After a raucous indoor afternoon metal show last Sunday, New Hampshire Underground will move outdoors for the Parking Lot Pop Up Unplugged Music & Art Fair. It happens one day after the Nashua Summer Stroll and includes a vendor fair with art, clothing, plants, pottery and other creations from Underground members MyArtbyKF, LAD Art NH, Keira Curtis, Prospero Eaton, Aimee Dumont, Cosmo Loona, Joshua Jackiewicz, and Dubz Dyes.
Of course, there’s music, but dialed down a notch, according to the organization’s CEO Eleanor Luna.
“Out of respect for the residents, we will keep it acoustic,” she said recently. “We hope to create an enjoyable, accessible event for all.”
After a performance by AirFlow Projection Art at 1 p.m., Lyle Hutchins, supporting a new album, performs light rock. Named after alt country star Lyle Lovett and raised in a rural corner of the state, Hutchins “always knew he wanted to be a musician,” according to his website. Inspired by Bon Iver, Ruston Kelly, Snail Mail and others, his music blends alt rock, Americana and folktronica.
After attending college in New Orleans, Hutchins released his debut album, Flatlander, described as “a fourteen-song narrative which explores the beauty and danger of nostalgia, homesickness and heartbreak, underscored by the trials and tribulations of pursuing an often misunderstood career in music.”
Next up is Soul Thread, an all original family-friendly rock band from Nashua. At 4 p.m., Keira Curtis and her band Ashborne will “amp it up just a little bit,” according to Luna, followed by the even more boisterous acoustic metal from Konseptikor. Also performing are local musicians Joshua Nobody and Jesse Rutstein.
“Artists and musicians are the lifeblood of the work we do bringing independent talent to the forefront,” Luna said. “This event is about boundary pushing, hence the first time we are hosting Terminus Underground outside.” Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs to the family-friendly event.
“Let’s have a unique experience at Terminus Underground al Fresco,” said Luna.
Parking Lot Pop Up Unplugged Music and Art Fair When: Sunday, July 27, 1-6 p.m. Where: Terminus Underground, 134 Haines St., Nashua Tickets: $15 at newhampshireunderground.org
Featured photo: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Courtesy photo.
Getting fancy and keeping it simple with summer’s favorite dish
Former governor Chris Sununu was a bit of a hot dog purist.
“He always ordered the same thing,” Gretchen Peters remembered, “a plain hot dog with yellow mustard.”
Peters owns and operates Puppy Love Hot Dogs on Main Street in Concord, across the street from the Statehouse. She has spent much of her life serving hot dogs to customers from her cart.
“This is a second-generation family-owned and -operated business,” she said. “We’re in our 47th season. My parents started the business in 1978, right here in this little alleyway on Main Street in Concord.”
Hot dog season
In the winter Peters sells hot dogs out of a storefront, but during warm weather her cart is located just off the sidewalk and all her customers are on foot.
“[A hot dog is] the cheapest fastest lunch on Main Street,” she said, “so I have lots of regulars, who have their regular orders. I know their orders probably better than I know their names.” She describes her style of hot dogs as “a New England classic.”
Mr. Hot Dog. Photo by John Fladd.
According to Peters, hot dogs are part of our culture. “We’re really … seasonal people,” she said. “Like, we wait for strawberry season, blueberry season, corn on the cob, lobster rolls. This is hot dog season. I think I’m lucky that my customers do come and support me throughout the year. So in the wintertime I do probably sell more chili dogs because it is comfort food. When one of my customers had a hard day or whatever, they’ll come in and they’ll say, ‘I need some hot dog therapy.’ It just makes you feel better, because it’s something that you grew up [with]; you kind of crave whatever you grow up with. There are different dogs — like if people ask for Red Snappers, they’re from Maine, or a Coney Island dog, or a Chicago dog — it just depends on where you grow up.”
According to Peters, hot dogs are part of our culture. “We’re really … seasonal people,” she said. “Like, we wait for strawberry season, blueberry season, corn on the cob, lobster rolls. This is hot dog season. I think I’m lucky that my customers do come and support me throughout the year. So in the wintertime I do probably sell more chili dogs because it is comfort food. When one of my customers had a hard day or whatever, they’ll come in and they’ll say, ‘I need some hot dog therapy.’ It just makes you feel better, because it’s something that you grew up [with]; you kind of crave whatever you grow up with. There are different dogs — like if people ask for Red Snappers, they’re from Maine, or a Coney Island dog, or a Chicago dog — it just depends on where you grow up.”
