The vegan eatery finds a new brick and mortar home in Concord
K.S. LeBlanc is happy to put down roots.
LeBlanc is the owner and operator of Sleazy Vegan, a popular food truck that has finally found a permanent brick-and-mortar location after a long journey.
“When we first started, we opened as a ghost kitchen back on April 1 of ’22. In September of this past year we were told that that place was no longer going to be available to us, and so we had to skedoodle. We had to find a new commercial kitchen to do our catering from and to be our commissary for food trucking, even though we don’t have a food truck exactly right now. We moved to what was formerly known as State Street Kitchen in Concord. There were actually two identities here. There was State Street Kitchen that was meant to be a pay-by-the-hour community-based kitchen for [new entrepreneurs]. And then in the front there’s a retail space that was, for a while, Pilar Art Studio. When we reached out to the owner of this building, to see about coming in and really having a much bigger footprint than just a community kind of user and taking over the kitchen and using that front spot, he was very amicable to the idea, and loved the idea of having the space get used more than it had been. So we moved in here in October and we took over that front retail spot as the Sleazy Vegan Cafe. And we’ve actually been running from here from seven in the morning until two in the afternoon, since October.”
Since then, LeBlanc said, she and her chef have been fine-tuning their menu, focusing on baking.
“We did all of our Thanksgiving catering from here,” she said, “all of our Christmas catering from here. Lots of pies. We’re making sourdough bread every week. We’re making three or four different kinds of vegan muffins every week. We’ve got … a sourdough cinnamon roll that we’re making every week.”
As of this week, however, the Sleazy Vegan will be open all day, LeBlanc said.
“[It will be] a full-service day here, where we’ll be running breakfast, lunch and dinner from the new location. We did two seated six-course dinners that were really great. They were lovely. It’s very private, kind of glam up the front, and the seating is limited to 10 or 12 people per service. So it’s very intimate and very quiet and private and a little more glammed up version of sleazy vegan chefery going on. We did two of those events in January that were fantastic, and we have another event coming up for Valentine’s Day. We’re doing a 6 p.m. service — a six-course dinner — and an 8 p.m. service.”
“So now there’ll be kind of two locations that will be here in Concord,” LeBlanc said. “There will be the Sleazy Vegan Cafe, which will be in the front, and then Sleazy Vegan Mobile Catering is in the back. And that’s where we’ll be doing our catering and our cooking classes. We’ll be hosting a Food is Medicine meetup once a month. At each meetup we will bring in an expert to help guide us through some plant-based health secrets and some plant-based health lies that we might believe and help us get healthier and more educated around what we can do for our health with plants. Our next one is going to be Feb. 18.”
LeBlanc said the new location gives her confidence that there is a demand for high-quality, plant-based food in Concord.
“People come here,” she said, “and it’s not by accident. They didn’t just accidentally show up someplace where everything happened to be vegan on the menu. They’re coming here because this is what they wanted, and they’re very excited to have some place where they can look at a menu and know that everything on the menu is right for them.”
The Sleazy Vegan 205 N. State St., Concord, thesleazyvegan.com. Open Wednesday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Featured photo: Sleazy Vegan Concord location. Courtesy photo.
• Weather delay: The Fire on Main event hosted by 603 Brewery (42 Main St, Londonderry, 404-6123, 603brewery.com) originally scheduled for this weekend has been postponed due to anticipated weather conditions. It will be held Saturday, March 14, instead. Visit 603brewery.com/fire-on-main-bonfire-event.
• There’s always room for dessert. And wine. LaBelle Winery Amherst (345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898, labellewinery.com) will host a Chocolate Desserts & Wine Pairing Class Thursday, Feb. 12, at 6 p.m. Wine Educator & Sommelier Marie King leads this interactive event where you’ll enjoy four desserts, each paired with LaBelle wines. The cost is $48.16.
• All you need is truffles: Van Otis Chocolates (341 Elm St., Manchester, 627-1611, vanotis.com) will hold a chocolate truffle-making class Friday, Feb. 13, at 5:30 p.m. Guests ages 18+ will tour the chocolate factory, where a chocolatier will demonstrate how to make a chocolate ganache. Tickets are $55.20.
