Author: John Fladd

Manchester Restaurant Week returns

By John Fladd

[email protected]

The Second Annual Manchester Restaurant week will run Friday, Feb. 28, through Sunday, March 9, with participating restaurants offering drink and food specials themed to tie in with Escape to Margaritaville, which is opening Friday at Palace Theatre.

Katie Lovell from the Palace is one of this year’s organizers. She said the idea behind Restaurant Week is to call attention to downtown Manchester’s nightlife.

“Manchester Restaurant Week was started as a community event,” Lovell said, “a way to tie the community together and have us all work together in bringing people downtown — showing that downtown Manchester is still an amazing place to be and visit and that there’s so many wonderful restaurants and places downtown to visit.”

This year the Palace planned a production that would lend itself to tie-ins from downtown restaurants.

“This year, the show at the Palace Theatre is Escape to Margaritaville,” Lovell said, “which is really fun. It’s a Jimmy Buffett musical, so it features all of his music. It’s a really fun, feel-good show, and we felt like it was the perfect tie-in for restaurant week. It’s an easy theme for the restaurants — different margaritas and Caribbean dishes that feel like a party.”

Given that Jimmy Buffett’s signature song was titled “Margaritaville,” it’s not surprising that many of this year’s participating restaurants have developed variations on margaritas for Restaurant Week. Stashbox (866 Elm St., Manchester, 606-8109, stashboxnh.com), for instance, will offer a “Floral Margarita.” Co-owner Jeremy Hart said the sweet element of the cocktail — usually triple sec or cointreau — will be replaced with creme de violette, which will also give the margarita a gentle purple color.

Nick Carnes, the owner of Shopper’s Pub and Eatery (18 Lake Ave., Manchester, 232-5252, shoppersmht.com) is one of the downtown business owners who is especially enthusiastic about promoting restaurants along and adjacent to Elm Street. He said Restaurant Week is a good way for Manchester to build its reputation as a cultural magnet.

“… the Palace has been trying to help incentivize their guests to really adapt the model of eat, play, stay in Manchester,” he said. Carnes said he and other downtown restaurant owners have made a conscious effort over the past few years to come together as a community.

“Almost 95 percent of small businesses on Elm Street are either under new management or just new in general since Covid,” he said. There are only a few restaurants downtown that were able to weather the changes of the pandemic. “Everything else has flipped ownership,” he said, ‘flipped their management, or just pushed new concepts. So, we just lost the connection … We didn’t know who we were as a community.”

Carnes’ own contribution to this year’s Margaritaville-themed Restaurant Week, a Cheeseburger in Paradise, is inspired by the lyrics to Jimmy Buffett’s 1978 song of the same name. “It’s just as Jimmy Buffett would like it,” he said. “Lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57, and french fried potatoes, a big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer.”

Other offerings according to the website are a Fruity Pebbles Margarita at 815 Cocktails & Provisions; a Golden Sands Margarita and Tropical Pulled Pork Quesadilla at Diz’ Cafe; a specialty margarita and chicken Parmesan at Piccola Italia; an Asian Pear Martini at Thai Food Connection; a Rover-rita at The Wild Rover Pub & Restaurant, and a Mexican chocolate stout and nachos at To Share Brewing.

Manchester Restaurant Week

Friday, Feb. 28, through Sunday, March 9
palacetheatre.org/restaurant-week-2025
See the website for participating restaurants
and their offerings as well as discount
at other businesses in downtown Manchester
with a purchase at a Restaurant Week
establishment

Featured photo: Greater Manchester Restaurant Week Header

News from the local food scene

By John Fladd

[email protected]

• New coffee shop: Two Moons Coffee and Curiosities has opened in South of the 6 Salon (155 Dow St., No. 102, Manchester, 782-7198, southofthe6.com). Described on the South of the 6 website as having a “spooky-vintage-bookstore vibe,” it serves coffees, teas, smoothies and baked-in-house pastries. Open Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Food donations and beer: To Share Brewing (720 Union St., Manchester, 836-6947, tosharebrewing.com) will host a food drive to benefit the New Hampshire Food Bank (nhfoodbank.org) Saturday, Feb. 22, beginning at 5 p.m. Bring a donation and get a chance to spin To Share’s Prize Wheel for a chance to win awesome prizes.

