The Queen City Rotary Club Foundation in Manchester is accepting application for its grants — an “Impact Grant” for organizations whose primary focus is serving underprivileged youth in the greater Manchester area with an award of $1,000 to $10,000 depending on the project, and a “Youth Services Grant” for organizations with a youth-focused mission, with a $1,000 maximum, according to a a press release. The deadline to apply is Friday, April 17, the release said. See queencityrotary.org.
MD fast track
The University of New Hampshire in partnership with Western Atlantic University of Medicine announced “a new Accelerated Pathway to MD (APMD) beginning in September 2026” according to a March 26 press release. “This initiative offers eligible high school graduates a direct and structured six-year route from undergraduate studies at UNH to medical training at WAUSM — providing a faster and more affordable pathway for students committed to becoming physicians,” the release said. “The health care industry is New Hampshire’s fastest-growing employment sector, according to the non-partisan non-profit group New Futures. While the sector is projected to add almost 10,000 jobs to the economy by 2030, the state is not projected to have enough workers to meet demand,” the release said. “The combined curriculum will significantly reduce the time to residency, allowing students to earn both a bachelor’s degree and a Doctor of Medicine (MD) in as little as six years….,” the release said. See unh.edu/accelerated-md-pathway.
Auction for a cause
Second Chance Ranch Rescue will host a live and silent auction at LaBelle Winery in Amherst on Sunday, April 12, from 1 to 4 p.m. featuring lunch and brunch bites, wine and mimosas, auctions and an opportunity to meet one of the rescue’s dogs, according to a press release. “All funds raised from our auction at LaBelle will directly support the development of our new facility,” said Kristin Jordan, founder of Second Chance Ranch Rescue, in the statement. The new facility will be “a homelike setting, which will allow dogs to learn about living in a home before successful placement into new adoptive families,” the release said. General admission tickets cost $40. See secondchanceranchrescue.com/events.
Comedy for a cause
The Londonderry Women’s Club will host a Comedy Night Fundraiser on Thursday, April 16, at 7 p.m. at Chunky’s Cinema in Manchester featuring comedians Amy Tee, Matt Berry and Mark Scalia, according to londonerrywomensclub.org, where you can find information to purchase tickets for $35 per person (or email comedynight@londonderrywomensclub.org). The event will also feature raffles, according to a press release. “Proceeds will support LWC’s community initiatives, including high school and adult women’s scholarships, providing snacks for local elementary students, partnering with End 68 Hours of Hunger to combat food insecurity, making & donating fleece caps for chemotherapy patients, supporting families through St. Jude’s Blue Angels, and other charitable programs,” the release said.
Andrew Pinard presents “Magic Play” on Wednesday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.) at the Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St. in Concord. All ages welcome, according to the press release. See walkerlecture.org.
“Clear to Me,” described as “a group exhibition exploring light, shadow, and the quiet power of negative space,” is open at Mosaic Art Collective, 66 Hanover St., Suite 201, in Manchester with an opening reception on Saturday, April 11, from 5 to 7 p.m. See mosaicartcollective.com.
HeARTwork, the Concord Arts Market event at Kimball Jenkins, 266 N. Main St. in Concord, will take place Saturday, April 11, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. with the theme “Life,” according to kimballjenkins.com.
Cue Zero Theatre Company will present Dead in The Water, an interactive murder mystery, on Friday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. at the Arts Academy of New Hampshire in Salem. See artsacademynh.org.
Jon Butcher and Diane Blue join together at Tupelo
Collaborations make the rock and blues world go ’round. Like Shades of Blue, led by psychedelic guitar hero Jon Butcher and singer Diane Blue, also a talented harmonica player. The band includes a rhythm section of AJ Vallee and John Ryder on drums and bass, along with guitarist Chuck Farrell.
Farrell, the force behind revival band Once An Outlaw, made the group happen.
