Addie Leader-Zavos, Pastry Chef and co-owner of Eden’s Table Farm and Farm Store (240 Stark Highway North, Dunbarton, 774-1811, facebook.com/EdensTableFarm)
“I grew up in the middle of Washington, D.C. I loved to cook from a really young age. I got this book called Preserving the Seasons for my birthday when I was 9. It was fantastic, and the author was making things like apricots in lavender syrup, or brandied pears, and talking about walking out to the patio and picking fresh herbs. I was like, ‘That’s the life for me!’”
After exploring several different careers, Leader-Zavos went to culinary school at the Cordon Bleu in Boston and worked in fine dining restaurants that focused on seasonal menus. After being sidetracked by a back injury, she moved into pastry and opened a custom pastry and catering business specializing in dessert buffets and bespoke wedding cakes. After the Covid-19 lockdown, she and her husband, co-owner Michael Williams, bought Eden’s Table Farm in Dunbarton to focus on local and seasonal produce, locally produced farm products, and fresh baked goods.
What is your must-have kitchen item?
A digital scale. I love to bake, particularly now … there is no better way to ensure high-quality results than to be precise and consistent with measurements.
What would you have for your last meal?
Definitely my grandmother’s slow-cooked brisket with onions. My grandmother made brisket for every holiday and my mom makes it for holidays and every time she comes to visit. It’s just that instantly comforting meal that’s made even better by all the memories attached to it.
What is your favorite local eatery?
The Nepalese restaurant KS Kitchen in Manchester. The food is super-flavorful, well-crafted and perfectly seasoned, just absolutely delicious. Plus, I cannot turn down any form of dumpling and their momo is out of this world.
Name a celebrity you would like to see shopping at your farm store or eating something you’ve prepared.
Pastry chef and author Claudia Fleming. I really admire her style of baking and pastry-making; it’s very seasonal, uses lots of fresh local ingredients, and incorporates salty/savory notes.
What is your favorite thing you make or sell at the moment?
Our chocolate chunk cookie because it has such a great homey taste and texture, big chunks of dark chocolate and a nice kick of sea salt. We’re using regionally grown, freshly ground flours, chocolate from New Hampshire bean-to-bar chocolate maker Loon Chocolate, and an apple brandy from Flag Hill Distillery for top notes. It’s a classic that’s distinguished by the local ingredients we’re using and I hope we’ll be making it for years to come.
What is the biggest food trend you see in New Hampshire right now?
I’m really impressed with how New Hampshirites are coming together to improve opportunities for small farms and home-based food businesses right now. Last year HB 119 was passed, making it easier for small farms to have certain types of meat processed locally. Just a few days ago HB 1565 was passed, which makes it possible to sell pickles made in a home kitchen. Now the legislature is considering HB 1685, which would open up even more opportunities for small farms and food entrepreneurs. This trend of creating more opportunities for people who want to participate in the local food economy really benefits everyone who loves good food, so I hope we’ll see more of it.
What is your favorite thing to cook for yourself?
When I cook for the enjoyment of cooking, I take a dish and make it over and over again until I get it exactly the way I want it. But when I cook to feed myself I tend to keep it very simple — a fresh-picked cucumber sliced up and served with some homemade dip, a big bowl of roasted zucchini with a little soy sauce, or maybe a cheese omelet with fresh herbs and hot sauce. We have access to so many fresh, flavorful ingredients on the farm and through our farm store that I really don’t have to do much to create something very satisfying and enjoyable.
Featured Photo: Addie Leader-Zavos. Courtesy photo.
Food Truck Friday brings eats to Arms Park in Manchester
Every Friday throughout the summer, there will be food trucks in Arms Park (10 Arms St., Manchester) between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. They set up at the far western end of the parking lot adjacent to Cotton Restaurant and the University of New Hampshire’s Manchester campus, overlooking the Merrimack River. (Arms Park is the riverside park with the brightly painted stairs leading down to the river.)
