Category: Featured Content

Double play

Orchestral rock and Scorpions music from Uli Jon Roth

On his current Pictures of Destiny tour, Uli Jon Roth balances the music he made with Scorpions and his solo material by playing two full shows in three hours. He begins with the classical rock he began making after he left the group, with his original films and artwork on a screen behind him. The set often ends with a new arrangement of “Sails of Charon.”

Perhaps his best-known song with the German hard rocker band, it’s also a bridge to the fan-pleasing second half. With his full band, Roth does a front-to-back performance of Virgin Killer, to help celebrate its 50th anniversary this year, followed by a best-of from his time in Scorpions. Usually there’s a faithful take of “Sails of Charon.”

Roth is realistic that the Scorpions material made his name, while the more complex work that followed didn’t cross into the mainstream.

“I have a new Uli audience who are more into the new stuff,” he said from a tour stop in Denver. “Then there are those brought up with Tokyo Tapes and that kind of stuff. My performances reflect that.”

For many years Roth chafed at the nostalgia of it all, but he now leans into pleasing Scorpions fans.

“Actually, I do enjoy playing it,” he said — particularly 1976’s Virgin Killer. “It feels really fresh. We are doing it slightly differently from the originals, and it feels like it was written now in some strange way.”

The key, it seems, has been learning to bring his current sensibility to the older songs rather than merely recreating them — “Sails of Charon” is a good example. “That’s undergone lots of transformations over the years,” he said. “Simply because I was never satisfied with the original arrangement; I always thought it was slightly unfinished.”

At his upcoming Tupelo Music Hall show Roth will preview material from Requiem for an Angel, a project he returned to recently after shelving it for two decades. Over the past year strings, percussion, drums and guitar tracks were recorded in the studio, and parts of it were performed on a recent Japan tour.

Requiem for an Angel is a large-scale orchestral tribute to Monica Dannemann, an artist Roth met in the mid-1970s. The two were life partners until her death in 1996. Dannemann was crucial to his creative growth, creating artwork for his records and co-writing songs.

“She was always an inspiration; I was really privileged to have even met her,” Roth recalled. “She is still part of my life, because when she passed away, she’s basically irreplaceable — not just for me, but for all of our circle of friends. She is one of these people who is really sorely missed.”

For the first half of the show Roth relies on computer-backed orchestral music. That’s due both to modern music industry economics and personal preference going back years.

“I’m utilizing technology to the max; I always have,” he said. “We can’t carry an orchestra around with us, but I am playing everything live.”

A multimedia show utilizing film, his projected paintings (also on display in the lobby), and time-synced visual footage allows Roth to bring a hundred-piece orchestra’s worth of ambition to small venues like Tupelo. Not that he wouldn’t like the real thing.

“It would be a lot of fun,” he said. “But nobody would pay for it.”

Roth is equally unbothered by AI’s encroachment on creative fields.

“Unlike most of my peers, I’m not afraid of AI — I love it,” he said, adding that he uses it to refine compositions for his videos and assist in the early stages of his paintings before committing to oil on canvas.

He’s also not worried about things like the recent Spotify dustup when an AI “artist” built up big streaming numbers with human-free music. He welcomes it.

“If the day comes that AI creates a better piece of music, then so be it,” he said. “You know, let the best computer win.”

There is one genre that Roth is not at all interested in, machine made or otherwise.

“I’m really not a heavy metal fan,” he said. “The worst is death metal and black metal. I can’t stand it because there’s no wholesomeness in it. It’s just a bunch of question marks and no answers.”

Uli Jon Roth
When: Friday, April 24, 7 p.m.
Where: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry
Tickets: $50 at tupelohall.com

Featured photo: Uli Jon Roth. Courtesy photo.

What does a chef want to cook for you?

The Ash Street Inn’s Chef’s Table

Nick Provencher has been a professional chef for more than 15 years. That sounds very impressive, he said, but in fact the job can be very frustrating.

“Most of the time, it’s kind of a burnout job after a while,” he said. “It’s the hours and the people and the this and that, like you just get discouraged.”

His new position as the chef at the Ash Street Inn in Manchester has restored his sense of joy in the kitchen, he said.

“It’s essentially like a chef’s table that we’re doing inside the Ash Street Inn B&B,” he said. “They don’t normally serve dinner except when you’re doing a chef’s table.” On Chef’s Table nights, 12 guests sign up to have a multi-course meal prepared for them by Provencher.

