its website, the event generated more than $3.8 million for the benefit of 584 nonprofits throughout New Hampshire. This amount represented a record amount raised for the event, and it included a $300,000 match by the New Hampshire Charitable Fund and an additional $700,000 in individual matches. As always, I am humbled by the generosity of our Granite Staters and inspired by the collaboration that made this event such a success.

I was proud to represent Fellowship Housing Opportunities on WMUR promoting NH Gives and grateful for the coverage of the important services that this nonprofit provides, safe and affordable housing for people living with long-term mental illness. According to the New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits, we are one of 6,547 charitable organizations providing services for New Hampshire. In a state that staunchly supports limited government and no state taxes, these nonprofits have an important role to play. They are frequently filling in the gaps where the state government lacks funding to provide services. Their services range from health and human services to the arts and theater and everything in between.

Most nonprofits in New Hampshire operate as small businesses with limited annual operating budgets. However, rather than deliver a profit, the goal of a nonprofit is to deliver on its mission. Many rely solely on grants, donations and fundraising to exist. New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits indicates that 15 percent of New Hampshire’s workforce is employed by a nonprofit. That means that with our state’s low unemployment rate, our nonprofits are also struggling for employees right now. It’s difficult for them to compete at the same wage level as the for-profit sector. Nonprofits rely on their mission to attract people. Volunteers also fill a vital role in the nonprofit sector, in day-to-day operations as well as at the board level.

Perhaps you will consider spending your time with one of the many nonprofits carrying out its mission throughout the Granite State? Whether you choose to volunteer for specific events, on a regular basis, or as a board member, or make a monetary donation, your contributions are important to their success. When New Hampshire nonprofits win, important work happens in our state.

The Music Roundup 21/06/17

Local music news & events

• Throwback time: A tribute band before they were cool, The Youngsters formed back in 1980, bonding over a shared love for the music of Neil Young. The group’s core members, Chris Williams, Jeff Guild and TJ Murphy, went on to pursue solo efforts, occasionally reuniting for shows like this one, a fundraiser for 10,000 Candles, which supports families coping with loss from suicide or addiction. Thursday, June 17, 7:30 p.m., Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, tickets $20 at palacetheatre.org.

• Lion laughs: After a successful initial event recently, Funny Friday continues with a three-comic bill led by Ray Harrington, who’s built a name for himself on the West Coast with an album on Standup Records and a special on Hulu, along with Mark Turcotte, organizer of the annual Maine Comedy Festival and a favorite in his home state. Rounding out the night is fellow Mainer Leonard Kimble. Friday, June 18, 7:30 p.m., Lions Club, 256 Mammoth Road, Londonderry, $10 at tplust.org.

• Boat sing: Specializing in the genre that arguably got its name from the Christopher Cross song “Sailing,” Boat House Row plays yacht rock, the mellow sound of the mid-1970s embodied by Cross, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins and Hall & Oates. Polished, smooth and designed for yuppies tied to docks at Newport or the Cape, it’s easily digested and washed down with champagne. Sunday, June 20, at 1 and 4 p.m., Tupelo Drive-in, 10 A St., Derry. Tickets are $22 per person or $75 per car at tupelohall.com.

• Fab faux: It’s The Beatles al fresco at a scaled-down Shea Stadium as Studio Two kicks off a summer series of concerts in a downtown Nashua park. The youthful tribute band faithfully recreates John, Paul, George and Ringo in their British Invasion days, before they stopped touring. Upcoming performers in the series include Catfish Howl on June 29, Twangtown in mid-July and B Street Bombers on Aug. 3. Tuesday, June 22, 7 p.m., Greeley Park, 100 Concord St., Nashua, gonashua.com.

• Hometown girl: Though she relocated to the West Coast in early 2018, MB Padfield always returns home for a summer full of beach shows like this one on a flatbed truck parked outside a Hampton bar. Padfield has had success with her own efforts — a new album, Surface, is in the works (she recently posted a song in progress on Facebook) — and with session work, like a co-write on Yeti Tactics’ Guest House, released last October. Wednesday, June 23, 9 p.m., The Goat, 20 L St., Hampton Beach. See mbpadfield.com.

At the Sofaplex 21/06/17

Spiral (R)

Chris Rock, Max Minghella.