Candia Road Brewing Co. There are currently seven hot dogs on the menu: a traditional hot dog, a Seattle dog, a New York-style dog, an Omaha dog, and three varieties of Vietnamese-style bánh mì dogs. The hot dogs are made with all-beef franks, and traditional New England split-top buns are grilled. Where: 840 Candia Road, Manchester More: 935-8123, candiaroadbrewingco.com
A proper dog
According to James Malik, the taste and texture of a hot dog sets it apart from most other sausages. Malik is a career butcher, working at Wicked Good Butchah in Bedford. He said a smooth texture is a hallmark of a hot dog and is difficult to achieve without specialized equipment.
“To make sausages,” Malik said, “you need something called a bowl chopper, to give you a proper hot dog texture. You’re looking for a very smooth texture. When you cut open a hot dog, there won’t be little chunks inside. The meat has been chopped down until it’s completely smooth, to an almost paté-like texture. A bowl chopper is a machine with a rotating bowl that minces meat much finer than a typical meat grinder. It’s also where the spices and flavors are added.” This increases a hot dog’s consistency, he explained; there will not be any pops of flavor.
“It’s kind of how it’s always been done,” Malik continued. “You also need to ask yourself what kind of casing [skin] you want to use, or if you’re going to smoke it. There’s a couple of different directions you could go.”
Puppy Love Hot Dogs Steamed beef/pork hot dogs on traditional New England split-top buns. Where: 50 N. Main St., Concord, across the street from the Statehouse Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. More: puppylovehotdogs.com
A dog for all tastes
The staff at Candia Road Brewing Co. in Manchester likes how many directions it’s possible to take a hot dog in.
“We crank out really good hot dogs here,” said Candia Road co-owner Graham Rissel. “We have some standards on our menu that aren’t standard for a lot of other places. Like we have a Banh Mi dog, we have an Omaha dog, which is like pastrami, Swiss, Thousand Island and some black pepper. It’s really good. We do a really good job.”
The secret to a really good hot dog, Rissel said, is grilling it on a flat-top, rather than boiling or steaming it.
“We grill the bun and we grill the dog,” he said. This gives both a buttery sear, he explained. The brewery uses traditional New England split-top buns, which lie flat on their sides on the grill. Most of Candia Road’s hot dogs are made with all-beef franks, he said, though vegan dogs can be substituted in many of their iterations.
While there are usually three different types of hot dogs on the menu at Candia Road, Rissel said, once a year the brewery goes a little hot dog crazy.
“Every year we have what we call Weenie Weekend where we release our — we call it a wiener lager, but it’s a Vienna lager style beer — and then we put on like a lot of hot dogs. We usually have over 20 hot dogs on the menu, all different styles that are really crazy and funky, and then we have a big day where we just have only hot dogs. We sell them here and it’s good.”
Coming up with creative hot dogs for Wienie Weekend involves the entire Candia Road staff, Rissel said.
“We were just joking about that, actually,” he said. “So Mike, our head brewer, his wife was texting him with some crazy ideas that she was coming up with. But really it’s just kind of like a collaborative thing. We had a chimichurri dog on that menu last year. [Chimichurri is a South American sauce made from freshly ground herbs.]
“And then we had a queso dog,” Rissel continued, “with sausage, like chorizo. We make legit queso [cheese] sauce. Usually it’s just kind of like we spitball, to come up with ideas. We have a nori dog, which has seaweed and a Japanese-style dog. But if we like something else, we try to figure out how to put it onto a dog. We did a fried rice dog last year. We thought, ‘Everyone likes fried rice. Let’s put fried rice on a hot dog, you know?’ It worked out pretty good.”
This year’s Wienie Weekend menu is still up in the air, Rissel said.
“There’s been some discussion,” he said. “There were some dog ideas that aren’t going to make the final cut and I won’t be going on record just how bad some of these ideas were. No, there’s some good ideas they got. Because what I say might not make the final cut, and then I’ll be the guy who had the bad opinion,” Rissel said.
