Author: Matt Ingersoll

Shaker Road Provisions’ new breakfast menu

When George “Rocky” Burpee of Loudon decided he was in the mood for some homemade bacon one day in February 2021, he couldn’t have imagined the kind of career trajectory it would set off for him in just a few short years. By the end of that summer, he quit his day job to sell his own small-batch bacon at several local farmers markets. A butcher shop-like retail space featuring an expanded line of his scratch-made bacon-themed foods then arrived in the former Smokeshow Barbeque storefront in Concord the following spring.

Now, Burpee has expanded even further, this time in the form of a full-service breakfast menu. Shaker Road Provisions, named after his home street where the bacon venture all started, now offers a variety of scratch-cooked breakfast items five days a week. Plans are in the works to acquire a liquor license for serving brunch cocktails, mostly on Saturdays.

“My wife, Laura [Munyon], and I had always wanted to have a restaurant,” Burpee said. “When the farmers markets ended back in October, we thought, well, why don’t we look into doing a little breakfast place to sort of supplement the income until the markets start up again. … Ever since we opened here, people have come in looking for food, and we had always been kind of on the edge of like, ‘Hey, this is something we can do.’”

You’ll still be able to get bacon slices and bacon bits at the shop, as well as the bacon burgers, bacon macaroni and cheese, chicken salad and other bacon-infused items Burpee has sold out of his deli case since opening the shop last April. But now the space’s interior has been rearranged to accommodate four small tables for dining, and there are plans to incorporate a few more.

“You won’t find English muffins or bagels or breakfast sandwiches like that. Our main focus is on our waffles,” Burpee said of the new breakfast menu. “We make an amazing waffle here in house, Eggo-sized for reference, and we do breakfast sandwiches with those.”

Each menu item, he added, is named after the place where it originated from. The Concord, for example, is their signature sandwich, featuring a sausage patty, a fried egg and Vermont cheddar cheese served between two house-made apple cider waffles. Then there’s the Costa Rican, a breakfast burrito that’s stuffed with authentic Latin American rice, scrambled egg, Cotija cheese, avocado, grilled onions and peppers and Burpee’s own bacon. That one, Burpee said, is served with a side of fresh pineapple salsa that he makes himself.

“I wanted to recreate our favorite burrito that we had when we were down in Costa Rica, and so I worked hard to make it … as close as I could to the way they made it down there,” he said.

Specials are switched up every Friday. Those options have included everything from a breakfast quesadilla with egg, cheese, bacon, sausage, peppers, onions and a side of house pineapple habanero hot sauce to a corned beef hash wrap, featuring chopped and grilled homemade brisket with diced potatoes, roasted garlic, sauteed onions, eggs and cheese in a flour tortilla. Burpee has even done his own Sloppy Joe eggs, complete with scratch-made hollandaise sauce and cheesy garlic and onion hash browns on the side, and bacon “steak” and eggs, using half-inch-thick pieces of bacon that are slow-cooked.

“Our hope is that as this gets bigger, if we can get breakfast to where it’s a little bit busier … we want to transition into doing lunch as well,” Burpee said. “That’s our goal right now, is to do breakfast and lunch, and then especially for the weekend, to get a liquor license so we can bring in bloody marys and mimosas and stuff like that.”

Shaker Road Provisions’ presence at farmers markets will continue this year — the company participates in the Concord and Salem outdoor markets during the summer, and may be picking up one or two more depending on how the application process goes.

“We’ve got a girl that works for me … who is basically going to take over the bacon business, so she’ll be doing the marinating, smoking, slicing and packaging, and then she’ll be going to the farmers markets for us,” Burpee said. “That way, my wife and I are basically running the breakfast thing. So both things will still exist, but as we get into the market season they’ll kind of separate into their own entities.”

Shaker Road Provisions
Where: 89 Fort Eddy Road, Suite 2, Concord
Hours: Tuesday and Wednesday, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Thursday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. — breakfast is served from 6 to 11 a.m. during the week and from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays
More info: Visit shakerroadprovisions.com, find them on Facebook and Instagram @shakerroadprovisions or call 856-7400

Featured photo: Breakfast quesadilla. Photo courtesy of Shaker Road Provisions.