And also just a bit of Samuel L. Jackson, who plays Rock’s character’s father. This movie, which was released in theaters in May and is now available for rent, is subtitled “From the Book of Saw,” putting it in the general Saw universe (the police know about and remember Jigsaw and his killings and the various helpers he had). Here, a new computerized voice is telling victims that he wants to play a game, involving police officers who have committed assorted wrongs. Police Det. Banks (Rock) is sent with his new young partner, Det. Schneck (Minghella), to investigate the first of the spiral killings (so called because the Jigsaw-ish spiral symbol is part of the killer’s imagery) and then becomes the person who receives the messages (some in the form of body parts) sent by the killer.

Parts of this movie feel like Rock working out some new comedy material — a bit on Pilates and infidelity, for example. These parts feel a bit shoved sideways into the movie but they’re probably better suited to him and the character than some of the more melodramatic moments. The movie’s ideas about policing aren’t sketched out well enough to make this a horror movie that Says Something. It’s more like Spiral is using a veneer of Saying Something to give a superficial update to the same red-stage-blood goriness.

I can’t remember what ever drew people to the Saw movies — was it the “cleverness” of the Ironic Punishment Division traps? Was it the audacity of the gore? Was it Cary Elwes? What is Cary Elwes up to these days? (Stranger Things and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, according to the Internet Movie Database — ooo, hey, and Mission: Impossible 7 … good for him!) Where were we? Right, Spiral. D+ (The plus is for the existence of the cast, not that the movie does anything good with them.) Available in theaters and for rent on premium VOD.

Oslo (TV-MA)

Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott.

Based on the Tony-winning play, HBO’s Oslo tells the true (true-ish, basically, according to Wikipedia) story of the efforts of a married pair of Norwegian diplomats to get unofficial but face-to-face communication going between representatives of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization — without involving (or requiring any official acknowledgment from) any of the men at the top. The hope of Mona (Wilson) and her husband Terje (Scott) is that without any of the trappings of the more formal negotiations happening in Washington, D.C., perhaps people, talking to each other in a private setting one on one, can forge relationships on which true diplomacy can be built. The movie does a good job of making this moment in history (1993) seem like one full of hope and potential — which gives the movie real stakes and narrative tension. Good performances all around. B+ Available on HBO.

Dog Gone Trouble (TV-Y7)

Voices of Big Sean, Pamela Adlon.

Trouble (Big Sean) is a well cared for dog and companion to extremely wealthy Mrs. Vanderwhoozie (voice of Betty White) who finds himself tossed out like yesterday’s filet mignon when she suddenly dies. Inadvertently sent out into the big city, Trouble befriends (sort of) the grumpy pit bull Rousey (Adlon) and eventually a human, Zoe (voice of Lucy Bell). But when Vanderwhoozie’s heirs (Marissa Winokur, Joel McHale) realize the only way they can get her fortune is by taking care of Trouble, they send animal tracker Thurman (voice of Wilmer Valderrama) to find him.

This movie has some interesting ideas (probably too many) and some decent voice talent, but the movie overall never quite gels. The story feels half-baked and scattered, as though someone was still trying to figure out how to fit all the parts of this movie together. I wish the movie had also dialed back the meanness a little and turned up the animal antics. C Available on Netflix.

In The Heights (PG-13) | Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (PG)

In The Heights (PG-13)

A group of longtime friends and neighbors chase their various dreams In The Heights, the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first big hit Broadway musical.

Unlike last summer’s Hamilton, which was a filmed version of the stage production, this movie takes us into Washington Heights with characters walking through a (mostly) real world (with occasional forays into delightful fantasy).

Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) owns and operates a bodega but dreams of the day when he can move to Dominican Republic, where his late parents were from, and own a bar on the beach. He employs his teen cousin Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV) and lives with Claudia (Olga Merediz), whom he and everybody in the neighborhood call Abuela, though she’s not technically his grandmother. When it seems like his dream might become a reality, he considers taking both Sonny and Abuela with him.

But of course leaving Washington Heights would mean leaving Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), the girl he’s known forever but still doesn’t seem to know how to get up the courage to ask out. Vanessa also has her leaving-the-neighborhood dreams, in the form of an apartment downtown and a career involving fashion. For now she works at a local salon (with characters played, delightfully, by Stephanie Beatriz, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Dasha Polanco).

Vanessa’s friend Nina (Leslie Grace) has moved outside the Heights. She’s home for summer after her first year at Stanford and even though her college career is the pride of the neighborhood she is torn about returning to school the next year. She didn’t feel welcomed or like she fit in there.