• Cookie season: Girl Scout cookie booth season has begun, with booths scheduled across the area throughout the weekend including at the Irving Gas Station in Bow on the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 13; Chunky’s Cinema and Remix Roller Skating in Manchester at times on Saturday, Feb. 14, and Sunday, Feb. 15; the Brookline Transfer Station in the morning (through 1 p.m.) on Saturday, Feb. 14, and Sully’s in Suncook on Sunday, Feb. 15, from noon to 8 p.m., according to girlscoutsgwm.org. Click on “Find Cookies” to find booths this weekend and beyond.
• Food and theater: The Capitol Center for the Arts (44 S. Main St., Concord, 225-1111, ccanh.com) will partner with Street Restaurant (76 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2125, streetfood360.com) on Feb. 17 for a special Community Night eventfrom 5 to 9 p.m. When you dine in at STREET and mention the Capitol Center for the Arts to your server, 20 percent of your meal will be donated to support it.
• Observing a wine holiday: Join Barrel and Baskit (377 Main St., Hopkinton, 746-1375, barrelandbaskit.com) Wednesday, Feb. 18, for a celebration of National Drink Wine Day with a free wine tasting by Ruby Wines.
According to Catarina Mahoney, co-owner of Brookford Farm, it’s important to drink hot chocolate in cold weather, which is why she only serves it once a year, at Christmas with the Cows, the farm’s holiday celebration.
“We make it here,” she said. “We developed the recipe ourselves. I use really good cocoa — organic, fair-trade and a full-fat bean. It’s really important for me that the flavor is very strong, so that it really tastes like something.”
For the chocolate-lover
Rachel Mack, co-owner at Loon Chocolate in Manchester, said the best hot chocolate takes you back to basics.
“I love all ways that you can consume chocolate,” Mack said. “And as long as humans have been consuming chocolate, we’ve been drinking it. It started in a little different form than what we consider hot chocolate today, but I like hot cocoa that’s part of that same lineage. Delicious. We have had a cold, cold, cold New Hampshire winter this year. So I think maybe we all need just a little bit of extra hot chocolate for this winter.”
“We do hot chocolate two ways at Loon Chocolate,” she said. “We have a powdered hot chocolate mix, which is easy to make, easy to grab, and to have in your cupboard for when you have those unexpected snowstorms.”
“The mix only has cocoa powder, organic cane sugar and sea salt,” Mack said. “There’s no milk powder added at all. What’s awesome about that is you can add it to whatever kind of milk you want or a dairy-free alternative. So, I know I personally am leaning away from milk right now, so I like having the option for a dairy-free alternative. The other thing you can do, that I think is delicious — it’s a little more of a treat — is to actually turn one of our chocolate bars into a cup of hot cocoa. You can sit down and concentrate and you’re just enjoying that chocolate. I usually take about two-thirds of one of our chocolate bars — that would be one and three quarter ounces, maybe, maybe a little less. And you can use milk chocolate or you can use dark chocolate. I personally really love our Puerto Rico bar to make hot chocolate. It’s a 65 percent dark chocolate. [The intensity of dark chocolate is often measured by the percentage of cocoa solids it has.] So the Puerto Rico bar is a little bit sweet, has a really fudgy flavor, and so when you’re mixing that with whatever kind of milk you want it just has a decadent, creamy deliciousness; it is very chocolate-forward. But I can’t say that I don’t enjoy a little, little extra whipped cream now and then.”
Mack said a good cup of hot chocolate can benefit from the addition of a little spice.
“I add cinnamon quite often,” she said. “It doesn’t take much to really enhance the flavor. And, you know, cayenne makes a delicious chocolate. For as long as people have been drinking chocolate they’ve also been adding spice to their chocolates. It’s classic flavor, and if you are the kind of person who likes your food to bite back a little bit, I think cayenne is delicious.”
Consider the cacao
Maggie Prittie is a chocolate expert.
“I’m a chocolatier, a chocolate maker and a chocolate educator,” she said. When she eats or drinks chocolate she thinks about its history.
“Chocolate started roughly about 5,000 years ago. It was first consumed in a drinking form for the elite. The Spanish came to Central America and they brought it back to Spain and they began chocolate drinking — cacao cafes, which came way before coffee houses. It went from Spain and then to Germany. So it started spreading throughout Europe — but always for the elite.”
So good hot chocolate should be something you would feel good about serving to royalty.
“And that starts with a good chocolate,” Prittie said. “And that starts with the basic products, which is your cacao beans. How are they grown? How are they fermented? How are they dried? Were they properly taken care of? There’s a lot that goes into the proper production of chocolates that many people don’t know about or understand. Personally, I would look at the origin of the cacao and the additives. Be aware of your additives. You want to make sure that you do have some fat in there, which would be your cacao butter.”
