How a newcomer to the Queen City started the Manchester Craft Fair, all to get to know her new neighborhood
By Katelyn Sahagian
ksahagian@hippopress.com
Moving to a new city can be scary, especially as an adult. Kathy Daneman decided that instead of worrying about her big move from Brooklyn, New York, she would do what she does best: plan an event.
A brand-new craft fair will take Manchester by storm on Saturday, Aug. 13, simply because Daneman, one of the co-founders, wanted to get to know her new home city better.
“It’s so hard as an adult to move and find your people,” said Daneman, who has only resided in the Queen City for five months.
Daneman said when she first moved from Kansas as a little girl, her mother said she used to go running up and down the street, knocking on doors of their new neighbors asking for kids to be her friends. Now, Daneman said she’s using this festival to accomplish the same goal.
Daneman worked in the publishing industry in New York City and Boston for 25 years, and worked planning events for the last five. She was one of the organizers for events like the literary festival in New York, a celebration of local writers and books published in the Big Apple.
The first thing Daneman did upon coming to Manchester was join the library board. There, she met her co-founder of the Manchester Craft Fair, Kim Doherty. Together they set to work, hunting down artists and working with city officials to make this fair a reality.
“[Doherty]’s lived here all her life,” Daneman said. “She wanted a craft fair, something downtown so older people could be part of downtown, too.”
In approximately three months, Daneman and Doherty signed up 20 booths and two food trucks. They got everything in place to have the inaugural craft fair. While it is the first, Daneman hopes that it won’t be the last.
“Come buy crafts from a lot of amazing people,” Daneman said. “This particular fair, I hope it grows so we can do more things in the future.”
Vendors will be selling everything from macrame and hand-crafted jewelry to specialty brined pickles and bowls made from wound cloth. Daneman said that it was important to her to find people selling unique and unusual things, items that fit her style of artistic expression.
While there won’t be live music at the fair, Daneman said that she’d encourage any busker or street musician to come and perform at the park. She said that the whole operation was done without a budget, and she didn’t feel comfortable asking musicians to play music for free.
Daneman said that it was fitting that someone with her recent history of living in New York should have a hotdog cart at the event. Jose’s Hot Dogs Cart will be serving up sausages and vegan eatery The Green Beautiful will have assorted plant-based goodies.
The highlight of the event, Daneman said, will be the puppy pen filled with adoptable pups, sponsored by the Friends of the Manchester Animal Shelter. The pen will be there from 9 a.m. until noon. It may close earlier if all the fur babies find forever homes.
Daneman, who joked that she’ll be spending most of her morning with the dogs, said that she is excited to get to know more people in the city and make more cool friends.
“It’s been a good way to learn the city,” Daneman said. “There’re so many exciting people here. Isn’t this great, to all meet in Veterans Memorial Park and see neighbors you don’t normally see?”
Manchester Craft Fair Where: Veterans Memorial Park, 723 Elm St., Manchester When: Saturday, Aug. 13, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission: Free Visit: manchesterartsandcraftsfair.com
Featured photo: Some of the items available at this year’s Manchester Craft Fair. Photos courtesy of Kathy Daneman.
Test your knowledge at trivia night, live out your rock star dreams and win prizes by listening to your favorite tunes.
New Hampshire’s nightlife scene has plenty to offer, with games and events happening at local bars, restaurants and pubs nearly every night of the week. Check out where you can go to test your knowledge with trivia nights, live out your rock star dreams with karaoke nights, or even win prizes by simply listening to your favorite tunes with musical bingo.
Name that tune
Listen to music, win prizes during musical bingo
By Matt Ingersoll
mingersoll@hippopress.com
Musical bingo is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of letters and numbers like in a traditional game of bingo, you’re given a card filled with squares of song titles and recording artist names. The DJ or event host plays a clip of a song, and it’s your job to identify a match shown on your bingo card. In a normal game, the clips continue until the first player is able to match five squares in a row on their card, whether it be vertically, horizontally or diagonally.
Winners of a recent music bingo event at Backyard Brewery & Kitchen. Photo courtesy of Musical Bingo Nation.