Milford husband-and-wife chef team takes over Pavilion in Wolfeboro

In just a few short years Chris Viaud has established himself as a leading New Hampshire chef, beginning in the spring of 2019 with Greenleaf, the seasonally inspired, locally sourced farm-to-table restaurant off the Milford Oval. Last fall, following more than a year of hosting successful monthly pop-up dinners, Viaud and his family opened Ansanm just one street over, offering authentic Haitian cuisine on a regular basis for the first time along with some new items.

Along the way, Viaud has picked up a James Beard Award nomination, and he even traveled to Portland, Oregon, to compete on Season 18 of Bravo’s Top Chef, which aired in 2021.

Now, Viaud is building on his success even further, this time up in New Hampshire’s Lakes Region. He’s the new owner and executive chef of Pavilion Food & Spirits in Wolfeboro, and his wife, Emilee, will serve as the eatery’s executive pastry chef. Pavilion is scheduled to reopen with the Viauds at the helm on Thursday, March 23, and will start with dinner service from Thursday through Sunday. Reservations are preferred, with walk-ins possible depending on availability. Starting around mid-May, days of operation will likely expand from Wednesday through Sunday.

The new acquisition is something of a full-circle moment for Viaud, who originally toured the space that is now Pavilion some five years back, prior to opening Greenleaf. Pavilion opened in December 2020 and is directly adjacent to Wolfeboro’s Pickering House Inn, its name in honor of the town’s Pavilion Hotel, which was built in the mid-1800s by Daniel Pickering.

“It was probably back in about August or September when the owners of Pavilion had presented the opportunity of doing a collaboration between their project and ours,” Viaud said. “They saw the incredible growth that we’ve been having, and we’ve been communicating back and forth not about the possibility of doing a partnership, but more of a transfer of ownership. … It’s definitely a wonderful addition to everything that we’ve been building over the past few years.”

At Pavilion, Viaud plans to unveil a menu that, like Greenleaf’s, will reflect ingredients from local farmers and vendors that change across New England’s seasons. Among the available items out of the gate are beef tartare, roasted pork loin, smoked clam and coconut curry chowder, scallop crudo, confit delicata squash and crispy skin duck breast.

“Greenleaf, I would say, is more of an upscale casual comfort fine dining [experience], whereas Pavilion offers a higher-end type of dining,” Viaud said. “I will transfer that same kind of relationship that I’ve built with all the farmers … and [we’ll be] expanding from southern New Hampshire all the way to northern New Hampshire, and in Maine, as we’re heading closer to the border. … So we’re definitely going to focus on … just doing the best that we can to incorporate all of those ingredients into the dishes that are presented in an extremely beautiful fashion.”

Emilee Viaud, meanwhile, will oversee Pavilion’s pastry program. She plans to keep her own business, Sweet Treats by Emilee, on the side for now, until the return of hot cocoa bomb season.

Despite Pavilion’s being more than 70 miles north of his two Milford restaurants, Viaud said it will remain business as usual at both Greenleaf and Ansanm — earlier this year he named Justin O’Malley the new chef de cuisine of Greenleaf, while at Ansanm his parents, Myrlene and Yves, primarily run the back of the house. His sister, Kassie, serves as the director of operations across all of the brands under the Northern Comfort Hospitality Group umbrella.

“Chef Justin … has built an incredible support staff behind him who is continuing to elevate and execute his vision in terms of that kind of upscale comfort dining that he has going,” Viaud said. “Emilee and I have this crazy schedule of running back and forth between northern New Hampshire and southern New Hampshire, just making sure that everything is continuing to run smoothly across all companies. It’s a lot to kind of take on, but we’re excited for the opportunities and just tackling each journey as it comes.”

Part of the acquisition of Pavilion, he added, allows them to work exclusively with the owners of the Pickering House Inn on some of their dining projects. Overall, Viaud said it represents not only a unique opportunity for the continued growth of his company, but an opportunity to continue to keep the Granite State on the map as a respected culinary destination.