Nina dropping out would break her father Kevin Rosario’s (Jimmy Smits) heart, especially since he sold part of his taxi business to pay for her tuition. But her living nearby would suit his dispatcher Benny (Corey Hawkins), Nina’s high school sweetheart, just fine.

And to all this inner turmoil and drama add a crushing heat wave that eventually snuffs out the power neighborhood-wide.

I’m not the first critic to observe that after the last year and a half out here in the real world (or, I guess, stuck inside here in the real world), the world of In The Heights with its packed dance floors and street parties and people hanging out with each other feels like a color-saturated peek at some glorious forgotten existence. If you’re not quite ready to squeeze into a space at a bar, perhaps viewing In The Heights in a theater with other humans is a good reentry outing. Or you could watch it at home on HBO Max until July 11. Or both! (I didn’t immediately watch the movie again after the first viewing but I guarantee between the time I write this and the time you read it I will have seen at least parts of it several more times.)

I won’t pretend to have any objective chill about this movie. I’ve been excited about it since I first saw the trailers a hundred years ago in the pre-pandemic times and I was excited when I sat down to watch it and I was excited throughout. This movie is great fun. It is jam packed with music and dancing thoroughly soaked with Latin and hip-hop influences. Even though this is a movie with a fairly high number of core characters, everybody has the space to create a relatively fleshed out person with a mix of motivations and desires and complexities. And, though the movie clocks in at nearly two and a half hours, it all feels like two and a half hours well spent. (And if the movie wanted to slow down to spend more time showing us the arroz con pollo, pasteles and the rest of the dinner spread at a big set-piece party in the middle of the movie, I wouldn’t have minded that either.) Even when the movie wanders into slightly syrupy territory the charm of the whole endeavor keeps the train from ever jumping the track.

Is this movie perfect? If it’s not, it is at least perfectly suited to my entertainment needs at the moment. Does it have flaws? Probably, but I was too busy being delighted to really take note of them. I’ll go watch it a couple dozen more times and let you know. A

Rated PG-13 for some language and suggestive references, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Jon M. Chu with a screenplay by Quiara Alegría Hudes (from the musical with a book by Hudes and music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda), In The Heights is two hours and 23 minutes long and is distributed by Warner Bros. in theaters and on HBO Max.

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (PG)

Peter Rabbit and friends get up to more mischief while their human caretakers are just as weird as ever in Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, a live-action movie filled with animated animals.

Bea (Rose Byrne), the painter who acts as a gentle and forgiving surrogate mother to a bunch of animals living in the country including Peter Rabbit (voice of James Corden), marries Thomas McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson), the slightly unhinged nephew of the late, grumpy Mr. McGregor of “Mr. McGregor’s garden/rabbit-pie-maker” fame. After a to-the-near-death battle during the last movie, the younger McGregor and Peter have made peace, even if Peter imagines giving Thomas a few rabbit feet to the face at the idea of his being Peter’s new father figure and Thomas keeps mentioning to Bea how nice it would be to have some human children.

Thomas is nevertheless supportive of their animal-filled life and is even helping Bea self-publish her book about Peter and his siblings — Flopsy (voice of Margot Robbie), Mopsy (voice of Elizabeth Debicki) and Cottontail (voice of Aimee Horne) — and his cousin Benjamin Bunny (voice of Colin Moody). Peter enjoys the fame that comes with being the star of a locally beloved children’s book but he’s not so sure how he feels about being called the naughty or mischievous one. And when big-time publisher Nigel Basil-Jones (David Oyelowo) says Bea’s books could be bestsellers but might she consider painting Peter as more of a Bad Seed, Peter becomes even more uncomfortable with how he’s perceived. While Bea is initially concerned that her bunnyverse will become fodder for some hipped up movie made by an American director (one of this movie’s many winks at itself), she eventually follows Nigel’s suggestions to put the bunnies into more bankable clothes (jeans, high tops) and adventures (space). After all, his other client, who wrote a children’s book about a butterfly, is doing great with his amped up skateboarding butterfly books. Bea’s willingness to compromise isn’t all about earning herself a publishing-house-gifted sports car; she also wants to use the money to preserve even more land for her animals to frolic in, with said frolicking demonstrated by Thomas in a scene that really helps to highlight what a delightful oddball his character is.

