Church Wedding

It probably goes without saying that the name of this drink is a reference to a particularly awful dad joke.

Why does a melon have to have a church wedding?

Because it can’t elope.

For this drink, step 1 is to get a cantaloupe.

It would be nice to have some sort of assurance that you’ll be able to get your hands on a good one — sweet, a little acidic, maybe with a hint of musk — but in life, love, and cantaloupes, there are no guarantees. Cantaloupes are fickle. You might get three or four great cantaloupes in a row, then have your heart broken by one that tastes like orange cardboard. You might have been inflicted with a handful of duds and you might be considering giving up hope, when infuriatingly a good one will knock you back to Square One, emotionally.

Do your best. Squeeze the melons. Smell them. Take whichever of them gives you a whisper of a promise.

Secondly, you’ll want a little 2-ounce bottle of fruit-flavored liqueur, like the ones you get on airplanes. You can find a rack of them near the checkout at a liquor store. If you’re like me, over time you’ll find yourself buying little bottles of exotic booze on impulse, and before you know it you’ll find yourself with a drawerful of schnapps and flavored whiskeys that you’ve never gotten around to doing anything with. Today one of them will have its Big Day.

Today’s special cameo performance will be played by (drumroll) pineapple schnapps.

  • 2-ounce bottle pineapple schnapps
  • 2 ounces fresh cantaloupe juice – Scoop out the inside of a fresh cantaloupe, seeds and all, and puree it in your blender, then strain it through a fine-mesh strainer. More than one, if you have them.
  • 1 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice – about half a large lime
  • 2 ounces plain club soda or seltzer

Combine cantaloupe juice, lime juice, and the contents of your tiny bottle of fruit-flavored liqueur with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake thoroughly, until you hear the ice start to break up into tiny shards.

Strain over fresh ice in a Collins glass, then top with club soda and stir gently.

Drink this with a straw.

Tasting fruity, and a little acidic, and a little zippy from the carbonation, this is a very good drink to have while petting your dog.

If you own a collie, you can call this your Melon Collie Baby.

Featured photo: Raspberry + chocolate. Photo by John Fladd.

Mexican focus, West Side home

Jorge’s Mexican Grill opens in Manchester

The new Mexican restaurant on Manchester’s West Side has history.

“This [building] opened in 1910,” George Sklavounos said. “It was a movie theater. I had customers tell me today that they printed their wedding cards here because it used to be a print shop after the theater. I met an old man — his name is George as well — he’s in his 90s, and he was telling me he used to come here and for 45 cents he would get his popcorn, he would get his pop soda, and he would sit here and watch four hours of movies. This was in 1956. There’s history in the building. We found the building, then realized the depth of its history and took care of it. We have completely gutted the building. fixed its bones and then put skin on it.”

Now it is a Mexican restaurant. Jorge’s Mexican Grill is Sklavounos’s latest project. Sklavounos is the owner of Giorgio’s Cocktails & Eatery in Nashua, Milford and Manchester. Jorge’s is directly across the street from his existing Manchester restaurant and has come after a lot of hard thought and research, Sklavounos said.

“I did a lot of research about San Diego,” he said, “which is kind of the birthplace of the burrito in the United States. I started doing research about what grows in Mexico, what makes it Mexican.” It was important to him, he said not to lump all of Mexico’s many cuisines together.

“It’s like the way that different things grow in different parts of Italy. Different topography, different soil and different earth are going to produce different foods. I went down to Mexico; I met with the cooks in the kitchens because that’s the best place to get a sense of the reality of a cuisine. And I came back here and started purchasing ingredients and playing with them — understanding what all those peppers are, the processes that they put in their peppers, why some are smoky, what different peppers are used for.”

“Then,” he said, “we started building a menu.”

For his new restaurant, Sklavounos said, he wanted to work with a limited number of ingredients to start with.

