Category: Drink

Potato Concept opens a restaurant in Manchester

By John Fladd
[email protected]

Branden Rainer and Lauren Lefebvre run a restaurant entirely dedicated to baked potatoes.

“We are the Potato Concept,” Lefebvre said. Aside from drinks, everything the newly opened Potato Concept (119A Hanover St. in Manchester, thepotatoconcept.com, 667-0714) serves, even salads, comes on a baked potato.

“These are classic gourmet, twice-baked potatoes,” she sid, “filled with proteins, meats and fresh salads.”

Although the Hanover Street restaurant is new, The Potato Concept has been around for three years, catering events and putting up pop-up restaurants in breweries.

“That’s how we got started,” Lefebvre said. “We’d pair up with local breweries and take our recipes with us and do pop-ups there. Breweries have very limited kitchen space and they really welcomed our food.”

The couple welcomes the chance to cook in their own kitchen.

“Our kitchen here is a luxury,” Rainer said. “We’re so proud of it; it’s ours.”

He is very proud of how their business has evolved: “We’ve got a pedigree that we’re proud of.”

While focusing so intently on one food — baked potatoes — seems as if it might be limiting, Lefebvre said their repertoire is constantly growing.

“We have curated probably 50 different recipes or so that we’ve taken to markets and fairs,” she said. “We just had a St. Patrick’s Day special with corned beef and spicy mustard.” The most popular potatoes the two sell are their Zesty Cheeseburger, “which is pretty much what it sounds like,” Lefebvre said; a PoTaco, “which is like a regular taco, but with a potato instead of a shell,” and a Buffalo Chicken Potato, which Rainer insists isn’t too spicy for New Hampshire tastes.

“We try to think of people’s palates and their level of spice,” Rainer said, but points out that Manchester diners have expanded the sorts of foods they eat over the past few years.

“Just look at this neighborhood,” Rainer said. “We have a tavern and an upscale seafood restaurant on one side of us, and a Nepalese restaurant and the Hanover Street Chop House on the other. Manchester is very diverse, and looking for new things.”

Lefebvre and Rainer go through a lot of potatoes.

“During Fair Season, we’ll literally buy a ton at a time from a farm in Massachusetts,” Lefebvre said. “We do a lot of catering; we’re always looking to take on new clients.”

After several years and countless potatoes, Rainer and Lefebvre have a well-polished system. “Lauren handles most of the food,” Rainer said. “I’m more of a sous chef and a greeter. We’ve been working with other small food businesses and we’ve had a lot of help each step along the way.”

He cites their work with Smokin’ Tin Roof (smokintinroof.com), a Manchester-area hot sauce producer. “People like a spicy potato,” he said. “It’s been an evolution.”

Lefebvre has developed their recipes on her own.

“There has been a lot of trial and error,” she said, “though thankfully not many errors.”

“We like to think of ourselves as delivering value,” Rainer said, “and potatoes are a great lunch value.”

Featured Photo: Courtesy photo.

Spring is finally here. It’s not like it’s been a long, cold and lonely winter — more of a muddy, slushy, test of emotional endurance — but the idea of mild, pre-mosquito weather is a deeply appealing one.

The time has come for porch-sitting.

Maybe not for a long stretch of time — it still gets chilly after dark — but it’s definitely the start of Porch Season. Which, of course, calls for cocktails. It’s probably a little premature to break out the tiki mugs yet (that’s what Memorial Day weekend is for: action movies and loud Hawaiian shirts) but definitely something with a hint of the tropics.

Which, sooner or later, means grenadine.

If you’re not a huge fan of tropical drinks, you might not be terribly familiar with grenadine. In theory, it’s a syrup made from pomegranate juice that will lend a juicy flavor to a cocktail, typically one with five or more ingredients. In practice, it’s a bright red syrup that mostly gets added to drink recipes to add sweetness and a tropical roseyness. Think about a tequila sunrise: That beautiful ombre color comes from grenadine and orange juice playing off each other.

Is there a way to make grenadine a more active participant in your porch-sitting cocktail?

As it turns out, there is.

Making your own grenadine

Combine one part sugar and two parts unsweetened pomegranate juice in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a boil. Stir to make sure all the sugar has dissolved, then remove from heat.

That’s it.

This is really good grenadine. If you happen to have a bottle of regular grenadine laying around, do a taste comparison. Taste the commercial stuff. It’s fine — it’s sweet and vaguely fruity, about what you’d expect from grenadine. Now try the homemade stuff. The sheer juiciness of this might rock you back on your heels. It’s sweet, but not cloyingly. It tastes deeply purple, with a little acidity that tickles those glands under your ears that flare up sometimes when you eat sharp cheddar.