Honestly, I could watch a whole movie just about the tightly wound but deeply in love and approval-seeking Thomas and the earnest but kooky Bea. Gleeson and Byrne have great weirdo chemistry and they are both fun characters in their own right.

Of course, this is a movie for kids, so we get bits of these people, probably as a little treat to me and the other adults bringing their kids to this movie, sprinkled in all the animal hijinks. And those are fine too. I feel like the 2018 Peter Rabbit had more murder in everyone’s hearts — Peter and friends trying to kill the new McGregor, McGregor trying to rid his garden of all the animals. Here, it’s more about everyone adjusting to each other or figuring out their roles in this new circumstance. What this means for the movie is more cartoony silliness but less threat of actual harm, which makes the movie more fun overall. My older elementary-school-aged kid had a good time with the movie and laughed out loud several times — as did I, and occasionally we both laughed at the same parts.

During a trip to the city, Peter meets a rabbit who is even more of a grifter named Barnabas (voice of Lennie James). This sets in motion a whole heist sequence that is fun and keeps the energy up in the movie’s second half.

I think Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway improved on the first movie, making this kids property more parent-friendly and easily enjoyable. B

Rated PG for some rude humor and action, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Will Gluck with a screenplay by Will Gluck and Patrick Burleigh (based on the stories and characters from Beatrix Potter’s books), Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway is an hour and 33 minutes long and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It is currently in theaters.

Featured photo: The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (R)

Overloaded, by Ginny Smith

Overloaded, by Ginny Smith (Bloomsbury, 325 pages)

Science writer Ginny Smith’s Overloaded, while not the most sparkling prose you’ll read this year, does a yeoman’s job at explaining, in understandable language, the workings of the brain and what controls it. Mindfulness has its place, but in fact, our thoughts, emotions and memories are the sum of what Smith calls “a turbulent sea of neurotransmitters.” And sea is not just a figure of speech. “It seems to me that the answer lies not in the wiring of our brains, but in the chemicals that bathe them,” Smith writes.

Smith starts by assuming that we have forgotten everything we learned in high school and teaching a sort of CliffsNotes class in Neurology 101: the differences between sensory and motor neurons, the duties of the synapse, how electrical signals flow. Along the way, like a good professor, she introduces some interesting people, such as Luigi Galvani, the Italian scientist who figured out how to make the legs of dead frogs twitch (inspiration for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein), and two European scientists who shared the Nobel Prize in 2006 even though each disagreed with the other’s work. (Nice to know that even Nobel Prize winners can bicker like crows.)

From there Smith delves into eight typical areas of interest regarding the brain: memories, motivation, mood swings and fear, sleep, hunger and satiation, decision-making, love and attraction, and pain.

In the chapter on memory she darts from treatments for PTSD to imprinting in ducklings to the long-term effects on the neglected children in Romanian orphanages. It’s a skillfully woven collection of stories, but unfortunately, offers no significant or surprising information on how to maintain our own memory.

The chapter on motivation delves into research on primates and mice and does a good job of explaining how dopamine works and why its effects decline over time. Again, however, the chapter held more promise than it delivered. Any real-life application might have to do with drug or alcohol withdrawal, not how to get motivated to exercise or clean the house.

By “Mood Swings and Scary Things,” I’m on to the pattern. Smith dangles an interesting topic in front of me — sharks! — and then swims away. After a quick dip in the mechanics of the fear response, she’s suddenly musing about the moods of a childhood tortoiseshell cat. And on it goes.

By the time we come to sleep, which Smith considers the brain’s greatest mystery, I’ve given up on getting any practical application for my life, and I’m only here for the anecdotes. Admittedly, they are good, such as the story of a strange illness that spread throughout Vienna in 1916 and came to be known simply as “sleepy sickness.” (People would feel generally unwell at the start, and then, as the illness progressed, spend more and more time asleep. Eventually they fell into a coma and died, basically sleeping themselves to death.)

The illness killed about one million people over 10 years and eventually disappeared, and there still is no consensus on the cause, although it must have had something to do with hypothalamus, which is the part of the brain that controls sleepiness and wakefulness.

Here, too, we finally get to Alzheimer’s disease, and theories about sleep deprivation might be connected, since during sleep, a sort of rinse cycle of the brain sweeps out waste that is believed to be involved in the development of dementia.