“We have 15 to 20 items that we prep here,” he said. “When you have a few ingredients you can really, really knock them all out of the park. So our chorizo bacon black beans is one item that you can focus on making the best that you can. We use imported spices and Mexican oregano and epazote and the dried peppers. We make our own chili-lime powder. We do make our own pickles — carrot, onion and jalapeño pickles — which is a staple in burrito shops in San Diego. We’ve developed a couple of nice salsas,”

The tightly focused number of ingredients means the Jorge’s menu is equally tightly focused — concentrating on tacos, burritos and Mexican bowls for its main courses.

“But we also make fresh churros and we stuff them,” Sklavounos said. “We have a Boston cream churro. And my pastry chef makes all of our paletas [a frozen Mexican dessert that looks like but is not a popsicle]. And we’re serving Mexican coffees and drinks.”

Sklavounos said he has taken a cue from the restaurant’s location and focused it on the neighborhood’s community.

“We’re on the West Side [of Manchester],” he said. “As you get to the West Side we’re the very first place you see. I think they built the original theater here for that reason.”

Jorge’s Mexican Grill
Where: 290 Granite St., Manchester, 854-5970, jorges.com
When: Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Featured photo: Jorges. Photo by John Fladd.

Pubs and pups

Humane Society holds its weekend-long Pup Crawl

What would it take to be entered into a special type of raffle, a raffle with prizes you can’t buy for yourself? In the case of the 2026 Pup Crawl, it would involve petting dogs and drinking beer.

Olivia Ross from the Humane Society for Greater Nashua described the three-day fundraiser. “It’s not a traditional pub crawl,” she said. “We call it our Pup Crawl as a play on words. But really it’s a weekend-long event for folks who want to support local breweries, but also it is a dog-friendly event.”

Every stop along the Pup Crawl is a pro-dog brewery, she said. “We’ve chosen places that allow dogs on the outdoor patios or inside the breweries so that we get a lot of dog lovers who come through. It’s a great time for people to get together to celebrate and enjoy some good beer and some good food.”

It starts by buying a ticket on the Humane Society website, Ross said. “We sell tickets through our website, which is hsfn.org for, $25 per person. You do have to be 21 or older, of course, to purchase them. That money goes straight to the shelter, so it’s helping our animals right now who are currently awaiting adoption. And with that ticket you receive your Pup Crawl T-shirt and what we call our ‘Pawsport,’ which is a brochure with all the brewery and event info located on it.”

Throughout the weekend, each Pup Crawler will visit whichever and however many of the participating breweries they want to, Ross said. “So when they visit a brewery and they make a purchase, whether that’s for food or drink or even merchandise, they will get a stamp on that Pawsport from one of the staff members. And when we have our finale event on Sunday they’ll pass their Pawsport in and receive raffle tickets for each stamp that they’ve got on their Pawsport.”

The prizes for the raffles vary, Ross said, from things you might expect, like branded swag from participating breweries, to things a little harder to come by.

“One of the prizes is four tickets to a pre-season Patriots game,” she said. The most noteworthy prize is something much more personal. “This will be our third year doing this raffle where folks can enter to have their dog featured on next year’s Pup Crawl T-shirt. You can see this year’s T-shirt on our website. Our model is Miss Biscuit. She is an adorable cattle dog mix, and she’s just got a perfect little face for the T-shirt. She and her mom attend Pup Crawl each year, so she was very excited to win the raffle last year and have Biscuit featured on this year’s shirt.”

This year’s Pup Crawl will start on Friday, July 17, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Able Ebenezer Brewing in Merrimack.

“Our finale or closer will be at AJ’s Sports Bar and Grill in Hudson,” Ross said. “We used to host our finales at Anheuser-Busch in Merrimack, but unfortunately the location closed down. We visited AJ’s in Hudson and met with one of the managers there. They were so kind. They actually offer a doggy-friendly menu. You can order food and drink for yourself, but you can also order dog-friendly items like grilled chicken and plain rice for your dog. During the finale, along with the raffle, we’re also going to have a lure course that the dogs can participate in. Basically it is a white bag that’s attached to this zip line that sticks to the ground. Some dogs stay very focused and they run and follow the bag. It’s great exercise. Some of them will even catch the bag. And then you get the dogs like mine who get distracted and just wander off in the field or they just like to roll around in the grass.”

