Author: Matt Ingersoll

News from the local food scene

• Jewish feasts: Online ordering opens on Wednesday, June 1, for Temple B’Nai Israel’s 25th annual New Hampshire Jewish Food Festival, which is being held virtually once again this year. From June 1 to June 30, you can visit tbinh.org and order from the temple’s menu of traditional Jewish-style foods, most of which feature recipes that have been handed down multiple generations. Offerings will include sandwiches with corned beef, pastrami and tongue from Evan’s New York Style Deli in Marblehead, Mass., served on seeded and unseeded rye bread from Laconia Village Bakery. They’ll be available for individual orders as well as in custom deli sandwich “picnic packs” with coleslaw, pickles, deli mustard and rugelach. New this year are two Middle Eastern items — halva, a sweet treat available in vanilla, marble or pistachio flavors, and a homemade Israeli salad with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and onions in a lemon dressing. Other options have included matzo ball soups, crispy potato latkes, New York-style knishes and hamantaschen (triangular-shaped filled cookies), available in three flavors. All online orders will be available for pickup by appointment at Temple B’Nai Israel (210 Court St., Laconia) between Friday, July 22, and Sunday, July 24. Visit tbinh.org.

• May the best chowder win: Heading up north this Memorial Day weekend? You might want to check out Waterville Valley Resort’s 32nd annual Chowderfest, happening on Sunday, May 29, from noon to 2:30 p.m. at the Waterville Valley town square (33 Village Road, Waterville Valley). Several area restaurants will be vying for your palate to win the coveted title of best local chowder. A full schedule of live local music is also planned out on the town square’s gazebo. Chowderfest admission is $7.50 for adults and $5 for kids ages 12 and under — the fee covers samples of each participating chowder as well as a voting ballot. Visit waterville.com.

• Making a difference: The Common Man restaurant group of New Hampshire has launched the Common Man Ukraine Relief Fund to benefit Ukrainian refugees and assist with relief efforts in Poland and surrounding countries. According to a press release, the fund has committed to matching up to $1 million in donations. Earlier this month, Common Man owner and founder Alex Ray also traveled overseas to meet with Polish and Ukrainian Rotary representatives and other agencies working to provide relief to Ukrainian refugees who are fleeing the ongoing war in their home country. According to the release, in partnership with Granite United Way, the Common Man has been part of a New Hampshire-based effort to bring relief to Ukraine. Most recently, they’ve begun offering their restaurants as collection sites for donations of critical supplies. Donations to the relief fund can be made online at thecman.com, or by texting CMAN4UKRAINE to 41444. One hundred percent of the donations will be directed to relief efforts in Ukraine, the release said.

New England Coffee Festival comes to Laconia

A two-day celebration of specialty coffee culture, the New England Coffee Festival is packed with local speakers, workshops, vendors, samples and even a competitive “latte art throwdown.” The inaugural event will take place in downtown Laconia, kicking off with a networking mixer on Friday, May 20, followed by a full day of coffee-related festivities on Saturday, May 21.

Organizer Karen Bassett is also the co-owner of Wayfarer Coffee Roasters, a producer of small-batch house-roasted coffee blends with two cafe locations in the city. She said her plans to hold a regional coffee festival actually go back pre-pandemic, to the fall of 2019. Covid got in the way, but since then, support among the coffee roasting community has been positive.

“Our goal … was to have a community event that brings coffee professionals and coffee consumers together, and really to build relationships and get people to try locally made products,” Bassett said. “We want to kind of give awareness to what specialty coffee is, and how there actually really is a lot of really good high-quality coffee right here in New England.”

Defiant Records & Craft Beer is hosting the networking mixer on Friday night, which will also feature live music from Mike Loughlin. Coffee Festival happenings will then take place all day Saturday across several downtown venues, and there are both indoor and outdoor components.

The Colonial Theatre on Main Street, for instance, will serve as the festival’s “coffee education center,” Bassett said — a full schedule of panel discussions, Q&A sessions and workshops will take place there, covering all kinds of coffee-related topics and led by local industry professionals.

“Because we wanted specialty coffee to be accessible, we didn’t want these to feel like scientific lectures,” Bassett said. “We want them to be stories and conversations … and then the workshop series is a lot more hands-on, so we’re going to have brewing workshops, barista basics, a loose-leaf tea workshop … and a coffee cocktails workshop put on by Tamworth Distilling.”

Admission is broken down into a “choose your own adventure” format, Bassett said, with each workshop and panel discussion welcoming ticket-holders on a first-come, first-served basis.

“We’ve brought in speakers with vastly different perspectives in the industry, to kind of share their stories,” she said. “We’ll also have a virtual interview with producers from Honduras.”

Outside the theater, Canal Street will be closed between Main and Beacon streets for the festival’s duration to accommodate some local vendors, games and giveaways — Nobl Beverages of Seabrook, for example, will be there giving out samples of its cold brew. More vendors will have booths just a short walk away inside the city’s historic Belknap Mill on Beacon Street.

“We have close to 30 vendors … so it will be coffee roasters and we’ve got some other non-coffee beverages, so some kombuchas and sparkling teas and things like that,” Bassett said. Also in the Belknap Mill will be two pop-up cafes, hosted by Chobani Oat Milk and Contoocook Creamery. Museum staff will be providing hourly tours throughout the day.

“It’s cool because it’s an old water plant and textile mill. … A portion of the ticket proceeds will also go toward The Water Project, which is based out of Concord,” Bassett said. “So it’s kind of neat to bring water back full circle, as it’s one of the top two ingredients of a cup of coffee.”

Outside the Belknap Mill, an “art walk” display will be held along Peter Karagianis Way and Rotary Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Live music and food trucks will also be featured all day long.