“He put together a combo and said, ‘I’d like to have you and Jon Butcher featured in front,’” Blue recalled recently. “The first time we performed together, it was undeniable chemistry on stage. We were like, ‘We should make this a thing.’ Now it’s a thing.”
There is inspiring give and take between the fiery Stratocaster playing of Butcher, a New England Music Hall of Fame inductee, and Blue’s soulful singing. The two move between blues rockers like “Born Under A Bad Sign,” Bill Withers’ soulful “Use Me” and a blistering rendition of Hendrix’s “Red House.”
Another set highlight is a revved-up duet of the ’60s nugget (later a Grand Funk hit) “Some Kind of Wonderful.” Butcher will use the song to introduce Blue on harmonica and ask her how she learned to play it. “Nothin’ to it, you just suck and blow,” she’ll reply with a laugh, adding, “that’s what an old blues man told me, anyway.”
The real story about that goes back to Blue’s beginnings as a performer, singing in her living room with guitar player Paul White and later cutting her professional teeth in Newport, Rhode Island, venues like the Blues Café. She took up the mouth harp at White’s behest.
“‘Honk on this and see what you can do,’” she recalled White telling her. “‘Because there are a lot of chicks who can sing, but you’ll differentiate yourself from the crowd if you have something special that you can offer … see if you can get good at it.’ So I tried, and I just kept trying. I’m still trying.”
Blue got a big boost when Ronnie Earl caught her in a coffee shop in the early 2010s and invited her to sit in at his shows. In 2014 she became the first female member of the Boston blues legend’s band.
“What struck me was her ability to sing anything, from Sam Cooke to blues,” Earl said in a 2025 Blues Blast story. “She has a natural voice, a beautiful voice.”
She’s still with them, but performing with Shades of Blue is different.
“My job is to sing and to make sure that he’s OK on stage,” she said of Earl. “John Butcher and I have a mutual respect; we egg each other on to really strut our stuff. This is a chance for me to shine with a very strong backing band and all the encouragement to be the star of the show.”
Some of Blue’s solo cuts are in the set, like a rocking cover of Carol Fran’s Louisiana jump blues nugget “Knock Knock,” from her 2019 LP Look For The Light. The high points, however, happen when Butcher and Blue trade off. Bo Diddley’s “Mona” and “Spider In My Web,” a growling blues song written by Alvin Lee of Ten Years After, are good examples.
After doing just a few shows last year, Shades of Blue’s calendar is filling. A Tupelo Music Hall show on April 4 will be a twofer, with high-kicking harp player and singer James Montgomery sharing a band.
“James and I have co-billed on some of these Chuck Farrell productions in the past,” Blue said. “What usually happens is I do a set, and then he’ll do one.”
Shades of Blue w/ special guest James Montgomery When: Saturday, April 4, at 8 p.m. Where: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry Tickets: $45 at tupelohall.com
Rachel McAdams is a kooky delight as an overlooked office worker who blossoms into her best, insane self when she is stranded on a tropical island in this fun, queasy-making thriller. (Eye stuff, puking, big oozy gashes — this movie has it all!)
Linda Liddle (McAdams) is passed over for promotion by her new nepo-hire boss, Bradley (Dylan O’Brien). Though smart and capable, Linda is also awkward and messy and covered in tuna fish sandwich flecks when Bradley is first reintroduced to her. He nevertheless brings her along for a business conference in Thailand — for work purposes because she can solve the problems his dumb college buddy (who got the job she wanted) can’t but maybe also to have someone to bully. One of the dudes in the bro-pack accompanying Bradley has found Linda’s Survivor audition video, which reinforces both how deeply uncool she is and also her wildlife knowledge bonafides. Chekhov’s fire-making skills do not have long to foreshadow as the plane goes down (gruesomely!) and Linda is soon set adrift in a stormy sea. When she washes up on the island, she finds that an injured Bradley has also survived and sets about making shelter and a fire and finding food for them both. After he makes a few stabs at telling her how to island, Linda reminds him that, as she says in the trailer, they’re not in the office anymore and the power balance is not as it was.