The Humane Society for Greater Nashua’s annual Pup Crawl
When and where: begins Friday, July 17, at 4 p.m. at Able Ebenezer Brewing Co. (31 Columbia Circle, Merrimack, 844-223-2253, ableebenezer.com) and ends Sunday, July 10, at AJ’s Sports Bar (11 Tracy Lane, Hudson, 708-1102, ajs-sportsbar.com). Visit participating breweries in between.
More: hsfn.org/pup-crawl

Featured photo: Pup Crawl pup. Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 26/7/09

Lavender date night: Lavender Fields at Pumpkin Blossom Farm (393 Pumpkin Hill Road, Warner, 456-2443, pumpkinblossomfarm.com) will host a Sunset Date Night in the Field, Friday, July 10, from 7 to 9 p.m. Share a sunset in the lavender fields at Pumpkin Blossom Farm picking lavender, eating a curated picnic, and drinking lavender-infused mocktails and Champagne. Tickets are $249 through the farm’s website.

Sweet summer cookie decorating: Practice intermediate cookie decorating skills in a beautiful garden studio setting in Brookline. This class, taught by Make Sweet Art, is recommended for adults who have basic cookie decorating skills already. This event will take place Saturday, July 11, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in a private garden or an indoor studio, depending on the weather. Tickets are $69.82 through eventbrite.com.

Cake and gardens are a perfect combination: The Sugar Connection Bakeshop (thesugarconnectionbakeshop.com) will lead a garden party cake workshop Sunday, July 12, at noon, guiding guests through decorating their own garden-inspired cake, sharing tips and techniques along the way. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, this workshop is all about having fun, sharing tips, and getting creative with yummy treats. Tickets are $55.20 at sapphiresocialnh.com.

Wine, yoga, and Dave Matthews are another good combination: On Monday, July 13, from 1 to 5 p.m., join Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) and Blossom Yoga (120 N. Main St., Concord, 226-9642, blossomyoganh.com) for a celebration in Bicentennial Square of everything Dave Matthews Band. There will be free wine-tasting, yoga, and other Matthewsian celebrations. Visit wineonmainnh.com/event for details.

Teens, tweens and basil: There will be a meeting of the Teen/Tween Spice Club at the Nashua Public Library (2 Court St., Nashua, 589-4600, nashualibrary.org) Tuesday, July 14, from 2 to 3 p.m. Discover a new spice or herb each month through tasting simple recipes and hands-on food exploration. This month the club is featuring basil, a versatile herb used in cuisines around the world. Sample a variety of basil-inspired treats, make your own refreshing basil lemonade, and explore the many ways this fragrant herb can add flavor to food and drinks. You’ll also take home a recipe to try in your own kitchen.

A cupcake and martini explosion: The martini and cupcake pairing at the Copper Door (15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677, or 41 S. Broadway, Salem, 458-2033, copperdoor.com) in July is themed around fireworks. The Fireworks Finale Martini is made with whipped cream vodka, white chocolate liqueur, Triple-Eight blueberry vodka, blueberry syrup and cream, with a blueberry garnish, for $14.75. The Fireworks Finale Cupcake is a blueberry cupcake with blueberry puree filling, vanilla frosting, a fresh blueberry, and gold star candy sprinkles, for $12.

Raising funds with flying skillets

Hillsboro Summerfest has it all

The Hillsboro Summerfest will take place from July 9 to July 12. According to the festival chair and creative director, Katherine Charrette, the celebration has been going on in one form or another for 36 years, offering carnival rides, music and community events to raise money for Hillsborough’s Fire Department and in recent years the Lions Club.