“Having the ability to expand from southern New Hampshire to northern New Hampshire just really enforces what we’ve been trying to build,” he said, “just trying to kind of elevate the cuisine and push the envelope, to which people have a more inviting and enticing dining experience.”

Northern Comfort Hospitality Group
Here’s a look at each of the restaurant brands under the Northern Comfort Hospitality Group umbrella, owned and operated by Chef Chris Viaud.

Ansanm
20 South St., Milford, 554-1248, ansanmnh.com
Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 8 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.
Ansanm, which gets its name from the word meaning “together” in Haitian Creole, opened in October 2022 in the former Wicked Pissah Chowdah storefront on South Street. The eatery continues the success of the Viaud family’s restaurant concept following nearly a year and a half of hosting monthly pop-up dinners, featuring staples like griot (marinated pork) and poule nan sós (braised chicken in Creole sauce) in addition to some new spins on classic flavors.

Greenleaf
54 Nashua St., Milford, 213-5447, greenleafmilford.com
Hours: Monday through Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m.
Greenleaf is a seasonally inspired farm-to-table restaurant that opened in the former space of an old 19th-century bank in May 2019. The menu changes all the time, and that’s because it’s based on what the chefs can get for product from the farms they partner with. But you’ll almost always find some type of beef, pork, chicken, duck or vegetarian dish. In January of this year, Lowell, Mass., native and Culinary Institute of America graduate Justin O’Malley was named Greenleaf’s new chef de cuisine.

Pavilion Food & Spirits
126 S. Main St., Wolfeboro, 393-0851, pavilionwolfeboro.com (reopening March 23)
Anticipated hours: Thursday through Sunday, 5 to 9 p.m.; expanded hours likely coming soon
Directly adjacent to Wolfeboro’s Pickering House Inn, Pavilion Food & Spirits opened in December 2020. The restaurant gets its name in honor of the town’s Pavilion Hotel, which was built in the mid-1800s by Daniel Pickering. Earlier this month, Chris Viaud of Northern Comfort Hospitality Group announced the company’s acquisition of Pavilion — he’ll serve as the eatery’s owner and executive chef, while his wife, Emilee, will run its pastry program.

Featured photo: Pavilion Food & Spirits in Wolfeboro. Courtesy photo.

New Hampshire Maple Weekend returns with sugarhouse tours, syrup samples and more

March is prime maple season in New Hampshire, and sugarhouses large and small are inviting you to partake in a celebration of the sweet stuff. During New Hampshire Maple Weekend — returning on Saturday, March 18, and Sunday, March 19 — there will be opportunities at participating sugarhouses for visitors to attend free tours, view maple syrup making demonstrations and sample all kinds of exclusive maple-flavored goodies.

The weekend is overseen by the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association, a nonprofit founded in 1943 that today represents more than 350 maple purveyors statewide. A full list of participating sugarhouses and their Maple Weekend plans is available on the NHMPA website.

On March 13, during the annual gubernatorial tree tapping at the Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm in Tamworth, Gov. Chris Sununu announced a proclamation officially recognizing March 2023 as Maple Month in the state of New Hampshire. The Granite State ranks seventh in the nation in the total production of maple syrup, according to the proclamation, and generates about $10 million in sales revenue annually from syrup and other maple products.

Andrew Chisholm, president of the NHMPA, is a maple producer himself — he runs Chisholm Farm in Hampstead, which is known for its flavored syrups, from cinnamon and vanilla to cardamom-infused syrup. During Maple Weekend he’ll also have maple ice cream that’s produced by Shaw Farm, just over the state line in Dracut, Mass.

Chisholm has been at the forefront of promoting the maple syrup industry in New Hampshire, which he said has steadily been on the upswing statewide as an agricultural product. On Sept. 5, 2022, the NHMPA received a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to execute a marketing campaign for promoting maple syrup “beyond pancake’s best friend” — Chisholm said this will include an overhaul of the Association website, with the goal to improve its user-friendliness among maple producers and consumers. The grant cites that in 2021 New Hampshire was the No. 1 exporter of maple syrup and maple sugar in the United States.