It’s a weekly activity at area bars and restaurants that finds a happy medium between trivia and karaoke nights for its interactivity, said Gregory Nickerson, owner and founder of Musical Bingo Nation. Since launching in 2018, the entertainment company has grown to now host several public musical bingo events at venues across southern New Hampshire, as well as Massachusetts and Florida. Musical bingo is played every Wednesday night at Shopper’s Pub + Eatery in Manchester and at The Barnyard Venue in Candia, for instance, and on Thursday nights you can play at Backyard Brewery & Kitchen in the Queen City or at Main Street Grill and Bar in Pittsfield. All public musical bingo events are free to play, with the chance to win prizes. The company also offers private musical bingo events and even virtual events via Zoom.
Nickerson, a professional DJ for more than a decade playing in venues across New England, said he got the idea of launching Musical Bingo Nation after coming across the game online.
“I was really intrigued by the concept, because it created an engagement that I had never found at an event, other than playing the right music for a specific crowd that’s there for it,” he said.
Each game consists of different rounds, featuring songs that encompass a specific genre, decade or theme of music. You could be playing in a classic rock or reggae round, for instance, or a “one-hit wonders” theme — more than 50 different music rounds are featured across each event.
“We play enough of the song for the player to essentially try and figure it out, so songs like ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ or ‘Crazy,’ by Gnarls Barkley, for instance … you can hear [the name] multiple times in the chorus,” Nickerson said. “There are a couple of cool things we do like that, to be able to help engage players that might not know the song off the top of their head. … It’s also a cool way to make new friends, because we encourage players at our events to ask the table next to them if they might not know the song, and one table could share a song with another.”
Musical Bingo Nation has a whole team of DJs and event hosts, and you’ll never know which themes will be featured at each public musical bingo event until you actually sit down and play.
“We like to make it a surprise, and that allows our hosts to be flexible too,” Nickerson said. “If we were planning on doing ‘top hits of the 2000s’ but it’s a classic rock crowd, then they can swap that. It allows us to … cater to whatever age, demographic or crowd is in front of us.”
Jennifer Mitchell of Good Vibes Music Bingo, which holds free public events at Salona Bar & Grill in Manchester on Monday nights and at Backyard Grill Burgers & Wings in Seabrook on Tuesday nights, said she got into hosting the game after trying it out as a player. Her games also randomly shuffle the theme of the songs played each night and, prior to the start of every game, players are given a free space that they can pick anywhere on their card.
“I give them anywhere from 20 to 30 seconds of the song, and typically in that amount of time will be the song title,” Mitchell said, adding that, depending on the venue, players sometimes may be allowed to use song recognition apps like Shazam or SoundHound to help them out.
Prizes normally include gift cards or certificates to whichever restaurant, bar or venue you’re playing in. Mitchell said she has also seen some venues give out scratch tickets, or various swag such as T-shirts, keychains and beer koozies. Salona Bar & Grill even has a cash coverall, or a jackpot cash prize that rolls over each week, for anyone who can mark every single square on their bingo card within a certain amount of songs played.
But while everyone loves winning prizes, Nickerson added that the game has also proven to be a fun way for players to broaden their musical knowledge and horizons.
“In my eyes, one of the reasons I started this company was because I felt like I was keeping music history alive … [and] all those songs that are essentially disappearing off the radio,” he said. “We’re keeping them in play on a regular basis to hundreds and sometimes thousands of people each week, so that was the beauty of it. … I feel like it’s the best music game out there.”
Where to play musical bingo
Here’s a list of local restaurants, bars and pubs where you can go every weeknight to try your luck at a game of musical bingo. Know of a spot not listed here? Let us know at music@hippopress.com to include in our weekly Music This Week listings.