”It’s been a few different things over the years,” she said. “We were originally the Fireman’s Muster, so they would get together and compete, and it’s really grown since then. We were the Balloon Fest for a long time, and we’ve recently rebranded in the past seven years as the Hillsboro Summerfest, so we could kind of broaden our scope a little bit.”

“Our proceeds go to the firefighters,” Charrette said, “and their association, which provides lots of medical equipment.and materials that we need. It also splits with the other partner we have, which is the Lions Club. They provide lots of free meals for senior citizens. They do lunches with kids and students at the school. They provide eyewear. We’re completely nonprofit and our goal is to get money from this festival into the pockets of other nonprofits.”

Charrette said that aside from raising money for good causes the goal of Summerfest is to provide affordable entertainment.

“We really try to provide as much free stuff as we possibly can,” she said, “in order to have people not spending a ton of money and be able to really enjoy themselves without a huge price ticket. [What you see] all depends on the day that you show up. If you show up on Thursday, you’re going to see kids and teens running around everywhere, going on all the rides as many times in a row as they can. If you were to show up on Saturday, you could see a 12-foot-tall butterfly, a strongman performance by two-time world record holder Mighty Mike — he’s coming here from Nova Scotia to perform for us — we have stilt walkers, we have a long and very good fireworks show. We have a magic show. We have an RC truck crawler meet-up on Sunday this year — we have a truck that dumps off a bunch of rocks and you can take any kind of RC vehicle that you would like and you’ll be able to just kind of get tips and tricks from other RC enthusiasts … it’s really just about RC vehicles meeting up and learning from one another. And we are doing a giveaway for like a $300 RC crawler truck, which is like … a very tiny version of a lifted Toyota Tacoma.”

Another high point of this year’s Summerfest will be a 5K road race, Charette said.

“We have one of the most beautiful 5K courses in the world. Our route goes along our river and over a beautiful, very old bridge. So that’s a really unique experience.” Another not-to-be-missed event that has become a yearly tradition, she said, is the Women’s Skillet Toss. “All of the proceeds for that go to women’s heart health,” she said. “And this is exactly what it sounds like, which is hucking a skillet as far as you possibly can — only underhand, no overhand. And this year we have added a Men’s Marshmallow Long Drive so we can provide something for men as well. The money raised from that will raise money for men’s mental health.” The Long Drive is golf-oriented, Charette said. “You take your driver and hit a ball as far as you can, only we’ll be using marshmallows because mental health is messy sometimes.”

The Hillsboro Summerfest
When: Thursday, July 9, from 6 to 10 p.m.; Friday, July 10, from 5 to 11 p.m.; Saturday, July 11, from 2 to 11 p.m.; and Sunday, July 12, from noon to 5 p.m.
Where: Hillsborough Fair Grounds on Henniker Street in Hillsborough.
More: hillsborosummerfest.com

Sundae Season

A look at the creations that take ice cream to another level

There is, of course, no single surefire guaranteed way to put somebody in a good mood. But ice cream comes close and an ice cream sundae adds even more deliciousness.

Perhaps a sundae even helps sell the idea that ice cream is a meal unto itself? Karissa Grey, a scooper at Cremeland Drive In in Manchester said that while scooped ice cream and sundaes sell about equally well, as the day gets later customers are more likely to order sundaes. “Some days it’s just scoops, other days I get a lot of orders for sundaes, but we definitely sell more sundaes in the afternoon than we do in the morning.”

How to sundae? Here are some ideas from some area sundae purveyors.

• Rhubarb Sundae

$4.35 from Richardson’s Farm (170 Water St., Boscawen, 796-2788, richardsonsfarmnh.com)

“It’s a standard sundae,” owner Jim Richardson said, “two scoops of ice cream, whatever kind of sauce, whipped cream, nuts, and cherry. But in this case the sauce is our homemade rhubarb. Several years ago a woman came running up to the front door, pointing at our rhubarb, going, ‘Is that rhubarb?’ I wondered what was wrong with her — it’s obviously rhubarb, but she said she’d never seen it before. I asked her where the heck she came from, and she said, Maryland. I just shook my head.”