Food Truck Friday is the brainchild of Stark Brewing Co.’s Peter Telge. Stark Brewing, based in Manchester, recently completed a mobile kitchen in a food truck. Telge said he was inspired by what happened at the Tideline Restaurant in Durham, which allowed a pair of food trucks to use its parking lot on weekends.
“They started with two trucks just on the weekends,” Telge said, “and now it’s up to six trucks, Monday through Friday. It’s become a destination.”
Telge saw the same potential near his restaurant, in Arms Park. It is not as well-known as many of Manchester’s other parks, but customers frequently asked him, “Has this always been here? Why don’t people know about it?” Telge partnered with City of Manchester Parks and Recreation department to bring the project together.
“Because we’re working with the City,” Telge said, “we’ve been able to save money on fees and permits.” It also made it easier to expedite the paperwork.
Tim Cunningham is in charge of social media for Food Truck Friday. Like everyone involved in the project, he is confident that it will become extremely successful, once enough people know about it.
“Pretty much we’re just blasting out [social media posts] every week,” he said. “Every week we’re trying to post about it, get people out there, because Fridays, especially in the summertime down there, are beautiful down by Arms Park. There’s so many people in the millyard that will think Friday would be a great day for them to maybe not bring a lunch that day and go down to the park and support some local food vendors”
John Worthen is one of those vendors. He is the owner and operator of Purple Snack Shack (text: 818-9796, facebook.com/purplesnackshack), a mobile snack shack that is indeed painted purple. He sells mostly pre-packaged food and drinks.
“I have pre-packaged everything,” Worthen said. “… novelty ice cream bars, soda, Gatorade, candy bars, potato chips, things like that.” He’s waiting for more customers to learn about Food Truck Friday. The main problem he sees is the lack of foot traffic.
“There’s not a lot of people walking here right now,” Worthen observed. “There’s a few that come by, you know, but it just doesn’t have the viewing. [The hot dog stand] up on Commercial Street — they set up up there, and they’ve got a whole ton of people. If it was busy here, it’d be great, but we’re not too busy yet.”
Joe Savitch is the owner of the Creative Kones food truck. This summer he is working with his daughter Isla. “I’m the Kid,” she said.
“Of Joe,” she clarified.
Creative Kones specializes in food in cones, but not just ice cream.
“We center around all kinds of things in cones,” Savitch said, “from snow cones to waffle cones where we put fun things like chicken and waffles. We have taco cones, which we did this year at the taco tour, and we also do a handheld Japanese-style crepe cone. We leverage creativity as much as we leverage the cones to have some fun with our food.”
“Hopefully all the businesses here, with the hotel and the mill buildings and stuff, word will get out that there’s something new for lunch.”
Food Truck Friday Arms Park, Manchester See the Stark Brewing Co. Facebook page for updates on Fridays about who is attending that week’s events.
• Cocktail recipes: James Beard Award-winning drink writer J.M. Hirsch will return to Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) Thursday, July 18, at 6:30 p.m. with his new book of drink recipes, Freezer Door Cocktails: 75 Cocktails That Are Ready When You Are. He will discuss readymade cocktails for whenever you want them: batch drinks made directly in the liquor bottle and stored on your freezer door. Copies of his book will be available for purchase and signing. The Bookstore will accept online orders and signing requests on its website.
• Beer and music: The Biergarten at Anheuser-Busch (221 DW Highway, Merrimack, 595-1202, budweisertours.com/mmk) will host a Brews & Blues event Saturday, July 20, from noon to 7 p.m. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and enjoy a day of summer sun, live blues music, and tasty brews. Tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for those under 21, free for kids under 12. Food will be available for purchase from Bentley’s Famous BBQ.
• Lavender season: There are still a few days left to pick lavender at Pumpkin Blossom Farm (393 Pumpkin Hill Road, Warner, 456-2443, pumpkinblossomfarm.com). The lavender fields are open for picking until Sunday, July 21, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., rain or shine. Lavender grows in direct sunshine, so comfortable shoes, sunscreen and a hat or umbrella are recommended.
