Center For The Arts, located in the Sunapee region, has a wide reach. This distinction will be apparent during the annual Arts Week, which opens July 11. Along with bucolic paintings and photographs at a “Naturally New England” juried show in the historic Livery, there will be a film about barn preservation, and a songwriter’s circle.
“We dabble and focus on not only the visual, but performing and literary arts, which is super different — I don’t know of many that really address all three of those things,” Dana Stahlheber, CFA’s Executive Director, said recently. “I love that, I think it’s really special … the performing arts and music piece is just so beautiful.”
Stahlheber will moderate the July 19 Behind The Lyrics event ($15/$20) with Tom Pirozzoli, Click Horning, Grace Rapetti and Colin Nevins. The four will, she said, “share their storytelling and how they go about writing their music, and then they’ll play a song. It’s an open discussion and sharing on … the creative process that they use to come about their songs.”
A Friday evening kickoff party ($45/$55) at Prospect Hill Antiques marks the event’s official start. After a temporary tenancy at the still-closed Anchorage Restaurant, a Bow craft brewer has moved its Sunapee outpost to the first floor of the gallery. “It’s a wonderful marriage,” Stahlheber said.
Prospect Hill’s upper level remains a gallery store.
“We’re going to be up there for a good portion of time, with art from the’ Naturally New England’ artists up there,” she said. “But down the stairs on the first floor is the Hoptimystic Brewery now. There’s a little mini porch out front that you can sit on and look at the bubbling brook that goes by.”
Guests will receive tickets to sample beer, enjoy live music and explore art. Some artists will speak about their work or demonstrate their process, adding an educational and interactive layer to the evening. As Dana notes, “We’re raising funds at this point for a community arts campaign,” a sign of how much the organization has expanded in just the past year.
The 14th annual Arts in the Harbor happens July 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., a gathering of crafters, artists and artisans under tents, with fine art and crafts for purchase such as oils, acrylics, watercolors, monotypes, pastels, drawings, photography, block prints, sculpture, pottery, fine jewelry, gold and silver work, weaving, fiber arts, wood, metal, stone and sculpture.
On July 13 at the Livery, located at 58 Main St. on the approach to the harbor, there’s a showing of Jim Westphalen’s film Vanish – Disappearing Icons of a Rural America ($15/$20), along with an art exhibit dedicated to the many barns, meetinghouses and historic buildings that are quietly disappearing from New England’s landscape.
The Livery itself is a testament to the importance of preservation. Once an old structure, it has been revitalized into a jewel of the community, frequently hosting music and art events. For example, on Friday, July 11, Grammy-nominated singer songwriter Ari Hest will perform, a show that’s not affiliated with Arts Week ($20, thelivery.org).
Stahlheber urges the curious to “come and make a weekend of it,” noting that while Sunapee may be a bit off the beaten path, that’s part of its charm. It remains laid-back, scenic and accessible, with a medium bowl of porridge feel — just right. Yes, parking in the harbor can be tight, and shuttle solutions are still under discussion, but the slower pace and close-knit vibe make up for logistical challenges.
Sunapee Arts Week When: Friday, July 11, through Sunday, July 20 Where: Sunapee Harbor and other locations Tickets: centerfortheartsnh.org
Featured photo: LiveryFalls By Jay Fitzpatrick Courtesy photo.
Lemonade is one of a few iconic summer foods that connect us and help us find common ground.
In addition, lemonade has life lessons to teach us:
Lesson #1 – Beauty isn’t even skin-deep
Phil Mastroianni is something of a Lemon Philosopher. His company, Fabrizia Spirits, in Salem, has been producing high-end limoncello for almost 20 years, and he is somewhat enthusiastic on the subject of lemons. According to Mastroianni, when it comes to lemons, what you see is not always what you get.
Nick Mastroianni picking lemons at Fabrizia Spirits’ grove in Sicily, Italy. Courtesy photo.
“The fascinatingly frustrating truth of the matter,” Mastroianni said, “is, no matter how beautiful a lemon looks, you cannot tell how good the essential oils will be inside the rind. The ugliest lemon, with marks and blemishes and scars, can sometimes have as much beautiful lemon oil as a perfectly shaped bright yellow lemon.”