“It’s a five-course dinner that we’re doing,” he said. “The menu changes every single week, depending on regional themes or just locally inspired menus. It’s super food-oriented, which is something that gets lost sometimes in a restaurant setting. There are none of those outside distractions. There’s no employees. There’s no one running operations or a general manager or a front-of-the-house staff. It’s just me cooking and interacting with the people who are there and just trying to create a really special night for everyone.”

For instance, Provencher said, “This week’s menu is a French-Indian fusion. It’s centered around some Indian flavors and Indian concepts done through the lens of a French chef and French technique. One of the dishes is going to be a slow-roasted and braised cabbage vindaloo. So there’s kind of a mix between two techniques. It has the sauce-building of Indian cuisine. and then the high regard and respect of fresh ingredients. The cabbage gets treated like meat, and cooking it is a three- or four-hour process. The finished dish is essentially like butter chicken, except it’s going to be with French-style Parisian gnocchi. There are going to be things at every meal that people haven’t tried before, or combinations they haven’t tried, or cuisine they haven’t tried.”

Cooking for 12 people at a time has opened up opportunities to follow his creativity, Provencher said.

“It’s 12 people. It’s so small that I can realistically accomplish whatever I have in my mind. There’s no, ‘Oh, we need to make sure it scales to 30 seats. We need to do this. We need to make sure that the line cooks are competent enough to cook it properly….’ There are really no holds barred on whatever we can do.” As the chef, he doesn’t have to design menu items that would be viable to make at volume, in and out of season, he said. “It only needs to be viable for three days, so you can bring in really cool ingredients, really fresh ingredients.”

Because liquor laws don’t allow the Ash Street Inn to sell wine, Provencher encourages diners to bring their own.

“It’s B. Y. O. B.,” he said. “We send out wine recommendations with the menu for the people who make the reservations, but it’s hyper-focused on what will pair with really, really high-quality food.”

That freedom and relaxed atmosphere allows Provencher to interact directly with the people eating his food, something that isn’t usually possible in a traditional restaurant experience, he said. He can explain the choices he made in preparing their dinner, and point out how ingredients enhance or complement each other.

“There are no distractions,” he said, ”no conflict of interest, no arguments. It’s just a calm, enjoyable dinner in a common enjoyable space where the focus is just around creating amazing food and interacting with people.”

“The hope of that is what has kept me in the game so long,” he said.

Chef’s Table
There are three seatings per week of the Chef’s Table at the Ash Street Inn (118 Ash St, Manchester, 668-9908, ashstreetinn.com), on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Seating is by reservation only. Visit ashstreetinn.com/ash-restaurant.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Books, prizes, golden tickets

Local shops celebrate indie bookstore day

According to Michael Joachim, the general manager of Balin Books in Nashua, what sets independent bookstores apart from corporate chain bookstores is the personal relationships they build with their customers.

“The bookstores I’ve worked at and run are very much connected to the community,” he said. We do a great deal of business with almost all the local school systems. There are dedicated people here who work with specific teachers and librarians to make sure they get the books they need at the best price we can get them. And we handle all the work of getting the books sorted, packed up, and delivered to the schools. Individuals will just call us personally and say, hey, here’s a list. Can you help me with this? Can you find out some information on these books that we need? And we take care of that for them.”

Joachim and his staff are ramping up for this Saturday, April 25, Independent Bookstore Day, which the American Booksellers Association (bookweb.org/independent-bookstore-day) describes on their website as a “national one-day party held the last Saturday in April to celebrate independent bookstores across the country, online, and in-store, through exclusive books and literary items, contests, cupcakes, and everything in between.”

Joachim said the day is a good chance to show customers some of the things independent bookstores like Balin Books can do for them.

“Having knowledgeable people in the store,” is important, he said, noting, “People who have their whole lives in book selling usually wind up in an independent store … and that goes an enormous amount of miles in results, in speaking to someone intelligently about finding a book you’re looking for, recommendations, or just how the store inventory is shaped to be responsive to the local community. All that comes out of experience.”

Erin Magoon, one of the lead booksellers at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, said Independent Bookstore Day is one of the most fun days of the year for book fans.

“There’s an Indie Bookstore Ambassador every year,” Magoon said. “This year it’s LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow, so we’re doing kind of like rainbow-themed decorations, some rainbow-themed search and find activities for kids over on the kids’ side of the store. We’ll have a golden ticket hidden somewhere in the store, and that’s redeemable for 12 free audiobook credits available for someone to find in the store. One of our booksellers, Kate, did a booth last year called Book Zoltar [named for the fortune-telling machine in the 1988 Tom Hanks movie Big]. She gives fortunes to adults and kids about what books they should read. And then, of course, we’ll have some local authors here to meet our customers and sign books.”