Richardson admitted that rhubarb is a bit old-fashioned.

“When I was a little kid,” he said, “my grandmother always had a rhubarb sauce on the stove in the springtime. And you had to have it to thin your blood. If you didn’t thin your blood in the springtime, you’d overheat in the summertime. So anyway, after the Maryland lady left, I thought, ‘Geez, I haven’t done that in years,’ so I made a big pot of rhubarb sauce.”

The rhubarb sauce was popular enough that Richardson added strawberry-rhubarb and blueberry-rhubarb ice creams into his rotation. “It sells better than plain strawberry does,” he said. “We have a constant demand for it.”

• Strawberry sundae

seen from above, a cup of ice cream topped with strawberries and whipped cream, with a cherry on top
Strawberry Sundae at King Kone Photo by staff.

$6.75 for a small at King Kone (366 DW Highway in Merrimack, kingkonenh.com)

Known for their massive soft-serve ice cream cone, which you can get dipped or with toppings, King Kone also offers banana splits and sundaes, which are equally generous in size. Sundae offerings include hot fudge, peanut butter, pineapple, hot butterscotch, brownie and, for your berry cravings, a Strawberry Sundae, which you can get with your choice of soft-serve. At a recent visit, options included vanilla, chocolate, peanut butter, blueberry and, for maximum flavor, strawberry. The strawberry soft-serve was topped with syrupy strawberries, whipped cream, nuts and cherry.

• The Dudley Special

$7.98 at Dudley’s Ice Cream (846 Route 106, Loudon, 783-4800, facebook.com/dudleysicecreamshop)

“It’s like a banana split, without the banana,” said scooper Damaris Gilbert. “There’s three scoops of ice cream, and three — all of the toppings match up to the flavors, so there are strawberries on the strawberry [ice cream] and hot fudge on the chocolate ice cream, but what kind of topping matches up to vanilla? Well, pineapples are kind of the same color.”

Gilbert said that in her professional opinion the Dudley’s Special should be split between two or more people. “If I was going to eat a banana split or a Dudley’s Special or either of them, I would bring a team, personally,” she said, “but loads of people eat it by themselves. The Dudley’s Special is one of those mysterious types of things with aura where you remember when someone orders one. You remember the specific person who ordered it.”

• Ice Cream Sundae (bespoke)

A small for $6.50 at Granite State Candy Shoppe (13 Warren St., Concord, 225-2591; 832 Elm St., Manchester, 218-3885, granitestatecandyshoppe.com)

“I wanted to make you happy today,” said scooper Tasha Ross, “so I made you a lovely small sundae which consists of two scoops. I added one scoop of fudge brownie and another scoop of our peanut butter cup ice cream. On top, I put a little bit of chocolate fudge, and peanut butter sauce. The toppings I added were mini peanut butter cups and I also added some almonds since how can you have fudge brownies without almonds? And then I finished it off with some rainbow sprinkles and topped it with whipped cream and cherries.”

Granite State Candy sells more than 25 flavors of hard ice cream at any given time, Ross said. “If you order a large [sundae], you can add an extra flavor. We have four vegan flavors that are available in kinder, small, large, pint, or quart-sized. And our sundaes come in micro, small, and large sizes.”

“Because,” she repeated, “we want you to be happy.”

• Medium Three-Topping Sundae

$9.76 at Social Club Creamery (138 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2111, socialclubcreamery.com)

At the Social Club Creamery there are two ice cream menus. One menu is permanent, featuring always-there, familiar flavors, like double chocolate, maple latte, honeycomb or gooey butter cake. Additionally there is a second, smaller menu of seasonal flavors that changes each month. In July, for instance, it’s possible to order black raspberry chip, blueberry cheesecake, raspberry-brownie batter, or strawberry lemonade sorbet, which is vegan.