Now try the commercial grenadine again. Why have you never noticed that artificial flavor before? This tastes like corn syrup and sodium benzoate.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m as big a fan of artificial ingredients as the next man. If they make something taste better, or keep it from molding, or make it feel better in my mouth, I’m all for it.

And yet.

This homemade grenadine tastes an order of magnitude better than the commercial stuff. It’s also incredibly simple to make. There’s no excuse not to.

Pomegranate Daisy

• ¾ ounce homemade grenadine (see above)
• ¾ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1½ ounces dry gin – I decided not to go with a fancy gin this time and used Gordon’s; I think it was a good call

Combine all ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker.

Strain into a coupé glass.

Ask your digital assistant to play “Everyone Come Outside” by the Pomegranates. Sip contentedly on your front steps, calling out to strangers: “Forgive the intrusion, but you’re having a Very Good Hair Day!” or “Bless you, Child of the Universe!”

The best way to describe this cocktail — an abridged version of a classic Clover Leaf — is “juicy.” The homemade grenadine shines through, and its tartness plays off the lemon juice. A botanical gin, or some other gin that takes itself too seriously, would shoulder the juices aside and demand attention for itself. A modest, workmanlike gin like Gordon’s is a team player. It makes itself known and gives the enterprise a backbone but is happy to give equal billing to the juices.

It’s a good taste to take with you to the porch.

Featured photo: Pomegranate Daisy. Photo by John Fladd.

Barley House offers a DIY approach to bloody marys

Nikki Miller likes bloody marys.

“They are full of nostalgia, and absolutely delicious,” said Miller, a veteran bartender at The Barley House Restaurant & Tavern in Concord.

She likes them so much that she has put together a weekly event on Sundays called “Build Your Bloody.”

Patrons can order a bloody mary to exacting specificity: what type of vodka — or tequila for a bloody maria — and how much of it, extra seasonings, and, of course, what garnishes they want.

“Customers like to sit at the bar and watch me make it,” Miller said.

For several years, around the country, many bars have been in a bloody mary arms race to make the brunch-friendly cocktail with more and more extreme, over-the-top garnishes, a challenge Miller doesn’t shy away from.

“People like to order it because it’s fun and they’re super-hungry,” she said. The add-ons range from the classic celery — which complements the celery salt that is traditionally part of the spice mixture that gives a bloody mary its kick— to gherkins, olives, cocktail shrimp (“the big fat ones,” Miller enthuses), pepperoncini, or sometimes “just a big hunk of cheese.” Sometimes she has garnished a bloody mary with bacon-wrapped scallops.

“We have a regular who always orders an appetizer platter next to his, because it’s a snack as well as a drink,” Miller said.

Far and away, however, the most popular garnish is the Barley House’s house-made candied bacon.

“I have some customers who are all about the bacon,” Miller said. “They are really unhappy if they don’t get two slices of it.”

Miller came up with the concept for Build Your Bloody while tending bar on New Year’s Day. It’s usually a quiet day, because any rowdy customers have been up very late the night before, celebrating. Most of the customers had ordered bloody marys, and Miller thought about how much fun it would be to set up a bloody mary bar. The idea has turned out to have legs. Bloody marys are very popular on Sunday mornings, though Miller takes issue with the idea that they are just for brunch.

“We have a stigma in our heads that it’s just a breakfast cocktail,” she said, “and that just isn’t the case.”

Aside from the garnishes, the Barley House makes its bloody marys with vodka and a house-made bloody mary mix that Miller describes as “heavy on the horseradish, with spices and pickle juice.” She recommends Tito’s vodka, which she says has a clean taste that stands up to the spice-heavy bloody mary mix.

“I like to rim the glass with Tajin,” she said, referring to Tajin Clasico, a Mexican chile-lime powder.

As she thinks about new bloody mary garnishes, Millier said, she’d like to experiment with house-pickled fresh vegetables.

“We’ve talked about putting mini-sliders on skewers,” she said.

Bloody mary how you like it
The Barley House Restaurant & Tavern
132 N. Main St. in Concord, thebarleyhouse.com, 228-6363
Build Your Bloody runs from 11:30 a.m to 3 p.m. on Sundays.

Featured Photo: Photo courtesy of The Barley House.

Shops and breweries amped for Craft Beer Week

April 7 is National Beer Day and brewers of New Hampshire will be in the midst of New Hampshire Craft Beer Week, which runs April 4 through April 13.

Breweries across the state will celebrate, working to show the beer-drinkers of New Hampshire just how good their beer is. And they are expected to double down on beer-related festivities during Pint Days, April 7 through April 13.