Backyard Grill Burgers & Wings 5 Provident Way, Seabrook, 760-2581, backyardgrillnh.com When: Tuesdays, 7 to 9 p.m. Featuring: Good Vibes Music Bingo, jennifermitchellmusic.com
The Barnyard Venue 285 Old Candia Road, Candia, 483-4888, barnyardvenue.com When: Wednesdays, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Featuring: Musical Bingo Nation, musicalbingonation.com
Fody’s Tavern 9 Clinton St., Nashua, 577-9015; 187 Rockingham Road, Derry, 404-6946; fodystavern.com When: Tuesdays, 8 to 10 p.m. (Nashua); Thursdays, 8 to 10 p.m. (Derry) Featuring: JB Entertainment, find them on Facebook
The Goat Bar and Grill 142 Congress St., Portsmouth, 590-4628, goatnh.com When: Mondays, 7 to 9 p.m. Featuring: Musical Bingo Nation, musicalbingonation.com
JB’s on the Boardwalk 187 Ocean Blvd., Hampton Beach, 926-1420, jbsnh.com When: Tuesdays, 8 to 11 p.m. Featuring: Music Bingo by Ironic, ironic.it/musicbingo
Logan’s Run Restaurant & Sports Bar 816 Lafayette Road, Hampton, 926-4343, logansrunrestaurant.com When: Tuesdays, 6 to 8 p.m. Featuring: Game of Tunes, gametimetrivia.com
Main Street Grill and Bar 32 Main St., Pittsfield, 435-0005, mainstreetgrillandbar.com When: Thursdays, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Featuring: Musical Bingo Nation, musicalbingonation.com
McGarvey’s Saloon 1097 Elm St., Manchester, 627-2721, mcgarveysnh.com When: Wednesdays, 9 to 11 p.m. Featuring: Perfect Entertainment, perfectne.com
Saddle Up Saloon 92 Route 125, Kingston, 347-1313, saddleupsaloonnh.com When: Wednesdays, 7 to 9 p.m. Featuring: Musical Bingo Nation, musicalbingonation.com
Salona Bar & Grill 128 Maple St., Manchester, 624-4020, find them on Facebook @salona When: Mondays, 6 to 8 p.m. (no bingo on Sept. 5) Featuring: Good Vibes Music Bingo, jennifermitchellmusic.com
Shane’s Texas Pit 61 High St., Hampton, 601-7091, shanes-texas-pit.com When: Tuesdays, 6 to 9 p.m.
Whym Craft Pub & Brewery 853 Lafayette Road, Hampton, 601-2801, whym.beer When: Thursdays, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Featuring: Music Bingo by Ironic, ironic.it/musicbingo
Sing your heart out
A look at southern New Hampshire’s thriving karaoke scene
By Katelyn Sahagian
ksahagian@hippopress.com
Karaoke is more than just singing along to some song on an old stereo system into a half-dead microphone and reading lyrics from a tiny monitor. Many DJs and venues in New Hampshire take it to the next level, featuring specialty equipment and live bands.
George Cox of Cox Karaoke, based in Manchester, said that karaoke should feel like you’re a rock star playing your own concert.
“I love the fact that people can get up and perform in front of an audience,” Cox said. “It brings a lot of people together.”
While almost all karaoke nights will have singers choose a song from a list, sign up for a designated time and sing away, Cox said he tries to make the experience much more special. From a hard drive with more than 100,000 songs to sound systems that add layered vocal effects to the singers, Cox said he is focused on giving the best experience possible to performers.
“When you come to one of my shows, it sounds like a professional show,” Cox said. “It’s like singing at your own concert.”
Photo courtesy of George Cox Karaoke.
Cox was the DJ for Manchester Idol, a local singing competition held at The Goat Bar and Grill in Manchester earlier this summer. It was so popular, he said, that people came from as far as Boston, Connecticut and Rhode Island for their shot at winning a $3,000 grand prize.
“I couldn’t believe the amazing talent [of] the people who came,” he said. “There was a line out the door.”
Erica Fleury, one of the co-owners of The Goat, said that she had known the competition would be popular since she had competed in one years ago with a much smaller prize.
“We just wanted to give … a huge prize away to get some real talent to come out,” Fleury said, adding that Cox’s fans coming to the competition made it even more popular than she had hoped for it to be. “I was surprised it did even better than I thought.”
While there’s no set date yet, Fleury said she is planning to host another Manchester Idol competition sometime later this winter. Right now, karaoke will continue at The Goat through the summer. Fleury said that she wants to see how it does with college students to see if it’ll continue being a weekly event — or if it will slow down to every other week or stop altogether until the next competition.
Cox, who has been working as a karaoke DJ for a decade in southern New Hampshire, said that he’s seen nothing but a boom in popularity for the activity over the years. Even with the pandemic causing most events to close, Cox said that he worked with South Side Tavern, across the Queen City on South Willow Street, to set up an outdoor karaoke night.
“It was the biggest gig of my karaoke career,” Cox said. “I didn’t think people would show but it was packed. There were about 50 singers and a lot of newcomers.”