In fact, he said, there are vast differences between different varieties of lemon. In Italy, where his company gets its lemons from, “there’s a different variety of lemon about every 50 miles you drive. There are real peculiar varieties that are popular in Sicily and other parts of Italy. If you happen to live in that town or region, well, why would you buy the other lemons that are 50 miles further away?” In the U.S., by contrast, “you essentially can buy two varieties of lemons, the Eureka lemon and the Lisbon lemon, … Both of those lemons, while they do have good juice, and they’re bright yellow, they do just have a different flavor of what we call in the limoncello industry olio essenziale, which means essential oils in English.”
To make the best lemonade, Mastroianni said, and to get the most lemony flavor, you need to consider the structure of a lemon itself.
Sicilian lemons. Courtesy photo.
“On the inside, you have your flesh of the lemon,” he said, which is where the juice comes from. “Then, working outward, you have the pith of the lemon [the bitter, white part under the skin], which does range. I don’t know why some have more than others. And then you have the outer peel, which is where the essential oils are stored.” The oils, he said, are where most of the lemon flavor comes from. “You’ll get as much flavor by zesting or dicing up finely the lemon zest than if you just were to juice it and get the juice in there.”
Mastroianni suggested that to pick the best lemons for lemonade, shoppers should look at the size of the different lemons.
“If you want lemon that’s less tart,” he said, “the larger the lemon, the less tart the juice is going to be, because there’s just more water watering down the tartness inside that lemon.” He also suggested giving lemons the fruit equivalent of a massage. “This is general knowledge, but if you roll the lemon on your counter, what I’ve seen in practice is a good amount of juice will go to the middle. It sort of loosens up the juice. When you cut the lemon and you put it in your juicer, you’re going to get a lot more juice to come out a little bit easier.”
Lesson #2 – You get out of lemonade what you put into it
Catherine Urbaniak makes her living selling lemonade. She and her husband, Greg, own The Stand “Shaken not Stirred” at the Merrimack Premium Outlets, a full-time stand that only sells lemonade.
“Only lemonade,” she said, “any variation that we can of lemonade. We stick to real fruit, no syrup.”
Urbaniak’s advice for making great lemonade is to use great ingredients.
“I recommend that you don’t skimp on the type of product that you’re using,” she said. “Some people, you know, they don’t want to add all the sugar or they try to modify it in that way. But if you’re trying to make a really good old-fashioned original New England-type lemonade, you have to use all the real ingredients.” Many recipes for lemonade call for using simple syrup as a sweetener, because it mixes easily with the water and lemon juice, but Urbaniak said she thinks that’s a mistake.
“We use sugar,” she said. “If we have our way, it’s extra fine, but it’s actual sugar.”
Choosing the right lemons for lemonade comes with experience, Urbaniak said.
“You can pretty much touch a lemon and know that it’s going to be a good lemon or really tough lemon. For the most part with a touch you can tell a thin-skinned lemon versus a thicker-skinned lemon. And you want a nice good juicy lemon. It’s not going to last long on your counter, but the thinner the skin, the more the juice. It’s not so much the bigger the lemon, because sometimes the bigger the lemon the thicker the skin. If I put down three or four lemons, different variations, and someone picked them all up, they’d be like, ‘That’s the one.’ You just know it when you touch it. But again, you have to touch a ton of lemons to finally be able to see that.” As with dating, she said, you have to squeeze a lot of lemons before you know the right one.
Lesson #3 – Don’t worry
As of September 2021, it has been legal for children under the age of 14 to sell lemonade without a license. House Bill 183, titled “Exempting persons under the age of 14, who are selling soft drinks on family owned or leased property, from city, town, or village district licensing requirements,” was signed by Gov. John Sununu on July 30 of that year.
So your kids can rest easy.
Lesson #4 – A solid foundation is adaptable
According to Megan Barry, of Waterworks Cafe in Manchester, one of the great things about lemonade is how well it lends itself to additional flavors.