It’s pretty much what it sounds like — a bicycle with a small electric motor to help a rider power through the tough parts of a bike ride in which they otherwise pedal, and wave to friends, and do other bike-ridey things. The website for Trek Bicycle Hooksett says, “Electric bikes (also known as e-bikes and electric assist bikes) amplify your pedaling power thanks to an electric drive system. There are many different kinds of e-bikes, but all of them use an electric motor and battery to help you power your bike.”
“An e-bike is born as a bike,” said Mark Dimenico, owner of Rail Trail eBikes in Derry. “You can pedal it like a regular bike; it lets you do most of the pedaling, but there’s a sensor, and every time you make a momentum of the pedal, a revolution, the sensor kicks the motor on and it holds it on at a steady pace.”
Who rides an e-bike?
E-bikers seem to come in all shapes, sizes and ages. Some have injuries that make it difficult for them to ride a conventional bicycle.
“They come in and they’re looking for a bike,” said Dimenico of Rail Trail eBikes. “They have their bikes, but they can’t ride them anymore or they get a knee operation or a hip operation. Maybe they don’t have the strength [to ride a conventional bicycle].
Amy Faust of Raymond is this type of rider. She had a long-standing back injury that kept her from riding bikes with her friends.
“I used my friend’s e-bike and we went on a great bike ride,” she said. “My husband was like, ‘I can’t even believe you’re doing this; you look so happy.’ So then we ended up just going and looking, and he’s like, ‘Nope, we’re going to buy you one that fits you perfect, because you just, you liked it so much.’”
Others want help easing into riding. David Fritz of Trek Bicycle described some of his customers:
“They come in and just are getting back into [bike riding] or just getting into it,” he said, “and they just, they want to go further. They want a helping hand. You have commuters that may not have access to a shower at work. On a hot summer’s day, you’re getting that helping hand; you don’t show up to work all sweaty.”
E-bikes aren’t just used recreationally. Some municipalities use them for times when it would be awkward to use conventional vehicles. The Derry Fire Department confirmed in a telephone interview that it has deployed e-bikes for the past two marathons in Derry and plans to do so in the future. E-bikes allow medical personnel to weave through a crowd of runners to get to people who need medical care.
The Derry Public Library recently acquired two e-bikes with an eye toward using them to tow a small trailer to book events.
“Our plan is that once we get [our bike program] rolling,” said Jessica Delangie, Head of Technical Services for the Library, “we’ll be able to take the bike out to different events. Obviously we’re right next door to the park, but we could take it to the park for any event there, but then also the splash pad, farmers market, that kind of thing.” Library staff will be able to take books to book clubs, Delangie said, or to off-site story times. Eventually, the Library hopes to use the e-bikes to make home deliveries.
Isn’t riding an e-bike cheating?
According to David Topham, the founder and treasurer of the Bike-Walk Alliance of New Hampshire (2 Whitney Road, Suite 11, Concord, 410-5848, bwanh.org), not unless you’re racing. Otherwise, it’s not like there’s a bike-riding purity test, even when riding in a group.
“You know, you’ve got this little motor helping you out on the hills,” Topham said. “We’ve got to work our tails off going up the hills. Are we cheating? The bottom line — the feeling I got from the bicycling community — is that no, the idea of a club is our camaraderie, people out having some fun, enjoying the fresh air, go out for the ride, go out for … probably a beer and a coffee or a pizza or something after the ride — this person’s got the little probably half-horsepower motor assisting them on a hill but they’re out there enjoying the company of others.”
Are e-bikes all the same?
EZ Rider from Rail Trail eBikes in Derry — a heavyweight, rugged e-bike, is good for commuting or trails. Photos by John Fladd.
There are many, many different types of e-bikes, from different manufacturers, at different price points. According to ReallyGoodeBikes.com, an online e-bike retailer, there are currently 250 brands of e-bikes in the U.S. and 500 in Europe.
“There’s road bikes with skinny tires,” Mark Dimenico from Rail Trail eBikes said, “for people who want to just drive on the road and go to work. And then there’s off-road bikes with fatter tires, for going up hills and through streams and over little jumps. They’re pretty much built to encompass all the different kinds of riding. You can ride them on gravel, sand, snow, the street, paved areas and non-paved areas. The bikes are set up so they can pretty much handle all conditions.”
