Author: John Fladd

Gluten free, teen owned

New Boston bakery focuses on sweat treats

New Boston teen Marley Godbois has set up her own gluten-free bakery, The Cupcake ’Porium (facebook.com/GFcupcakesNH).

“It’s a teen-owned cottage bakery,” Godbois said. “It follows the cottage laws in New Hampshire. And it’s gluten-free. It has muffins, cookies, cupcakes, cakes, all that stuff.”

Godbois, who is a junior in high school, sells her baked goods from her family’s home and provides baked goods for The Cure Cafe (8 Mill St., New Boston, 741-5016, curellc.toast.site).

“I usually make about two dozen cookies … and a dozen muffins for the cafe downtown,” she said. “And then, depending on the week, I also make mini cakes, which are just cupcakes but in mini loaf pans.” There are often special orders. “I have a festival this week where I’m baking 150 cookies and 100 mini cakes,” she said.

Shortly after she started baking — “When Covid happened, I was stuck inside all day, with nothing else to do” — Godbois discovered an underserved market for her gluten-free treats.

“My mom kind of has … a gluten allergy and I have a sensitivity to [gluten]. And it’s just really hard to find good gluten-free stuff.” She discovered that many of her peers had an understanding of what gluten is and wanted to buy from her.

For the most part, Godbois said, her customers are looking for rich, indulgent baked goods.

“The most popular things are really anything with chocolate and peanut butter. I have a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie and a chocolate peanut butter cake, which is a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and then a little half of a peanut butter cup on top. I also have a chai latte cake; I make a spice mix that’s just like all the spices that are in chai, and then it’s just a pumpkin cake with that added in. It’s spicy.”

With the holidays approaching, Godbois has been experimenting and developing new recipes.

“We have like a Thanksgiving menu that we’re going to send out after Halloween is over. It’s the pumpkin chai, but there’s a carrot cake with an orange cream cheese buttercream. There’s the chocolate peanut butter thing, of course, with chocolate cake and peanut butter frosting. And then chocolate Oreos, which is just the same chocolate base with gluten-free Oreos chopped up inside it and a buttercream with Oreo crumbs in it, with a half of an Oreo on top.”

Godbois said that while she sells some of her baked goods in person, a lot of her business involves social media.

“I have a Facebook page,” she said. “I have Instagram. We have a cart out in front of our house every Friday and Saturday, and sometimes Sundays if we have leftover stuff. And then Cafe, obviously. We have an order form on Facebook, and customers can reach out by email or Facebook Messenger.”

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Residency to restaurant?

Cap Center seeks next culinary artist

The Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord is starting the search for its third Culinary Artist in Residence. According to Salvatore Prizio, the Executive Director of the Capitol Center, the residency is a way to help individual community members and to broaden Concord’s food landscape, while improving the experience for audiences attending events at the Capitol Center.

“This program,” Prizio said, “allows new Americans or folks who have been economically disadvantaged the opportunity to pursue a passion and open up a restaurant with minimal risk [and] utilize our commercial kitchens for a 12- or 18-month residency to start a restaurant. Eventually, our goal is that they, when they leave us, either go to a brick-and-mortar or they start a ghost kitchen somewhere or they start a food truck. Most restaurants fail in their first year. We provide the ability for [our Culinary Artists in Residence] to minimize that risk.”

The CCA’s first Culinary Artist in Residence was Batulo Mohamed, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“She was our first candidate,” Prizio said, “and she sold Somali meat pies and Somali delicacies at the BNH stage. She developed a great business catering, and then she saved up enough through the time that she was with us to buy a food truck. Now she has one of the most popular food trucks in New Hampshire.”

The Capitol Center’s second Culinary Artist in Residence is Susan Chung, owner of Sue’s Kimbap House, which is working out of the Capitol Center’s Bank of NH Stage. Chung said her residency has been a learning experience she wouldn’t have had any other way.

“It’s been amazing,” she said. “It’s been difficult, but I’ve learned a lot for sure. But the wonderful thing about this is that it really helped me and will probably help the next person be able to take [a restaurant idea] from a thought and a concept to reality. The team that the Capitol Center provides helps with everything in all aspects of the restaurant industry and what it takes — things that you wouldn’t even think about if you didn’t have a restaurant previously.”

Much like her predecessor, Batulo Mohamed, Chung is planning to use her experience with the Capitol Center to launch a food business that follows a different path than a traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant.

“So the great thing is, I’m here until April,” she said, “But starting Nov. 1, I have some exciting news that I’m going to [launch] a meal-prep business along with this restaurant for the next five months.” She said the meal-prep business will start by offering kits to make Korean dishes at first, then eventually dishes from other styles of cooking. “Right now we’re going to offer all of the favorites from our restaurant, like bibimbap, japchae, the combo bulgogi, and a few others. And not only will it be Korean food, it will be other foods as well. It’ll have a rotating menu.”