Fleury said that karaoke will be around for a very long time. She and her husband also own Wally’s in Hampton, where they have a live band performing the karaoke set. The goal, she said, is for you to feel less like you’re just singing for a crowd of people and more like you’re the headliner at your own concert.
“You’re able to be your alter ego when you get up there on stage,” Fleury said. “People like to do things when they go out other than just sit at a bar. It just gets the energy going in the room and livens up the night.”
Where to sing karaoke
Check out this list of venues in southern New Hampshire that offer karaoke. In most cases, singers can choose a song from a pre-selected list and sign up to sing at a designated time. Know of a spot not listed here? Let us know at music@hippopress.com to include in our weekly Music This Week listings.
American Legion Post 31 11 Charles St., Penacook, 753-9372, nhalpost31.org When: Fridays, 7 p.m. Featuring: JMitch Karaoke
Angel City Music Hall 179 Elm St., Unit B, Manchester, 931-3654, angelcitymusichall.com When: Sundays and Tuesdays, 8 p.m. Featuring: DJ Clashious Clay
The Bar 2B Burnham Road, Hudson, 943-5250 When: Mondays, 7 p.m.
Boonedoxz Pub 95 Park St., Northfield, 455-3755, find them on Facebook When: Fridays, 7 p.m. Featuring: DJ Oz
Fody’s Tavern 9 Clinton St., Nashua, 577-9015; 187 Rockingham Road, Derry, 404-6946; fodystavern.com When: Mondays and Thursdays, 9:30 p.m. (Nashua); Wednesdays, 7 p.m. (Derry) Featuring: DJ Rick (Nashua); DJ Jay (Derry)
The Goat Bar and Grill 50 Old Granite St., Manchester, 844-603-4628, goatnh.com When: Thursdays, 8 p.m. Featuring: Cox Karaoke
L Street Tavern 17 L St., Hampton, 967-4777, lstreettavern.com When: Wednesdays, 9 p.m. Featuring: DJ Jeff
Lynn’s 102 Tavern 76 Derry Road, Hudson, 943-7832, lynns102.com When: Thursdays and Fridays, 8 p.m. Featuring: DJ George Bisson
Millyard Brewery 25 E. Otterson St., Nashua, 722-0104, millyardbrewery.com When: Every other Thursday, 6 p.m. Featuring: Bobby Lane
Raga Contemporary Kitchen 138 Main St., Nashua, 459-8566, find them on Facebook @raganashua When: Tuesdays, 7:30 p.m.
Saddle Up Saloon 92 Route 125, Kingston, 347-1313, saddleupsaloonnh.com When: Thursdays, 7 p.m. Featuring: DJ Jason
South Side Tavern 1279 S. Willow St., Manchester, 935-9947, southsidetavernnh.com When: Thursdays, 9 p.m. Featuring: Cox Karaoke
Stark Brewing Co. 500 N. Commercial St., Manchester, 625-4444, starkbrewingcompany.com When: Mondays, 8 p.m. Featuring: Cox Karaoke
Stonecutters Pub 63 Union Square, Milford, 213-5979, find them on Facebook @stonecutterspubmilfordnh When: Fridays, 9 p.m. Featuring: KJ-Dave O.
Tower Hill Tavern 264 Lakeside Ave., Laconia, 366-9100, towerhilltavern.com When: Thursdays and Sundays, 8 p.m.; and Saturdays, 9 p.m. Featuring: DJ Tim and guest hosts
Knowledge is power
Flex your mental muscles during trivia night
By Hannah Turtle
hturtle@hippopress.com
Bill Seney, local host of the trivia event named “Best Weekly Bar Event” in Hippo’s readers’ poll this year, believes a good trivia contest comes down to two things.
“One: It’s interactive, there’s some competition, and people like that. Two: It’s kind of like dinner theater. It’s entertaining,” Seney said.
Trivia is easy to jump into. Everyone can participate because everyone knows something, but nobody knows everything. Typically, bar trivia is free to attend, the only price being that of the drinks and food offered by the bar. A typical bar trivia event lasts about two hours.
For Marc Chamberland of Game Time Trivia, the special ingredient to a successful trivia night comes down to the host. Game Time Trivia is a regular at several local spots, including The Thirsty Moose Taphouse in Merrimack (on Mondays) and in Manchester (on Wednesdays).
