Author: John Fladd

French fry alley

New Manch spot brings diner food and walk-up fries

Cat Alley, just off Elm Street in downtown Manchester, is one of the city’s most fascinating landmarks. Its north wall is covered with multi-colored cat-themed murals created by dozens of area artists. Now the south wall has an attraction of its own: a walk-up french fry window.

The StatesMan City Diner is the newest addition to Manchester’s downtown restaurant scene. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it serves traditional diner dishes, as well as seafood and cocktails. And, of course, french fries.

Diner owner Dionysus Lemos clarified that while the StatesMan is open all the time, the french fry window does close briefly each day.

“Our typical days will run from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.,” he said. “The hours are limited, but not by much.”

According to Lemos, the StatesMan honors diner tradition with a full breakfast menu but has expanded the menu to include a wide variety of other types of food.

“We call the concept ‘Citizens For Good Taste,’” he said. “We have shareable [dishes], we have items on ice, which includes our mimosa bar. We have a pastry section. We have a smoothie section, a barista section, and our cocktails. Additionally, on the brunch side of things, we have organic burgers, steaks, tacos and signature sandwiches. We have a section called the Greek Corner, and we’ll have some Greek items — spanakopita, pastitsio, dolmades — some nice offerings.”

Lemos said that he and his head chef, Alex Medina, put a lot of attention to an area that many diners typically overlook: salads and seafood.

“We have salads,” he said, “very unique, upscale salads. We have Cobb salads, we have seafood salads, with a little touch of scallops and shrimp. Everything’s fresh, everything comes out of Maine. Nothing’s frozen. We have lobster on the menu. We have a special combination of lobster — one and a quarter pounds and one and three quarter pounds with a sirloin steak. We have straight lobster. We’ve got a combination of lobster and steamers and corn on the cob, in addition to the whole and cross-sectioned [lobsters].”

The StatesMan’s menu is centered around a philosophy of high quality and modest prices, Lemos said.

“I’ve been in the restaurant business throughout the years, and for me it’s all about community, quality and affordability. And those three components have never failed me in my approach to doing business. We’re going to focus on the quality of the food, and we’re making sure that everything hinges on affordability. Everything is predicated on having an open door concept here where everybody can find something that they like and a portion that they find reasonable. Our menu is based on Junior StatesMan and StatesMan — every item, so [a customer] can have a touch of anything at a smaller portion, and a reasonable price.”

He used pasta as an example.

“We have a section called Pastabilities,” he said. “We have two offerings of linguine, spaghetti, ravioli, tortellini. So if you order ravioli, you can have a lobster ravioli or a cheese ravioli, with two offerings per category.”

“We’re keeping things affordable,” Lemos said. “We’re trying to create and maintain the integrity of an affordable environment. After all, we have ‘Diner’ in our name.”

StatesMan City Diner
Where: 836 Elm St., Manchester, 932-2751
Hours: Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The walk-up french fry window in Cat Alley is open from 11 a.m. each day, until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and until 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday.

Featured photo: The french fry window. Photo by John Fladd.

Stories and scotch

Get the flavor of the Highland Games

One of the highlights of this year’s Highland Games will be an attempt to set a new world record for the most bagpipers playing in one venue, which is exciting and splashy, but according to Joshua Auger, one of the Scottish festival’s organizers, some of the really exciting events will involve tasting a range of beers, ales and whiskeys throughout the weekend in venues in and around the Loon Mountain Resort in Lincoln.

The Games, he said, give area breweries an opportunity to express their Scottish side and earn bragging rights.

“We work with eight New Hampshire breweries,” he said. “And we partner with them and ask them to develop a scotch ale that they would like to represent the New Hampshire Highlands. Then we invite patrons of the games to come in and sample all eight of the scotch ales. These are typically smoky, darker ales, brown ales. We invite these people in and they vote for which one that they think is the best. At the end of the weekend, that is our official Scotch Ale for that year.”

Another event will pair Scottish beer and ales with food.

“We host a Brews and Bites event in partnership with the Woodstock Inn Brewery,” Auger said. “It’s for people that are less inclined to go to a concert, who want to just sit down and have a nice evening. We serve four different beers from the Woodstock Station paired with four of their foods. And each one is designed to complement the beer that it’s associated with.” Each course, he said, will be a traditional Scottish dish or inspired by Scottish ingredients.