For Salvatore Prizio, seeing unique new businesses like Mohamed’s and Chung’s hints at opportunities to explore cuisines and business models new to the area.

“We had this amazing Somali food the first time around,” he said. “We have Korean food. Is there another community in the area that we could connect with via a food opportunity that’s not currently being offered on the street or in our area? We want to find somebody who has the willingness to commit to this for a minimum of 12 months and has the personal stamina to commit to the project. We want to see an enthusiasm for it, and see some creativity. Are they willing to innovate? Are they willing to embrace technology?”

For Susan Chung, operating out of the same building as a theater provides a unique way to combine food, media and technology.

“We’ve gotten approval for a K-Pop Demon Hunters dance party in February,” she said. “I think it’s going to be so much fun where everyone can get kimbap and all the food items that are in the movie.

Featured photo: Susan Chung and her family. Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 25/11/06

By John Fladd
jfladd@hippopress.com

• Tavern in the Square: Tavern in the Square (125 S. River Road, Bedford, 635-4445, taverninthesquare.com/locations/bedford-nh) has opened at a new location in the Market and Main complex in Bedford. Serving upscale comfort food, the restaurant will open daily at 11:30 a.m.

• Street tacos: T&T Way taco shop (138 Main St., Nashua, 417-5910, ttwaynh.com) has opened. Serving upscale interpretations of authentic Mexican street food, it is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 12:59 a.m.

• Greek food at the mall: Zeus Mediterranean Grill has opened in the food court at the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester. It is open Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

• Hooksett pizza grand opening: According to the Hooksett Chamber of Commerce newsletter there will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Nakis Pizza & Bar (1558 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 485-5515, nakispizza.com) Thursday, Nov. 6, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The restaurant offers pizza for pickup or delivery 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.

• Community comfort: According to an announcement on its Facebook page, Honey Cup Cafe & Tearoom (150 Bridge St., Manchester, 836-6008, honeycupnh.com) will be open for Neighborhood Night every Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. and will offer a free comfort meal of a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup or chips at no cost, no questions asked, “until the government opens.” Dine-in only. Ask for “the special.”

Nashua pop-up pantries help take up SNAP slack

Sara Ceaser is the Director of Volunteer and Community Engagement for the United Way of Greater Nashua, which organizes five pop-up food pantries each week across Nashua. She said that with SNAP benefits scheduled to run out in November food insecurity in the city is likely to increase.

“We started our [food pantry] program at the beginning of the Covid pandemic to make sure that there was food available in neighborhoods,” she said, “and we saw that there was a continued need. So we stay in those locations and yes, most of the people who attend will walk there.”

“We do these pop-up pantries at different locations in the community every week. I’m hearing anecdotally from the people that are there that we’re seeing an increase already, even before SNAP benefits have run out. We are preparing to provide more food when we can, and being a little bit creative on how we can source food. Another project that we do is grocery deliveries to homebound people from food pantries. I just checked the numbers for Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. We did 52 deliveries, which was an increase of almost 20. We had 34 deliveries the previous month. So things are definitely changing.”

Part of being creative in sourcing food, Ceaser said, is working with groups such as the Regenerative Roots Association. “They are located in Nashua and they are doing what’s called Fresh Rescue,” she said. “They go to stores and they will pick up food in their refrigerated van and drop it off for us for the food pantries as well. Most grocery stores do this fresh rescue program where they have food that’s still good but they need to get it off of their shelves. Most of what we get from this program at the moment is protein, so meat and other types of things like that, and a lot of bread too.”

Another group working with the United Way is the Hillsborough County Gleaners. “They are a group that is run out of UNH Cooperative Extension,” Ceaser said. “They go to farms, and they have volunteers who pick what’s left in a farm’s field after the initial harvest. And so we benefit from that also. The harvest is kind of winding down a little bit, but we’re able to provide fresh fruits and vegetables during the growing season. We’re working on other ways to provide fresh fruits and vegetables as well; we’ll hopefully be able to purchase that using gift cards donated by stores and possibly grant funding as well. So we’re hoping to kind of ramp things up as we can.”

In the meantime, Ceaser said, the United Way’s pop-up pantries have just moved indoors for the winter.

Pop-ups
The United Way of Greater Nashua’s pop-up pantries are open from 11 a.m. to noon:
Monday: Harbor Care, 45 High St.
Tuesday: Girls Inc., 27 Burke St.
Wednesday: Arlington Street Community Center, 36 Arlington St.
Thursday: Nashua Community Music School, 2 Lock St.
Friday: Crossway Christian Church, 33 Pine St.
All locations are in Nashua.

Apple Bars, or maybe Cake

These apple bars might actually be bars. But this might also be a cake. Or it could be a pan of apple blondies. This dessert’s status depends on the belief of an individual snacker.