Photo courtesy of Marc Chamberland.
“They’ve got to be personable. They can’t be a robot reading questions, [and] they have to make it entertaining for everyone,” Chamberland said.
Chamberland’s trivia events, like many, consist of themed rounds. Teams answer a set of questions, turn in their answers, see how their scores rank in the group, and move to the next round, with scores accumulating. It’s a system that allows players with different skill sets all to show their stuff.
Seney, who hosts weekly trivia nights at The Hop Knot, Shopper’s Pub + Eatery and Backyard Brewery & Kitchen in Manchester, points to the art of writing the questions as the most important facet of a successful trivia night.
“What I’ve learned from hosting is that nobody is really there to get stumped,” he said. “You have to have good questions. Not too hard, [but] not too easy either. My criteria is this: People should have at least heard of the answer.”
He gave an example of how he goes about writing a question.
“If I ask, ‘College Dropout and Late Registration are two albums by what famous rapper?’ And the answer is Kanye West, you might not have known that, but at least you know who Kanye West is,” Seney said. “If I ask the question in the reverse order, ‘What are the names of Kanye West’s first two albums?’ You might think, ‘Well, I never would have gotten that.’”
Seney uses an online scoring system, allowing guests to submit answers through their phones.
With the formula perfected, it’s up to trivia-goers to create their teams and try their hand at bar glory. Seney’s Instagram page, @trivianightwithbillseney,shows the names of some teams celebrating their hard-fought wins. Champions include “Quiz Free or Die,” “The Boothday Truthers,” “Have Kids They Said – It’ll Be Fun They Said,” “Boys’n Berries,” and “Only Here for the Beer.”
Where to check out local trivia nights
Here are some of the local trivia offerings. Some trivia nights happen many but not all weeks; contact the venue before gathering your team for the evening. Know of a regular game night not mentioned here? Let us know at music@hippopress.com.
Area 23 254 N. State St., Concord, 760-7944, thearea23.com When: Tuesdays, 7 p.m.
The Bar 2B Burnham Road, Hudson, 943-5250 When: Wednesdays, 7 p.m.
Battle of the Breweries Trivia When: Third Thursday of every month, 7 p.m. Where: Join from Great North Aleworks (1050 Holt Ave., Manchester), To Share Brewing Co. (720 Union St., Manchester), Rockingham Brewing Co. (1 Corporate Park Drive, No. 1, Derry), From The Barrel Brewing Co. (1 Corporate Park Drive, No. 16, Derry), or Daydreaming Brewing Co. (1½ E. Broadway, Derry).
New Hampshire Eversource customers saw an “unprecedented increase” in the supply portion of their bill on Aug. 1, according to an Eversource newsletter. The energy supply price, also known as the energy service rate, changes twice a year, on Feb. 1 and Aug. 1; most years, customers see a decrease in the Aug. 1 rate, but this year the rate has increased from 10.669 cents per kilowatt hour to 22.566 cents per kilowatt hour. For a residential customer who uses 600 kilowatt hours of power in a month, the total monthly bill will increase by approximately $67.63, which is approximately 50 percent. The cause of the increase, the newsletter said, is the record-high natural gas prices and energy supply pressures from the global economy. Eversource is working with the state to explore how it can provide financial assistance to New Hampshire customers this fall and winter, such as a credit on their electric bills.
Return to the Board
The Nashua Board of Education announced the nomination and selection of a new member. Dorothy Oden recently filled the seat that had been vacant since Sandra Ziehm resigned on June 30 and will fulfill the remainder of her term, which continues through December 2023. Oden was selected from a group of 17 Nashua residents who had submitted a letter of intent and presented their credentials to take the seat. She previously served on the Board from January 1992 to November 1995, and from January 2014 to December 2021. She was a longtime staff member at Amherst Street Elementary School in Nashua, hired as a paraeducator before working as a classroom teacher from August 1999 until her retirement in June 2013. “Having worked in the district as a para, a teacher and as a recent board member, I feel I am an ideal candidate and could quickly be a contributing member of the board with my recent and past experiences in the district,” Oden wrote in her letter of intent.