Bradley of course deserves every gross thing that happens to him. The movie nicely never lets him learn and grow; he is an unlikeable wienie throughout. But the movie doesn’t just paint Linda as a poor wronged nerd who never learned to dress for success. She has weird, potentially violent, layers and her time on the island awakens not just confidence but a gleeful enjoyment of her power over a former tormentor.
And sure, this could all come off as nasty in a way that would be less enjoyable to watch. But McAdams is having so much fun here — reveling in the darkness of Linda as much as the earnestness. For me, the fun is what makes Send Help such a solid good time, with its winky needle drops and its dark comedy sensibilities. B+Available for rent or purchase.
The Goat expands on the idea of traditional macaroni and cheese
Erica Fleury has given a lot of thought to macaroni and cheese. She is the owner of The Goat in Manchester, and she considers mac and cheese a very important food.
“I think it goes back to your childhood,” she said. “Everybody probably associates [macaroni and cheese] with their childhood. For people of my generation, it was our comfort food when we were kids. So I think they make that association. As a kid in the ’80s I definitely had Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and my mom would make a homemade baked one once in a while; that was always good. And then as I got older I preferred Annie’s white cheddar.”
Today macaroni and cheese plays an important role at her restaurant. In addition to an entree portion — “It comes with a slice of fresh cornbread and it’s delicious,” Fleury said — The Goat offers a flight of different interpretations of mac and cheese. (For more on specialty flights at area restaurants, see our cover story on page 8.)
“It comes with three different types of macaroni and cheese,” Fleury said. “We have our house-made cheese sauce and we have a version with barbecued brisket, a truffle bacon version, and one with buffalo chicken with blue cheese.”
To Fleury, an ideal macaroni and cheese depends on two factors, texture and cheesiness.
“I think it has to have a homemade cheese sauce with some sharp cheddar in there, so it has a little bit of a bite,” she said. “And the pasta has to have some texture — it has to be al dente — preferably spirals. That’s what we use. And then you can add specialty ingredients. [Macaroni and cheese] definitely lets you get creative. Everybody has their own version of it and their own toppings and their own way of making it. Again, I think it goes back to how you ate it from your childhood.”
The three types of macaroni and cheese on The Goat’s flight start with a common base of the same mac and cheese, Fleury said.
“Our flight has small samples of the different versions,” she said. “When you’re eating our flight, it’s more about the toppings. So the base is the same … but you still get a bunch of different flavor profiles because you have the barbecue sauce on the brisket. We cook the brisket in-house and it melts in your mouth, but not like falling apart. There are solid pieces in there, but it’s definitely slow-cooked and delicious, but not to the point where it’s like mush, you know?” This gives the dish a contrast in textures.
“Then, the Buffalo mac and cheese has Buffalo chicken,” Fleury continued. “It’s fried chicken coated in Buffalo sauce, but then there’s the drizzle of blue cheese and also blue cheese crumbles, which gives it a complex flavor. You have a lot of different flavors going on with all the versions, but [the Buffalo chicken] definitely changes up the flavor of the whole dish for sure.”
Finally there is a version of macaroni and cheese with bacon and truffles. “It’s not super papery thin bacon,” Fleury said, “and it’s not the thicker bacon that we use on some of our other dishes. We make sure it’s crispy and then dice it up and put it on top and it has some truffle oil mixed in there and it gives another really complex flavor with everything mixing together.”
“ I think people like the flight with all the creative toppings on there, the different flavors,” Fleury said, “but mostly, I think they just really like macaroni and cheese.”
Mac & Cheese flight The Goat (50 Old Granite St., Manchester, 222-1677, goatbarnation.com/manchester) serves macaroni and cheese on its dinner menu throughout the year, but their Mac & Cheese flight is only available during cold months, usually from January through May. The Goat’s warm-weather comfort-food flight is centered around queso cheese sauce.