Hare of the Dawg Currently has eight hot dogs on the menu. All are made with gas-grilled all-beef franks, served on grilled split-top brioche buns. Customer suggestions are taken seriously. Where: 3 E. Broadway, Derry More: 552-3883, hareofthedawgnh.com
Classic dogs
At Hare of the Dawg in Derry, the approach to hot dogs is more conventional, said owner Kevin Decker, but taken just as seriously, though the restaurant isn’t actually named after them.
“The name of the business is kind of a dog theme,” he said. “It’s not a hot dog theme per se, but we’re just very dog-friendly. A lot of things on our menu have dog names. Hot dogs became kind of a specialty as more and more customers asked for them. We ended up creating a great menu with a lot of different hot dogs. Some of them are named after dogs I’ve had and dogs other people have brought in, but we make everything from scratch, including a true Chicago dog, which a lot of people don’t do in the area.”
Decker said that while it’s easy to find hot dogs at many area restaurants it can be challenging to find really good ones.
“We felt there was a need,” he said. “We went to a lot of places that had hot dogs on their menu. Eventually we found a really, really good beef dog that we liked after trying a lot of different ones and just designed different names and different style dogs. So it’s been popular, and we’ve expanded that menu based on the customers’ requests. I think it’s one of those things, where once you get people that learn to expect a good dog then they’ve got suggestions where to go from there.”
According to Decker, hot dogs have a no-nonsense authenticity that suits his customers.
“We are a downtown, blue-collar bar,” he said. “It’s a working man’s bar. We’re not fancy, but everything we make is made in-house. Obviously we don’t make the hot dog itself, but we prepare it.”
Hare of the Dawg also uses an all-beef hot dog and cooks it on a gas grill.
“We grill it on an actual grill,” Decker said. “And we use a top-split, grilled brioche roll; that really is kind of a game-changer for the dog. It’s a richer flavor. It’s just nice, you know.”
“One of the specials this weekend will be a bacon-wrapped, deep-fried hot dog with cheese melted on the top and onions on it, on a brioche roll. Right now it’s raw onions, but I think caramelized onions would go along with the bacon.”
Wicked Good Butchah Where: 209 Route 101, Bedford More: wickedgoodbutchah.com
Dogs for a cause
Hot dogs play a big role in Robert Bergin’s life. He is one of the organizers of NH Hot Dogz for ALZ, a fundraising event for the Alzheimer’s Association. Once per year — usually in June, which is Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month — Bergin and his team sell hot dogs. According to act.alz.org, to date, the hot dog event has raised almost $100,000.
Puppy Love Hot Dogs. Photo by John Fladd.
“We started in 2016,” Bergin remembered, “and we started with the silly idea that we would sell hot dogs. And we sold about 300 the first year. And then the team grew, and we started expanding the ideas of awareness, and we have progressed to the point where we have eight exhibitors, and the hot dog event became the memory that created the environment that generated 1,200 people showing up on the same day. We have a drive-thru, which helps us not be as crowded at our main tent. We can seat about 120 people at a time.”
“When we open on what is the last Thursday of every June we’re ready for 120 guests immediately, and we have probably 300 hot dogs made when we open at 11 [a.m.],” he said. “There are companies that come by and buy 50 bags. A bag for us is $5 and you get two hot dogs in the bag and an additional bag of chips. We sold 2,700 hot dogs this year.”
For Bergin, hot dogs are a solid way to raise money, but they are also a simple, pure concept that guests with memory issues can wrap their heads around.
“The simplicity of our event is what I try to drive home to people,” he said. “The whole event could be the menu. The menu is the memory. The memory is what is going for someone who has Alzheimer’s. So if you take the memory of a hot dog and you keep it simple, like we do, you help build a new memory.”
NH Hot Dogz for ALZ Fundraising event Where: Merrimack When: every year at the end of June
Annika’s Hot Dogs Serves boiled and steamed kosher all-beef franks, as well as vegan hot dogs. Where: at Annika’s father’s barber shop, Hair Biz Salon, 4 N. Main St., Concord
The vegan dog
Hot dog enthusiasts in Concord have two choices of hot dog stands on Main Street. Three blocks or so south of Puppy Love Hot Dogs, Annika Holden runs Annika’s Hot Dogs with her father, David.
