Author: Matt Ingersoll

Gurung’s Kitchen opens inside Bunny’s Superette

Inspired by the supper club, or the concept of serving creative comfort foods and cocktails in an intimate setting, Stones Social is the newest eatery to join the dining scene in Nashua.

The restaurant opened on June 26 in the former space of Pig Tale on Amherst Street. But according to Aislyn Plath of Stones Hospitality Group, it has been in the works since at least 2015. Her father, Scott, is the owner and founder of two successful restaurants in northern Massachusetts — Cobblestones of Lowell, which has been serving elevated tavern fare since 1994; and Moonstones, an eatery featuring global small plates that opened in Chelmsford in the late 2000s.

“Stones Social has a really intimate and casual neighborhood feel,” Plath said. “We wanted this to [have] almost more of a social club style that offers creative comfort food with a great bar program and really amazing cocktails. … We felt that this space would be perfect for that.”

Stones Social’s menu borrows some items that are popular mainstays at both Cobblestones and Moonstones, as well as new options. Chef Adam Hervieux, who has worked at both locations, has taken over the new eatery’s kitchen.

“We’re doing different menu levels, so at the top level we have bar snacks. That has things like housemade potato chips and housemade pickles,” Plath said. “We also have a mushroom jerky that’s insane, and we do a furikake popcorn, which [has] a seaweed and sesame spice.”

Other options include Buffalo tenders with blue cheese, ahi tuna tataki, pork belly with jalapeno ranch, and Chinese five-spice short ribs with house kimchi.

The menu also features a section of wood-fired skillet options, like the garlic jumbo shrimp; the shawarma beets with hummus, harissa and pepitas; and the dry-rubbed barbecue glazed wings. Sandwiches and burgers include a grilled cheese with the option to add barbecue short rib or kimchi, and a cheeseburger with house relish on a potato bun. For salads, the Spa Sampler Plate has greens, hummus, peppadews and crispy chickpeas, while the “Schrute Farms” beet salad features greens, goat cheese, pistachio, honey mustard and the option to add chicken.

If you want more of a traditional, larger-sized entree, Stones Social offers those too, on the “supper time” section of its menu. It features a seared ahi poke bowl, house macaroni and cheese, pork belly fried rice with egg and edamame, vegetable fried rice, and slow braised short rib with smashed olive oil potatoes and garlic green beans.

A majority of Stones Social’s cocktails, Plath said, are originals for the new space. There is the 603 Spritz, which has vodka, elderflower, a cucumber simple syrup and a little bit of absinthe; the Pink Drink, with hibiscus, mezcal and cranberry juice; and the Marge and Rita, or a passion fruit margarita with a five-spice salt rim. The Moonhattan, a house-infused rye whiskey with vermouth that is a staple at Moonstones, has also made it onto the menu.

“We’re trying to have as much fun with the cocktails as possible,” Plath said. “We’re really focusing on New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont too for our drafts.”

In lieu of sit-down table service, Plath said, Stones Social has more of a fast casual concept. Guests can order food and drinks at the bar and create a tab if they wish. Food runners are then assigned to deliver your order to the table. Takeout and online ordering are also available.

“One of the goals here … was to run with a really tight team and to cross-train our staff,” Plath said. “I like working in a small space like this, because you can see everyone and we’re all here to take care of each other and create a nice energy and atmosphere.”

Featured Photo: The #1 Burger with cheese and house relish on a brioche bun. Courtesy photo.

Stones Social
Where: 449 Amherst St., Nashua
Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 4 to 11 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m. (may be subject to change)
Contact: Visit stonessocial.com, find them on Facebook and Instagram, or call 943-7445

Saucy options at new Milford food trailer

A new food trailer now open on the Milford Oval is offering its own ground burgers, hand-cut fries and hand-breaded chicken tenders, and more than a dozen original sauces — or, in line with its name, “fuel” — like blueberry barbecue, Hawaiian honey mustard, hoisin-plum, curry and chive and Sriracha maple.

Fuel is the latest project of John Goldberg, owner and operator of The Riverhouse Cafe. The trailer made its debut on June 12 outside the Riverhouse, which has added about 40 seats in a roped off area out front, along with an outside bar and live music every Friday and Saturday. Customers who order from the trailer are given a pager to alert them when their food is ready. The trailer features new options not previously available at the cafe, plus rotating specials, and according to Goldberg the response has been very positive so far. He recently brought in chef Jon Talbot, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York, to oversee Fuel’s menu.

“It’s a simple American menu … but it’s not your ordinary food truck. You’re not getting frozen chicken tenders or anything,” Goldberg said. “We grind our own burgers, we hand-cut our own fries, we dry-rub our own chicken wings and we make our own hot dog buns.”