Free senior photos
The Boys & Girls Club of Manchester is offering free photo sessions for incoming high school seniors in the greater Manchester area on Wednesday, Aug. 17, from 2 to 5 p.m., at Stark Park in Manchester. According to a press release, local photographer Danielle Sheerin will be assisting the BGCM students, providing them with photography experience. The 15-minute shoots will give families professional-quality photos for their seniors to use throughout their last year of high school. They should register in advance at forms.gle/PB1oyN3m38ecyaui9. Seniors will also receive a complimentary membership to the BGCM’s teen program for the 2022-2023 school year, which offers a variety of activities, experiences, clubs and personal development programs, as well as opportunities to apply for post-secondary education scholarships.
Big money
The Mega Millions Jackpot ended on Friday, July 29, having generated more than $6.6 million in sales in its final week, with the New Hampshire Lottery selling the second-most Mega Million tickets per capita of the 47 lottery jurisdictions in the U.S. that sell the tickets. According to a press release from New Hampshire Lottery, New Hampshire players purchased $5.6 million in tickets at New Hampshire retailers and an additional $1 million through New Hampshire Lottery online sales, with more than 10,000 new players in the last month. Though the $1.337 billion winning ticket was purchased in Illinois, there were three winners in New Hampshire, including a $1 million winning ticket purchased at the Market Basket on South Broadway in Salem; a $20,000 winning ticket purchased at Circle K in Tilton; and a $10,000 winning ticket purchased at Shaw’s in Hampton. The jackpot set a record as the third largest U.S. Lottery jackpot of all time.
Suicide prevention for students
Gov. Chris Sununu signed SB 234 into law on Aug. 3, a bill that requires student identification cards to include the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. “Every student and family should have equal opportunity to access lifesaving services, and this bill moves us forward,” Sununu said in a statement. “New Hampshire is tackling our mental health challenges, and we are adding more and more investments every day.” New Hampshire recently implemented a new three-digit dialing, texting and chat code, 988, which connects callers experiencing suicidal, mental health or substance misuse crises to a national network of more than 200 call centers via the established National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, in partnership with the Andover Historical Society, has added a new historic marker for Potter Place in Andover, commemorating the life and work of Richard Potter. According to a press release, Potter was America’s first Black magician and ventriloquist and made his home in Andover in the early 1800s. The Andover Historical Society owns and maintains the historic grounds and family graveyard of Potter and his wife, Sally, as well as the Potter Place train station, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. An event celebrating Potter’s influence on American theater will be held at Proctor Academy in Andover on Friday, Sept. 30, and will feature a performance by ventriloquist Dan Ritchard and a presentation by John Hodgson, author of Richard Potter: America’s First Black Celebrity. Visit blackheritagetrailnh.org and andoverhistory.org.
Dartmouth Health’s Heart & Vascular Center hosts its fifth annual Love Your Heart Night at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester (1 Line Drive) during the New Hampshire Fisher Cats game against the Erie SeaWolves on Saturday, Aug. 13. The event, centered around heart health awareness and reducing the risk of heart disease, will feature free heart-health screenings, CPR demonstrations, fun and educational activities and a video message from Kelly George, an Enfield resident who received a life-saving heart transplant. Attendees are encouraged to wear red. Gates open at 6 p.m., and there will be fireworks following the game. Visit nhfishercats.com.
Gov. Chris Sununu has named the new Ash Road Bridge over Interstate 93, just north of Exit 4 on I-93 in Londonderry, in honor of its designer, Robert J. Prowse. According to the Union Leader, Prowse is a longtime New Hampshire Department of Transportation designer and has designed 400 bridges over six decades.
Having grown up in America’s heartland, one of my fondest childhood memories is of the garden that our family planted every spring. It was huge by New England standards, average by Midwest standards. So many hours of labor and love went into the garden, but the rewards were well worth the effort. Early morning harvests (before the heat got too bad) led to bushels (literally) of tomatoes, green beans, corn, peas, potatoes, onions, lettuce, cabbage and anything else my mom decided to grow that year. After a few hours spent in the morning hauling in the goods, the afternoon’s tasks required my siblings and me to clean and prepare the harvest for my mother to work her magic. She would spend the afternoon canning and freezing the produce to be served and enjoyed in the cold of winter when it tasted every bit as delicious as the day it was harvested.