Manchester’s Bookery is also hiding prizes and a Golden Ticket audiobook voucher, said event coordinator Alex Pellerin. “This is a special ticket that’s going to be hidden around the Bookery,” she said, “and we’re going to be giving clues throughout the day as to where that ticket is. And whoever finds that ticket gets 12 free audiobooks for the year from Libro.fm, which is really fun.” There will also be visiting authors throughout the day, she said, and live music.

According to Pellerin, independent bookstores like Bookery are able to provide their customers with “curated” experiences. “[Independent bookstores] are all unique,” she said, “and a lot of our books reflect our communities. We take a lot of recommendations from our customers for books and we really personalize which books we carry. Our staff is able to work with everybody and offer personalized recommendations, rather than a list of what a corporation says to.”

Indie Bookstore Day

Independent Bookstore Day is Saturday, April 25. Here are the plans at some local participating book stores. For a map of bookstores participating in Independent Bookstore Day activities, visit indiebound.org/independent-bookstore-day/map.

• At Balin Books in Nashua (Somerset Plaza, 375 Amherst St.), get exclusive Independent Bookstore Day tote bags and collectible pencils while supplies last, plus mystery grab bags of five books for a $5 donation to the Nashua Soup Kitchen. (A portion of the day’s sales will be donated to NSK.) Author Laura Knoy will be at the store at 11 a.m. for an event featuring her new book, The Shopkeeper of Alsace. p.s. There will be cake, according to the website. See balinbooks.com.

• Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord (45 S. Main St.) promises exclusive merch, balloon animals and a “Golden Ticket” for Libro.fm, source of indie audiobooks, as well as visits from authors Kari Allen, Patricia Zube, Jeff Lang and Sam Kelley Theodosopoulos; see gibsonsbookstore.com for details on their books.

• Manchester’s Bookery (844 Elm St.) is planning “prizes, discounts, live music, authors, and so much more!” according to their website, bookerymht.com.

• Wonderland Books and Toys (245 Maple St., No. 12, Manchester) will celebrate its second anniversary in conjunction with Independent Bookstore Day with a week of promotions, giveaways and family-friendly events. On Saturday, April 25, the store will have extended hours from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., featuring exclusive deals and interactive activities, according to a press release.

• At Water Street Bookstore in Exeter (125 Water St.), go on a blind date with a book, search for the Libro.fm Golden Ticket (worth 12 audiobook credits) and hidden gift cards, enter a literary trivia quiz (win a $50 bookstore gift card) and join other fun activities. See waterstreetbooks.com.

• In Portsmouth, the Book Nook is hosting an audio book walk to celebrate the day, starting with a free mini Loon chocolate bar in the store at 10 a.m.; see portsmouthbooknook.com for details.

Featured photo: A limited-edition tote designed by Tom Gauld, author of Physics for Cats, will be available at participating indie bookstores.

Secrets and pies

Sweet, funny The Littlefield Gazette Does Not End Today opens in Nashua

One by one, local newspapers are disappearing. Wedding announcements and grainy photos of youth sports once stuffed in envelopes and sent with pride to relatives now live online. Or worse, they’re forever gone. The lingua franca of small-town life, dropped on porches by middle schoolers on their bikes, is a fading memory.

That’s the world of The Littlefield Gazette Does Not End Today, the latest production from Nashua Theatre Guild, running April 24 through April 26 at the Janice B. Streeter Theater. Set at the company picnic of a 126-year-old paper in the Midwest, it’s a heartwarming look at coworkers doing their best to keep a looming demise from spoiling the fun.

Directed by Alex Slocum, the 2022 Don Zolidis play is less a commentary on independent journalism than a celebration of the spirit of one small group of people swimming against the tide to carry it on. In small vignettes, the ensemble cast share their fears and dreams, using the moment to both unburden and connect.

Sports reporter Tony (Mike Amichetti) and Kate (Danielle Chisholm), a human interest story writer, compare jobs and imagine life without them. At first dismissive, Tony praises Kate’s work. “Your human interest stories make me really interested,” he says. “You take the most boring people this town has ever produced and make them seem fascinating.”

Kate is less charitable to Tony’s beat, but he defends it with an observation that sums up what it means to lose community papers like the Gazette. Readers are “not going to go to Facebook to find out what happened,” he says. “Nobody’s sending a link to grandma to let them know how their kid did in the meet … that’s the thing that’s going to be missed the most.”