“I’ve been here for about five years,” Annika said. “I sell hot dogs, vegan dogs, sausages, smoky maple sausages, mac and cheese on top of a hot dog, and pulled pork on top of a hot dog.”
David said Annika’s vegan hot dogs set her stand apart.
“I think that she’s the only person that we know of in Concord that sells a vegan dog,” he said. “There’s a vegan population here, and they do not want a hot dog; they want a vegan dog. So when we cook the vegan dogs, Annika cooks them separate from the hot dogs, because that’s also something the customers insist on. We get a lot of out-of-towners who like vegan dogs. Then, there are some people who don’t realize she sells vegan dogs.”
Aside from her plant-based hot dogs, Annika sells all-beef kosher hot dogs — which were very popular with Gov. Sununu, who, unsurprisingly, always ordered a plain dog with yellow mustard.
David Cortes is a full-time hot dog man. His food truck, Mr. Hot Dog, can be found near the Nashua Airport parking lot. He is fiercely loyal to his favorite brand of hot dog. “It’s an all-beef hot dog,” he said, “Kirkland’s brand. I’ve tried others like Hebrew Nationals, Nathan’s, Ballparks, and nothing holds up like a Kirkland hot dog. It’s the best hot dog you can eat.”
During the summer Cortes steams his hot dogs, but during cold weather he often grills them on a flat-top griddle. “At that point,” he said, “it’s up to the customer if they want them grilled; 80 percent like them grilled.”
Cortes offers mostly traditional toppings for his hot dogs, with one exception.
“My condiments are sauerkraut, onion, chopped onions, sweet relish, mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, and hot sauce,” he said. He was surprised, though, at how many customers asked him for mayonnaise. “It’s mostly people from South America,” he said. “I think it originated from Brazil, but Colombians, people from Peru, and even Mexico love loading up their hot dogs with it.”
Another condiment Cortes never expected to offer is celery salt.
“That was something I had to learn,” he said. “Born and raised in New York City, I’d never seen celery salt on a cart. I’d never even tried it, you know, to this day. But the first day that I was in business, a customer asked, ‘You have celery salt?’ And I looked at him like he was nuts, but a week later I had celery salt on the cart, because you know I have to try to have everything that the customers want.”
Unlike many other hot dog businesses, Cortes only offers spicy brown mustard.
“It’s not a yellow,” he said. “It’s not a Dijon. It’s just a regular deli mustard. My customers love it. Very few ask for a yellow mustard.”
Cortes likes to build a hot dog from the condiments up.
“I put sauerkraut, onions and relish at the bottom,” he said. “It’s just a neater hot dog. Once I have those dressings there, I put the hot dog over it and then I dress it up with either ketchup, mustard, or both, mayonnaise, whatever the customer wants. That way the condiments don’t go all over the place when you try biting into it. They just stay put.”
Mr. Hot Dog All-beef hot dogs are steamed. Regular-size dogs are served on a standard New England-style split-top bun. Jumbo dogs are served on a 7-inch side-split bun. Where: Charron Ave., Nashua, near the Nashua Airport parking lot Hours: Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. More: 333-7323
Organized by the Merrimack Valley Military Vehicle Collectors Club, the Weare Rally will begin today and run through Saturday, July 26, at Center Woods School (14 Center Road, Weare). The rally features military vehicle displays, scenic rides, demonstrations, food and more. The cost is $5 per family. See mvmvc.org.
Friday, July 25
The Live Free or Die Tattoo Expo begins today and runs through Sunday, July 27, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown (700 Elm St., Manchester). The event features tattoo artists, vendors and more. Show hours are from 5 p.m. to midnight on Friday, from 11 a.m. to midnight on Saturday, and from noon to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets cost in advance $20 for a weekend pass ($25 at the door), according to livefreeordietattoo.com. Some of the highlights from the weekend include a pin-up pageant on Saturday at 9 p.m.; performances by the Monsters of Schlock, described as the “world’s most extreme two man circus sideshow comedy magic extravaganza”; daily tattoo contests ( in categories such as sleeve, half-sleeve, floral, portrait, horror and more); aerialist performances; suspension performances; an air brush tattoo contest and more, according to the website.