Nobody is more excited about Craft Beer Week and Pint Days than CJ Haines. Haines, the Executive Director of the New Hampshire Brewers Association, says she looks forward to it every year. The breweries get really creative with their new beers and ales in April, she said.

“We don’t know about particular releases until closer to the event. It’s always a surprise,” Haines said. The rumor is that this year many will have a sun or outer space theme, to commemorate the April 8 eclipse.

Haines said, eclipse aside, exuberant feelings tend to run high among brewers in April anyway; a surprising number of breweries celebrate birthdays and anniversaries during the month.

“For some reason, a lot of breweries tend to open in April,” she says, which means there are a lot of celebration beers on tap as well.

Ali Lelleszi, one of the owners of Rockingham Brewing Co. (1 Corporate Park Dr. in Derry, rockinghambrewing.com, 216-2324), said her brewery is leaning hard into Craft Beer Week this year.

“We have a slew of food trucks visiting during the week,” she said. ”We’re also having a chili cook-off. Five of our staff are making chili with five of our beers. Customers can order a flight of chilis with a flight of the beers that were used to make them, and vote on which one they like the best.” It’s a good way, she says, to help customers learn how beer can complement food.

Customers can also take away tangible reminders of Craft Beer Week. On the first Thursday of every month, Lelleszi says, Rockingham Brewing holds an event called Ales & Alterations; customers can bring in a piece of clothing that needs to be mended, and drink a beer while they wait. During Craft Beer Week, she says, they can buy a commemorative patch and have it sewn on while they wait. “They can also buy a special pint glass as an add-on with their beer,” she says, referring to glasses commissioned by the Brewers Association and designed by New Hampshire artist Shane Buzzell of Crafty Beard Design in Plymouth. These glasses will be available at many participating breweries across the state.

Other breweries holding Craft Beer Week celebrations include Great North Aleworks (1050 Holt Ave., No. 14, in Manchester, greatnorthaleworks.com, 858-5789), holding a Make Your Own Tie Dye Party on Thursday, April 11, and To Share Brewing Co. (720 Union St. in Manchester, tosharebrewing.com, 836-6947), which will host a Thrift Shop Prom on Saturday, April 13.

New Hampshire Craft Beer Week, said CJ Haines, is about recognizing the diversity of New Hampshire’s brewers.

“It’s intended to raise awareness about New Hampshire’s brewers and the craft beers we have in the state,” she said. She says New Hampshire beer-drinkers don’t have to visit a brewery to celebrate Craft Beer Week, although she hopes they do.

“We want them to support their local beer shops. Our tagline is ‘Keep New Hampshire Brewing,’” Haines said, and she observes that anything that makes people appreciate New Hampshire craft beers is a win.

New Hampshire Craft Beer Week
When: Thursday, April 4, through Saturday, April 13, with Pint Days starting on April 7
More: nhbrewers.org/event/nh-pint-days-2024.

Featured Photo: Courtesy photo.

The faded, stained recipe is in the back of a scrapbook where I keep recipes I’ve been meaning to try. The title on the top reads, “Juanita’s Cheesecake.” I barely remember who Juanita is — the sister of a good friend of my mother’s, and I probably only met her a couple of times in my childhood. But I distinctly remember my mother saying at some point that Juanita made the world’s best cheesecake.

Juanita’s Cheesecake

Crust

About 2 cups (9 ounces / 252 g) cookie crumbs – traditionally these would be graham cracker crumbs, but any crunchy cookie will work; for this cheesecake I used America’s most under-rated cookie, Vienna Fingers

½ cup (1 stick) butter

The Body of the Cheesecake

2 8-ounce packages of room-temperature cream cheese

¾ cup (148 g) sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

The Topping

1 cup (8 ounces / 227 g) sour cream

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Grease the bottom and sides of an 8-inch spring-form pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, which will stick, now that you’ve put a layer of fat down.

Grind your cookies into crumbs. Either use a food-processor, or use a zip-lock bag and a rolling pin. You’ll quickly find that it’s more a matter of leaning in and crushing the cookies, rather than rolling them.

Put your butter in a medium-sized plastic or glass bowl, and melt the butter in the microwave. Add the cookie crumbs to the melted butter, and stir until completely combined. Press the crust mixture into the bottom of your spring-form pan. Chill in the refrigerator until you need it. If you used the rolling pin method, this will look less like a conventional graham cracker crust, and more like somebody did something terrible to some Fruity Pebbles.

Mix the cream cheese at medium-high speed until it is light and fluffy. Slowly pour the sugar in, followed by the eggs, one at a time. Let each ingredient combine thoroughly before adding the next, then add the vanilla.