Hot Chocolate Bar at Beccari Choclates. Photo by John Fladd.
European-style
Greg Chenevert is the head chocolatier at Beccari Chocolates in Hudson. He said the flavor of hot chocolate helps people step away from their stress.
“When people come into our shop,” he said, “I insist they sample something. Try whatever you like. Go crazy. It’s fine. We have something we call ‘the chocolate pause.’ When you have Beccari chocolate, the rest of the world fades away for a moment. Whatever’s going on, you have that moment where you’re just focused on the chocolate. And it’s wonderful.”
“A year ago, I got tired of drinking hot cocoa in America. And I’ve traveled to Europe, had European hot chocolate, loved it and decided to come up with a formula, a recipe for that hot chocolate and sell it here. So I spent the time, did the work, and now I’ve got a thick, creamy, European-style hot chocolate. It’s not so sweet. The way that I make it here, it has a touch of sugar in it. I mean a touch — like a teaspoon per quart — because I make it with sweetened condensed milk. I came up with the European, delicious flavor and people liked it. Generally, their statement is that it’s like drinking a chocolate bar. They try it and their eyebrows go right up and wow! And everybody, but everybody does this. We actually turn it into a frozen hot chocolate in the summer, so you can have it year ’round. People love that as well. They were surprised by the concept of frozen hot chocolate.”
Flights of fancy
Many of us have had coffee flights, or beer or wine flights — small samples of different varieties of the food or drink in question, served side by side to allow us to compare and contrast them. At The Spot Eatery in Hooksett there is a hot chocolate flight.
“It’s four different kinds, 4-ounce servings,” said Sarah Lucas, co-owner of The Spot. “We have flight flavors that we’ve set up, but then also you can make your own and just go wild with it.”
The Spot’s flavors of hot chocolate are themed around different places, Lucas said.
“Right now we have a couple of … flights,” she said. “We were inspired by local ski mountains. We have an M&M flavor for Pats Peak. We have a caramel one for Cannon Mountain. We do s’mores; we do mint. Right now, because of the Super Bowl, we’ll have a Drake Maye flavor that I believe is going to be a chocolate chip cookie flavor, but then we’ll do more places. We’re planning a New England version, and a Seattle, which I believe is going to be another coffee-related one, so we’ll have a shot of espresso in the hot chocolate as well.”
Lucas and her staff use milk for their hot chocolate, she said, and semi-sweet chocolate instead of cocoa powder. “And then we also do a couple of white chocolate-based ones as well,” she said.
The hot chocolate bar
For Chris Guerrette, owner of Lickee’s & Chewy’s Candies and Creamery in Dover, four types of hot chocolate sounds good but is just a starting point.
“We do have this crazy thing we do,” he said, “maybe twice a year, with unlimited toppings — a Hot Chocolate Bar. We have, I don’t know, about a dozen or 16 or so toppings available. Customers come in, they get a big giant cup. We fill it halfway with hot chocolate, a whole bunch of marshmallows, whipped cream, and then every topping you could think of under the sun, just like a sundae, you could have as many of them as you want. It’s a little crazy.”
Guerrette said the hot chocolate at Lickee’s and Chewy’s has a dairy base.
“It’s heavy cream. It’s whole milk, a special dark chocolate mix, and we add gourmet chocolate to it as well. So it’s a nice, really flavorful hot chocolate without it sort of being almost over the top where it’s almost too thick or too strong in any certain direction. And we make about 15 different flavors, with Torani syrups, as well as things that we have in the shop like hot Nutella. So we’ll add actual Nutella and then blend that together and then top it with various toppings. The most popular of our toppings is where we take a big old scoop of our house-made marshmallow cream and we put it on top of the hot chocolate and toast it with a torch …. [Y]ou end up actually having to eat that marshmallow with a spoon.”
Cocoa powder vs. hot chocolate powder Cocoa powder is the dried and ground-up solids of a cocoa bean. It hasn’t been sweetened or played with in any way. It’s nothing but chocolate flavor. As is often the case, you get what you pay for. The higher the quality of the cocoa, the more it will cost. Hot chocolate powder is a mixture of cocoa powder, sweetener, usually powdered milk, and sometimes dehydrated marshmallows. The two powders are not interchangeable.