Linda (Sierra Jones), a farm reporter who bartends and remodels kitchens on the side, counsels Imani (Belle McLeod), a new ad sales rep who’s overseen a vanishing client list in her tenure. When she laments her failure to turn things around, Linda reassures her, saying, “I can’t even clean my bathroom in two months.”

For some, the event is a catalyst to confession. Throwing caution to the wind, feelings long buried surface for both young and old to inspire romantic overtures. One couple tentatively discusses a move from dating to the next level. There’s a pie contest with a twist ending — after all, it’s the Midwest.

The overall effect is wholesome, heartfelt and timely. For Alyson Galipeau, who plays publisher Gayle, the latter is what attracted her to the play. An at-large member of the Guild’s board, Galipeau also helped select The Littlefield Gazette Does Not End Today for production.

“I grew up getting the Nashua Telegraph in my house,” she said in a recent phone interview. “When it went to an online format and … employees got fired, my mom was really bummed out. I was bummed out, too. The parallels between worlds is what drew me in.”

Despite its solemn undertone, the play’s humor breaks through.

“Rehearsals have been going great, a lot of fun,” Galipeau said. “We crack up nonstop. Some of these characters are ridiculous, and we’re also screwing up our lines … between those two aspects, we laugh nonstop.”

Plays like this one and The Tin Woman, a tear-jerker done earlier in the season, are a big reason why the interest in Guild productions is growing.

“A lot of people are auditioning, and we are having to turn auditioners away for the first time in many years,” Galipeau said. “That tells me that there’s increased interest in theater and our plays, which I love.”

She believes the current effort, which runs for three performances, has wide appeal. “There is a little subplot for everyone in this play. You’ll be able to relate to at least one person; I think that’s important. If you can connect with your audience, then you have done your job as a writer and a director.”

The Littlefield Gazette Does Not End Today
When: Friday, April 24, and Saturday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, April 26, at 2 p.m.
Where: Janice B Streeter Theater, 14 Court St., Nashua
Tickets: $18 and up, nashuatheatreguild.org

Featured photo: The Littlefield Gazette Does Not End Today. Courtesy photo.

Tastiness To Go

A look at area food trucks

There have probably been mobile kitchens since before the invention of the wheel. But in recent years there has been a change in the country’s and New Hampshire’s food scene, led by a new generation of food trucks. Area food truck enthusiasts can choose from everything from hot dogs to a themed coffee experience to fire-grilled steaks or salmon.

Nick Provencher is a career chef who has worked in professional kitchens for decades. Currently he runs the Ash Street Inn’s Chef’s Table (118 Ash St., Manchester, 668-9908, ashstreetinn.com). He sees the recent proliferation of food trucks as a reaction to the financial realities of opening a new restaurant.

“There’s a lower capital startup for talented chefs and cooks who aspire to have their own places,” he said. “It’s a great starting point where they can showcase their skills. And to me, honestly, after getting an inside view of the restaurant industry for 15 years, sometimes I’m like, that just might be the best bet ever because you’re not putting a lot on the line. There are minimal variables. You’re not locked into some lease or this and that. You don’t have a ton of employees. With the current state of the economy and the way the restaurant business seems to fluctuate, that kind of seems almost like a pretty good way to be able to sustain yourself for a longer time and a more reliable period. I think it’s brilliant.”

KS LeBlanc is the chef and owner of The Sleazy Vegan Cafe (205 N. State St., Concord, 877-328-7838, thesleazyvegan.com/concord) and The Sleazy Vegan Food Truck. She started in a food truck, then moved to a shared restaurant space and finally, during the past year, has opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

“I think in New England, I think we see, especially in New Hampshire, food truckers make the leap, going from ghost kitchen to food truck and into brick-and-mortar [restaurants] just because this is really a hard place to run a food truck,” she said. “New Hampshire’s got some really weird rules and policies, so it’s a hard place to be a food truck. I think that’s why we see it focused here a lot more. Places out west and down south are not quite that way. They do more food truck parks and gastro places where multiple trucks can get together and have like a shared expense of a place really pulling, you know, more people and more crowds together. We don’t see that very much here.”

At the same time, she said, food trucks allow an extremely focused approach to a particular type of food that would be hard to pull off in a conventional restaurant. “There’s an ability to take something that’s really, really special to you or something that you can make really, really special and build a business around that. One tiny slice is where a food truck wins. You can get to business with something small and have that small niche actually be a win and not something that’s limiting — get into some Ethiopian food or run a truck that just does empanadas or trucks that just do tacos but they slay at what they do.”