Auger said there will be whiskey-centered activities for a range of scotch enthusiasts, even the most serious.

“At the mountain itself,” he said, “we actually have scotch tastings where we bring in experts from Laphroaig [a well-respected Scottish distiller]. They will come in and teach our attendees [about] different scotches as part of a seminar. So you’ll go into a classroom and learn how to smell it, how to add a few drops of water to your scotch to open up the flavors, how to correctly drink it, what foods it pairs well with, the differences in the casks that they age it in. They’ll go through all of that. So you can actually take master classes at our games with whiskey experts who are willing to sit down and talk to you about how to drink scotch appropriately, how to drink it correctly, and how to appreciate it. It’s an educational thing. It’s a rare opportunity for a lot of people that would like to learn about something like this. There aren’t a lot of places you can go to actually take a class to appreciate this. For wine you can go to vineyards. We’ve got a few here in the state. But scotch, no.”

Other whiskey events will be less serious. “We’ve also got Spirits on the Mountain,” Auger said. “We hire a professional Scottish storyteller to come over and tell stories, ghost stories on the mountain by a bonfire. And then we pair each story with a scotch from the region of that story. And I just think that’s one of the coolest little things that people don’t know about. It’s just a really neat thing that we do.”

Other spirit-themed events will include a Whisky & Spirits Tasting tent, where Games attendees can sample and compare a variety of scotch whiskies, and mixology classes, where they can learn to build cocktails around scotch.

Ultimately, Auger said, each event at the Highland Games is presented in the hope that attendees will discover a little bit of Scotland in themselves.

“The Highland Games,” he said, “while they’re Scottish, they’re not exclusively Scottish. We’re a New Hampshire event. We’ve been here for 50 years. We don’t care what ethnicity you are or where you come from. It doesn’t matter. As an example, we’ve got some Native Americans who come to the games. We’ve got a chief from Maine, the Mi’kmaq chief; supposedly [a Scot named] Henry Sinclair married into their tribe in [the 1300s].”

50th Annual NH Highland Games & Festival
When: Friday, Sept. 19, through Sunday, Sept. 21,
Where: Loon Mountain Resort, 60 Loon Mountain Road, Lincoln, 745-8111, loonmtn.com
More: nhscot.org

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 25/09/18

News from the local food scene

• A different look at Irish spirits: NH Liquor & Wine Outlet, Store 50 (Willow Spring Plaza, 294 DW Highway, Nashua, 888-0271, liquorandwineoutlets.com) will host Ireland Beyond Whiskey, Friday, Sept. 19, beginning at 7 p.m. This tasting event will feature Irish spirits other than its celebrated whiskeys. Two of the spirits will be Two Shores Irish Rum and Blood Monkey Irish Gin. Whether you’re a gin enthusiast, a rum lover or simply curious, this will be an enlightening evening of tasting. Tickets are $14.64 through eventbrite.com.

• Pie: The Great New Hampshire Pie Festival will take place Saturday, Sept. 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the New Hampshire Farm Museum (1305 White Mountain Highway, Milton, 652-7840, nhfarmmuseum.org). Judges will sample pies and award prizes in a variety of categories. The public is also invited to sample pies from local bakeries and vote for the people’s choice for best professional baker. Visit nhfarmmuseum.org/event/great-nh-pie-festival.

• Sunshine Supper: Bookery (844 Elm St., Manchester, 836-6600, bookerymht.com) will host the first of a series of Sunshine Suppers on Saturday, Sept.20, at 7 p.m. This dinner is described as “a radiant evening of seasonal, story-driven dishes inspired by light, warmth, and the joy of gathering.” Tickets are $81.88 through Eventbrite.com. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Sweet Pea Project (sweetpeaproject.org). Visit bookerymht.com/our-events.

• A spirited evening: Tickets are on sale now for the annual Distiller’s Showcase of Premium Spirits on Thursday, Nov. 6, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown, according to distillersshowcase.com. General admission tickets cost $65 through Sept. 30, afterwhich they will cost $75. Connoisseur tickets, offering an entry time for 5 p.m, cost $80 until Sept. 30 and $90 after that.

