Author: Matt Ingersoll

Fabrizia Spirits to celebrate National Limoncello Day

June 22 is National Limoncello Day, and Salem’s Fabrizia Spirits purveyor of limoncello in the United States, is marking the occasion with a new festival featuring live music, lawn games, giveaways, facility tours and even a lemon-squeezing competition.

“We discovered there was a National Limoncello Day and we said, ‘We have to do something. We can’t just sit on this,’” Fabrizia Spirits co-owner and founder Phil Mastroianni said. “People for years have been asking to visit Fabrizia and if we did tours, and we don’t, but then we said, ‘Well, why don’t we use Limoncello Day as an opportunity to open up our doors?’”

Launched in 2008 with its flagship limoncello, Fabrizia Spirits has since expanded its product line to include a variety of ready-to-drink cocktails, like its Italian margarita and Italian-style lemonade; multiple flavors of vodka sodas, like Sicilian lemon, blood orange and raspberry; and liqueurs, like the Crema di Pistacchio. In November 2020 the Mastroiannis launched the Fabrizia Lemon Baking Co., introducing their own line of limoncello-infused baked goods for the first time, from cookies and whoopie pies to biscotti, blondies, loaves and white chocolate-dipped truffles — each item is produced fresh onsite at Fabrizia’s Salem headquarters.

Many of these products will be available for attendees to sample during the festival. Indoor tours of Fabrizia’s facility, Mastroianni said, are going to be where you can sample the company’s higher-proof spirits, as well as items from a table of baked goods.

“We’re going to be selling additional stuff that people can take home, if they’d like to buy some baked goods while they’re here,” he said.

Ticket-holders will also receive two full-sized canned cocktails and one complimentary item from the Tola-Rose Italian Eats food truck, which will be parked outside the building. Tola-Rose is owned and operated by Goffstown couple Tony and Laurie Lomuscio and is best-known for authentic Italian options like meatball subs, sausage subs with peppers and onions, chicken or eggplant Parmesan and chocolate chip cannolis.

Outdoors is also where the lemon-squeezing competition is set to take place, and all festival ticket-holders are eligible to participate. Up to eight contestants will stand in front of a bottle of Fabrizia’s limoncello and a basket of halved lemons. The bottle will be topped with a funnel and the first person to fill the bottle to a designated line the fastest — by squeezing juice out of the lemons with their bare hands — will be crowned the winner. In the event that more than eight people sign up, Mastroianni said, there will be qualifying rounds with the same rules.

The festival will not take place in the event of rain, although Mastroianni said if all goes well the hope is to make the National Limoncello Day celebration an annual event. Continuing to grow as a company, Fabrizia established its own lemon grove in Sicily, Italy, earlier this year, and has raised more than $129,000 in funding for nonprofits through its “When Life Hands You Lemons” charity initiative.

National Limoncello Day celebration
When: Thursday, June 22, 6 to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Fabrizia Spirits, 2 Industrial Way, Salem
Cost: $30 per person; includes two drink tickets, one food truck item from Tola-Rose Italian Eats, a gift bag and exclusive tours of the Fabrizia Spirits facility. Attendees can also opt to participate in the lemon-squeezing competition during the checkout process.
Visit: fabriziaspirits.com
In the event of inclement weather, the festival will be canceled and all ticket-holders will be refunded.

Featured photo: Limoncello Day. Courtesy photo.

News from the local food scene

• Berry delicious: Join J&F Farms (124 Chester, Road, Derry) for its annual strawberry fest on Saturday, June 17, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Festivities will include hayrides, food trucks, a petting farm and liv e music, in addition to food trucks and, of course, strawberries. Visit jandffarmsnh.com. Or check out our berry season cover story, which ran in the June 8 edition of the Hippo on page 10 and includes a list of other upcoming local strawberry and blueberry festivals as well as some berry recipes and a list of farms where you’ll soon be able to pick your own. See hippopress.com.