Here is a look at just a few of the many area food trucks trying to do just that.

Cali Arepa

(202-5845, caliarepa.com)

Owner: Olga Muriel

What type of food does it serve? Colombian street food, especially arepas

Where can customers find it? “I move around. Usually I post where I’m going to be on my Facebook and Instagram pages. I try to be in most of the big events around New Hampshire, but sometimes breweries or private events want to have food on site and they contact me. So I really have a schedule, and I post every month where I’m going to be so people can find me.”

Where can people find it on social media? Instagram and Facebook

What is the most popular dish with customers? “The Arepa Mixta because it has three different meats and the arepas have all of the homemade sauces that we prepare.”

What is Muriel’s favorite dish? “I enjoy all of them. Every single item in our menu, I enjoy because it’s authentic. All of the arepas have a good amount of flavor — an authentic flavor — for someone to try, like authentic Colombian street food. I am a beef person, so I will always go with the beef one.”

“We are from Cali, which is one of the biggest cities in Colombia,” Muriel said. “If you travel to South America, especially Colombia, you will see arepas on the street. Everyone will have a little cart, grilling the arepas on site. Most of them are filled with cheese. Some have beef, so we kind of mixed the whole idea and brought up the whole variety of meat in the arepas, so people like it.”

Muriel said she likes to educate new customers.

“People think that the arepas are kind of like tacos,” she said, “but they’re not, because the arepas are a mixture of mixed up ingredients, bringing the dough in a consistency where it is grilled and crunchy, and it’s tasty. So I want people to understand that the arepa, you can say it is kind of like a sandwich, but it is nothing like a taco!”

Cup of Ambition

(1170 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 843-591-6146)

Owner: Barbara Devay

What is it? A Dolly Parton-themed mobile coffee bar

What does it serve? Coffee drinks and mini-doughnuts fried to order and named after Dolly Parton songs

Where can customers find it? “At my husband’s shop on Hooksett Road. I’m here most of the time, unless I’m booked for an event, and I’m booked for several already!”

Where can people find it on social media? Instagram and Facebook

What is the most popular with customers? “A medium iced coffee butterscotch with a shot of espresso has been the thing that people love.”

What is Devay’s favorite dish? “My favorite donut is the Islands In the Stream, which is a warm breakfast blend with vanilla and cinnamon sugar. That’s probably my favorite thing on the whole truck”

“I have been a fan of Dolly Parton my entire life,” Devay said. “I am a season pass holder to Dollywood. We lived a lot closer when we were in South Carolina, so we would go quite often. We’re a little further now, so instead of driving we’ll have to fly. I brought this whole mini donut/coffee thing up from South Carolina. It was a combination of two things that I really enjoyed doing. My husband bought me this trailer this past Christmas to kind of make my dream come true. He actually went to South Carolina to pick it up because we were moving our businesses and he made me believe that he was going down there to move some more equipment for his mechanic shop, but then he pulled in the driveway with ‘Santa Claus Is Coming to Town’ on his radio and he had my trailer behind him. It’s red, so it definitely screamed Christmas.”

Teenie Wienies

(403-2336, twprovisions.com)

Owner: Riley O’Loughlin

What type of food does it serve? Sandwiches made from scratch-made sausages

Where can customers find it? Teenie Wienies is at most downtown Concord events, such as First Friday. “We’re based out of Concord although I don’t have a physical location yet. If there’s any event I can do in Concord it’s a priority.”

Where can people find it on social media? Instagram, Facebook, and X

What dish is most popular with customers? “A sandwich we call the Chinese Dumpling. The sausage itself is basically the contents of a dumpling — a pork base with sesame sauce, sesame oil, cabbage, a few Asian spices like ginger, and then we continue to build the sandwich around that with like a Asian -inspired slaw, pickled radishes, red onion, Sriracha aioli, green onion and sesame seeds.”

“We wanted to do hot dogs originally,” O’Loughlin said. “I pivoted to sausages because I make everything from scratch. It’s a lot easier for me to make sausages than a hot dog. With a sausage you have much more texture of the actual meat inside of it. I’m more of a butcher than I am a chef. I don’t feel comfortable calling myself a chef, but I feel much more comfortable calling myself a butcher.”

At any given time, O’Loughlin said, Teenie Wienies offers six to seven house-made sausages and as many sandwiches. “Occasionally, for special events like Oktoberfest we’ll do more like German sausages served on a plate with spetzel, sauerkraut, handmade pretzels, that sort of stuff. But for the most part our core menu is sausage subs.”