Even casual oenophiles know that chardonnay and a soft brie go together well. But what pairs with a Dan Brown novel starring The Da Vinci Code symbologist Robert Langdon that blends futuristic science and mystical lore? The answer can be learned at an upcoming book club night at Wine on Main in downtown Concord.
Wine on Main owner Emma Stetson is still working on the wine list for the event but has already chosen a couple to go with The Secret of Secrets, Brown’s 2025 release. One is French, a Mont Gravet rosé.
“Much of the book takes place in Switzerland, which doesn’t have a great deal of wine,” she said in an email. “However, France’s coastline is right over the border and they make great rosé there.”
Another is a Lapis Luna Red Blend, from Northern California. It typically includes cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec and barbera. “The label depicts a girl sitting on top of the world and staring at the moon,” Stetson said. “It is fitting for this thriller that tackles consciousness and human existence.”
While they sip wine, attendees will discuss Brown’s book, led by Jocelyn Winn, owner of The Writing Gallery, located further up North Main Street in Concord, across from the Statehouse. Winn is the founder of editorial services company The Eleventh Letter, and she’s also a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer. Winn and Stetson began collaborating on the events a couple of years ago. They happen more or less seasonally.
“She was an English major and now she’s a wine connoisseur, so we just kind of get together and talk about different books,” Winn said by phone recently. “For a while we did a lot of what you could call beach reads.”
Books previously covered include Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers and The Chateau, a thriller written by Jaclyn Goldis set in the vineyards and markets of Provence, France. Another was The Perfect Couple, an Elin Hilderbrand novel that was made into a Netflix series in 2024.
Reading a book ahead of time isn’t mandatory, and occasionally it’s not even necessary. Winn noted that past gatherings have focused on television shows such as TheWhite Lotus and Downton Abbey.
Each evening includes props and other touches inspired by whatever work is being discussed, Winn noted.
“The space gets a little bit decorated for the book,” she said, “Then Emma has wine and cheese and crackers and usually some sweets. Oftentimes she will create a slideshow.”
These visual aids often include maps of viticultural regions found in the literature, which Stetson will use to explain each wine. Winn will intersperse other activities as well.
“We’ll do trivia; I’ll ask questions and give away prizes or do raffles,” she said. “Or they’ll put their name in a hat and get some type of book-themed door prize.”
The next book club night, in June, focuses on Laura Knoy’s wartime novel The Shopkeeper of Alsace and will include a Q&A with Knoy. “That’ll be the first one that Emma and I have done together that the author will be present,” Winn said, adding that attendees can also ask questions. “It’s always amazing as a reader when you can talk to the writer directly.”
Winn’s unique gallery, which opened late in 2025, continues to grow, with workshops and art exhibitions. Irene Yushin’s “Beyond Words” opens April 10. A lifelong visual artist, Yushin overcame severe dyslexia and is now a writer, working on a memoir. Her show will feature her works from “before and after finding words.”
Winn is pleased with her gallery’s success.
“I have been super fortunate and lucky,” she said. “It’s exactly what I had envisioned, and honestly, I think that’s the first time in my life I could say that about anything. How often does everything you envision actually happen, with anything — relationships, jobs, vacations? And it happened fast. It has been, in the best possible way, definitely a whirlwind.”
Book Club Night: The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown When: Thursday, April 2, 6:30-8 p.m. Where: Wine on Main, North Main Street, Concord Tickets: $34 at eventbrite.com
Featured photo: Wine on Main book club. Courtesy photo.
Small bites and small sips OFFER A big flavor experience
Having a hard time picking just one thing from the menu? Fortunately, there is a tool to make life easier when you’re feeling indecisive: flights. Originally the province of extra-fancy restaurants or vineyards, flights allow a guest to choose several — usually four to six — tasting-sized portions of beer or wine or even pancakes.
Looking to try a bunch of flavors in one sitting? Here are a few places offering flights.
Five beers atRockingham Brewing Co.