Marshmallow topper
Krista Mellina, owner of the Twisted Mallow Co., sells a hot chocolate mix that includes her specialty marshmallows.
“There’s no dairy in it,” she said, “but it’s still very rich and has hints of vanilla from some of the sugar that I put into it — vanilla sugar. But that’s not the focus of my company. It’s been a nice pairing with some mini marshmallows that I’ve made. I’ll cut them up and bag them and attach them to the little bag of hot chocolate. The favorites are vanilla, of course, and peppermint and cinnamon and a raspberry chocolate. Those seem to be the ones that people gravitate toward. I was offering people the vanilla, but they could have a choice. They could pick whatever marshmallow flavor they wanted with their hot chocolate mix as they were buying it.”
Mellina said it’s a bit of a mystery how hot chocolate and marshmallows got together to begin with.
“I think it might have started with Fluff,” she said. “Like parents would put Fluff in their kids’ hot chocolate and then the marshmallows kind of became a thing. Kids love the Fluff. It’s foamy and it adds a little bit of different flavor. Sometimes I feel like my mom did it because when you’re taking your first sips, it’s so hot, it would kind of buffer the hot.”
Regardless, Mellina said, “There’s not enough hot chocolate in our lives. You can always have more.”
The cocoa bomb
When it comes to rich hot chocolate at home, Jaime Metzger, the manager of Granite State Candy in Manchester, said what you’re looking for is called a “cocoa bomb.”
Cocoa Bombs from Granite State Candy Shoppe. Courtesy photo.
“It is a chocolate shell and it is filled with hot cocoa mix,” Metzger said. “You can fill it with cocoa and marshmallows, you could do peppermint, you could do caramel, you could do anything. The whole fun thing is putting it in and then pouring hot milk or hot water over it and letting it open up. And then you stir it up. Six or seven years ago I saw people making cocoa bombs and said, ‘Hey, we should do that. Why aren’t we doing it?’ So we started doing it in the first year and we couldn’t keep up with demand. We kept getting orders after orders after orders, and finally we had to tell people no, no more. But it’s cool because it’s our chocolate and … you can do it with water, you can do it with milk, you can do cream, you can do any of them.”
Metzger’s personal favorite is a salted toffee version.
“Because,” she said, “you know, salt makes everything better. It just takes it to a whole new level. The shell is half dark chocolate, half milk chocolate, with hot cocoa mix and toffee pieces inside, and then toffee pieces on the outside with a sprinkle of salt.”
Hot, hot chocolate at home
As chocolate expert Maggie Prittie said, Central Americans have been growing and developing cocoa for 5,000 years or more. The Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency and credited chocolate with mystical abilities and increased fertility. There is a legend that the Aztec Emperor Montezuma II drank 50 goblets of it a day. The Aztecs drank it unsweetened and heavily spiced, in a water base.
Here is a recipe, by me, that takes inspiration from cocoa’s origins.
Aztec-inspired hot chocolate
On advice from Catarina Mahoney of Brookford Farm and the staff at Loon Chocolate, this take on hot chocolate has a water base and is dairy-free. Because modern palates are accustomed to chocolate that ranges from semi-sweet to very sweet, this recipe is sweetened with hot honey. It can be adjusted for spice-phobes or vegans. It is very rich and deeply satisfying, with a subtle kick of musky spiciness from the hot honey.
1/3 cup (52 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 cups (900 g) water – Milk works well, as does rice milk.
¼ cup (20 g) unsweetened cocoa powder. (This is not the same as powdered hot chocolate mix.)
1/2 cup (168 g) hot honey – This is honey that has been infused with chilies. You can find it in most supermarkets. If you are deeply suspicious of spiciness, you can use regular wildflower honey. If you don’t eat honey, you can substitute half a cup of brown sugar, with a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper.
Pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon vanilla
In a large saucepan, combine the chocolate chips, cocoa, salt, and hot honey, with about a cup of water, or whatever you are using as a base. Whisk it over medium heat until it is thoroughly incorporated. You’ll know when you’ve hit that point when you can’t get any melted chocolate to stick to your whisk.
Whisk in the rest of the water, and heat the mixture to a low simmer. Remove it from the heat, and whisk in the vanilla.
Makes just over a quart (32 fluid ounces) of hot chocolate, or approximately five servings.