Today I am a pretend gardener here in New Hampshire. I have a vertical tower that utilizes hydroponics for my summer vegetables. My family loves the tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, and lettuces that our tower produces, but I am just playing at it. There is no canning or mass production going on, no feeding of the masses.
One wonders what type of garden the City of Manchester and Families in Transition (FIT) envisioned when federal funds were spent to purchase property, demolish buildings and address environmental concerns to create the Hollows Community Garden and Learning Center in 2018. According to a recent Union Leader article, the plan was for the garden to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to supplement meals served at Families in Transition Family Place Resource Center and Shelter. A grant funded a part-time garden manager until 2020, when funds were cut. Currently, the lot is vacant and overgrown. FIT is currently requesting permission from city aldermen to develop the land as affordable housing.
No doubt affordable housing will address a much greater need for Manchester than a community garden, and it falls into the wheelhouse of FIT. They have done it many times before and have done it well. Remembering from my Midwest roots what it takes to achieve a meaningful return from a garden, I think FIT is wise to pivot back to their core mission for this parcel of land. Unless there is funding, staff and volunteers, combined with experience and knowledge to drive the project forward, a community garden is doomed to end up exactly where it is today, a vacant and overgrown piece of land.
Music and standup comedy have intersected since Midge Maisel opened for Shy Baldwin — OK, that’s fiction, but Steve Martin was the lead-in for Toto back in the ’70s, and Richard Belzer once did the same for Warren Zevon. Ben Roy uniquely embodies this junction; he’s a comic, who co-wrote and starred in TruTV’s Those Who Can’t, and a singer in a band. He’s also a veteran of J.T. Habersaat’s annual punk-spirited Altercation Comedy Festival in Austin, Texas.
Roy has opened for Minnesota punk rockers Off With Their Heads both as a comic and as a musician. For a show that’s part of a stripped down OWTH tour Friday, Aug. 12, at Manchester’s Shaskeen Pub, he’ll only be telling jokes. He’s joined by local favorite Jay Chanoine and host Eric Hurst for the laughter portion of the evening. That’s followed by music from Nick Ferrero of the Graniteers and Seth Anderson.
Two-thirds of Off With Their Heads, singer-guitarist Ryan Young and drummer Kyle Manning, will close things out.
The duo tour was inspired by Character, an album released mid-lockdown containing reworked versions of favorite songs from the band’s catalog. Adding comedy to the Shaskeen show was Roy’s idea. A native New Englander who relocated to Denver in 1999, he saw an opportunity for a family visit, and a chance to again work with one of his favorite acts.
Both Roy and Chanoine are keen on the idea of blending unplugged punk rock with comedy.
“It actually lends itself super well to stand-up, just because of that more stripped-down vibe,” Roy said in a recent phone interview. “Ryan is a really good songwriter and people love to sing along…. There’s a lot of catharsis to their special brand of misery.”
Starting with jokes and closing with bands makes sense. “It’s harder to go back once you’re in music mode. It’s a different energy,” Roy said. Also, Young and Manning are happy with the arrangement. “They’re all big comedy nerds [and] I know they like that they get to sit and listen and watch.”
Roy recorded his third album of comedy, Take The Sandwich, at the end of 2020, releasing it early last year. It has some great bits about Covid-19, like how the best intentions to eat healthy in lockdown were derailed when his grocery store ran out of quinoa, replaced by mac & cheese and “those shiny Hawaiian buns that are sweet and buttery all at the same time.”
However, his Shaskeen set will draw from non-pandemic material Roy plans to use in an upcoming one-hour special.
“What really frustrates me is this plunge into anti-intellectualism, our continued backslide as a culture into being proud of being inconsiderate or ignorant,” he said, teasing one of the subjects he’ll cover. “It’s super f-in’ annoying [and] it’s created a division in music, especially in punk rock. This feeling you shouldn’t do things to protect other people simply because you’re told to [since] we’re anti-establishment.”
He holds special ire for bad television, particularly the show Is It Cake? “One of the dumbest ideas … of all time,” he said. “Most of the world is struggling to put food in their mouths and we’re using that food to build objects and decide whether they’re food or not. It’s just it’s a slap in the face to the rest of the planet as we careen into an environmental catastrophe.”
The set will be Roy’s second at the Shaskeen; he headlined the regular midweek comedy night in 2021.