“We use fresh squeezed lemon and lime juice,” she said, “with all of our fun flavors, including passionfruit and mango, which are new. If we have an excess of, say, produce or something like that, we’re always trying to make new simple syrups so we can make refreshers and add some sparkling soda to make it, like, a little bubbly. We’re able to be creative with it over here.”
Barry said that lemonade works well with other summertime flavors.
“Watermelon is a big one,” she said, “especially during the summertime. The watermelon has been so fresh. We made our watermelon simple syrup, added fresh squeezed lime juice, as well as our lemonade mix, and then hit it with a little bit of that club soda. It was a big hit among customers as well as employees. We couldn’t stop drinking it. It was so good. The thing is, we can’t buy watermelon syrup. That’s something you have to make.”
“The staff’s favorite is the raspberry,” Barry said. “Mango has been a huge hit. And actually, another one of our most popular is actually made with our lavender syrup. It’s delicious. With lemonade, it’s out of this world.”
Choose a ripe, medium-sized watermelon. Look for one with a pronounced pale spot — this shows where the melon rested on the ground when it was growing in the field. If possible, find one with stripes that are two fingers wide. Cut the melon in half with a large, serrated knife. Scoop out the flesh with an ice cream scoop, and transfer it to your blender. Puree the melon until it is completely liquified. Pour it through a fine mesh strainer. In a medium saucepan, combine six cups of the juice with the sugar. Cook over low heat, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Reduce the heat, and simmer until the juice is reduced by half — about an hour and a half. Remove from heat, and let it cool completely before using. It will thicken more as it cools.
Lesson #5 – Sometimes we must muddle through
Kelly Klocek is the co-owner of Squeeze the Day NH, a lemonade and limeade food truck based in Londonderry. She agrees that lemonade is a fantastic canvas for flavors but has a different outlook on squeezing lemons.
“We started off hand-muddling,” Klocek said. [Muddling is a bartending technique where aromatic ingredients are crushed in the bottom of a cup with a stout stick.] “We don’t squeeze the lemon juice out. We actually slice the lemon and we slice it right into the cup. We’ve had bigger events now [where] we can’t keep up with the hand-muddling, so we made a muddler ourselves and it kind of smashes the lemon in the cup. So it keeps all the lemon zest and everything, all the oils from the lemon, everything about the lemon in that cup. It gives it a stronger lemon flavor, and I think that’s what everyone really likes. And then we just add the sugar to it, ice and water and that’s it. We shake it up and we serve it out the window.”
Klocek said this classic mixture pairs well with many other flavors.
“The other thing you can do with our lemonade is that we have 17 flavor options and you can mix and match any of those flavors in your lemonade,” she said. “We’ve had every combination. We started off only with four flavors and customers suggested other flavors to us and that’s how we added to our menu. One of our top sellers right now, which I didn’t think would be possible, would be lavender. Lavender lemonade. It’s crazy. That and our prickly pear.”
According to Klocek, one of the keys to a great lemonade that gets overlooked is the ice. To properly chill lemonade, she said, smaller pieces of ice work better than big cubes.
“We use a, it’s like not a full cube, but it’s not crushed either,” she said. ”We like it broken up. We are eventually going to be looking into using nugget ice cubes because we’ve definitely noticed that the smaller ice cubes are just much better with the drink.”
Klocek admitted there is one drawback to muddling lemons for lemonade: the seeds.
“We’ve noticed that some of our competitors like to promote the use of boba straws, the really wide ones. We tried that once and we didn’t like it, because we kept sucking up the seeds. We’ve gone with a classic, smaller straw and we haven’t seen much of a problem with that. It helps with kids as well because they hate getting the seeds.”
Lavender Simple Syrup 1 cup (200 g) sugar 1 cup (8 ounces) water 2½ Tablespoons (3 g) dried lavender 1 Tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
Combine the sugar, water and lavender in a saucepan, and cook over medium-low heat. Bring to a low boil, and cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in the lemon juice. Let the lavender steep for 20 minutes or so, then strain with a fine-mesh strainer. Gently press on the flower buds to squeeze extra flavor out.
Lesson #6 – Build a better lemonade and the world will beat a path to your door
Erin Doonan is the owner of Pours and Petals Mobile Bar and Catering in Concord, a boutique catering company known for its lemonade.