The Treat Trolley

(235-9357, treattrolleynh.com)

Co-owner: Eleni Gagnon

What is it? A classic ice cream truck

What does it serve? “We are an ice cream truck, but … in addition to the novelties, we serve scoops, which kind of sets us apart.”

Where can customers find it? “We focus mainly on events. This year we will be at the Hooksett Farmers Market, which is every second Sunday of the month and it runs May through October. And then people will call us to do company outings, birthday parties. We are doing weddings.So we don’t have a set spot, but we are out and about at a lot of different events. We have quite a few weddings actually that have booked us for this coming summer. We’re excited for the warm weather.”

Where can people find it on social media? Instagram and Facebook

What dish is most popular with customers? “The scoops are definitely more of a seller. We do a lot of the basics — nothing too unusual. I feel like the basics are more popular. We’ve tried to throw in some different [flavors] but your vanilla/chocolate/cookies and cream are definitely the more popular ones. I think with something as basic as ice cream, it’s very important to people. It’s foundational.”

What is Gagnon’s favorite dish? “The Strawberry Shortcake is probably my favorite novelty ice cream.”

“Nobody’s ever upset when they’re eating ice cream,” Gagnon said. “So everybody’s always happy to see us, which we love. We did drive some neighborhoods last year, so it was really fun to see grown men chasing the truck because they probably haven’t seen an ice cream truck since they were kids.”

Smokin’ Spanks Barbecue

(smokinspanks.com)

Owner: Kevin Anctil

What type of food does it serve? “I offer a full barbecue menu. Everything I offer is prepared fresh by me from scratch from my own recipes. I use no prepackaged rubs or injections or marinades or sauces. Everything I serve is made by me. My smokers use no propane to smoke my meat. I only use natural hardwood lump charcoal, and wood. I have a battery of six sauces that are always made fresh and they’re always served on the side because the meat stands up on its own and doesn’t need the sauce. The sauce is just there for extra if you like it.”

Where can customers find it? “Right now I’m selling every Sunday in Litchfield at 517 Charles Bancroft Highway — that’s [Route] 3A — a couple minutes south of Manchester. And then once we get going this summer and more into mid-season, I’ll be adding in Friday nights as well. I found that I draw pretty well just on my own. I’ve got a couple gigs, but for the most part I’m not going to events and trying to find places that are providing me with customers. I’m pretty much setting up and drawing people to me for myself and trying to operate that way and then supplementing with the catering work and the parties and such. I get a lot of graduations, birthday parties, a lot of family, backyard type stuff like that.”

Where can people find it on social media? Facebook

What dish is most popular with customers? “It tends to go week by week. Some things are heavier than others. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason. That just depends on who’s coming in that week, what their favorites are. That said, I sell an awful lot of brisket.”

While smoked meats are the foundation of Anctil’s menu, he said great barbecue requires great side dishes. “I love mac and cheese,” he said. “It’s nice and creamy and soft and smooth and hot. Baked beans are really good — something sweet like that stands up nice with the spiciness and the richness of the barbecue. I do a loaded baked potato salad that I think pairs very nicely. It’s creamy, cold and rich.”

Wicked Tasty Food Truck

(699-5217, wickedtastytrucks.com)

Owner: Jakob Norris

What type of food does it serve? “Our concept is New England classics with a twist. It’s kind of a cultivation of the food that I grew up with in a very approachable comfort food style. We do things like smash burgers, we do some good hot dogs, we have a really great maple bacon onion jam, chicken sandwich with honey Sriracha, and braised short rib poutine. The whole idea is really just to kind of remind everybody where we’re from and kind of kick it up a notch and everybody in the family can enjoy it.”

Where can customers find it? “We are very event-based and mostly privately booked. But you can find us at some of the same major events every year. We always do Concord Market Days. You’ll find us doing the Concord Winter Festival. We do a couple events in Manchester. We have a full calendar on our website. Every week there’s usually at least two or three public spots that we’re open for.”

Where can people find it on social media? Instagram and Facebook

What dish is most popular with customers? “We’re definitely known for our smash burger with our maple bacon onion jam. That is our bread and butter. It has our homemade garlic aioli. It has like four different types of garlic — roasted garlic, granulated garlic, fresh garlic and garlic oil. We really focus on a good handful of homemade items, and those are really what we’re known for. So that smash burger is certainly the top one.”