For riders who want extra stability, he said, there are e-tricycles.
David Fritz from Trek Bicycle described something called a comfort hybrid.
“A comfort hybrid puts you in a more upright, more comfortable position,” Fritz said. “You can get it with a regular frame or a step-through frame. There’s a suspension seat post that helps take the sting out of the bumps. They come fully equipped with fenders and racks, with a rack on it. All of them come with a light that comes on. Most of them come with a little bell.”
In addition to all this, however, there is still another distinction to consider when looking at e-bikes: class. There are three classes of e-bikes:
• Class 1 provides an electric assist only while pedaling.
• Class 2 provides electric assist while pedaling and also by throttle control, a button or a twist grip. It can go up to 20 miles an hour.
• Class 3 has motor power. Using motor power only, it still cuts out at 20 mph, but as a pedal assist it can go 28 mph.
David Topham was instrumental in pushing through legislation in New Hampshire to codify these classes into law in 2018. The goal was to legally classify e-bikes as bicycles rather than motor vehicles.
“The way the law is written is that Class 1 and 2 are allowed on rail trails. Class 3, because it has the option of getting assistance for 28 [mph], is technically not allowed on rail trails,” Topham said.
Where can I ride an e-bike?
Because e-bikes are officially classified as bicycles in New Hampshire, they can mostly be ridden anywhere a non-powered bicycle can.
“I travel a lot with friends,” Mark Dimenico said. “We go out for rides in the evening and we go to places and do things and we take the bike paths or we take the back roads. [My friends are] just like, ‘I didn’t know this was out here. I didn’t know this trail was there. I didn’t know this lake was here. I didn’t know this stream was here or this view was there.’ They were so amazed by this little trail and all of a sudden we’re on the side of Lake Massabesic on a beach.”
Owning an e-bike has opened up many new places for Amy Faust.
“I had a group of friends,” Faust said. “Some had e-bikes, some didn’t, and we just started doing some group bike-riding, and I was able to do a 30-mile bike ride because I had my e-bike. And so it’s just been really fun. Most of the time I go on the rail trail and trails like that, but once in a while I’ll do a group ride on the road with friends. We just got a camper and we’re going to bring our bikes to different places all around and travel and part of that will be riding our bikes.”
Electra Townie Go! Step-Thru commuter e-bikes at Trek Bicycle Hooksett. Photo by John Fladd.
David Topham sees e-bikes as a force for social change. He said that riding e-bikes “draws people together through a common interest, and collectively we call e-bikes … a great equalizer. I’m highly involved — the co-founder — of the Granite State Wheelers Bicycling Club in Nashua. We’ve been doing road rides primarily now for 53 years. A lot of times, one person in the family might have better strength or skills than the other. But if they still want to go out and have some fun together, one person could be on the conventional pedal variety bike, and the other one might get a little assistance out of an e-bike, and they have a wonderful time because they’re now still together doing a fun thing outdoors.”
Mark Dimenico has been impressed by the way e-bikes allow older riders to stay connected to a community.
“There’s a group in Derry,” Dimenico said, “and they call themselves the Golden Eagles. And they’re all octogenarians — they’re 80 years old plus, and they all ride e-bikes.”
How much does an e-bike cost?
As with most consumer goods, there is a wide range of prices among e-bikes.
“We’ve got bikes that adults or teens can ride that start out at $550,” said Mark Dimenico. “We’ve got one for $699. We’ve got a few of them for $1,200. The average price is $1,600. Our most expensive Class 3 bike is $1,900.”
But, he said, as with everything, there’s always a more expensive version.
“We get bikes from manufacturers and some of these bikes can run $12,000 to $13,000,” Dimenico said.
Fuel EXe 9.5 Deore, a trail e-bike, at Trek Bicycle Hooksett. Photo by John Fladd.