1 Corporate Park Drive, Unit 1, Derry, 216-2324, rockinghambrewing.com, about $7
Microbreweries were some of the first businesses to serve flights, and especially for breweries with large numbers of beer on tap or unusual flavors or styles of beer, flights are a good way to introduce a guest to a range of what a brewery has to offer, said Ali Leleszi, owner of the Rockingham Brewing Co.
“We offer custom flights of five different beers — 4-ounce samples — in our tap room,” she said, “which allows our customers to choose a variety of beers rather than settling on just a full pint. It’s usually first-time visitors who opt for a flight rather than a full pour. We definitely encourage [a flight] if people want to try a little bit of everything.”
Leleszi said many people who order flights come in with a general idea of what style of beer they’d like to try.
“Usually,” she said, “there’s a style that they kind of gravitate toward and we can help them craft a flight that would be toward their preference. Oftentimes we have five different IPAs on [tap], so you could do a full hoppy flight if you’d like, or maybe people will go for a darker flight, but maybe they’ll put a wild card in there for a beer that maybe they wouldn’t have tried otherwise, that’s outside of their comfort zone.” On any given day Rockingham Brewing has 15 beers on tap. “And we have flights of five,” Leleszi said, so they can order about a third of the menu at a time.”
Ordering suggestion: “We’re releasing a dortmunder, which is a traditional German-style lager, towards the end of April, Lelleszi said. “That’s a returning beer for us. It’s a collaboration with Kelsen Brewing. Also, sometimes we offer flight pairings….”
Four iced coffees or milkshakes or martinisat Yolk Grill
116 Bridge St., Pelham, 635-09925, or 6 Elm St., Nashua, 864-0695, theyolkgrill.com; iced coffees are $16.95, milkshakes are $20.95, martinis are $35.95
Emily Kurs from The Yolk in Pelham said a surprising number of Girls’ Breakfasts Out involve drinking a flight of martinis.
“There can be one person who gets it, but ideally we have couples come in, usually two girlfriends going out for breakfast. It makes for a good little Girls’ Day. You can pick three of our martinis that we have on our specials, and customize it however you like, and then we bring it on a little tray. Espresso martinis are always popular, and we have a chocolate bunny martini right now — it’s called a Bad Bunny.”
Kurs said the options for iced coffee flights are changed frequently.
“Usually every two to three weeks we try to change it up,” she said. “We’ll change up the flavors, we’ll change up the topping, basically to just fit the theme of the month. Right now … Easter is right around the corner. We have four different flavors related to Easter themes like Marshmallow Peeps. There’s one that’s carrot cake. It has a little brownie on top,” Each serving of coffee is about 6 ounces, she said. “They come as black coffee topped with a little bit of whipped cream.”
“The milkshakes follow the same theme,” Kurs said, “but they have different toppings, so you won’t be getting the same thing. … The same idea, vanilla, Oreo. We do some cotton candy sometimes. Right now there’s banana on there. We try to change up the flavors pretty often.”
Ordering suggestion: “Honestly, I’m an Oreo girl,” Kurs said, “so I love a nice Oreo milkshake with some vanilla frosting and Oreos on the rim. I’ll put whipped cream on there, too.”
Six flavors of ice creamat Social Club Creamery
138 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2111, socialclubcreamery.com
According to Cole Glaude, owner of Social Club Creamery, ice cream flights are a popular Date Night activity.
“It’s mostly couples in general that want to try a bunch of different flavors,” he said. “In total, [a flight] is a lot of ice cream — I think maybe just a little too much for one person. And if they split a flight, it usually saves them money instead of getting a couple of different scoops of ice cream.”
Social Club’s flights have six half-scoops of ice cream.
“Basically,” Glaude said, “it’s just a sampler of six different flavors and it comes in a six-slot egg carton. I want to say in total it equals about three scoops of ice cream, but you get six different flavors, so it gets you a nice variety. You can try out a good majority of our menu without having to commit to one flavor.”