Friday, July 25
Take a musical journey through time with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox tonight at 8 p.m. at the Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St. in Derry, tupelomusichall.com. Tickets start at $65.
Saturday, July 26
Beth Krommes, a Caldecott Medal winning illustrator for 2009’s The House in the Night, will be at Balin Books (375 Amherst St. in Nashua; balinbooks.com) to discuss Where the Deer Slip Through, a new picturebook by Katey Howes that Krommes has illustrated, today at 11 a.m.
Saturday, July 26
Make it a Shakespeare double feature today! Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, directed by Katie Sibley, will be presented in Greeley Park in Nashua by the Nashua Theatre Guild (nashuatheatreguild.org) at 2 p.m. today and Sunday, July 27. This production is free.
And catch Romeo & Juliet a in its final night tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Shakespeare on the Green production at Saint Anselm College in Manchester from Theatre Kapow and Ballet Misha. Other shows this weekend are Thursday, July 24, and Friday, July 25, at 7:30 p.m. For tickets to this production, see tickets.anselm.edu.
Sunday, July 27
Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S Main St, Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) will host an Audiobook Walk today at 10 a.m. Participants will walk a one-mile loop around downtown Concord, each listening to their own book (walkers can choose to do an additional loop or two, if they’d like) and will end back at Gibson’s Bookstore. After the walk, walkers are encouraged to hang out in the cafe while the store prepares to open, the website said. This event is free.
Save the Date! Friday, July 25-26 The Live Free or Die Tattoo Expo will take place Friday, July 25, through Sunday, July 27, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown (700 Elm St., Manchester). The event features tattoo artists, contests, vendors, live music, food and performances. Show hours are from 5 p.m. to midnight on Friday, from 11 a.m. to midnight on Saturday, and from noon to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets cost in advance $20 for a weekend pass ($25 at the door), according to livefreeordietattoo.com.
Volunteer NH is gathering input on the state’s “most critical issues” with a New Hampshire State Service Plan: Needs Assessment Survey, according to a press release. The information will be used to develop the 2026-2028 State Service Plan, the release said. The survey asks about the most pressing issues for New Hampshire — for example, education, environmental stewardship or disaster services. See forms.office.com/r/FpN76EMcPY to fill out the survey. “As an incentive for taking this short survey, participants will be entered into a drawing for weekly prizes,” the release said.
New nurses
University of New Hampshire announced the establishment of the School of Nursing on July 15, which will contain all the nursing programs, faculty and students from the Durham campus and the online campus, according to a press release. “The establishment of a nursing school comes at a critical time for New Hampshire, as the state faces a significant shortage of nurses and increasing demand for highly trained health care professionals. Housed within the College of Health and Human Services, the School of Nursing will play a vital role in addressing those challenges by expanding access to nursing education, strengthening clinical partnerships, and preparing practice-ready graduates who are equipped to serve communities across the state — particularly in rural and underserved areas,” the release said. See chhs.unh.edu/nursing.
Back to school
The United Way of Greater Nashua is seeking new school supplies for its annual Rod Hansen Memorial School Supply Drive, according to a press release. The United Way of Greater Nashua is partnering with the Teachers and Paws Project for the drive, which will collect supplies Saturdays, Aug. 2 and Aug. 9, and Sundays, Aug. 3 and Aug. 10, at Staples in Nashua and Amherst, the release said. The Rod Hansen / TAPP School Supply Pantry is located at United Way’s office, 20 Broad St. in Nashua, and served more than 500 educators and more than 2,000 students last year, the release said. The United Way is seeking backpacks, colored pencils, markers, Sharpies, chalk, lined paper, construction paper, composition notebooks, scissors, erasers, glue sticks, tape, staplers, pencil cases, Post-It Notes, hand sanitizers, disinfecting wipes, headphones, webcams, computer mice and calculators, the release said. In addition to the Staples during the two listed weekends, donations will also be accepted at the United Way of Greater Nashua’s office, the release said. See tinyurl.com/UWGNSchoolSupply.