Fuel features a few salads, all of which have the option of adding smoked chicken, pulled pork or smoked brisket as a protein. The most popular salad, Goldberg said, has been the Rocket Road, which features arugula, pickled onions, figs, almonds and goat cheese. There is also the Chubby King Caesar salad, with romaine, pancetta and jalapeno croutons, and the Trailer Greens, which include lettuce, carrot, tomato, onion and crispy chickpeas. Among the salad dressings to choose from are buttermilk ranch, honey balsamic, creamy poppy seed, and — Goldberg’s favorite — blueberry-riesling vinaigrette.

Items like the Fuel burger, the Hummel dog or the hand-cut fries can be ordered with a beer cheddar cheese. The Fuel burger is a double-stack patty that comes on a brioche roll with lettuce, tomato and house pickles, while the dog features toppings like the beer cheese as well as Maine onion jam and celery salt, house sweet relish or chili.

“The beer cheese is ridiculous,” Goldberg said. “You try it and you can’t stop.”

The trailer serves a falafel on its own homemade pita, topped with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, lemon and tzatziki sauce. You can also substitute smoked chicken for the falafel.

Other options, like the crispy chicken tenders and the smoked chicken wings, are really where you can get creative with all the different “fuel” sauces.

“We can toss them in one and then we give you the other one on the side,” Goldberg said. “I can’t even begin to name them all. We have blueberry barbecue, peach barbecue, Latin barbecue, curry and chives. … All kinds of different stuff.”

Just out in front of the Riverhouse Cafe’s doors is a full-service outside bar where craft cocktails are available. Live local music acts are booked to perform on Fridays and Saturdays all throughout the summer, Goldberg said.

The Riverhouse Cafe moved to its current location at 167 Union Square last year. Goldberg said the plan is for Fuel to provide the food options for those who visit Station 101, a new craft beer and wine bar opening in a renovated 1950s gas station next door. The old Riverhouse Cafe, meanwhile, will likely be turned into a doughnut shoppe.

Mangia Sano, Goldberg’s other restaurant just down the road on Nashua Street, has recently begun offering New York style pizza. It’s currently available for takeout and curbside pickup only.

“Right now, that’s all we do [at Mangia Sano],” Goldberg said, “but we’re going to reopen it under a [reinvented] new brand.”

Featured Photo: Bacon and beer cheddar fries. Photo by Matt Ingersoll.

Fuel
When: Wednesdays and Thursdays, 5 to 8 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays, 5 to 10 p.m. (hours are subject to change and may extend later this summer)
Where: 167 Union Square, Milford
Contact: Visit damngoodgrub.com/fuel, follow them on Facebook and Instagram @fuelnh or call The Riverhouse Cafe at 249-5556

Gurung’s Kitchen opens inside Bunny’s Superette

You won’t see it right away when you step inside Bunny’s Superette in Manchester’s North End, but walk all the way across the store and you’ll find a new Nepalese takeout restaurant.

Gurung’s Kitchen, which opened for business on June 27, features a menu of authentic Nepalese dishes like steamed or fried momos, thukpa (noodle soup) and shapale (fried meat pies), all cooked to order. Owner Sarmila Gurung opened the eatery with the help of Pramod Nyaupane, her friend and former landlord, who owns Bunny’s Superette and Bunny’s Convenience on Elm Street. Both Gurung and Nyaupane are natives of Kathmandu.

“I used to cook for [Nyaupane] and he loves my cooking,” said Gurung, who remembers always helping her mother out in the kitchen growing up. “When I told him I was thinking I wanted to open a restaurant, he said, ‘If you’re really interested, I can help you.’ So that’s how we ended up opening the restaurant here.”

Because her restaurant’s space was formerly a butcher shop, Gurung said, it went under all kinds of renovations, including the introduction of new stoves, fryers, a freezer and a warmer.

Gurung’s Kitchen accepts takeout orders via phone or walk-in, as well as delivery through either DoorDash or GrubHub. Among the most popular items, Gurung said, have been the momos, which are dumplings filled with chicken, pork or vegetables. She said she has also offered bison meat, but said it’s been difficult to get regularly due to the pandemic. One order of momos yields eight dumplings, which are either steamed or fried, with the option to have them served in a homemade tomato sauce or chili sauce. You can also customize your order with a momo platter.

Other big sellers have been the chicken, pork or vegetarian chow mein, or the fried noodles with turmeric, cumin, coriander and other spices; the chicken, pork or vegetarian fried rice; and the thukpa, or noodle soup. When it’s available, Gurung will also make each of these dishes with bison meat as a protein option.

Some harder-to-find dishes available at the restaurant are shapale and pakoda. A common street food in Nepal, according to Gurung, shapale (pronounced sha-PAH-lee) features half-moon-shaped meat pies stuffed with either chicken or pork and deep fried. You get two pieces per order with a side of homemade sauce.