The ice cream menu at Social Club has two sections — several varieties of familiar flavors that are available year-round, and several monthly flavors that are more unusual and only available for a limited time. Glaude said a flight allows enthusiasts to try all the new flavors at a time.
“A lot of people will try the four monthly specials,” he said, “and then have an additional two, or sometimes they’ll just do six of the classics that they’ve never been in before. Usually the staff will give them recommendations on their favorites, but it’s completely up to the customer.”
Ordering suggestion: “I would probably do at least two seasonals,” Glaude said, “just so they could try out the monthly specials that we have going at the time. And then I would probably do honeycomb, salted caramel, peanut butter brownie, and then probably like maple latte — those aren’t too far out, not like our deep fried pickle ice cream or anything like that.”
Five wines or liquorsat Flag Hill Winery and Distillery
297 N. River Road, Lee, 659-2949, flaghill.com, $15
“We are a winery and distillery, so we produce all of our own wines and spirits that we serve,” said David Brustlin, from Flag Hill Winery and Distillery. “The flights in our tasting room are pretty straightforward. We have a wide range of products, and you can taste any five of them, so if you just want to do wines, if you just want to do spirits or you want to mix and match, so you just pick five. For wine we pour an ounce of each, and for spirits we pour a half ounce.”
White wines are a popular category for flights, Brustlin said.
“People really like dry white wines,” he said, “and our Flag Hill whites are very popular, but if people like sweeter whites, our Cayuga White [a fruity wine made from Cayuga grapes] and the La Crescent [a sweet dessert wine] are very well loved. We also have some carbonated wine, a bubbly version of the Cayuga White, which people love. Then we have a wide range of spirits. People tend to want to try our whiskey, because we grow our own corn, rye and wheat on site. We also have a wide range of fruit liquors that appeal to a wide audience. Probably our Maple Bourbon — which is our straight whiskey with maple syrup added to it — is the spirit that almost everybody tries.”
Four margaritas at Raices Authentic Mexican Cuisine
Margarita flight on a Ferris wheel at Raices Authentic Mexican Cuisine. Photo by John Fladd.
2626 Brown Ave., Manchester, 932-2770, raicesnh.com, $23.99
A flight of margaritas at Raices comes balanced on a model Ferris wheel.
“This is a margarita flight that we call La Rueda de la Fortuna,” said Jose, one of Raices’ bartenders, “and we have four flavors — blackberry, tamarind, mango, and strawberry.” This flight is very popular, he said. “A lot of people order this…. People share it with their friends.
Which one should you grab before your friends get to it? “My favorite is tamarind,” Jose said. Tamarind and mango.”
Four types of pancakes or mimosasat Purple Finch Cafe
124 S. River Road, Bedford, 232-1953, purplefinchcafe.com, pancakes are $25
A pancake flight at the Purple Finch is big, manager Meagan Prudhomme said — shockingly big.
Pancake flight at Purple Finch Cafe. Courtesy photo.
“You get two buttermilk pancakes; those are just plain. You get two chocolate chip pancakes. You get two blueberry pancakes and then two Fruity Pebbles. It comes with fresh fruit on the board, so there’s fresh strawberries, fresh bananas and fresh blueberries. And it comes with whipped cream on it. These are full-sized, 6-inch pancakes. It might be the perfect family meal. Everybody can split it. A lot of people even get it as an appetizer for big parties.”
Prudhomme said that far and away the most popular pancake in the pancake flight is the one made with Fruity Pebbles cereal.
“Everybody is really surprised that the Fruity Pebbles stay crispy,” she said, “because everybody assumes that with it going into the pancake batter that they would become soggy. But no! They’re nice and crispy and delicious.” The cereal doesn’t actually soak in pancake batter, she said. It is sprinkled across the tops of the pancakes before they are flipped, so it doesn’t have a chance to get soggy.