“That’s really been my focus over the last year, is trying to promote maple as a natural sweetener that has a lot of minerals that we’re trying to get on a daily basis anyway,” Chisholm said.

Here’s a look at how this year’s maple season has gone so far for some in southern New Hampshire, plus what you can expect when you visit a local sugarhouse on Maple Weekend.

Maple madness

Although they welcome visitors all month long for weekend tours, Journey’s End Maple Farm, a small family-run operation in Pittsfield, turns into a syrup lover’s destination on Maple Weekend.

“There are literally hundreds and hundreds of people that come through that weekend,” said Amy Lemire, whose fiance, Marty Boisvert, runs the maple production at Journey’s End. “It’s crazy busy, but it’s fun. … The great thing too is that right in our area there are numerous maple producers, so we find that a lot of families are coming out and making a whole day of it.”

Both days, Journey’s End will be serving treats like maple shakes and maple sundaes, plus “sap dogs,” or slightly sweeter versions of hot dogs, cooked in sap water. They also host vendor pop-up events, with onsite purveyors offering everything from microgreens, homemade artisan breads, jams and jellies to candles, home decor, birdhouses, woodworking signs and more.

“We’ll be boiling sap and we’ll be giving samples of product … right off the evaporator,” Lemire said. “We also set up a maple tree and we kind of simulate tapping it for the kids, so it’s a good learning experience for them.”

At Ice Mountain Maple in Boscawen there will be maple fudge, maple candy and maple coffee. The evaporator will also be running all day, inviting visitors to see the maple production process. Established in the fall of 2019, Ice Mountain Maple is also a small family-run sugarhouse that spent its first season tapping trees the following year.

“Last year we had the most people we’ve ever had,” said Chrisi Gray, who owns Ice Mountain Maple with her husband, Jon. “It’s just phenomenal to see how popular it’s become.”

In addition to its own treats, Ice Mountain Maple is partnering with Confections by Kate, a baking business based in Boscawen.

“She uses our syrup exclusively for her baked goods that feature maple,” Gray said, “so we’re going to have her baked goods in our sugarhouse this year as well.”

In Chester, Folsom’s Sugar House plans to have ongoing tours throughout each day of Maple Weekend and will be providing samples of maple syrup and maple cream.

“We explain to people how we tap the trees, the collection of the sap and bringing it back to the sugarhouse, and then the process of boiling it,” co-owner Brian Folsom said. “We also talk about how we use the reverse osmosis to concentrate the sap and then how we bring it to a finished product … and then we have a little store where they can go in and sample or purchase our different products.”

Folsom said that on a good day he can collect between 600 and 900 gallons of sap from the trees, collected in five-gallon pails from tree to tree across nearly two dozen locations and gathered in a large tank in the back of his truck.

It takes roughly 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. But using reverse osmosis, Folsom said, they’re able to save time and energy by concentrating the sap, producing the same amount of syrup by the use of just 15 gallons.

After the reverse osmosis process, the sap goes through an evaporator, which boils between 60 and 70 gallons an hour on average. Visitors then learn about how the syrup is filtered and bottled, as well as the four types of Grade A syrup that are produced and how each is different in flavor and color.

“We have golden, which is a very light, delicate maple flavor, and then we go on to the amber, a nice rich maple flavor that we’re making,” Folsom said. “Then we get into the dark and then there’s very dark, a very strong robust maple flavor. All of those four are considered Grade A.”

Let the sap flow

As a whole, sugarhouses across the Granite State are well ahead of where they were at this time last year, according to Chisholm, thanks to a steady combination of mild days and cold nights.

“I know a lot of producers in southern New Hampshire and even in Vermont were producing maple syrup in January, which is incredibly unusual,” he said. “Some of them that I spoke with had already produced 40 percent of their 2022 crop by Valentine’s Day of this year. … We got a little nervous around then, because it was getting really warm and wasn’t cooling off at night, but then … as we got into late February and early March, we had that pretty hard freeze for a few days, and that’s exactly what we needed right there at that time.”