Pakoda, which Gurung described as being similar to hash browns, is also a Nepalese street food or snack featuring a mixture of potatoes, onions, flour and spices that’s deep fried.

“We have different kinds of customers right now,” Gurung said. “Our customers who come from Nepal … usually come here for the shapale and the pakoda, because they know it and they can’t easily find it here [in the United States].”

Gurung’s Kitchen offers a small selection of non-traditional items like french fries, chicken wings and chicken nuggets. There is also black tea, masala tea and mango lassi, a smoothie-like drink featuring a blend of fresh mango, yogurt and ice.

Since between 700 and 800 people usually come inside Bunny’s Superette every day, according to Gurung, she hopes her restaurant will continue to see new customers.

“We try to offer really fast service,” she said. “People come here first and order their food, then they go [shop for] their groceries and when they come back here their food is ready.”

Gurung’s Kitchen
Where: 75 Webster St., Manchester (inside Bunny’s Superette)
Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week
More info: Call 316-1540 or search “Gurung’s Kitchen” on Facebook

Bistro 603 to open soon in Nashua

A new eatery coming soon to Nashua, Bistro 603 will offer an eclectic menu of scratch-made appetizers, entrees, cocktails and weekend brunch items when it opens in the coming weeks.

Owner Jeff Abellard and chef Jason Duffy refer to its environment as upscale yet casual. Both men are part of a close-knit restaurant team that has run Bistro 781 on Moody Street in downtown Waltham, Mass., for the past five years.

Bistro 603, Abellard said, is nearly double the size of its Massachusetts counterpart, with bar seating, table dining, an outdoor patio and space for two private rooms. The menu, while similar to that of Bistro 781’s, remains diverse, ranging from small shareable plates to larger meals with optional wine pairings.

“You can have a special dinner with your family … or you can just sit and have a drink with your buddies at the bar,” said Duffy, who has more than two decades of experience in the kitchen. “Anything you want to do here, we can accommodate you.”

Appetizers will include seafood options like fried oysters, clams and crab cakes, as well as potato and ricotta mushroom gnocchi, sweet and spicy barbecue rubbed chicken wings, and steak bomb spring rolls served in a Parmesan peppercorn dipping sauce. The menu is further divided into sections for salads and bowls, for burgers and sandwiches, and for tacos.

“We do a Cuban sandwich, a quinoa burger, and a burger with fried oysters on top of it that’s delicious,” Abellard said. “We also do what we call a Crunch Wrap burger, so it’s actually a burger with a crunchy taco shell around it.”

Tacos will be available with either braised pork belly, braised short rib, tuna tartare, batter-fried haddock, or as vegetarian options with either crispy cauliflower or sauteed vegetables. In addition to house and Caesar salads, there will be a strawberry and watermelon salad; a Mediterranean grain bowl with grilled artichoke and hummus; and a seasoned street corn bowl.

The larger plates will include several staples, like the seafood paella with chicken, chorizo and shellfish; the braised short ribs with potato and ricotta gnocchi, truffled mushroom cream sauce and roasted Brussels sprouts; and the steak frites with smoked tomato chimichurri. There will also be a number of pastas, all made in house, like the Bolognese with veal, pork and pancetta and the sauteed chicken fettuccine with white wine garlic cream sauce.

A separate brunch menu will be available every Saturday and Sunday, according to Abellard. That will include several savory options like omelets, Benedicts and breakfast sandwiches. Other featured items will be the short rib or duck hash with eggs and challah toast; and the shrimp and grits with chorizo, aged cheddar and bacon and sweet pepper relish.

Some of the more notable changes specific to Bistro 603’s menu, Abellard said, have to do with the weekly specials it will feature, as well as its beers and wines. There will be almost twice as many lines on draft, with more options from New Hampshire breweries. A complete brunch cocktail menu of mimosas, espresso martinis and other drinks will be available too.

Two dining areas within the restaurant — one small room and one larger room — are separated by large sliding wooden doors. Abellard said that while tables in these rooms can be reserved for private parties or functions, they’ll be otherwise open to all diners.

“If you’re just having a small little get-together, you can use the smaller room … or, if it’s a larger party, you can open it up and kind of share both rooms,” he said. “We’d also like to build a night crowd … where we bring in some acoustic music, and we’ll have a late night menu.”

Bistro 603
An opening date is expected in the coming weeks. Visit the website or follow them on social media for updates.

Where: 345 Amherst St., No. 1, Nashua
Hours: TBA
More info: Visit bistro603nashua.com, find them on Facebook and Instagram, or email owner Jeff Abellard at jeff@bistro603nashua.com