As an example of the price range of e-bikes, ReallyGoodEbikes.com has a category on its website for “eBikes Under $1,000 with 16 models, mostly starting at $800. At the high end, there are Class 3 mountain bike e-bikes for 10 times that price. As of July 10, one — the Bakcou Storm Jäger — carried a list price of $8,199.
E-bike retailers say a new rider should buy an e-bike from an actual bike shop, rather than from a big-box store or online. It’s likely that an e-bike will eventually need repairs, and there is a much better chance of a shop being able to repair a model that it sells.
“Most places only work on their own bikes that they sell,” said Mark Dimenico. “There are probably 10,000 bikes now that are on the market. New companies are coming out every day. They’re selling bikes and then they’re going out of business. They’re just leaving a trail of bikes behind that are all broken down and with no support, no parts.”
Buying according to the cheapest price tag can be a very short-term bargain, he said: “They [customers] usually end up buying them online and bringing them to us because they need a lot of repairs. [The bikes] come in a box and there’s really nobody to fix it for them. Things break on them and they’re cheaply made and they’re inexpensive and you get what you pay for in this business. We do a lot of repair work for all sorts of different brands that people buy and sometimes they’re brand new and they’re broken down the next day and what do you do?”
What is the future like for e-bikes?
When asked about the future of e-bikes, David Fritz stuck two thumbs up, and gestured to the ceiling.
“It’s going up and up and up,” he said. “I’d say 25 percent of our sales are e-bikes. I don’t know the exact numbers. But yeah, it’s booming.”
David Topham agreed.
“The use and sale of regular road bikes — not talking e-bikes, just the style of skinny-tire road bikes — sales have dropped off approximately 40 percent since Covid,” Topham said. Meanwhile sales of e-bikes are surging. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (energy.gov), sales of ebikes have risen significantly each year since 2019. “In 2018,” it reported on its website, “there were 325,000 e-bike sales.” But “[in] 2022, there were 1.1 million e-bikes sold in the United States.”
E-BIKE DEALERSHIPS The Bike Barn 720 Union St., Manchester, 668-6555, bikebarnusa.com Cycles Etc. 450 Second St., Manchester, 669-7993; 288 N. Broadway, Salem, 890-3212; cyclesetc.com DG Cycle Sports 44 Nashua Road, Londonderry, 216-2022; 75 Railroad Ave, Epping, 734-5788; dgcycles.com Electric Bikes of New England 27 Buttrick Road, Londonderry, 319-4909, ebikesofne.com Exeter Cycles 4 Portsmouth Ave., Exeter, 778-2331, exetercycles.com EZ Electric Bikes & Scooters 61 Epping Road, Exeter, 778-1402, ezbikesandscooters.com Goodale’s Bike Shop 14B Broad St., Nashua, 882-2111, trekbikes.com Pedego Electric Bikes 236 N. Broadway, Suite F, Salem, 458-2094, pedegoelectricbikes.com Rail Trail eBikes 22 E. Broadway, Suite 2, Derry, 216-5034, railtrailebikes.com S&W Sports 296 S. Main St., Concord, 228-1441, swsports.net Trek Bicycle 19 Triangle Park Drive, Concord, 225-5111; 1197 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 644-2111; trekbikes.com
E-bike the trails
Charge up those e-bikes and zip down a trail today.
These are rail trail segments in southern New Hampshire. E-bikes that are Class 1 (“pedal-assist” only, max assisted speed 20 mph) or Class 2 (throttle-assisted, max assisted speed 20 mph) are allowed on the trails, according to the New Hampshire Rail Trail Coalition. Rail trail information was compiled from nhrtc.org.