Chisholm said the recent late-season winter storm that blanketed much of the state in 8 to 14 inches of snow on March 4 was also very beneficial for maple producers.

“The snow actually helps the trees, because it keeps kind of a refrigerator effect going in the woods,” he said. “It really does help extend the season for us a bit, because if you think about it, as we get into that early spring sun in March, if there’s no snow in the woods, it will heat the ground faster and the woods don’t retain some of that cold weather that we need for the sap to run.”

Folsom said he produced more syrup this February than he has in any February of the last 30 years.

“The start of this month has already been very strong for us, so we’re going to end up with an excellent season,” he said. “If it had warmed up and stayed warm, our season would have ended. But that hasn’t been the case.”

Ideal temperatures for maple producers are around 40 to 45 degrees during the day, and 20 to 25 degrees at night. For many, Chisholm said, the maple season could stretch into early April this year the way the forecast is trending.

“We haven’t seen an April flow of sap around in the southern part of the state for a while,” he said. “Up north it’s very common. You go north of the Franconia Notch and they are typically into April just because of the latitude up there and the little microclimates that they can get in some of the valleys.”

New Hampshire Maple Weekend
When: Saturday, March 18, and Sunday, March 19
Where: Participating sugarhouses and farms statewide
Visit: nhmapleproducers.com
For a full list of participating sugarhouses, click the “Find a Sugarhouse” tab on the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association website. Some will be offering maple sugaring tours and demonstrations, while others will be selling and providing samples of their own maple syrup and a variety of maple-infused products.

Joyce’s maple shortbread cookies
Courtesy of Journey’s End Maple Farm in Pittsfield (makes about 50 small cookies)

2 sticks butter
¼ cup Journey’s End dark maple syrup
⅓ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon maple extract
2½ cups flour
Journey’s End granulated maple sugar

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Cream together the butter, maple syrup, brown sugar and maple flavoring until light and fluffy. Add the flour and mix well. Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured board to 1/4 inch thickness. Using small cookie cutters, cut out and place onto an ungreased baking sheet. Use a small fork to make light dents in the cookie tops. Sprinkle the tops lightly with maple sugar. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

Asian maple Brussels sprouts
Courtesy of Ice Mountain Maple in Boscawen

3 to 4 cups Brussels sprouts, halved
3 Tablespoons dark maple syrup
2 Tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
3 to 4 shakes Cholula sauce

Toss all the ingredients into a bowl. Set aside for 15 minutes. After marinating, spread the Brussels sprouts evenly in a greased roasting pan. Roast in a 450-degree oven for 20 minutes — a multipurpose toaster oven on the Roast setting works best, according to Ice Mountain Maple co-owner Chrisi Gray. Note that the cooking time might vary, based on the size of the Brussels sprouts.

Featured photo: Photo courtesy of Ice Mountain Maple in Boscawen.

Corned beef and cabbage, Irish desserts and more special eats for St. Patrick’s Day

Ready for St. Patrick’s Day? Whether you’re looking to enjoy that ceremonious corned beef and cabbage dinner or you want to know where all the Guinness is being kept, check out this list of St. Paddy’s Day-related specials and happenings across southern New Hampshire’s bars and restaurants. Some are choosing to celebrate on the day itself — Friday, March 17 — while others are making an entire weekend out of the festivities with live music, comedy shows and more. For those who would rather celebrate at home, we’ve included details on some takeout specials for dinners and sweets being offered by area eateries and bakeries.

• Alpine Grove Banquet Facility (19 S. Depot Road, Hollis, 882-9051, alpinegrove.com) will host a special St. Patrick’s Day dinner and Irish comedy show on Friday, March 17. The doors open at 6 p.m., with a buffet to be served from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. — items will include corned beef and cabbage quesadillas, Irish nachos and grilled cheese bites, potato skins, Reuben sliders, Irish soda bread, corned beef and cabbage-infused macaroni and cheese, Baileys mint chocolate chip brownies and cupcakes, and more. The comedy show kicks off at 8 p.m., with appearances by Andrew Della Volpe and Al Ghanekar. Tickets are $55 and include dinner and the show.