  • 12 ounces (340 g) diced apples, about three fist-sized apples; I like to mix it up and use a couple of different types – Granny Smiths and Braeburns, for instance
  • ½ cup (1 stick) butter
  • 1½ cups flour (180 g) – I find whole wheat works well for rich, brown baked goods like this, but regular all-purpose flour will work just as well
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
  • ¾ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1½ cups (320 g) brown sugar
  • 1 egg plus one or two egg yolks – you probably have some yolks left over from making the pumpkin soufflé (see page 17)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla or dark rum
  • pinch of coarse salt

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

Line an 8×8” baking pan with parchment paper. If the parchment seems reluctant to stay in the pan, put a dot of butter between the pan and the paper to hold everything in place.

Melt the butter in a small skillet, then pour almost all of it into a dish to cool off. Fry the apple pieces in the remaining butter until they start to brown slightly, then remove the pan from the heat.

In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and spices. Set the mixture aside to psych itself up for its big moment.

In a second bowl — it could be the bowl to your stand mixer, but it doesn’t have to be — whisk the melted butter and sugar together thoroughly. Whisk in the egg and extra yolk, then the vanilla or dark rum. When the gloppy ingredients are all mixed, stir in the dry ingredients, one half at a time, then stir in the fried apples.

Transfer the apple batter to the parchment-lined baking pan, and bake on the center rack of your oven for 40 minutes or so. You can use a toothpick to judge how done it is, or just pat it gingerly, like you would a lizard. It should be golden brown and not squishy. The apple bars, not a lizard, though he probably shouldn’t be squishy either.

Let the bars — or maybe it’s a cake — cool in the pan. Eat warm with vanilla ice cream, or cool and chewy for breakfast.

Featured photo: Apple bar with ice cream. Photo by John Fladd.

Two restaurants, one kitchen

Bravo is home to two concepts

“The original plan was just to open up a fine dining restaurant,” Rhonda Duhamel said, “seven days a week from 4 to 10 p.m. at night.”

But, as boxer Mike Tyson once famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” For Duhamel, co-owner of the recently opened Bravo Restaurant (73 Hanover St, Manchester, 854-8139, bravonh.com) and its sister business, Café at Bravo (85 Hanover St, Manchester, 854-8089, cafeatbravo.com), the metaphorical punch was the need for more kitchen space, which led them to open a second, lunch-centered restaurant two doors down from the fine-dining one. Both use the same kitchen.

“Because we connect in the back, we are able to prep in the back for the restaurant and also make signature sandwiches for the cafe side along with homemade soups, pastries and salads; everything is made in house,” Duhamel said. “So that’s why we now have the Café at Bravo.”

This double business model has allowed Duhamel and her partner, Robert Singer, to serve two different types of clientele with little additional staff and minimal disruption to the fine-dining restaurant. The café is open until the early evening. The restaurant opens at 4 p.m., and there is little overlap between the two, Duhamel said.

The Café at Bravo focuses on sandwiches, salads, pastries and soups, she said.

“We make homemade soup — a special soup every day, and a specialty sandwich each week. We also just added a big catering side to the cafe, so that’s really ramping up now. People are ordering our signature sandwiches for their parties — businesses and Sunday football get-togethers. It’s a self-serve cafe. We do have a counter where people can come up and order their food, but we encourage people to use our kiosks.”

The kiosks are automated stations located at the front of the café, where customers can order and pay for their food before picking it up at the counter in the rear.

“We wanted to have very little overhead here on this side,” she said, “so we figured we would offer the kiosks…. We would rather pay our staff more and let the consumer not tip them.”

Two doors down, the Bravo Restaurant focuses on upscale American cuisine, Duhamel said. “We have everything from salmon, sea bass, seafood casserole — I actually had that last night — haddock, sole, and then we go into some nice chicken dishes. We have a nice rib-eye. Our tomahawk pork chop is very popular, and our short rib has been spectacular. And then we have filets and a [pasta] bolognese. We also do have a burger on the menu.”

The restaurant has the flexibility to meet several types of white-tablecloth-dining needs, Duhamel said.

“We have 101 seats. We have a regular bar and then we’ve added a wine bar here in our dining room. It’s a seated bar where you can have your meal. We’re very much into wines. We have 24 seats outside on the patio. We also have a private dining area with 16 seats, so we can rent it out for a family party to a business party. In this wine bar, we also have the ability to use audio if we have a chef’s tasting here. If we have upcoming special events, like a Valentine’s Day event, we can advertise on the screen here for our guests to see.” She pointed at a large abstract painting over the bar. “That isn’t a painting; it’s a video screen.”

Duhamel said that the two Bravo restaurants are a good fit for downtown Manchester.

“We complement the other restaurants in the city,” she said. “Hanover Street is the happening street, downtown. And now we have it filled — Hanover Street has no empty spaces.”

Café at Bravo
Where: 85 Hanover St., Manchester, 854-8089, cafeatbravo.com
Hours: open seven days a week, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Bravo Restaurant
Where: 73 Hanover St., Manchester, 854-8139, bravonh.com
Hours: open seven days a week, 4 to 10 p.m.

Featured photo: Cafe at Bravo. Photo by John Fladd.

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