Perhaps the best thing about the pancake flight, Prudhomme said, is “that it goes really well with our mimosa flights. We have a couple — we have one called the Taste of New England, where you get a mimosa from each season. The spring one is a honey-lavender-lemonade mimosa. The summer is a pineapple sunrise. The fall one is apple cider. And the winter one is called the Jack Frost and it’s made with blue curacao and lemonade. We also have a Rainbow Mimosa flight, and that one is orange Aperol and then mango cherry. We have a tropical Midori, which is a green color. And then the last one is the honey lavender lemonade, just like from the New England one.”
Several small piesat Slightly Crooked Pies
1209 Elm St., Manchester, 661-4575, slightlycrookedpies.com, three 5-inch pies or six 3-inch pies are $27
“I have found that a lot of people will look at a menu and they get overwhelmed,” Lauren Cline, owner of Slightly Crooked Pies, said. “And they have a hard time picking — ‘Do I want blueberry or do I want blueberry and lavender? Do I want cherry or cherry coconut crumble?’ And so if you do a pie flight you can try it all. And you can try a little bit of it all. With pies, you’re an attentive audience, you’re in a dedicated area, and you’re trying a dedicated product. And it’s a great way for you to be able to experience something that you might not be willing to commit to, right? So those of us who have food commitment issues, it’s a fantastic way to do that. And if you don’t like it, you didn’t really lose that much; it takes the second guess out of there.”
Liz Hitchcock, the owner of Manchester Distillery, has opinions about the order in which a flight-orderer should drink her spirits. She suggests moving from light liquors with some subtle flavors to progressively more assertive ones.
“You might start with our vodka [which has a clean, neutral flavor], then move into our gin, which is a crisp, American, citrusy-forward gin that finishes with classic gin flavors like juniper, coriander, and angelica root,” she said.
“We then offer a taste of our barrel-finished gin,” Hitchcock continued, “which sits in a high char, white oak barrel for 90 days and takes on the color of a whiskey and gives it a great new flavor.” Barrel-aging gin is a fairly recent development in the distilling world, and many such gins are lightly sweetened, she said. “That actually gives me a little bit of a headache, so ours isn’t sweetened at all; it’s just finished in the barrel. Then you probably would move into what we consider a ‘contract whiskey.’ It is a typical whiskey that we have contracted from out of state, brought it in and finished in our own special way. We call it ‘Double Bluff’ because it’s a bit of a fun play on the fact that we’re kind of making up things as we go just like you do when you’re doing a bluff. It’s a bourbon whiskey and it’s got sweet corn with an honest rye. It’s smooth — in fact, even our barrel strength, which you can sometimes get in the tasting room, which is 110 proof, people are surprised at how smooth it is. And then finally, we finish usually with our chocolate liqueur called ‘Speedy,’ which is made with cocoa nibs, French vanilla beans, and sugar, which kind of is like the dessert at the end of the tasting.”
Four cupcake-sized cheesecakes at Big Dog Eats, Home of Choo Choo’s Cheesecakes
20 South St., Milford, 249-5008, bigdogeats.com, $22
According to Shanna Allen, owner of Big Dog Eats, what makes her cheesecakes uniformly excellent is that they all start with the same perfect cheesecake base.
“Our cheesecakes are always the same flavor,” she said. “It’s the toppings and the crust that change. You always get that same decadent cheesecake that we have.”
Cheesecake flight at Big Dog Eats. Courtesy photo.
A flight of cheesecakes might vary from season to season, Allen said, but, “they almost always have a plain with a graham crust, then some sort of a fruit compote. That’s a classic. The fruit goes on the side, for the people that don’t want anything. We usually have another flavor which we have all the time — maybe an apple crisp, or a turtle, or a plain cheesecake with a chocolate crust. We make different kinds of fruit creams, fresh fruit sauces and compote, lemon and lime curds. That all depends on the season…. Right now, for the end of March, we’ve done pistachio and then for April and for Mother’s Day we’re doing a blueberry-lemon, which has our lemon curd topped with our blueberry compote. Our cheesecakes aren’t inherently too sweet, so it really complements the sauces and toppings.They’re normally garnished with edible flowers.”