• Cheers to beer: The ninth annual Newport Nano Brewfest is happening on Saturday, June 17, from noon to 3 p.m. on the Newport Town Common (North Main and Park streets, Newport). In addition to beer and cider tastings from local breweries, the event will feature live music, games and more. General admission is $35 per person and tickets are on sale now (event is 21+ only; no children or dogs are allowed). Visit newportnhchamber.org.

• Flight Center closes in Manchester: The Flight Center Taphouse & Eatery has permanently closed its Manchester location, according to a June 3 announcement on its Facebook page. “Ultimately the cost of doing business was making it not feasible to continue forward in this space,” the post reads in part, going on to say that the closure does not impact the company’s other locations. The Flight Center Restaurant Group, which also operates the 1750 Taphouse in Bedford and Aviation Brewing Co. in Dover, opened The Flight Center Taphouse & Eatery in the former British Beer Co. space on South Willow Street in the Queen City in June 2021. Read the full announcement on Facebook @flightcentermht.

• Local eats and brews: The New Hampshire magazine annual Best of NH Party is happening on Thursday, June 22, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Flag Hill Distillery & Winery (297 N. River Road, Lee). Attendees will have access to food and drink samples from a wide array of award-winning New Hampshire restaurants, breweries and other businesses, and this year’s event will also include a special appearances by television chef and author Mary Ann Esposito. General-admission tickets are $68 per person. Visit nhmagazine.com/best-of-nh.

Yiayia’s Greek Night Out to return after long hiatus

It was late 2018 when Concord’s Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church began hosting Yiayia’s Greek Night Out, an ongoing series of community events that feature Greek food demonstrations centered around traditional dishes, followed by dinners of the dish and dancing in the church hall. The sixth and most recent in-person event took place on March 14, 2020.

“It was right before everything was closed down,” the Rev. Constantine Newman of the church said. “I remember we had a very light turnout that day because everything was still sort of iffy.”

More than three years later Holy Trinity is now getting ready to revive the popular community event. Yiayia’s Greek Night Out is set to return on Saturday, June 17, and will feature the eggplant-based moussaka as its instructional centerpiece.

Past cooking demonstrations have featured other authentic Greek items like spanakopita (spinach pie), baklava, tsoureki (Greek Easter bread) and dolmathes (stuffed grape leaves). Newman said the events were born out of the growing interest in Greek food outside the church community.

Holy Trinity continues to hold monthly drive-thru Greek boxed dinners to go and is planning a flea market for later this summer where gyros and baklava will be available for sale.

Moussaka, Newman said, is similar to a Greek lasagna, but with eggplant instead of pasta.

“It’s not a complex dish but it takes a lot of time,” he said. “You need to thinly slice the eggplants and then roast them so that the moisture comes out. Then you layer eggplants and potatoes, and in between those layers is a meat and tomato sauce with spices. Then it’s topped off with a béchamel. … What we usually do is the demonstration dish is sort of a small one that we cook there on the spot, and beforehand we’ll have everything else made.”

Trays of finished moussaka prepared before the event will be served after the demonstrations, along with a side of Greek potatoes, a salad, and Greek cookies and ice cream for dessert. Music and dancing are expected for the duration of the event.

The $15 entry admission, Newman said, is available at the door. Collected proceeds go toward the event’s sponsor, Holy Trinity’s Mother Maria of Parish Outreach Ministries.

“They try to take care of people in the parish that are in need, or various charitable organizations throughout the city,” Newman said. “We’ve given donations to the [Concord] Coalition against Homelessness, the Friends of Forgotten Children, and Waypoint. … So the money that we collect … goes to helping needy people in general in our area.”

Yiayia’s Greek Night Out
When: Saturday, June 17, 5 p.m.
Where: Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 68 N. State St., Concord
Cost: $15 per person
More info: Visit holytrinitynh.org, call 225-2961 or email htgoc@comcast.net

Featured photo: Photo courtesy of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Concord.