“I absolutely love lemonade,” she said. “That is really what inspired me to start my business in the first place. I think lemonade really makes people happy. It’s like the one drink that we have found that just satisfies everyone’s sweet tooth. Everyone likes lemonade. You rarely find people that don’t. It also brings a feeling of nostalgia and happiness back to people. I also think it’s really hard to find places that have really good lemonade around here. That’s really what we’re trying to bring to people. You don’t have to go to a fair to get a good lemonade; we’re going to bring that lemonade to you.”
Doonan’s lemonade starts from a standard recipe with simple, but high-quality ingredients.
“Our base lemonade is homemade,” she said, “and we make it with pure lemon juice and cane sugar and water. It’s as simple as that. People ask if we have a secret ingredient. We don’t. We just have our special ratio that we use, so we make that and then we add a bunch of different all-natural flavors that we have. We have a mix of muddled fruits like strawberry-basil and raspberry-lime and then we also have organic simple syrups that we use to flavor the lemonades.”
Lesson #7 – Follow your dreams
Pink Pony Club lemonade. Photo by John Fladd.
Meg Wright’s lemonade recipe came to her in a dream.
Wright is the owner of Two Moons Coffee & Curiosities in Manchester’s Millyard. One of her biggest sellers this summer is a Chappell Roan-themed lemonade called Pink Pony Club, made with watermelon juice, fresh mint and sparkly luster dust.
“Over the past couple of days,” Wright said, “we’ve gone through seven gallons of it.”
“It’s a stack drink,” Wright said. “We use nugget ice, which helps layer the colors. Because the lemonade is a little more dense, and the watermelon juice is a little more watery, the layer of ice just balances it out. I dreamed about it; that’s kind of how I come up with ideas — I dream of things.”
The secret to a Pink Pony, Wright said, is fresh watermelon juice.
“I love watermelon,” she said, “but I don’t like the gross syrupy watermelon because it’s not real. It’s very disingenuous. So I just was like how do I do this? So I came out at home with my Vitamix, trying it out and it worked out great.”
Wright filters her watermelon juice twice.
“The first time you filter it, you just get a pile of pink glop,” she said. “And then we strain it again through a coffee sieve and it gives you just the juice. It gives you just the good flavors and nothing else.”
Lemonade from Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book (McGraw Hill Book Co., 1950)
“As American as circus day — saves lemons, gives flavor.”
Combine in saucepan – 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, rind of two lemons, cut into pieces. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Boil about 7 minutes. Cool. Add – 1 cup lemon juice (5 to 6 lemons), 4 cups ice water. Pour over ice in pitcher or tall glasses. Amount: 6 to 8 servings.
The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road, Londonderry, 669-4820, aviationmuseumofnh.org) presents “What Are Spacesuits Made Of?” this evening at 7 p.m. as part of its Exploring Aviation series. This presentation will look at what goes into the design of spacesuits, and how safety, durability and comfort are balanced. There will be a full-size replica of a current spacesuit. Admission costs $10 per person.
Friday, July 11
The curtain rises tonight on the three-day run of Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat presented by the Majestic Theatre (majestictheatre.net) at the Derry Opera House (29 W. Broadway, Derry) Friday, July 11, through Sunday, July 13. “The magical musical is full of catchy songs in a variety of styles, from a parody of French ballads (“Those Canaan Days”), to country-western (“One More Angel in Heaven”) and calypso (“Benjamin Calypso”), along with the unforgettable classics “Any Dream Will Do” and “Close Every Door.” Appropriate for all audiences and groups,“ according to a press release. Shows are at at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets cost $15 to $22.
Friday, July 11
Teen Actorsingers will perform Teen Anastasia on Friday, July 11, and Saturday, July 12, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, July 13, at 2 p.m. at the Janice B. Streeter Theatre, 14 Court St., Nashua, actorsingers.org. Tickets cost $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and students.
Saturday, July 12
Derry Public Library (64 E. Broadway, Derry, 432-6140, derrypl.org) will host the Derry premiere of local filmmaker Tim Smyth’s Tyrannocircus Rex plus other short films by Smyth this afternoon from 2 to 4 p.m.. Popcorn, drinks and other snacks will be served. Films are unrated and generally appropriate for all ages. This event is free and open to the public.