• Atkinson Resort & Country Club (85 Country Club Drive, Atkinson, 362-8700, atkinsonresort.com) will serve corned beef and cabbage all day on Friday, March 17, at both Merrill’s Tavern and the Stagecoach Grille, beginning at 11 a.m. Call to make a reservation or place a takeout order. A special Irish comedy show will be held at 7:30 p.m. that evening, featuring comedians Steve Sweeney, Ken Rogerson and Rob Steen. Tickets are $35.

• Auburn Pitts (167 Rockingham Road, Auburn, 622-6564, auburnpitts.com) is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with corned beef dinners on Friday, March 17, and live entertainment from singer-songwriter Crazy Steve at 2 p.m.

• Averill House Vineyard (21 Averill Road, Brookline, 244-3165, averillhousevineyard.com) will serve a special four-course mystery dinner and wine pairing for St. Patrick’s Day on Friday, March 17, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $59 (the event is 21+ only) and must be purchased in advance online.

• The Biergarten at Anheuser-Busch Brewery (221 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 595-1202, biergartenevents.com) will hold a special St. Patrick’s Day Happy Hour celebration on Friday, March 17, from 3 to 8 p.m. Food will be available for purchase from the Sammich NH food truck, and live music from Dan Fallon will be featured from 4 to 8 p.m.

• Bonfire Country Bar (950 Elm St., Manchester, 217-5600, bonfiremanch.com) is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day all day long, opening early at 1 p.m. with drink specials and live music from Maddi Ryan (at 1 p.m.), Fat Bunny (at 5 p.m.) and the Eric Grant Band (at 9 p.m.).

• Buckley’s Market & Cafe (9 Market Place, Hollis, 465-5522, buckleysbakerycafe.com) is taking orders for St. Patrick’s Day dinner boxes for two, featuring slow-braised corned beef with potatoes, cabbage, turnip and carrots, whole-grain mustard and horseradish sauces, Irish soda bread and chocolate Guinness cupcakes with Baileys frosting for dessert. Order by March 10. Pickups will be on Friday, March 17.

• Casey Magee’s Irish Pub & Music Hall (8 Temple St., Nashua, 484-7400, caseymagees.com) is hosting a St. Patrick’s Day celebration on Saturday, March 18, featuring food and drink specials and live music from the Workin’ Stiffs Band from 8 to 11 p.m.

• City Hall Pub (8 Hanover St., Manchester, 232-3751, cityhallpub.com) will open at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 17, and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day all day long with a special Irish Reuben.

• Cruzin Cakes Shop (150 Broad St., Nashua, 882-1666, cruzincakesshop.com) is taking orders for “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” cake pop boxes, as well as other themed sweets and treats, like platters of green velvet whoopie pies, brownies, sugar cookies and chocolates. Order for pickup on Friday, March 17.

• The Derryfield Restaurant (625 Mammoth Road, Manchester, 623-2880, thederryfield.com) will open at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 17, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day all day long with corned beef and cabbage dinners, Reuben sandwiches and other Irish-themed food and drink specials. Live music will be featured by D-Comp at 5 p.m. and Last Kid Picked at 9 p.m.

• Elm House of Pizza (102 Elm St., Manchester, 232-5522, elmhop.com) will open at its normal time on Friday, March 17, at 11 a.m., celebrating St. Patrick’s Day all day long with a special corned beef and cabbage plate.

• Fody’s Great American Tavern (9 Clinton St., Nashua, 577-9015; 187 ½ Rockingham Road, Derry, 404-6946; fodystavern.com) will open at noon on Friday, March 17, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day all day long with traditional corned beef and cabbage dinners, Reuben sandwiches and Reuben fries, in addition to drink specials, giveaways and a full schedule of live music throughout the afternoon and evening. The restaurant’s Derry location, meanwhile, is opening at 8 a.m. with an Irish breakfast and will also have live music, boiled dinners, drink specials and more.