Scrape down the sides of your bowl, then mix again to make certain all the ingredients have been incorporated. Pour the batter into your prepared pan, and put it in the oven to bake. Juanita seems to suggest that this will take about half an hour, but she also suggested a shallower pan, which would speed things up considerably. In my experience, the cheesecake should bake for about 55 minutes. Don’t worry about using a water bath; any cracks will be covered by the topping layer.

Remove the cheesecake from the oven when it is lightly golden-brown and a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

In another bowl — or the cookie crust one, if you’ve stayed on top of your dishes — mix the sour cream, sugar and vanilla together with a spoon. Pour on top of your cheesecake, spread it evenly, and return it to the oven. Juanita suggests 10 minutes should be enough. My mileage says 25. This is a judgment call on your part. You just want to cook it until it is dry and solid-looking. I like it to have a little color, but that’s just me.

Leave the cheesecake on your counter for an hour or so to cool. Cover it with a large bowl if you have small children or cats. It will eventually contract, pulling itself away from the side of the pan. Remember to remove your parchment paper when you remove it from the pan.

If you’re used to today’s cheesecakes, which have strong flavors that knock you over the head with a club and drag you back to their cave, this cheesecake will be something of a revelation. It tastes exactly like what it is: dairy, eggs, and a little sugar.

This recipe did not deserve to sit alone and unappreciated since the Nixon administration.

Featured photo: Cheesecake. Photo by John Fladd.

Concord event raises funds to fight homelessness

By Jill Lessard
[email protected]

Savor a cup of soup while contributing to a worthy cause at the 15th annual SouperFest on Saturday, March 23, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the City Wide Community Center, 14 Canterbury Road, in Concord. The event features a variety of soups prepared by area restaurants, and all proceeds from the fundraiser will benefit the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH).

Participating eateries include Alexandra’s Bistro (broccoli cheddar), The Barley House (pumpkin apple bisque), Concord Co-Op (TBD), Flanagan’s South Ender (turkey pot pie), Karner Blue Cafe (chicken noodle), Maddy’s Food Hub (peanut soup), The Post Downtown (roasted garlic and Parmesan tomato bisque), Red Blazer Restaurant & Pub (turkey pot pie), Revival Kitchen & Bar (lemon chicken rice), The Works Bakery & Cafe (lentil) and more.

CCEH’s mission, as stated on its website, is to eliminate chronic homelessness; support and quickly re-house people who have recently become homeless; and build a system that effectively responds to the diverse needs of people experiencing homelessness. The organization’s SouperFest (originally called Soup Fest) started in 2009 as a modest church-based fundraiser and has grown into a major community event that raises tens of thousands of dollars.

“CCEH hopes to raise $75,000 from SouperFest, and to generate public awareness and support for CCEH’s work and ultimately end homelessness in our community,” said Kate Gallagher, CCEH’s Director of Development & Communications, in an email. “We anticipate roughly 200 people to attend, and we hope that families at the Community Center for their regularly scheduled Saturday activities will join us, as well as neighbors of the Community Center. This year we’re focusing on the soup and the community atmosphere. We’re also using SouperFest as the kickoff to our 15th birthday celebrations, so we’ll have a celebratory atmosphere happening as well!”

It takes a village for events like SouperFest to be produced, and Gallagher is grateful for the contributions of myriad community members.

“We have a wonderful group of business and organizational sponsors…. We also rely on the 12 area restaurants who donate the soup for the event,” she said. She also noted the volunteers who make it all work on the day of the event.

When asked about the current situation in the Concord region, Gallagher said, “CCEH has worked hard over the past few years … through our street outreach efforts and our ‘by-name list.’ Not only do we feel very confident in the numbers, we know the names of the individuals within that count.” She reported that as of the end of December 2023 there were 499 individuals experiencing homelessness in Merrimack County, 313 of whom had been without permanent housing for over a year, and each month on average 22 people become homeless and 12 people become housed.

The housing market has been rough, Gallagher noted.

“We are in a historic housing crisis, with rental vacancy rates in New Hampshire at less than one percent,” she said. “And while finding and securing housing for individuals remains difficult — for anyone, never mind someone who has no or poor credit, has an eviction on their record, has history with the justice system, or is holding a rental assistance voucher — CCEH helped 90 people secure permanent housing since January 2021.”

SouperFest
When: Saturday, March 23, 11:30am to 1:30pm
Where: Concord Community Center, 14 Canterbury Road, Concord
Cost: $5 for one 8-ounce cup of soup; $20 for a bundle of five cups. First come, first served.

For more information or to make a donation, visit concordhomeless.org

Featured Photo: Past SouperFest. Courtesy photo.