“That was my first time and I loved it,” he said. “Everybody was super rad; the comics were all really funny. Growing up, we used to come down to Manchester if there was a show there. I lived in New Hampshire for half the time I was in New England, so it was a little bit of a homecoming to come back as well.”
During the three years that Those Who Can’t ran, Roy lived and worked in Los Angeles. He left with mostly positive feelings about the city.
“It’s a strange place that has the rare distinction of not being nearly as good or as bad as everybody describes it,” he said. “It’s like demonized by so many people as being terrible and it’s not; it’s filled with really awesome people and amazing food and culture. But then there are people who make it out to be ‘Cali! It’s amazing!’ It’s also not that … but I actually liked Los Angeles. It’s alive, and in a weird way that a lot of other places aren’t. I miss a lot of the diversity.”
Off With Their Heads feat. Seth Anderson w/ Ben Roy, Jay Chanoine When: Friday, Aug. 12, 8 p.m. Where: Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., Manchester Tickets: $15 at eventbrite.com
Gourmet deli-style sandwiches and craft cocktails are the stars of the menu at City Hall Pub, a new eatery now open in downtown Manchester’s theater district. The latest addition to Southern New Hampshire Hospitality Group, which also owns Mint Bistro, The Wild Rover Pub and Elm House of Pizza — the latter opened on the southern end of Elm Street early last year — City Hall Pub lies directly across the street from its namesake, sporting a uniquely rustic interior look.
Like Elm House of Pizza before it, City Hall Pub inherits a space long used by favored local eateries of the past — most recently, it was a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant and whiskey bar called Cheddar & Rye. Before that it was Tiya’s, a popular Thai restaurant, for several years.
Photos courtesy of City Hall Pub in Manchester.
“We’ve really liked a lot of what we’ve been seeing on Hanover Street … and had an opportunity to open a business in a room that I’ve certainly loved over the years, way back to being Tiya’s,” co-owner Tim Baines of Southern New Hampshire Hospitality Group said. “So we wanted to add to what is already a lot of great things going on in the area of downtown … and create a community space where people from all walks [of life] can feel comfortable and gather.”
At a seating capacity of nearly 100, the pub features everything from a renovated back bar to various booths, low- and high-top tables, a larger community table and an outdoor patio.
Along with presenting City Hall Pub as a gathering space, Baines said the eatery’s deli sandwich concept was born out of a desire to bring more lunch options to downtown Manchester.
“We definitely saw a demand for more lunch options in the downtown [area] … and we pride ourselves on being open seven days a week, for both lunch and dinner,” he said.
Out of the gate, Baines said the build-your-own sandwich option has been especially popular. You have five types of bread to choose from — ciabatta, sourdough, a pretzel bun, a whole-wheat wrap or a gluten-free wrap — and can load them with turkey, honey ham or roast beef. The customization goes even further when you add your favorite type of cheese — cheddar, Swiss, mozzarella, American or Gorgonzola — and other toppings, like lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles or cucumber; and condiments or spreads, like garlic mayonnaise, pesto or honey mustard.
Photos courtesy of City Hall Pub in Manchester.
If you aren’t that picky, try one of the pub’s specialty sandwiches. The Thai soy chicken wrap and the City Hall burger have been among the top sellers, Baines said — the latter is topped on a pretzel bun with mixed greens, roma tomatoes, red onions and your choice of cheese.
“The City Hall burger has been the most popular item by far,” he said. “Seeing the success of the burger, we’re actually going to be doing a menu revision … and expand on the burger options.”
Non-sandwich options include various soups, salads, chilis and chowders, as well as appetizers, like a spinach queso dip with pita chips, and a hummus and vegetable platter. The full food menu is available until 10 p.m. seven nights a week, while the bar stays open for a few more hours.
On the drinks side you’ll find everything from bottled and draft beers and red and white wines to an extensive classic and specialty cocktail list. Baines said live local jazz music is currently featured at the pub every Thursday night from 7 to 10 p.m., and there are plans to expand the live music schedule in the coming months.
City Hall Pub Where: 8 Hanover St., Manchester Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to midnight, and Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. (kitchen stays open until 10 p.m., seven days a week) More info: Visit cityhallpub.com, find them on Facebook @cityhallpubnh or call 232-3751
Featured photo: Photos courtesy of City Hall Pub in Manchester.