Asked to make a “very good sundae,” scoopers Maddie Dwyer and Chloe MacNevin consulted briefly and made a medium sundae with three toppings — a scoop each of Patty’s peppermint and double chocolate ice cream, with hot fudge, whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles. This particular sundae has not been named yet, they said, but if it were, it would be a staff favorite.

• Happy Cake Bowl

$6.51 from Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream & Dessert Creations (608 DW Highway, Merrimack, 670-2161, sweetbels.com)

A Happy Cake Bowl is a sort of hybrid sundae, said Sweet Bel’s owner Jennifer Belmore.

“We cut cake up into cubes, and we put it in the bottom of a bowl and then you get to pick your ice cream. You get to pick your hot topping and then it’s covered in whipped cream and sprinkles and a cherry. It’s kind of like a throwback to your younger days when you had a birthday and you had your cake and ice cream. We’ve got away from that for some reason. And who doesn’t love cake and ice cream?”

• Fried Dough Sundae

$10.95 at Cremeland Drive In (250 Valley St., Manchester, 669-4430, see page on Facebook)

“The Fried Dough Sundae is pretty popular,” said Cremeland scooper Karissa Grey, “but not as much as the banana split, which is the favorite, especially in the afternoon. But the Fried Dough Sundae is literally just exactly what it says. It’s a piece of fried dough with ice cream, liquid topping, with cream and a cherry.”

The number of flavors of ice cream Cremeland carries depends on the time of year, Grey said. “It really depends on the time of the season, because we’re seasonal. So sometimes we have just our bare-bones flavors, like at the beginning of the season, at the end of the season. And other times, like right now, I think there’s 27 on the board.”

The secret to making a good sundae, Grey said, is attention to details.

“It’s my favorite thing to do,” she said, “making them look nice. It’s important not to rush, honestly. A lot of people, when it gets busy, will just rush to get things out. But you eat with your eyes first, not your mouth, and that plays a big part in — I feel like, that’s one of the things that make people want to come here or not.”

• Large Hot Fudge Sundae

$9.95 at The Big 1 (185 Concord St., Nashua, thebig1icecream.com)

Jeanne Marquis, the owner of The Big 1, said a traditional hot fudge sundae is far and away the most popular of her treats.

“The classic vanilla hard ice cream with hot fudge is the most popular,” she said. “Our parfaits run second to that. We have hot caramel and hot butterscotch sauces as well. They all sell extremely well. And they’re all kind of classics, really.”

• Brownie Sundae

$7.83 at The Inside Scoop (260 Wallace Road, Bedford, 471-7009, theinsidescoopnh.com)

According to scooper Courtney Winands, the brownie sundae is the most popular enhanced ice cream dish at the Inside Scoop.

“It’s a fudge brownie on the bottom, with ice cream and a topping,” she said. While you can get any flavor ice cream, she recommends Maine blackberry: “It’s a red raspberry base, with chocolate raspberry truffles. That goes really well with hot fudge, whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles.” She said that when ordering for themselves most customers order a single scoop of ice cream or a kid’s size ice cream. Full-sized sundaes are generally a team effort, she observed.

• Classic Banana Split

$11.94 at Moo’s Place Homemade Ice Cream (27 Crystal Ave., Derry, 425-0100, moosplace.com)

Moo’s has more than 30 flavors of ice cream — not counting soft-serve, frozen yogurt, sorbets and other frozen treats — all made on the premises. One of its most popular sundaes is a classic banana split, with three scoops of ice cream, a banana, three toppings, whipped cream, chopped walnuts and a cherry, according to its website.

• Small Banana Boat

$12 at Hayward’s Ice Cream (364 DW Highway, Merrimack, 424-5915; 7 DW Highway in Nashua, 888-4663; haywardsicecream.com)

You are pretty much spoiled for choice with ice cream flavors at Hayward’s in Merrimack and Nashua. There are always at least 45 flavors of hard ice cream, which is made in house. A small banana boat has two scoops of ice cream, two types of sauce, a banana, whipped cream, chopped walnuts and a cherry. Like the ice cream, the sauces can be customized. The choices include strawberry, hot fudge, marshmallow and pineapple.