By now we know that in “Food for Thought” we’re not going to get any dieting tips. In fact, unhelpfully, Smith even writes, “There is currently only one really effective treatment for obesity: bariatric (or weight loss) surgery.” Also, she confides that when she is quite reasonably attracted to the pastry tray at a breakfast buffet, she deals with temptation by: filling her plate with fruit and yogurt. At this point, she reveals herself to be some freak of nature, sort of like the aliens in suits in Men in Black, so she has diminished cred in the ensuing discussion on eating disorders.

Finally, you’ve probably heard of St. Elmo’s fire, but how about St. Anthony’s fire? That’s another strange disease, this time in medieval France, in which poor people were afflicted with severe pain in the extremities. (Eat the rich — they never got it.) It turns out that the people were getting sick from a fungus that grew in the rye used in bread and beer. Even stranger, this discovery eventually led to a substance that is much more familiar today — oxytocin.

Overloaded suffers from an overload of English spelling (Smith teaches at the University of Cambridge), an overload of the author’s personal anecdotes and, most egregiously, an overload of exclamation marks. It won’t be the best book you read this year; in fact, let’s hope it’s the worst. But it’s a serviceable summer read for the intellectually curious. C

BOOK NOTES

With Father’s Day upon us, can we reflect on the problem that there is no equivalent of “chick lit” for men?

That said, we have scoured the internet and solved your gift-giving problem. Pair one of these with a box of Wicked Whoopies and you’re done.

For dads who love golf:Best Seat in the House, 18 Golden Lessons from a Father to His Son, by Jack Nicklaus II and Don Yaeger (Thomas Nelson, 224 pages). The son of PGA champ Jack Nicklaus reflects on his dad and the sport.

For dads who love cars:A Man and His Car, Iconic Cars and Stories from the Men Who Love Them, by Matt Hranek (Artisan, 240 pages)

For dads who watch Fox News: Tales from the Dad Side, by Fox personality Steve Doocy (William Morrow, 224 pages). This one’s been out a while, but genuinely funny, and the stories about son Peter (now a White House correspondent) are a hoot.

For dads who hate Fox News: Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, by Brian Stelter (Atria, 368 pages). The author is not without bias: he’s an anchor on CNN. Paperback version is out this month, too.

For dads of a certain age: Sinatra and Me, In the Wee Small Hours, by Tony Oppedisano (Scribner, 320 pages). The singer’s longtime confidante spills the tea.

For dads of a certain age more into rock than Sinatra: The Collected Work of Jim Morrison, edited by Frank Lisciandro (Harper Design, 584 pages). He was only 27 when he died, but the Doors’ front man left 28 handwritten journals, which are among the private and public writing assembled here.

For dads who like humor: Daditude, by Chris Erskine (Prospect Parks Books, 180 pages). A popular syndicated columnist writes on the “joys and absurdities of modern fatherhood.

And finally, not that we’re typecasting, for dads who like to grill: How to Grill Everything, by Mark Bittman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 576 pages). A famous food writer shares his secrets on grilling everything from steak to desserts.

Book fairs

Author events

• STACEY ABRAMS Author presents Our Time is Now. Hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Virtual, via Zoom. Tues., June 22, 7 p.m. Registration and tickets required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• PAUL DOIRON Author presents Dead by Dawn. The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth. Thurs., July 1, 6 p.m. Tickets cost $60 to $180 per table. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• TERRY FARISH Meet-and-greet with picture book and young adult author. Kingston Community Library, 2 Library Lane, Kingston. Thurs., July 8, 3:30 p.m. Registration required. Visit kingston-library.org.

• CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE Author presents The Exiles. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 13, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• MEGAN MIRANDA Author presents Such a Quiet Place. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 20, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

Call for submissions

• NH LITERARY AWARDS The New Hampshire Writers’ Project seeks submissions for its Biennial New Hampshire Literary Awards, which recognize published works written about New Hampshire and works written by New Hampshire natives or residents. Books must have been published between Jan. 1, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2020 and may be nominated in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s picture books, middle grade/young adult books. All entries will be read and evaluated by a panel of judges assembled by the NHWP. Submission deadline is Mon., June 21, 5 p.m. Visit nhwritersproject.org/new-hampshire-literary-awards.

Poetry

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email elizabethw@goffstownlibrary.com or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• BELKNAP MILL Online. Monthly. Last Wednesday, 6 p.m. Based in Laconia. Email bookclub@belknapmill.org.

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email information@nashualibrary.org or visit nashualibrary.org.

Featured photo: Overloaded

Year: 2021