What is Norris’ favorite dish? “My personal favorite would be our grilled cheeses. We actually have two signature grilled cheese [sandwiches] that we do. One of them has our braised short rib and our maple bacon onion jam on it. But one of the interesting things that we do with our grilled cheeses is we cover the outside with a garlic aioli and press it in shredded cheddar. We put that on the grill so it gets a crispy cheese crust on the outside. and then it’s filled with cheddar and American and bacon jam and short rib on the inside.”

Pours and Petals Mobile Bar and Catering

(205 N. State St., Concord, poursandpetalsevents.com)

Owner: Erin Doonan

What type of food does it serve? “We do primarily drinks. We serve cocktails, but we offer lemonade, iced coffee, hot coffee. And that’s what you’re going to find us selling at public events. We do also offer street tacos as well. However, we only do that for private events.”

Where can customers find it? Mostly at private functions. “We cater a lot of weddings. Honestly, that’s kind of the reason we got into the business is because we wanted to cater weddings. And people do have the typical idea of a food truck. But knowing that we wanted to go into weddings, we really want to make [our truck] a bit prettier for pictures — something that people would want to have in the background, people actually get excited about taking photos with it, and going up to the truck. So I think it adds a really nice, unique touch to weddings.”

What is most popular with customers? “Our lemonade is definitely by far our most popular item. We do a bunch of different flavors like strawberry basil and raspberry lime. Those are our two most popular flavors.”

Where can people find it on social media? Instagram and Facebook

“One of our goals was to have something that looked nice in photographs,” Doonan said. “We want to keep branding pretty minimal, so that way it didn’t feel like we were advertising to people’s wedding guests. We chose colors that kind of go well with weddings. We have a sage green food truck as well as a light yellow food truck, so that usually goes along with wedding colors. And instead of just going with a typical trailer, we also went with true, authentic, vintage, renovated trailers. We have a 1960 and I think the other one is a 1966. They used to be campers and we converted them. I think a lot of food truck owners also kind of prioritize either doing public events or setting up in one spot, and that’s what we’re doing. our model. Rather than having people come to us, we go to the people.”

Sicilian Street Chef

(sicilianstreetchef.com)

Owner: Sal DiMaggio

What type of food does it serve? “The original intention of the truck was to sell Sicilian food, but we do do a lot of Italian things — chicken pesto, prosciutto and mozzarella and that sort of stuff. You have to sell what the people want, so I make my own smash burgers. I make my own hot honey sauce, pesto sauce, and marinara sauce of course. It’s turning into Main Street fair food than anything else.”

Where can customers find it? “Last summer was maybe 50 percent breweries and 50 percent fairs. This year it’s going to be about 90 percent events between town concerts, car shows and private parties.”

Where can people find it on social media? Instagram and Facebook

What dish is most popular with customers? “They love smash burgers.

Motor Pie Co.

(644-2467, ext. 210, motorpieco.com)

Owner: The Chopscotch Hospitality Group, parent company of Hanover Street Chophouse, the Crown Tavern, and the Kitchen on River Road.

What type of food does it serve? Wood-fired pizza and upscale wood-fired dishes

Where can customers find it? Available for private functions only.

Mairin MacDonald handles the booking for the Motor Pie Co. She said the truck itself is one of its selling points. “The truck’s name is Riley Grace,” she said. “She’s a new part of the family. She’s a restored 1950s Ford with a wood pizza oven on the back. Anybody who knows the Crown Tavern’s pizza will find that same sort of style and quality that you would find at the Crown. But we’re not necessarily calling ourselves a pizza truck. We’re more of a mobile kitchen that we’ll be doing catering out of. It will be for private events only.”

In addition to pizza, MacDonald said Riley Grace will cook other dishes — “things like oven-roasted salmon,” she said. “We can do tenderloin, and hors d’oeuvres. So really anything that can be cooked in a regular oven can be cooked in that oven.”

News & Notes 26/04/23

Drought and wildfires

Drought conditions in New Hampshire persist despite this winter’s snow and the most recent rain, according to an April 20 press release from the New Hampshire Department of Natural & Cultural Resources.

“Dating back to when measurements were first recorded in 1895, January-March 2026 was the sixth driest first quarter for precipitation on record in the state,” the release said. “The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that 78 percent of the state is currently experiencing moderate to severe drought, and drought.gov, the National Integrated Drought Information System, notes that 725,800 Granite Staters — approximately half of the state’s residents — live in areas of elevated drought conditions,” the release said. The drought conditions also mean that there is an elevated wildfire risk, the release said. According to the map at drought.gov, 96 percent of Hillsborough County is “abnormally dry” with a little over 3 percent considered to be in “moderate drought.” Merrimack County has areas that are “abnormally dry” as well as 30 percent of its area listed as in “moderate drought” and nearly 59 percent of the county listed as in “severe drought,” the website said. In Rockingham County, 32 percent of the county is “abnormally dry” with 57 percent experiencing “moderate drought” and 10 percent in “severe drought,” the website said.