The hot cocoa panel
Catarina Mahoney is co-owner of Brookford Farm (250 West Road, Canterbury, 742-4084, brookfordfarm.com)
Rachel Mack is co-owner at Loon Chocolate (195 McGregor St., No. 121, Manchester, 932-8887, loonchocolate.com)
Maggie Prittie is a chocolatier and chocolate educator (worldwidechocolate.com/community/prittie-chocolat)
Sarah Lucas is co-owner of The Spot Eatery (1461 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 664-4249, thespoteatery.com)
Chris Guerrette is the owner of Lickee’s and Chewy’s Candies and Creamery (53 Washington St., Dover, 343-1799, lickeesnchewys.com)
Krista Mellina is the owner of Twisted Mallow (533-8455, twistedmallowcompany.com)
Greg Chenevert is the head chocolatier at Beccari Chocolates (203 Central St., Hudson, 577-8817, beccarichocolates.com)
Jaime Metzger is the manager of Granite State Candy Shoppe (832 Elm St., Manchester, 218-3885, granitestatecandyshoppe.com)
Featured photo: Lickee’s and Chewy’s Hot Chocolate Bar. Courtesy photo.
Most Americans don’t seem to appreciate bitter tastes. We’re fine with other strong flavors — we love sweets, many of us will go at a bag of salty snacks like it’s been away at war, there are certainly chili-heads who crave intensely spicy foods, and some children eat sour candies that would make the head of an adult collapse in on itself. But what about bitter foods? I enjoy some bitterness from time to time, so on the off chance that you do, too, or are in the middle of a contentious break-up, here is a bitter but delicious cocktail, with a very bitter name:
Remember the Alimony
1 1/4 ounces Fino sherry – I’m not exactly sure what “fino” means in this context, but whatever full-bodied sherry you have on hand.
1 1/4 ounces Cynar or other bitter Italian liqueur. Cynar is the one with an artichoke on the label.
3/4 ounce medium-shelf, London dry gin — Because of the strong flavor of this drink, subtle flavors will be overwhelmed; this is not a job for your best top-shelf gin. I used Gordon’s, and I do not regret the decision.
We will not be using a cocktail shaker for this drink. Add several ice cubes to a mixing glass, then add the sherry, Cynar and gin, then stir gently but thoroughly. Strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass.
As expected, this is a bitter drink — not bitter to the extent that you’ll have to smash your fists against the table to force it down or anything, but there’s no getting around its bitterness. When you take your first sip of it, your immediate impression will be a bit of raisinyness from the sherry, quickly followed by bitter notes from the Cynar. It actually has a smooth finish and goes down easily, but there is a tail of bitterness in the aftertaste. This is a very grown-up drink, for sitting by a window and watching the snow or rain come down and thinking about the turns your life has taken.
New location and new name for smoothie purveyor born in the mall
The name is different, but the smoothies are still excellent, said Jonathan Allard.
“We’re called That Smoothie Spot,” he said. “We are a 100 percent natural smoothie spot. We used to be Nature’s Nectar in the Mall of New Hampshire. We were there for 16 years, but we felt it was finally time to change and move on. Nobody really associated the name with smoothies, so that’s when my wife and I came up with That Smoothie Spot. It just made sense. My wife managed the other spot, Nature’s Nectar, for over 12 years for the previous owner. She sold it to us in November of 2024. And now we’re here. We’ve been able to expand our menu, add some food items — some gluten-free, some dairy-free.”
“Here” is on March Avenue in Manchester, just off South Willow Street, in the plaza where Panera Bread and Broadway Shoes are located.
Allard said the new smoothie shop offers “refreshers, coffees, lattes, sandwiches, toasties and things like that. But our bread and butter is the smoothies for sure.”
“I believe what makes a good smoothie,” Allard said, “is just good natural fruit, making sure it’s blended properly, and in the proper combinations. We make all our bases fresh in-house. Our piña colada has been one of the biggest hits for 16 years. You can’t get anything like our piña colada base that we make here. We use cream of coconut and fresh pineapple. It’s our most popular base. A lot of smoothie places will use either milk or yogurt or oat milk or almond milk, something like that. We emulsify our natural fruit into our base and that’s what makes the liquid for the base. It helps make it creamier. It just tastes better. We don’t add any additional sugar, so we’re diabetic-friendly, and we’re able to keep it that way by making everything ourselves.”