Kentucky Mai Tai

Let’s say you are in the mood for a tropical drink — a tiki drink, if you will — and you crack open a cocktail guide or look up a recipe online, only to be intimidated. Many — not all, by any means, but many — recipes for well-known tropical drinks call for two, three or even four types of rum.

You didn’t even know that there was more than one type.

In theory, these recipes call for dark rum for flavor, white or silver rum to keep the drink from tasting like molasses, and maybe a float of some over-proof rum to add an eye-opening kick to it. Then, maybe some spiced rum to—

At any rate, this is all well and good if you have a really sophisticated palate, or you’re a professional rum taster, or maybe a pirate — but for most of us, the drink tastes like a variety of fruit juices, syrups and, you know, rum. If we want to taste a contrast between the alcohols in a mug shaped like a parrot getting a tattoo, we’ll need to head in a slightly different direction:

2 ounces rum – Whatever type of rum you like or have on hand. If you’re making a run to the liquor store, probably don’t go overboard. Buy something middle-of-the road. If you splurge on a $70-a-bottle-sipping-rum, its subtleties will be lost in a drink with more than two ingredients.

½ ounce bourbon – Again, probably not your best stuff, but not something that tastes like corn and kerosene, either.

½ ounce orange curacao

1 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice

½ ounce orgeat – a type of almond syrup used in tropical drinks to give a fruity backnote.

¼ ounce simple syrup

Crushed ice

Fill a cocktail shaker about 1/3 full with crushed ice.

Add all the cocktail ingredients, as well as half of your spent lime to the crushed ice, shake for 10 to 15 seconds and pour — unstrained — into a rocks glass. Drink to “Babalu” by Desi Arnaz.

Mai tais are popular, because they thread the needle of sweet and sour, exotic and comforting, and boozy and fruity. This version adds the complexity of bourbon. Bourbon can be a bit of a prima donna and, unless kept firmly under control, can easily take over a cocktail. It makes itself known in this drink, but in such a small amount it plays well with everyone else on the team.

Now, go shoo the children away from the television and call up 1989’s The Mighty Quinn with Denzel Washington. You won’t be sorry.

Featured photo: Photo by John Fladd.

Sword-fighting and beer

Manchester Brewfest offers beer, cider and more

By John Fladd

jfladd@hippopress.com

Manchester Brewfest organizer Peter Telge hopes it doesn’t rain this Saturday. It messes up the medieval sword fighting.

“It’s very cool,” he said. “There are about 16 combatants and they come in here, they’re ex-military and they wear the armor, and they use real swords, and they beat the heck out of each other. They were here two years ago, but they didn’t show last year because it was pouring all day. They don’t really work well in the rain.” This is on top of the bagpipers, a live band and the ax-throwing.

Manchester’s Brewfest has a reputation as being a small but fun one among New England beer festivals.

“This is our 11th annual [festival],” Telge said. “It’s not going to be a huge brewfest, but it should be a really fun brewfest. We have a good band called Nefarious Motives playing, and we will have some giveaways and auctions; it just should be a pretty good, decent time.”

The participants in this year’s event are split evenly between breweries and other vendors. “We’ll be about 20 brewers and about 20 vendors,” Telge said. “With 20 breweries, each with four or five beers each, you’re looking at 80 to 100 different choices.”

More beverage producers than just breweries will be represented, he pointed out. “There will be two cider producers, and a couple of seltzers, too.”

The Sunstone Brewing Co. (298 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 216-1808, sunstonebrewing.com) will be one of the breweries in attendance.

“We’re pretty excited,” said Sunstone brewer and co-owner Bryan Link. “We’ve been looking forward to getting our name out there a little more in the Manchester area, just looking for more exposure, and this is a great way to get it.”

Link said Sunstone is planning to bring two offerings to the Brewfest.

“One will be served on draft,” he said, and the other one comes in growlers [large glass jugs],” he said. “The draft that we’ll be bringing will be our Mai Tai Sour. We’ve added a little bit of grenadine to it to add a little color and to flavor it as well. It actually looks like a mai tai, as far as its golden color and then it separates [in the glass], and that little bit of grenadine sinks to the bottom and gives it a pink-red color. In growlers, we’re bringing our Arnold Hammer, which is like an Arnold Palmer seltzer. It’s not made with vodka or anything like that. It’s actually fermented out just like a beer, so it’s pretty much just a beer but not made with grains.”