“Last year, New Hampshire experienced a 27.6 percent increase in the number of wildfires and a 16.8 percent increase in the number of acres burned due to wildfires,” said Chief Steven Sherman of the New Hampshire Forest Protection Bureau, in the press release.

The state Forest Protection Bureau declared April 19 through April 25 Wildfire Awareness Week; information on wildlife prevention is available at nhdfl.dncr.nh.gov/forest-protection/wildfire-prevention, the release said.

“Spring is outdoor clean-up season for lots of us in New Hampshire and doing things like removing leaves and pine needles from roofs and gutters, making sure shrubs, woodpiles and other fuels are kept away from buildings, and — of course — always getting a fire permit before any outdoor burning, all go a long way to making sure wildfires don’t start and, if they do, that they’re more easily contained,” said N.H. Forest Ranger Katharine Baughman in the statement. According to the release, “[u]nder state law, anyone wishing to have an outdoor fire in New Hampshire, unless there is snow on the ground, must obtain a state fire permit in advance from the local fire department; they may also be obtained online at nhfirepermit.com. Permits are issued only on days when Daily Fire Danger conditions indicate that it is safe to burn.” More than 80 percent of the state is forested, the release said.

Air update

Head to lung.org/sota for the American Lung Association in New Hampshire’s “State of the Air” report, which was slated to be released just after midnight on Wednesday, April 22 (Earth Day), according to a press release. The report “tracks exposure to unhealthy ozone and particle pollution. The report serves as a ‘report card,’ ranking air quality in metro areas and grading counties across the state. Additionally, the report ranks the most polluted and cleanest cities across the country,” the press release said. This year’s report will also include a special focus on children and the risks they face from air pollution, the release said.

State guide

Queerlective, a group that describes itself as working to “bolster diversity in the creative community of New Hampshire,” will release its State of Queer NH Resource Book at a release party on Saturday, May 9, at 1 p.m., according to a post on the group’s Facebook page. The book is “a community-built guide highlighting queer- and BIPOC-affirming resources, artists, stories, and organizations from across New Hampshire. This release party is a chance to celebrate the work, the people behind it, and the communities that made this project possible,” the post said. See the Facebook page for the link to RSVP. The release will take place during the “Reduce, Reuse, Upcycle” spring market, which will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., also at the YWCA, 72 Concord St. in Manchester. See queerlective.com.

More eggs

Two new eggs have joined the peregrine falcon nest at Brady Sullivan Tower in Manchester for a total of five eggs this year, according to the cams and daily log viewable via nhaudubon.org/education/birds-and-birding/peregrine-cam. According to the daily log on the YouTube page for Feed 1 (there are three feeds, each offering a different angle on the nest), the fourth egg arrived on April 14 and the fifth was laid on April 16. The cam offers livestreaming video of the nest via NH Audubon and the support of Peregrine Networks and Brady Sullivan Properties, according to the website. Last year the nest produced five eggs, of which three hatched.

Kimball Jenkins and Pope Memorial SPCA are holding a “Paint Your Pet” Workshop at Banks Humane Education Center in Concord on Monday, May 18, and Tuesday, May 19, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., with proceeds to benefit Pope Memorial SPCA, according to a Kimball Jenkins Facebook post. No painting experience needed and all the supplies will be included; see tinyurl.com/kjxpmspca for details and to register in advance.

Auburn Parks and Recreation will hold its town-wide yard sale on Saturday, May 9, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to a post on the department’s Facebook page. Those wishing to sell stuff can register by April 30 at auburnparksandrec.com.

Manchester Central High School’s literary and arts magazine The Oracle is hosting a coffeehouse poetry slam together with Tri-M, the school’s music honors society, on Thursday, April 23, from 5 to 7 p.m. in CHS’s Classical Hall (535 Beech St.), according to a post by Talia Harmon on Manchester InkLink. Tickets are $5.

The Hollis Arts Society will present the class “Painting on Silk with Anne Wifholm” on Saturday, April 25, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 100 W. Pearl St. in Nashua. The cost for the class is $60. See hollisartssocietynh.com.

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