• Worldly wines: Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) will host a free wine tasting with Tom from Pearl Lake on Saturday, Feb. 22, between 1 and 4 p.m. Taste four wines from around the world. The store is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. as well.

• Irish and delicious: Peddler’s Daughter (48 Main St., Nashua, 821-7535, thepeddlersdaughter.com) will host its Annual Guinness Dinner Wednesday, Feb. 26, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. There will be four beers, four courses and endless fun conducted by “Cicerone” Michael Reardon, New England Guinness Ambassador, with special guest speaker Malcolm Patterson from Diageo Guinness USA. Tickets are $65 each through eventbrite.com.

• Tea in history: Register now for a special tea lecture. The Cozy Tea Cart (104A Route 13, Brookline, 249-9111, thecozyteacart.com) will host a discussion on “The Social Impact of Tea in Our History,” beginning with the discovery of tea and the spread of tea throughout Europe, the tea trade with China and the Opium Wars, its impact on the U.S., and the First World War. Throughout the presentation, enjoy sipping teas from the major tea-producing countries. The lecture will take place Thursday, March 20, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., but registration is required at least two weeks in advance. Tickets are $30 per person through the Cozy Tea Cart website.

By John Fladd

[email protected]

A brief lesson in food science

There is a trick that some bartenders use called “fat washing.”

It means is that anything that is soluble in fat is usually soluble in alcohol, and vice versa. For the past decade or so, really dedicated bartenders have used this fairly random chemistry fact to bring together bourbon and bacon, or rum and brown sugar.

This recipe turns that process on its head. Fresh mint is steeped in warm melted butter, which strips the mint’s minty mintiness away to give a startlingly delicious flavor note to these deeply chocolatey cookies.

Chocolate Mint Crinkle Cookies

A rubber or silicone spatula will make this recipe easier.

4 Tablespoons (half a stick) butter

¼ cup (28 g) fresh mint leaves and stems, chopped

¾ cup (90 g) all-purpose flour

¼ cup (21 g) cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder – if you don’t remember the last time you bought baking powder, it’s time to replace yours

¼ teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt

½ cup (106 g) brown sugar

1 egg

4 ounces (114 g) bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate – I like the chocolate chips from Trader Joe’s; they have a cocoa content of about 53% and a nice deep flavor

¼ cup or so of granulated sugar

½ cup or so of powdered sugar

Melt the butter with the chopped mint in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, and simmer until “fragrant,” which is recipe language for “Don’t burn it, but cook it until you can smell the mint.” The mint will cook down like spinach. Remove the saucepan from the heat, and let the mint steep in the melted butter for half an hour.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set it aside until you need it.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave, 20 seconds at a time, stirring until all the lumps disappear.

After the butter and mint have spent half an hour getting to know each other better, use a fine-mesh strainer to strain the butter into the bowl of your stand mixer. If the butter has set up a little reheat it briefly on the stove to remelt it.

Beat the melted butter and brown sugar until they are thoroughly integrated — maybe three minutes on medium speed. Add the egg — just the inside, not the shell — then the melted chocolate. Reduce the mixer to its lowest speed, and add the flour mixture — a couple of spoonfuls at a time, so it doesn’t poof up in your face — just until everything is barely mixed together.

At this point take a good look at your cookie dough. If it is stiff and PlayDoh-like, you can move on to the baking phase. If it is a little loose, put it in the refrigerator for half an hour or so to stiffen up.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Divide the dough into balls of one tablespoon each, about the size of a ping-pong ball. Roll each of the balls in the granulated sugar, then in the powdered sugar, then transfer it to a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Place the balls about 2 inches apart; with a little creative reordering, there should be room enough for all of them — about a dozen.