Ashuelot Rail Trail, Keene to Winchester, 21 miles (primarily gravel trail, but paved road in and near Keene)
Brookline Rail Trail, Brookline to Milford, 4.4 miles
Cheshire Rail Trail North, Keene to Walpole, 17.8 miles (primarily gravel trail, but paved road in and near Keene)
Cheshire Rail Trail South. Fitzwilliam to Keene, 18.5 miles
Concord-Lake Sunapee Rail Trail, Concord to Newbury, 35 miles — still in its planning phase but there are completed segments: Stevens Rail Trail, Warner to Hopkinton, 1.3 miles; Tilly-Wheeler Rail Trail and Lower Lake Todd segment, Bradford, 1 mile; Warner Rail Trail, Warner, 1 mile; Fisherville Road to Carter Hill Road, Concord, 2.5 miles
Derry Rail Trail, Derry to Windham, 4 miles (paved road)
Dover Rail Trail, Dover, 3.8 miles (paved road)
Farmington Rail Trail, Farmington, 6 miles
Fort Hill Recreational Rail Trail, Hinsdale, 8 miles
Goffstown Rail Trail, Goffstown to Manchester, 5.5 miles
Granite Town Rail Trail, Milford to Brookline, 3 miles
Harrisville Rail Trail, Harrisville, includes Chesham Depot Rail Trail section, 0.5 mile; Skatutakee Lake Road & trail section, 1.4 miles; East View Trail section, 1.4 miles; Jaquith Rail Trail section, Hancock to Harrisville, 1.5 miles
Heads Pond Rail Trail, Hooksett, 1.7 miles
Hillsborough Rail Trail, Hillsborough, 8 miles
Lilac City Greenway, Rochester, 1.2 miles
Londonderry Rail Trail, Londonderry, 4.5 miles (paved road)
Mascoma River Greenway, Lebanon, 3 miles (paved road)
Mason–Greenville Rail Trail, Mason to Greenville, 9.1 miles
Nashua River Rail Trail, Nashua to Ayer, Mass., 12 miles (paved road)
Nashua Heritage Rail Trail, Nashua, 1.3 miles (paved road)
New Boston Rail Trail, New Boston, 4 miles
Monadnock Rail Trail, Jaffrey to Rindge, 7.5 miles
Peterborough Rail Trail, Peterborough to Hancock, 6 miles
Piscataquog Rail Trail, Manchester to Goffstown, 2 miles (paved road)
Potanipo Rail Trail, Brookline to Hollis, 6.5 miles
Rockingham Rail Trail, Fremont Branch, Windham to Epping, 18 miles
Rockingham Rail Trail, Portsmouth Branch, Manchester to Newfields, 25.3 miles
Salem Bike-Ped Corridor, Salem to Windham, 5.2 miles (2 miles paved road, the rest gravel)
South Manchester Rail Trail, Manchester, 2.4 miles (paved road)
Windham Rail Trail, Windham to Derry, 4.1 miles (paved road)
Featured image: Rail 8 from Trek Bicycle Hooksett. photo by John Fladd.
¼ teaspoon cinnamon – depending on how flavorful your blueberries are
1 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
Dough
2 eggs
1/3 cup (79 g) water
1 teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt
2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting your counter when you knead and roll your dough, so it doesn’t stick
Garnish
sour cream
lemon wedges
sugar
blueberries in syrup (see below)
Add all the filling ingredients to a medium-sized saucepan. Stir everything to combine it, and to make sure you don’t have a bunch of sugar at the bottom of the pot that might turn into caramel before the mixture comes together.
Cook over medium heat, until the berries give up their juice. This happens easily with frozen berries, because of the ice crystals inside them, but the sugar will pull juice out of the berries even if they are fresh. You know that word from high school science that you were supposed to remember, but never could — osmosis? That’s what’s happening here. Once there is some sauce, taste it. Blueberries are a flighty fruit; you never know how they’re going to taste. If these taste a little dull, they probably need another squeeze of lemon juice to brighten them up. If they are just not very flavorful, add the cinnamon. On the other hand, if the syrup tastes fruity and zingy and makes you want to do a blueberry dance, you should probably leave well enough alone.
Bring the blueberry sauce to a boil, and let it simmer for two minutes, then remove it from heat.
In a medium bowl, mix the dough ingredients, starting with the eggs and water, until it forms a shaggy dough. Turn it out onto a floured counter and knead it until it comes together and makes a smooth ball. Cover it and set it aside for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. While the dough rests, chill the blueberries in your refrigerator. You and the pierogi could both use a breather.