Saturday, July 12
There will be a Five Senses Tour today, and tomorrow, July 13, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to benefit Community Caregivers of Greater Derry. Enjoy the sights, sounds, smells, textures and flavors of the privately owned Tiffany Gardens (15 King John Drive, Londonderry). Tickets are $20 and may be purchased on site at the event or online at comcaregivers.org/garden-tour.
Saturday, July 12
Head to LaBelle Winery Derry (14 NH Rte. 111, Derry, 672-9898, labellewinery.com/labelle-winery-derry) today between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. for LaBelle Summerfest. There will be food trucks and booths, a craft market, live music, axe throwing, minigolf and, of course, a great deal of wine. Entrance is free. Tickets are available through eventbrite.com.
Save the Date! Friday, July 18 The 9th annual Fairy and HobbitHouse Festival will take place at Bedrock Gardens (19 High Road, Lee, bedrockgardens.org) from Friday, July 18, through Sunday, July 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Compete in the Fairy House and Hobbit House showcase (see the website in advance) or just arrive in costume to enjoy the day, which includes craft activities, story time and more. Tickets cost $49.87 per carload.
Featured photo: Joseph (Jack Downey) and his brothers. Courtesy photo.
Two Democrats have joined the 2026 race to succeed Chris Pappas in New Hampshire’s District 1 U.S. congressional seat. Christian Urrutia of Moultonborough announced his candidacy July 1 in a press release. “In 2020, [Urrutia] was appointed by President Biden to the Senior Executive Service as Special Counsel at the Pentagon, where he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense,” the release said. Sarah Chadzynski, whose press release describes her as a “non-profit leader,” announced her candidacy on July 8, according to a July 7 press release. “[Chadzynski] is a founding member of The American Coalition for Ukraine, and she has worked with a number of nonprofits including MedGlobal and Citizen Ambassador Corps,” the release said. With Pappas having announced his run for the U.S. Senate seat that will be vacated by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen when she retires at the end of her term, several candidates have announced their intention to run for the House seat, including Democrats Maura Sullivan, Stefany Shaheen and Carleigh Beriont and Republican Chris Bright, according to a July 1 Boston Globe story.
Cleanup
The former Concord Stables site, a half-acre property in Concord, has received a Brownfield Cleanup Grant of $678,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to an EPA press release from July 1 which discussed a tour of state, local and national officials of the site. “The city plans to use grant funds to clean up the former stables site [which] has been vacant and unused since 1990. The cleanup will include abating hazardous building materials such as asbestos and lead paint in the structure,” the release said. The site on Warren Street was originally built in 1905 and used for city work horses, according to the EPA. Once cleaned up, the space is intended to be used to display Concord’s stagecoaches, according to a Concord Monitor story from June 27. The grant is part of $2 million in Brownfields grants awarded to New Hampshire locations, according to an EPA press release from May. Other sites receiving grants are in downtown Nashua and Milford, that release said.
Big Phish
According to The Medo Minute, a newsletter from the Manchester Economic Development Office sent on July 2, Manchester saw “some 18,000 unique visitors” for the Phish concerts at the SNHU Arena June 20 through June 22, “not including those who attended several shows or were repeat visitors, as well as residents or employees in the area, nearly $8 million was attributed to Phish fans visiting the City, restaurants, retail, hotels, and more.” “Prior to the concerts, some 54% of guests were shopping, dining or exploring Manchester, and 35% continued doing just that even after the concerts let out for the night,” the newsletter said.
New Hampshire Audubon’s Massabesic Center in Auburn will hold an Art Walk in the Garden on Saturday, July 12, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event will showcase “the newly installed All Persons Trail” and feature local artwork for viewing as well as lunch for sale from Greenhouse Pizza Truck, “A Season in the Sun: Photographs from the Massabesic Center’s Demonstration Garden” indoor exhibit (a reception for which starts at 10:30 a.m.) and more, according to the Audubon newsletter. RSVP for this free event at nhaudubon.org/event/art-walk-in-the-garden-2025.