See handcrafted works from local artists in a pondside garden at the Gallery in the Garden 2025 event Saturday, July 26, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, July 27, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 148 Sandogardy Pond Road in Northfield. See suzanneconnor.com/gallery-in-the-garden for details. On Saturday, Steve Hancock of Appletree Nursery will be on site to answer gardening questions, according to an email about the event.
Learn about the “History of New England Sweets” via a virtual program through the Dover Public Library on Wednesday, July 30, at 7 p.m. Susan Mara Bregman will discuss her book New England Sweets: Doughnuts, Bonbons & Whoopie Pies. Sign up at library.dover.nh.gov.
The New Hampshire Liquor Commission announced that it ceased operations of the NH Liquor & Wine Outlet at 1100 Bicentennial Drive at North Side Plaza in Manchester following an “ongoing maintenance issue caused by a fire sprinkler system,” according to a July 18 press release. “NHLC is actively exploring new locations in Manchester’s North End,” the release said. See liquorandwineoutlets.com for updates and other Manchester locations.
The Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion Association in Portsmouth will hold a mansion talk and tour to celebrate the 329th birthday of Benning Wentworth, New Hampshire’s first Royal Governor, on Friday, July 25, at 5:30 p.m. RSVP for this free event at wentworthcoolidge.org.
A middle-aged dad whose kids are out of the house and off to college, Tom Papa revels in the joy of empty nesting on his 2024 Netflix special, Home Free. However, the reality turns out to be different, he noted recently.
“It’s more like you get breaks,” he said. “My daughter just came home from college, and I learned the other night that she’s going to be here for four months. I was like, ‘Well, that’s not great.’”
Born in New Jersey, Papa was “knocking around” in the New York comedy scene when Jerry Seinfeld spotted him and gave his career a much needed boost in the late ’90s. A few years later, his sitcom Come To Papa ran briefly on NBC, until a new network CEO looking to launch another show called The Office poached cast member Steve Carell and canceled it.
Papa will be at Hampton Beach’s Casino Ballroom on July 17. He spoke with Michael Witthaus in June — here’s an edited transcript.
When did you realize that you were funny?
In second grade…. I had an idea for a bit [and] a banana peel. I walked to the front of the classroom in the middle of the lesson, and I sang a song parody of ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ only as ‘Rhinestone Banana.’ It was throwing this banana and shaking my hips. The kids were laughing, and the teacher was sitting next to my desk like, what are you doing? But I remember distinctly thinking, yeah, that works.
What made you decide to be funny in front of people?
In seventh grade, this one week, I walked into my friend’s house, and all the older kids were listening to Steve Martin’s Let’s Get Small album. Later that week I was at my other friend’s house. He had a copy of George Carlin’s Class Clown. You would sit and listen to albums and look at the cover, and it really dawned on me that these are grown-up men [and] this is their job. They’re funny for a living. That really hit me.
Was there a moment where you knew you were going to be successful?
When I met Seinfeld. He came into this club two nights in a row when I was on stage [and] wanted to talk to me after the second one. He was talking about how funny I was, he was really interested and complimentary and spent time with me. I was like, all right, if this guy is endorsing me and saying I’m on the right path, then I think I have a shot. It really came at an important time where it was like, am I going to do it? And he’s like, you’re going to do it. I was like, OK. And that was really the moment.
Come To Papa … What are your memories of that?
…I did a set on Conan and the head of the network wanted to meet me. Then it was kind of this little leaf in this roaring river. Before you know it, I had a pilot and I was casting a show. It was all happening and it wasn’t like I was trying to get it. I was surprised it was happening … we ended up getting hooked up and then there was a new president and he was looking to do The Office. So, it ultimately got canceled after several years of working on it. It was a little confusing because I didn’t know. I got there, that’s got to be something. So … do I have to go back home now? You don’t know what’s up. Then someone gave me advice…. More shows get canceled than become hits … you’re good enough to have people want to make a show with you. It’s validation that you have it. … I was unhappy about it, of course, but I wasn’t crushed. But the real thing that kept me going was like two months after I was called to do a spot on the Tonight show, and I had done it before, but it was just a funny moment to be, OK, NBC put my show on, they canceled my show, and here I am driving back through the gate showing my ID because I’m going back onto the lot to stand up on their network. It was like, oh, wait a minute. I don’t need a show. I don’t need other people to say I can do this. If I’m funny as a comedian, I kind of call the shots. That was a huge moment. The show would have been fun and cool in its own way, but … you’re kind of unstoppable if you can be funny.