• Frederick’s Pastries (109 Route 101A, Amherst, 882-7725; 25 S. River Road, Bedford, 647-2253; pastry.net) is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with all kinds of seasonally inspired sweets and treats, like Guinness cupcakes and tortes, mint chocolate chip cupcakes, Irish flag shamrock cookies, Baileys Irish cream tortes, pot-of-gold cakes and — new this year — cookie kits with shamrock-shaped butter cookies.

• The Goat Bar and Grill (50 Old Granite St., Manchester, 844-603-4628, goatnh.com) is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day all weekend long, with featured brunch specials from Friday, March 17, through Sunday, March 19, plus Irish coffee, green beer, live music, and a chance to win a trip to Ireland, sponsored by 97.5 WOKQ Radio (registrants must enter by 11 a.m. on Friday, March 17).

• Great North Aleworks (1050 Holt Ave., Unit 14, Manchester, 858-5789, greatnorthaleworks.com) will host a special post-St. Patrick’s Day celebration on Sunday, March 19, from 12:30 to 5 p.m., featuring live music from The Pop Farmers and a kitchen pop-up from The Potato Concept, serving their loaded twice-baked potatoes in a variety of seasonal flavors. The brewery is set to release its Nitro Dry Irish stout on tap that day.

• Holy Grail Food & Spirits (64 Main St., Epping, 679-9559, holygrailrestaurantandpub.com) is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day all day long on Friday, March 17, with live music from Max Sullivan (from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and Penhallow (from 3 to 6 p.m.), in addition to a kitchen party with Irish-inspired food and drink specials from 7 to 10 p.m.

• Jamison’s (472 Route 111, Hampstead, 489-1565, jamisonsrestaurant.com) will offer several seasonally themed specials for St. Patrick’s Day on Friday, March 17, including boiled corned beef and cabbage dinners, Guinness beef stew, Irish nachos with corned beef, sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing, Reuben egg rolls and shepherd’s pie.

• LaBelle Winery Amherst (345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898, labellewinery.com) is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with a special five-course whiskey pairing dinner in its Great Room on Friday, March 17, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., featuring cocktails made with Roe & Coe Irish whiskey. Courses will include mini duck “Reubens,” deconstructed Scotch eggs, crushed luxardo and orange-sweetened sorbet, beef Wellington with a potato and chive puree, roasted Brussels sprouts and a dark cherry demi glaze, and chocolate stout cheesecake for dessert. LaBelle’s chef and staff will also be on hand to provide insights into each course and the cocktails they are paired with throughout the dinner. Tickets are $110 per person (event is 21+ only) and registration is required.

• LaBelle Winery Derry (14 Route 111, Derry, 672-9898, labellewinery.com) has a Cooking With Wine class on Wednesday, March 15, at 6 p.m. that will dabble in Irish recipes, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. Attendees will learn how to make everything from Reuben-inspired hot dip appetizers to Guinness-braised short ribs, Irish soda bread and Guinness chocolate desserts. The class is $35 per person and registration is required. The following evening, on Thursday, March 16, LaBelle Winery’s Derry location will host a special St. Patrick’s Day concert featuring the Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki Trio, performing traditional Celtic music — doors open at 7 p.m. and the performance begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35.

• McGarvey’s Saloon (1097 Elm St., Manchester, 627-2721, mcgarveysnh.com) will open early at 10 a.m. for St. Patrick’s Day, celebrating all day long with a corned beef plate and other food and beverage specials.

• Milano’s House of Pizza (1 Broad St., Nashua, 883-6610, milanospizzanashua.com) will open at 10 a.m. on Friday, March 17, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day all day long with corned beef and cabbage, shepherd’s pie egg rolls and $3.17 priced drinks.