Kids ages 12 and under can brush and floss twice daily — and log it on a form available at nedelta.com/patients/oral-health/oral-health-challenge — to earn two free tickets to specific Oral Health Challenge games days at the NH Fisher Cats at Delta Dental Stadium in downtown Manchester. The upcoming game days are Saturday, July 26; Friday, Aug. 8, and Saturday, Aug. 30. In addition to the two free tickets, additional tickets will be available to participates for $10, according to a Northeast Delta Dental press release. See the website for rules.
An anonymous donor has pledged a $100,000 matching gift for donations made for the renovation of the Early Education Center at the Merrimack YMCA, according to a press release from the YMCA of Greater Nashua. The renovation will modernize classroom spaces, improve accessibility and safety in the facility, expand capacity and more, according to the press release. See nmymcaeec.funraise.org.
The Range hosts Pure Prairie League & The Weight Band
Two bands performing at an upcoming show in Mason have never been on stage together but have a shared history. Mike Reilly of Pure Prairie League met The Weight Band’s Jim Weider in 1970, when both lived in Woodstock, New York, a haven for musicians.
“Jimmy played a lot of gigs with the band I was in,” Reilly recalled recently.
Weider was friends with The Band at the time, and he would eventually assume Robbie Robertson’s role after The Last Waltz, while Reilly was a couple of years away from joining PPL. Fifty-plus years and myriad personnel changes later, the band carries on, with Reilly, steel guitar player and founding member John David Call still aboard, along with drummer Scott Thompson, keyboard player Randy Harper, Jeffrey Zona on guitar and bassist Jared Camic.
In December 2024, Back on Track, their first new Pure Prairie league album in nearly two decades, was released. It’s a solid effort that stands up to music the band made with front men like co-founder Craig Fuller and Vince Gill. Standouts include the high-energy rocker “A Love Like Yours,” the Jimmy Buffett pastiche “Price of Love” and some great covers.
New members Zona and Camic initially pitched a four-song EP, but when Reilly learned they’d written a few more songs, he said, “‘the hell with the EP; let’s do a record, man!’” He suggested a pair of songs by Gary Burr, a PPL member in the ’80s and ’90s who also sings on the new album, along with a favorite Little Feat tune and Elton John’s “Love Song.”
With layered harmonies, stomping fiddle and deft finger-picking, Feat’s “Six Feet of Snow” is a perfect choice for a band that helped define the idiosyncratic hybrid of rock, bluegrass and country that ultimately came to be called Americana. In their early days, though, they confused the music business, including their record label.
It was a good problem.
“In the early ’70s, [it was] us, Poco, the Byrds and the Burritos, and stuff was just a mash,” Reilly said. “We were too country for L.A. [and] not country enough for Nashville. They couldn’t figure out where to put us. As far as I’m concerned, it was to our benefit. We got to do what we wanted to do, and stuck to our guns and made it happen.”
Take their biggest hit, which sank without a trace as a part of Bustin’ Out, the first album Reilly worked on with the band. A few years later it was reborn as a result of relentless touring.
“Probably 250 to 275 colleges a year,” he said, “cramming ‘Amie’ down all these students’ throats. Every Stephen Bishop wannabe with an acoustic guitar could play the chords.”
They’d lost their record contract when Fuller went to jail for draft evasion, but a ready-made hit made them a safer bet. So they were re-signed, though the label never could decide where they fit in. At one point the company president decided to design a high-tech cover for Can’t Hold Back, their first record with new member Vince Gill and their last with RCA.
It was a botched undertaking, beginning with relegating Luke, the band’s Norman Rockwell-drawn mascot cowboy, to the top left corner of the album cover — and it got worse. “He spelled the band’s name Pure P-I-R-A-R-I League,” Reilly said. “I flew to New York from L.A., jumped on the desk, and was promptly escorted out.”
At their next label, Casablanca, they would enjoy what Reilly called “another 15 minutes of fame.” A string of hits began with “Let Me Love You Tonight,” followed by “I’m Almost Ready” and “Still Right Here In My Heart.” Gill left after for a solo career, and these days, he’s playing with The Eagles.