This current tour, you headlined the Beacon Theater for the first time. As a Jersey kid, that must have been exciting.
Yeah, that was great. It was a real milestone. Within a couple of weeks I did the Chicago Theater and then the Beacon … definitely milestone spots. I love places that have that kind of history. The one in Hampton is definitely that, right?
You’re right, the Casino Ballroom has had many, many greats on their stage.
I had no idea the first time I went. I was like, oh yeah, I know the area. That’ll be fun. It’s got to be a quirky little place. Then everyone from Count Basie to George Carlin, I mean, everybody. It was like, oh man, I better straighten my tie.
Tom, anything that I haven’t brought up that folks should know?
No, it’s just that I think my comedy really is pretty hopeful and not really that cynical. I sign books at the end of the show, so I get to actually meet the people that are coming out on this tour. You can just tell from the response and spending a little time with these people that they really appreciate that they were able to escape for an hour and a half. It feels like people are under a lot of pressure. It’s easy to yell about the sky falling, but my whole goal out there right now is to give people a good time and a little bit of an escape.
Tom Papa When: Thursday, July 17, 8 p.m. Where: Casino Ballroom, 169 Ocean Blvd., Hampton Beach Tickets: $36 and up at ticketmaster.com
Olivia Echteler is the Director of Community Engagement for the Humane Society of Greater Nashua and the organizer of this year’s Pup Crawl fundraiser.
“This is our fifth year hosting this event,” Echteler said. “We have nine participating breweries this year. And it’s a weekend-long kickoff event that will be held on Friday at Kettlehead Brewing in Nashua. And our finale event, it will be at the Beer Garden in Anheuser-Busch in Merrimack on Sunday, and in between, folks who register for this event can visit any of the participating breweries at their leisure. These breweries are dog-friendly so we get a lot of folks who come and bring their dogs with them. It’s really just about our community supporting our local breweries, local businesses, and just getting together with fellow dog lovers.”
Unlike some other pub crawl fundraisers, Echteler said, this will not be a competition. “If someone registers to participate, there’s no particular strategy or anything.”
Which isn’t to say that some participants don’t have a personal agenda, she said. When they register, “they will get a pup crawl T-shirt. Every year, we have a T-shirt that is specially designed for this event, and this year’s T-shirt features last year’s raffle winner on it. We held a raffle where you could enter and if you won you had your own dog featured on the Pup Crawl T-shirt for this year.” This year’s T-shirt dog is named Coda. “She’s a young chocolate Lab,” Echteler said. “She is the face of our 2025 pup crawl. We’re going to be holding that same raffle again at our finale event on Sunday. So next year’s shirt will feature another community dog.”
“We’ll have a registration table [at the opening event on Friday],” Echteler said. “So anyone who has registered will come to that event so they can pick up their T-shirts and pick up what we call our Pawsport — that is a trifold brochure that has all of the listed participating breweries with their hours and their addresses. It will include any information about any events going on at the breweries that same weekend. Some breweries will have a food truck there or live music. Folks will have that info with them and when they go to visit any of these breweries during that weekend they can get their Pawsport stamped or initialed and that earns them a raffle entry during the finale event on Sunday.”
“It’s always just a lot of fun,” Echteler said. “There’s always a really great crowd, and of course, it’s always fun to see the many, many dogs that show up at these breweries and get along with each other too. Last year at our finale we incorporated live music. It was a lot of fun to have the bands performing there. I think the biggest kick is just seeing everyone in the matching T-shirts. You can spot out all your fellow Pup Crawl participants.”
Humane Society of Greater Nashua Pup Crawl When and where: From 4 p.m. Friday, July 18, beginning at Kettlehead on Main Nashua (97 Main St., Nashua, 204-5718, kettleheadbrewing.com/kettleheadmain), to Sunday, July 20, at the Biergarten at Anheuser-Busch in Merrimack (221 DW Highway, Merrimack, 595-1202), where the final event runs from 3 to 6 p.m. More: Ticket price is $25. 21+. Leashed dogs welcome. Visit hsfn.org/pup-crawl.