While you might think most of these four-packs of cheesecake are bought as gifts, Allen said that isn’t the case.
“We have some people come in twice a week,” she said, “just to get them for themselves to bring home for dinner, and again, for after dinner. A lot of people will get the four and sit and eat and have a cocktail and then they will share like half of each so they try all four flavors.”
Four mimosas or cocktails or mocktails or iced coffees at Friendly Toast Bedford
4 Main St., Bedford, 836-8907, thefriendlytoast.com/bedford-nh, $19
Drink flights at The Friendly Toast are inspired by one particular time of the week, COO Staci Pinard said.
“We’re known for our brunch,” she said, “but we’re really excited about our bar program as well. For us, what we serve from the bar really needs to match the food. So we recently launched a spring bar menu. So we do a seasonal bar menu and we currently have three featured flights on that. We have three alcoholic flights, and then we have a wellness mocktail flight as well.”
The most popular flight, Pinard said, is a classic mimosa flight.
“This is something we do — rotate with some seasonal flavors. We’re headed into spring, so we designed the mimosas around that.” This includes a ‘Market Square” mimosa, she said — a classic orange juice-based version. “We have the Rose Berry Bliss,” she said. “This is a new addition to our menu. Most of our mimosas have your classic Champagne on it. This one actually features a really nice rosé prosecco, so you get a nice kind of rosé hint to it. We use our mixed berry jam, which we make fresh in house, and then it has a elderflower liqueur as well. And then fresh lemon juice that we squeeze in house as well.” There is also an “Extra Fancy” mimosa, she said, made with Stiggins’ Fancy Pineapple Rum. This is followed by a blood orange Aperol Spritz.
There is also a spring-themed cocktail flight, Pinard said, called The Secret Garden, with drinks making use of white wine, berries, tequila, coconut water, grapefruit liqueur and several other light, zesty ingredients. There is also a non-alcoholic juice-based flight with carrot ginger turmeric juice, pineapple, kale, guava, and more blood orange.
Three espresso martinisat The Miller’s Tavern
1087 Elm St., Manchester, 854-8442, themillerstavern.com, $20
You’ve got your choice of two different espresso martini flights at The Miller’s Tavern, said bartender Kristyn Merritt — a Light Flight and a Dark Flight.
“The dark has no Baileys,” she said, pointing to each martini in turn.
“Here is an Original,” she said, “and there’s a salted caramel, and a peanut butter. The original does not have a rim, but it gets the three coffee beans.” By this she meant that two of the martini glasses had flavorings on their rims. “The salted caramel has caramel vodka, RumChata, and it has caramel and salt on the rim. And then the peanut butter gets chocolate and peanuts on the rim, and has Screwball [a peanut butter flavored whiskey], peanut butter, and the Baileys. The original dark is just Kahlua, vanilla vodka, and espresso.”
“It goes without saying that there are some secret ingredients,” she said. “They are delicious, but they are secret.”
Merritt said the flight is popular after dinner.
“Customers wait till dessert,” she said, “and everybody gets a round of espresso martinis. But some people start with it.”
“We have a lot of lemonades that we can actually do,” said Jill Lucas, owner of The Spot, “but on our board we feature four of them to go in a flight. One of our baristas came up with most of these and right now we’re calling our lemonade flight The Garden Social.”
“The first one is a cucumber and honey lemonade. It’s got fresh muddled cucumber with honey. The second one is a sunburnt mango lemonade, which is fresh muddled mango with Tajin [a chili-lime spice blend]. The third one is a botanical berry lemonade, which is fresh muddled strawberries and basil. And then the fourth one is a blueberry breeze lemonade, which has fresh muddled blueberries and mint.”
“We just started this flight a couple of weeks ago,” Lucas said, “but people have started ordering it. We make fresh-squeezed lemonade here, so this seems like a natural for us. We can do hot chocolate flights. We do coffee flights. We do chai flights. We can do, you know, lemonade flights. We do whatever somebody wants.”