Asked why his band continues to tour and record, Reilly offered a simple answer.
“It’s all about the music,” he said. “When I heard Pure Prairie League the first time, I went, ‘Wow, I really like what these guys are doing.’ … Craig’s voice and John Call’s pedal steel just knocked me for a loop. I said, ‘I want to be in that band,’ and two years later, they called me. That’s it. I’ve stuck with it ever since because I love what we do. I believed the music needed to continue [and] that’s the reason it turned into my life’s work. I never imagined it would be 55 years later.”
Pure Prairie League and The Weight Band When: Saturday, July 5, 6 p.m. Where: The Range, 96 Old Turnpike Road, Mason Tickets: $60 and up at etix.com
Two Moons Coffee & Curiosities serves lattes with a side of books and puzzles
Meg Wright has spent a lot of her life working with food and beverages in a lot of very different places.
“I originally came from a culinary background,” Wright said. “I’ve had a little over two decades of culinary experience. I’m from Bar Harbor, Maine, but I just kind of went all over the world. I’ve lived in Texas a lot. I was a barista-slash-English liaison in Germany for Starbucks. When I came back to the U.S., I started back in kitchens, back in restaurants, and I just wanted to do my own thing.”
Her own thing, as it turns out, is Two Moons Coffee & Curiosities.
“Our idea,” Wright said, “was to bring a little bit of the unusual to Manchester and be a spooky-type cafe. I love Halloween more than a friend, some could say, and it was just kind of a dream I had. And so I brought the two together and I found this location.” Tucked between a nail salon and a yoga studio in the Millyard on Dow Street, Two Moons provides Wright an opportunity to showcase her enthusiasms.
“I’ve got art by somebody who does bugs,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “He puts bugs in frames and makes it pretty. We also sell a lot of curiosities like puzzles that have different ins and outs, and books, lots of gardening books and stuff like that. The curiosity part was just me bringing in something that’s unusual to Manchester.”
The cafe half of the equation is even more interesting.
Two Moons offers coffee drinks, teas, and smoothies, some of which are influenced by its neighbors.
“We have kind of a symbiotic relationship with Humble Warrior [Yoga Studio] as far as like smoothies and coffees. [The yoga students] love coming over and getting their smoothies right after class,” Wright said
And what goes well with hot yoga?
“Right now, we have a Warrior Smoothie that actually one of the studio owners Talitha designed,” Wright said. “It is a banana, cashew butter, peanut butter powder and almond milk smoothie with collagen. With cold brew. So it’s got the energy part in it, but also it has all the benefits of the collagen and the protein.”
“We just introduced breakfast sandwiches and sandwiches and salads,” Wright said. “Our No. 1 seller is the cinnamon rolls; they fly off the shelves. And our chocolate chip cookies. … [O]ur pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies are huge and they’re just spectacular. We also do a lot of seasonal-themed things all year round.”
Most recently, to celebrate Pride Month, Wright has featured a selection of extra-sparkly foods and drinks.
“We’ve done a lot of Pride specials,” she said. “Right now, we have ‘Sounds Gay; I’m In,’ which is a cereal-milk latte with a vanilla cold foam and some cereal on top. And then we have the Pink Pony, derived from Chappell Roan’s ‘Pink Pony Club.’ It’s a watermelon-mint lemonade situation.”
Wright said her customers have been enthusiastic and quickly become loyal regulars. Her biggest problem, she said, is trying to explain how to find the cafe.
“This is definitely a tricky location,” she said. “Just describing how to get here is not easy. If you come through Humble Warrior, it’s super easy — just follow the hallway down. But if you come from upstairs, you’re going to go several floors to try to find us. In the future, I would love to not be in a shared space. That would be great, just to have a little more autonomy. But also, I do love that we are a part of the Tree Fort.”
Two Moons Coffee & Curiosities Where: 155 Dow St., Suite 102,Manchester, twomoonscafenh.com). Two Moons can be accessed from Dow Street, where it is located next to Fratello’s Italian Grille, or from Humble Warrior Power Yoga. When: open Tuesday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m, and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Featured photo: Two Moons Coffee & Curiosities. Photo by John Fladd.