When you’re pretty sure the dough has rested enough, flour your counter again and roll the dough out as thin as you can. Don’t go overboard and try to read a newspaper through it or anything, but if you can get it as thin as a penny, you’re probably in good shape. Use a drinking glass that is 3 inches across to cut as many circles as possible out of the dough.
Take the blueberries and sauce out of the refrigerator, and strain it, saving the syrup.
Set a large pot of water on the stove to boil.
Now, this is the part of the procedure that requires confidence. Do not let the pierogi dough intimidate you. Making sure your counter is still dusted with flour, take a dough circle, and put a small amount — one half to a full teaspoonful — of the blueberries in the center of it. Fold it in half, to make a moon shape, then crimp the edge with a fork, to seal the berries inside. Keep doing this until you’ve used up all the circles, then roll the leftover dough out again and repeat, until you use it all.
Boil the pierogi, six or seven at a time, just like you would ravioli. Make sure none of them stick to the bottom of the pot, and fish them out when they float to the surface of the water.
Eat these warm, garnished with sour cream and a sprinkling of sugar. If they need some more brightness, another squeeze of lemon juice will do that for you. If they don’t taste strongly enough of blueberries, drizzle some of the blueberry syrup over them. These will chew like pasta, taste like summer, and give you some well-deserved emotional validation.
Bartender, 815 Cocktails and Provisions (815 Elm St., Manchester, 782-8086, 815nh.com)
“I’m 24 years old, born and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire,” Starr said. “I got the opportunity to start working at 815 Cocktails and Provisions in 2022, where I began learning the trade of being a bartender. Through this and the help of some of the loveliest people I’ve had the opportunity to work with, I’ve had the pleasure of serving some unique drinks. Being able to make cocktails is great, but really the best part is the experiences you share with new people every night and I’m glad I get to do it.”
What is your must-have kitchen/bar item?
I feel like good glassware is a must. I’m always hunting around second-hand shops, trying to find good coupes or a new tiki mug. Who doesn’t love having a funky little cup to drink out of?
What would you have for your last meal?
Scallops with risotto was always a special treat growing up, so if I’m going out I’m going out thinking about all the good scallops I’ve had. The pizza they eat in A Goofy Movie is my backup option.
What is your favorite local eatery?
This is a really loaded question, but Alley Cat Pizzeria has always had my back through thick and thin. Whenever I come back from a trip, I go and get a pie as a way to bring on that feeling of being home.
Name a celebrity you would like to see drinking one of your cocktails.
I feel like getting to serve David Byrne would be a once in a lifetime experience. His music has been a part of my life for so long that it would be such an honor to create something for someone who has unknowingly created a lot of memories for me. Finding a glass worthy of his style would be the hardest part.
What is your favorite drink on your menu?
‘Tacos Sold Separately’ is a drink we launched earlier this year that was a lot of fun coming up with. It’s a tiki drink with Myers’s Rum, Cynar, orange juice, lime, coconut, vanilla and nutmeg. I just love the melody of flavors that goes on with the fruits and spice while the dark rum kind of guides you through.
What is the biggest drinking trend in New Hampshire right now?
There’s been an increase in people who have been hopping on the mocktail train, which has been cool to see. I think what a lot of people are looking for today is a way to have that fun experience of going out without dealing with the side effects that alcohol can bring. I have definitely seen bartenders around the state upping the quality and care they put into their mocktails, because everyone deserves to have a good time out.
What is your favorite thing to make at home?
I’m pretty boring when it comes to making myself drinks, to be honest. Usually I just sip some rum or mezcal over ice. What I really love doing after a shift is making nachos with whatever random ingredients I may find in my fridge. No recipe, varying results, always a good time.
Classic Daiquiri from Griffin Star With the rapid rise in temperature I think everyone should know how to cool off with a basic daiquiri:
¾ ounce fresh lime juice ¾ ounce simple syrup (I really prefer demerara or a brown sugar syrup) 2 ounces of your favorite rum Shake that up with some ice and strain into a chilled coupe.