2025 Manchester Brewfest to benefit Webster House

When: Saturday, Sept. 13, from 1 to 4 p.m.
Where: Arms Park, 10 Arms St., Manchester
Admission: General admission tickets are $50 each, VIP tickets are $60 (and allow VIPs to enter an hour early), and non-drinking Designated Driver tickets are $20.
More: manchesterbrewfest.com

Participating beverage producers will include Stark Brewing Co., Blue Water Brewery, Rhythm Cider, Samuel Adams, Woodland Farms Brewery, Three of Strong Spirits, Sun Cruiser Vodka Iced Tea, Mountain View Brewery, Omnium Brewing, Notch Brewing, Night Shift Brewing, Citizen Cider, Lithermans Limited, Sunstone Brewing, and Vermont Hard Seltzer.
Vendors will include The Rugged Axe, Dew Collective, The Potato Concept, North Hord, Darbster Animal Rescue, and Lola’s Lemonade & Dirty Pop

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Glendi is back!

A weekend of Greek food and treats in Manchester

By John Fladd

jfladd@hippopress.com

One of the high points of Manchester’s food calendar, Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral’s annual Greek Food Festival, Glendi, will take place this weekend. According to festival co-chair George Skaperdas, a huge turnout is expected. His advice to a first-timer at Glendi is, “Get here early and get in line.”

“The strategy as far as I’m concerned,” he said, “is when you’re done eating, take a break and eat some more. Of course, we have the food line with all the great [prepared] food, but we have beer, wine and cold drinks in our Taverna, and inside the Community Center we have all the great desserts.”

For many Glendi-goers the main attraction is lamb.

“As always,” Skaperdas said, “we’ll have a barbecue pit to [cook] lamb barbecue and shish kebabs. We have 2,300 pounds of lamb shanks that we’re cooking.“ Because a shank comes from a hard-working area of the lamb, it requires long, slow cooking. “We’ll be here braising them all day and most of the night,” assured Skaperdas. “So there’s barbecue and then the barbecued lamb dinner of course, and we’ll have chicken dinners and a Greek meatball dinner.”

So what makes a meatball Greek?

“OK,” Skaperdas said. “You have an Italian meatball and you have a Greek meatball side by side. They have pretty much the same spice palette, but they’re mixed differently — how much oregano you put in versus how much thyme.” In any case, he said, there will be a lot of them. “We’re making another hundred pounds of meatballs today, because I thought we might be a little meatball-shy. There will be thousands of meatballs, probably 3,000 stuffed grape leaves, and 150 trays of a spanakopita [a layered dish of spinach, feta, and philo dough]; each tray has something like 48 pieces. The numbers are staggering. We will sell over five or six thousand pieces of the pita [spanakopita] over the three days. The amount of food is just crazy. It’s difficult to track the number of people, total, but we will serve probably 10,000 meals over three days.”

There will be gyros at Glendi, Skaperdas said, but not made from the cones of meat, rotating on a spit that many people expect.

“We just don’t have enough space to store the equipment, so we grill it instead. We’ve got a grill out there and the same team that’s been doing it for 25 years will be grilling it instead.

The other big draw at Glendi is the Greek pastries, Skaperdas said.

“We do have our ever famous loukoumades, which are the fried dough puffs. You can get them with honey. You can get them with powdered sugar, or cinnamon sugar, or syrup — Greek syrup, not maple syrup! We always have kataifi, which is shredded phyllo dough with walnuts and syrup. We’ll have baklava, of course, and we have volunteers here right now making finikia, which is a cookie that can be stuffed or unstuffed with a date. Then, of course, there are the kourabiedes, which are the Greek powdered sugar cookies, so we’ve got those going, too.”

All of this, Skaperdas said, is an expression of a core Greek value: hospitality.

“We do this to create income for the church and all that,” he said, “but in the end, it’s a celebration of heritage and culture. Greek people just love to share their hospitality. You can’t go into a Greek house and not get fed.”

46th Annual Glendi Festival

When: Friday, Sept. 12, and Saturday, Sept. 13, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 14, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 650 Hanover St., Manchester; free shuttle service available from Derryfield Park
More: stgeorgenh.org/activities/glendi

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

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