• New England’s Tap House Grille (1292 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 782-5137, taphousenh.com) is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day all weekend long with several food specials, available from Friday, March 17, through Sunday, March 19. In addition to traditional boiled dinners of corned beef and cabbage with carrots, turnips and red bliss potatoes, other specials will include panko-crusted Reuben balls, Guinness stew, beer-battered fish and chips, house-made Guinness cake and Baileys Irish cream cheesecake. The eatery’s Burger of the Month for March is a Reuben burger, featuring a four-ounce Angus beef patty topped with sliced corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing on a fresh pretzel roll.

• North Side Grille (323 Derry Road, Hudson, 886-3663, hudsonnorthsidegrille.com) is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day all weekend long with an Irish-themed menu, along with family-sized meals of corned beef and cabbage, from Tuesday, March 14, through Friday, March 17. Dine-in meals and takeout orders are available.

• The Peddler’s Daughter (48 Main St., Nashua, 821-7535, thepeddlersdaughter.com) will open at 8 a.m. on Friday, March 17, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with a special kegs and eggs Irish breakfast, along with a variety of other food and drink specials available throughout the day. A full schedule of live music is also planned, including performances by the Ramblin’ Rogues band (from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), the Jim Coyle and Joe Kessler band (from 3 to 7 p.m.) and The Pop Farmers (from 7 p.m. into the night). The Peddler’s Daughter keeps the festivities going with a “hangover” brunch on Saturday, March 18, at 11 a.m., and a “Sunday Funday” brunch on Sunday, March 19, featuring house mimosas and bloody marys.

• Rambling House Food & Gathering (57 Factory St., Nashua, 318-3220, ramblingtale.com) will host “Tales from the Seanchai,” an Irish storytelling dinner with humorist and author Simon Brooks, on Sunday, March 12, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Featured entrees during the dinner will include lamb stout stew, fish and chips and vegetable hand pie and potato leek soup, along with apple cake for dessert, specialty event cocktails and full beer and wine lists on tap. Brooks will be the event’s seanchai (pronounced shan-a-key), or a storyteller tasked with keeping Irish myths, folklore and legends alive. Tickets are $70 per person and include dinner and dessert (due to adult themes, the event is not suitable for children). Reservations are required.

• The Shaskeen Pub and Restaurant (909 Elm St., Manchester, 625-0246, shaskeenirishpub.com) will open its doors at 5:30 a.m. on Friday, March 17, for St. Patrick’s Day, serving its first pints at 6 a.m. and breakfast until 11 a.m. Other Irish-inspired food and drink specials will be offered throughout the day, and live music from several local artists will be held from 3 p.m. until closing time.

• Sky Meadow Country Club (6 Mountain Laurels Drive, Nashua, 888-9000, skymeadow.com) is throwing a St. Patrick’s Day Bash on Friday, March 17 — doors open at 5 p.m., with an optional buffet to be served beginning at 6 p.m. and live entertainment until 11 p.m., including from DJ Chip and Irish step dancers from the McGonagle School of Irish Dance. Admission is free and the cost of the optional buffet is $50. Book your spot by filling out the attendance form online.

• Strange Brew Tavern (88 Market St., Manchester, 666-4292, strangebrewtavern.net) will open the doors early at 9 a.m. on Friday, March 17, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day all day long with food and drink specials and a full schedule of live entertainment, including music from David Rousseau (from 9 a.m. to noon) and Jake Pardee (from 2 to 5 p.m.), as well as Irish step dancing from the McGonagle School of Irish Dance (from 4 to 4:45 p.m.) and music from Waking Finnegan (8 p.m. to midnight). Strange Brew Tavern will also open early at 10 a.m. on Sunday, March 26, ahead of the annual Manchester St. Patrick’s Day parade.

• The Wild Rover Pub & Restaurant (21 Kosciuszko St., Manchester, 669-7722, wildroverpub.com) is opening early at 6 a.m. on Friday, March 17, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day all day long with a special Irish breakfast, followed by corned beef and cabbage plates and other seasonally inspired food specials.

Featured photo: Corned beef and cabbage from The Shaskeen Pub and Restaurant in Manchester. Courtesy photo.