“One of our biggest sellers on the menu right now has dragonfruit in it,” Allard said. “We love using it. Something else that a lot of people only use for bowls mostly is acai, but we use those in our smoothies as well. It just blends really well. Acai has immense benefits for your body and your immune system. We try to add as many good things as we can. Some fruits that I’d love to start kind of playing around with, and I don’t think many places use it, is like jackfruit. We use kiwi, but I think we can add kiwi a little bit more to some of our blends. We have some ideas for the summer, maybe sipping out of a coconut with a fresh smoothie.”
Selling smoothies from a stand-alone location has been an adjustment, Allard said, but customers have found it.
“It’s definitely a more intentional customer,” he said. “In the mall we were able to maybe stand out in the hallway, hand out some samples, maybe get a customer here or there. It feels more intentional here. We’ve become more of a destination spot. Our regulars that we had for 15 years in the mall have come to us now, knowing that we’re in a new spot. We’re definitely getting more regulars here.”
“Because we’re known for our dairy-free and gluten-free smoothies,” he said, “we really want to take that into our food aspect and offer just a really good place to go that has gluten-free, dairy-free options. We’re very allergy-friendly. If you have a peanut allergy, any type of allergy, we definitely accommodate anything like that. So our main goal is to just be that spot where you can go get a sandwich one day, get a smoothie the next, maybe get a coffee, and be confident in what you’re getting.”
That Smoothie Spot 102 March Ave., Manchester, 408-1390, facebook.com/ThatSmoothieSpotNH Hours: open Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and weekends, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“When you drive by,” Kellyn Thompson said, “there’s a big field out behind the brewery. They’re clearing the snow, and they actually have started stacking pallets. We take these wooden pallets, stack them — we’re doing two — and we’ll light them, one at 5 p.m. and one at around 7 p.m. So one while the sun is still up, one after the sun has gone down. It’s really just the coolest. It’s just a huge, huge bonfire.”
Thompson is the creative director of 603 Brewery in Londonderry, which is hosting its second annual Fire on Main event across the street from the brewery on Saturday, Feb. 7. She said the bonfire is 603’s vision of a winter block party.
“In addition to the bonfires we will line Main Street. We blockade this whole street out front, and then we bring in local food trucks and food and beverage vendors. They’ll set up shop along the street. There will be a giant beer tent so people can come get drinks. The beer hall will be open with our regular food and beer specials. And there will be a DJ doing live mixing. The owner of Fire N Gin brings a vintage fire truck and parks it right in the middle of the street. He’ll put up some string lights, which is also a really cool [picture to take] because you’ve got this vintage fire truck and then you can pan over to this giant bonfire.”
“In addition,” Thompson said, “we’ll have some burn barrels — picture metal barrels just scattered throughout, so people can warm up and hang out around a smaller fire that’s, you know, less dangerous. This year we’ll have two of these and then we have firefighters who are volunteering to come and light the fire in a safe way. A group of firefighters will have a table. They’ll sell merch, and they’re fundraising for muscular dystrophy awareness. On this street behind us, there’s a tattoo studio inside of this building. So they will be open, doing flash tattoos, which just means they’re small, kind of quick, and cheaper tattoo options, so you can go over there and in 20 minutes for between $50 and $100 get a tattoo. It’s fun and gives you a little bit of respite from the cold.”
Thompson said last year’s inaugural event was extremely successful.
“The outcome totally blew us away,” she said. “I think we had expected maybe 2,000 people and we got over 4,500 people. So it was really epic. I think it really just gives people something to do in this dead of winter that doesn’t involve skiing or having a ton of gear or knowing how to do anything. I remember when this idea was first pitched, the reaction was sort of like, ’OK, so a bonfire — that’s not that revolutionary.’ But then when you saw it all come together and like you saw all of the different moving parts, and then when you saw the turnout and just that many people kind of all coming together, to see this big thing happen, it was just really cool.”
2nd annual Fire on Main bonfire When: Saturday, Feb. 7, from 3 to 9 p.m. Where: 603 Brewery, 42 Main St., Londonderry, 404-6123, 603brewery.com Vendors will include Dead Proof Pizza, Wagon Wheels Mini Donuts, Teeny Weenies, Ken and Mimi’s Gourmet Snacks (formerly Ken’s Corn), Tin Can Co, Fire N Gin, and Barking Sisters Coffee. 603 Brewery has released a special edition Fire on Main smoked beer to mark the occasion, available on tap or in four-packs inside the brewery.