• Banana Float Sundae

$10 at Trombly Gardens (150 N. River Road, Milford, 673-0647, tromblygardens.net)

Trombly Gardens is better known as a farm stand and garden nursery but has a steady stream of ice cream customers, said scooper Mackenzie Burke. One of the most popular sundaes is Trobley’s Banana Float Sundae.

“It has three scoops of strawberry ice cream,” she said, “hot fudge, caramel, and butterscotch toppings, with walnuts on it, whipped cream and cherries. Strawberry is our most popular flavor for our banana float sundaes, especially now, during strawberry season.”

Burke said her personal favorite is “chocolate with chocolate on chocolate.”

tall milkshake, blue and white ice cream topped with whipped cream and peanut butter chips
Cookie Monster Sundae at Hayward’s Family Ice Cream of Milford. Photo by John Fladd.

• Cookie Monster Sundae

$9.75 at Hayward’s Family Ice Cream of Milford (383 Elm St., Milford, 672-8383, haywardsfamilyicecream.com)

A Cookie Monster Sundae is made with bright blue Cookie Monster ice cream, marshmallow sauce, and frozen nuggets of cookie dough, topped with more Cookie Monster ice cream, more marshmallow, and even more frozen cookie dough.

• King Shake

$12.95 at Lickee’s & Chewy’s Candy and Creamery (53 Washington St., Dover, 343-1799, lickeesnchewys.com)

Meaka Cruz is one of the managers at Lickee’s & Chewy’s. She said the store focuses on King Shakes, though the two are very similar.

“We offer a lot of creative sundaes, I suppose,” she said, “but we’re probably more about the King Shakes, which can be made as sundaes. They have chocolate rims on the side and fun toppings to mix with the ice cream, like Nutella, hot fudge, and then nuts and sprinkles. They all have kind of intricate toppings and themes that we typically strive for. A new one that we have right now … [has] Nutella and strawberries. Our chocolatiers decorate the cups with hard chocolate syrup on the side [and] top it with frozen strawberries and a Kinder Bueno bar.”

Cruz has a theory about why ice cream places develop such elaborate desserts with their ice creams.

“I think it’s to be creative and draw people in,” she said. “Everywhere else does something cool and unique, so I feel like each store wants to express themselves and tries to put something great out.”

SUNDAE PANEL
The Big 1 185 Concord St., Nashua, thebig1icecream.com
Cremeland Drive In 250 Valley St., Manchester, 669-4430, see page on Facebook
Dudley’s Ice Cream 846 Route 106, Loudon, 783-4800, facebook.com/dudleysicecreamshop
Granite State Candy Shoppe 13 Warren St., Concord, 225-2591; 832 Elm St., Manchester, 218-3885, granitestatecandyshoppe.com
Hayward’s Ice Cream 364 DW Highway, Merrimack, 424-5915; 7 DW Highway, Nashua, 888-4663; haywardsicecream.com
Hayward’s Family Ice Cream of Milford 383 Elm St., Milford, 672-8383, haywardsfamilyicecream.com
The Inside Scoop 260 Wallace Road, Bedford, 471-7009, theinsidescoopnh.com
King Kone 366 DW Highway in Merrimack, kingkonenh.com
Lickee’s & Chewy’s Candy and Creamery 53 Washington St., Dover, 343-1799, lickeesnchewys.com
Moo’s Place Homemade Ice Cream 27 Crystal Ave., Derry, 425-0100, moosplace.com
Richardson’s Farm 170 Water St., Boscawen, 796-2788, richardsonsfarmnh.com
Social Club Creamery 138 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2111, socialclubcreamery.com
Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream & Dessert Creations 608 DW Highway, Merrimack, 670-2161, sweetbels.com
Trombly Gardens 150 N. River Road, Milford, 673-0647, tromblygardens.net

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