Bake the cookies on the middle rack of your oven for five minutes, then turn the baking sheet and bake for another five minutes, then remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the cookies cool thoroughly. They will have gratifying cracks and crevices across their tops, accentuated by the powdered sugar.

What you will have ended up with are dark, chewy, richly cocoa-y cookies with a minty flavor — but not minty like toothpaste, or breath mints, or mint-chip ice cream. These have a cool, fresh zing to them that makes them something special.

These are second-date cookies.

Featured photo: Chocolate Mint Crinkle Cookies. Photo by John Fladd.

New shop offers beverages with purpose

By John Fladd

[email protected]

Sean and Gina Wren picked a challenging location for a health-oriented business. PowerThirst, a shake and tea bar specializing in nutritional supplements, is located directly between a Mexican restaurant and a Domino’s Pizza on Mast Road in Goffstown. Two doors down is a tobacco and vape shop. On the other hand, there is a gym in the same plaza.

PowerThirst owner Sean Wren said the location has actually worked in their favor.

“We definitely have had a nice steady increase in traffic from the gym next door,” he said. “And then having the new Mexican restaurant next door [La Vaka Mexican Restaurant], it’s been fantastic, because I see so many people walking by, going into the restaurant, looking up, looking at our sign and looking in our window. I’ve had a number of people say, ‘Oh yeah, I was going to eat next door and I finally had a chance to stop by; I want to see what this place is all about.’”

What it is about is vitamin- and nutrient-enriched shakes and teas.

“PowerThirst is technically classified as a nutrition club,” Wren explained. “and what we provide are beverages for people who are looking to be more positive and health-minded. The teas have B vitamins, antioxidants, any number of our boosters for hydration, electrolytes, and things like collagen and different supplements to help with their overall health. The protein shakes provide protein and other nutrients. The goal is to keep everything tasting good, but also keeping it at a very low sugar content so people can be mindful of total caloric intake throughout the day.“

Customers order a tea drink or a shake at the counter, and the Wrens customize it according to flavor and the customer’s specific requirements. A long-distance runner might ask for different nutritional supplements than a power-lifter, for instance.

“If they have the time,” Wren said, “I would talk with them and ask them what they’re currently doing. And then just give them some general guidelines as to things they might want to try, because in the world of fitness and nutrition … everybody’s body’s different. There’s no cookie-cutter approach of ‘this is what you have to do if you want to be good at X’. It’s going to be a little bit different for everybody.”

Wren looks at his job as providing a counterbalance to some of the dubious nutritional information that many people are bombarded with.

“It’s a tough place to be if you’re someone who’s trying to get into fitness and you don’t have a lot of background in [nutrition],” he said. “Because while the internet is fantastic, you can find anything you could possibly imagine on there, and, there are a lot of charlatans out there and there’s a lot of people selling snake oil and just telling you this is the new hot thing that’ll change your life. My goal here is to provide people with the most simplified, straightforward answers to get them moving in the right direction and make a lot of those decisions for themselves and be as informed as possible. Because yes, you’ll have people who like a new supplement will pop up and everybody says it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. And then a year goes by and all of the actual research comes out, it doesn’t do anything.”

That relaxed, comfortable attitude is reflected in the interior of PowerThirst. There is comfortable seating, and space for customers to sit and talk with each other or to take their time enjoying their drinks.

“I didn’t want to set this up and have it be too over-the-top gym health-related,” Wren said. Someone who doesn’t necessarily go to the gym all the time or is in that space would think, ‘Oh that’s not for me.’ We want to feel very welcoming to anybody who just enjoys a delicious beverage, wants to make some slight changes in their life, all the way up to people who are like hardcore athletes, gym goers, high school athletes.”

PowerThirst

Where: 553 Mast Road, Goffstown, 937-2412, powerthirstnh.com
When: Open seven days a week: Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Featured photo: PowerThirst owner Sean Wren. Photo by John Fladd.