The city’s train station on Veterans Square will be home to an “outdoor adventure experience,” featuring booths and interactive offerings from local businesses and nonprofits specializing in various recreational activities. Laconia Local Eatery will have a beer tent, and other participating downtown eateries are planning to serve various coffee-inspired brews during the festival.

Toward the end of the event, at 3 p.m., Revelstoke Coffee of Concord will host a “latte art throwdown” inside the Colonial Theatre. Baristas will go head-to-head in a friendly competition to create the best latte art designs in various themed categories for the chance to win prizes.

Coffee Festival tickets can be purchased online, or you can get them inside the Colonial Theatre box office on the day of the event. Packages include a one- or two-day pass, which grants you access to everything the event has to offer that day, or you can get tickets to attend the vendor expo only. All outdoor activities on Saturday are free and open to the public, Bassett said.

“You don’t have to be an industry professional or own a coffee shop to try something new or to enjoy the event, and that’s why I wanted families to come and feel like they had something to do,” she said. “We’re expecting a great turnout [and] we hope to have it be a yearly event.”

New England Coffee Festival
When: Friday, May 20, and Saturday, May 21
Where: Various locations across downtown Laconia, including the Colonial Theatre (617 Main St.), the Belknap Mill (25 Beacon St. East) and the city’s train station (Veterans Square), as well as on Canal Street, which will be closed to vehicular traffic between Main and Beacon streets.
Cost: $50 for a one-day pass or $75 for a two-day pass; includes access to all the educational workshops, panels and speakers inside the Colonial Theatre, as well as the “latte art throwdown” at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets to the vendor expo only are $20 per person and $10 for kids ages 12 and under. Purchase them online or inside the box office of the Colonial Theatre the day of.
Visit: newenglandcoffeefestival.com

Schedule of events

Information according to the schedule at newenglandcoffeefestival.com

Friday, May 20

• Networking mixer: 7 to 10 p.m. at Defiant Records & Craft Beer (609 Main St.)

Saturday, May 21

• Speaker series: 40-minute events on the hour from 8 a.m. to noon inside the Colonial Theatre (617 Main St.) — topics include “Meet a Coffee Producer,” “Leveraging Coffee Shops as Community Gathering Places” and “Lessons Learned from 15+ years in the Coffee Industry.”

• Workshop series: 45-minute workshops held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. inside the Colonial Theatre (617 Main St.) — topics include “Barista Basics,” “Loose Leaf Tea 101,” “Better Brewing,” “Coffee Cocktails” and “Jellybeans and Coffee: A Sensory Experience.”

• Vendor expo: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. inside the Belknap Mill (25 Beacon St. East)

• Art Walk: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. outdoors on the grounds of the Belknap Mill (25 Beacon St. East)

• Outdoor Adventure Experience: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Veterans Square train station (13 Veterans Square)

• Live music: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Rotary Park gazebo (30 Beacon St. East). Acts include Green Heron, Choro Louco, the Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki Trio and River Sang Wild

• Latte art throwdown: 3 to 4 p.m. inside the Colonial Theatre (617 Main St.)

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

News from the local food scene

• Taco Tour winner announced: Firefly American Bistro & Bar was crowned the winner of this year’s Taco Tour, the Greater Manchester Chamber recently announced. Firefly was one of more than 70 participating restaurants during the May 5 event, receiving thousands of votes for its seasoned chicken taco with cheddar cheese, Mexican rice and a hot and smoky chipotle crema that was served in a soft flour tortilla. The eatery received a special “golden taco” trophy designed by Manchester Makerspace, as well as $1,000 to give to Granite United Way, its nonprofit beneficiary of choice. “We appreciate the overwhelmingly positive feedback we’ve received from business owners, attendees and survey takers,” the Greater Manchester Chamber wrote in a May 10 Facebook post. “We hope to do it all again next year and all questions, feedback or sponsorship inquiries can be sent to [email protected] to help us stay organized and plan an even better Taco Tour Manchester next year!”

• Raw goat milk ice cream debut: Head to Little Red Hen Farm & Homestead (85 Norris Road, Pittsfield) on Saturday, May 21, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., for the debut of its raw goat milk ice cream, which will be available in 16 flavors. On March 18, Gov. Chris Sununu signed HB 95 into law, allowing small raw dairy producers to make and sell their own ice cream and frozen yogurt for the first time. Under the new law, ice cream and frozen yogurt made with raw milk are limited to six-ounce containers and are required to be marked with an expiration date of 30 days from their manufactured date. Little Red Hen Farm & Homestead has been at the forefront of this legislation since late 2019 — according to its website, a bill had been passed in the House and set to go to the Senate just before the pandemic shutdown in 2020, but it was ultimately vetoed by Sununu after months of delays. State legislators reintroduced the bill in 2021 and it passed with amendment later that year. During the May 21 event, Little Red Hen Farm & Homestead will have an ice cream topping station and will also host appearances from several farm store vendors. Visit littleredhenfarm.net.

• Spirit of community: Now through May 30, Salem’s Fabrizia Spirits is partnering with the New Hampshire Liquor Commission and Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits for their “When Life Hands You Lemons” initiative, which has raised more than $113,000 for local nonprofits since 2010. This year’s beneficiary, according to a press release, is the New Hampshire Foster & Adoptive Parents Association, which is using the funds to establish a new program that reunites siblings separated while in foster and adoptive care. Around $15,000 was raised for the organization last year, while other nonprofit beneficiaries over the past 12 years have included Homes For Our Troops, the Crotched Mountain Foundation and the New Hampshire Hospitality Employee Relief Fund. Visit fabriziaspirits.com.