Category: Food

Put your money on the pancakes

New casino offers a full house of restaurants and bars

By John Fladd

[email protected]

When The Nash, the new casino in the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, opens its doors this week, there will be a lot of food and drink involved. It boasts four restaurants and two additional bars, plus catering for private parties and service to guests practicing their golf swings or watching sporting events on a gigantic television screen — but perhaps the most surprising food fact about The Nash is how staggeringly good its pancakes are — lightly crispy around the edges, not too thick, and gently sweet with the tang of buttermilk.

“In the state of New Hampshire,” said Eric Althaus, the general manager of The Nash, “no casino is allowed to be open 24 hours. We have to close for at least five hours a day. Every day we open at 9 a.m. Sunday through Thursday we close at 2 a.m. and then on Friday and Saturday we close at 4 a.m.” Even for guests and staff on a civilian schedule, that means a lot of breakfasts.

The Woodlands Cafe on the casino’s lower level is a casual three-meals restaurant, where you would probably order the pancakes. It has “everything from obviously breakfast items to your sandwiches and burgers to more fine dishes at night as well,” Althaus said. The lower level is also the home of Stadium Social Sports Bar & Grill, where guests might order food and drinks while they watch the big game. There is also a coffee bar. On The Nash’s main level are two more restaurants: the Lucky Lantern Noodle House, and Proper Chophouse & Cocktails, The Nash’s formal restaurant, which will stock more than 1,000 bottles of wine. There is also an additional bar, the Electric Pheasant.

“Lucky Lantern was going to be the late night dining outlet,” Althaus said. “We’re not going to be ready for that at opening; we’re still making some fine enhancements to the cook line. So we are modifying the hours here [at two of our other restaurants] to ensure that we do have the food offering because we’re serving alcohol all the way until two o’clock .”

The goal, Althaus said, is to present guests with a wide variety of food options. There are luxury dishes, like premium steaks and cocktails, to luxe interpretations of popular dishes, like lobster benedict, or sliders made with wagyu beef. Special attention has gone to perfecting classic snack foods, such as house-fried potato chips and perfectly crisp french fries, fried pickles.

For the most part, food for all the restaurants will be prepared in a large central kitchen, then served at each restaurant.

“There’s one production kitchen,” Althaus said. “The Lucky Lantern Noodle does have an action station that will produce additional food as ordered, but a lot of the broths and most of the other dishes are still prepared back of house in the production kitchen.”

Once The Nash has opened (the opening is slated for March 5), serving food and beverages throughout the casino will require precision and attention to details. Althaus said the casino’s staff has been working hard to prepare.

“They’re excited,” he said. “A lot of them have been working for months, getting prepared, making sure that we’re training. We’ll be pushing through over 4,000 people just in the restaurants to work on ticket time [orders that come into the kitchen], work on consistency, presentation, everything that goes with it.”

The Nash Casino

Where: 310 DW Highway in Nashua
Restaurants & bars: Woodlands Cafe, Stadium Social Sports Bar & Grill, the Lucky Lantern Noodle House, and Proper Chophouse & Cocktails and the Electric Pheasant.
More info: thenashcasino.com

Featured photo: Photo by John Fladd.

Sazerac

Ice

Absinthe to rinse the ice with (see below)½ ounce simple syrup

3 drops Peychaud’s bitters

1 dash Angostura bitters

1½ ounces rye whiskey – there are some people who make a Sazerac with bourbon, but there are also some people who are horrified by that

Fill a mixing glass two-thirds of the way with ice. Pour an ounce or so of absinthe over the ice, and stir well to combine. Strain off the excess absinthe.

The idea here is to give a hint, a trace in the background, of absinthe. This is the same way many martini enthusiasts will use vermouth. Coating the ice with a little-goes-a-long-way alcohol, then pouring off the excess, is called “rinsing.” At first taste, absinthe tastes much like any number of anise-y, black licorice-y spirits, but it really isn’t interchangeable with any of the others.

Once you have rinsed the ice and poured off the excess absinthe, add the rest of the ingredients to the mixing glass, and mix everything thoroughly, but gently. According to the classic 1939 treatise, Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ’em, you should under no circumstances shake this cocktail in a shaker. No explanation is given, but exclamation marks are used, so it seems the better part of wisdom to stir this like a martini.

Strain the mixture over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Traditionally, a lemon twist is manhandled brutally to express a drop of lemon oil, then dropped into the cocktail.

From time to time you’ll hear whiskey fanciers describe rye as “spicy.” Much of the time it pretty much just tastes like a slightly sharp whiskey — delicious, most of its spiciness covered by the raw burn of the alcohol. In a Sazerac, however — it might be due to the bitters, or maybe the absinthe is working some kind of magic — there is a definite kick of rye spiciness. This pairs well with the sweetness from the simple syrup and the herbaceousness of the bitters.

A Sazerac packs a punch. It is definitely a sipping drink. For New Orleanians, it is the Breath of Life.

Featured Photo: Sazerac. Photo by John Fladd.

Highlights of nightlife

Manchester Restaurant Week returns

By John Fladd

[email protected]

The Second Annual Manchester Restaurant week will run Friday, Feb. 28, through Sunday, March 9, with participating restaurants offering drink and food specials themed to tie in with Escape to Margaritaville, which is opening Friday at Palace Theatre.

Katie Lovell from the Palace is one of this year’s organizers. She said the idea behind Restaurant Week is to call attention to downtown Manchester’s nightlife.

“Manchester Restaurant Week was started as a community event,” Lovell said, “a way to tie the community together and have us all work together in bringing people downtown — showing that downtown Manchester is still an amazing place to be and visit and that there’s so many wonderful restaurants and places downtown to visit.”

This year the Palace planned a production that would lend itself to tie-ins from downtown restaurants.

“This year, the show at the Palace Theatre is Escape to Margaritaville,” Lovell said, “which is really fun. It’s a Jimmy Buffett musical, so it features all of his music. It’s a really fun, feel-good show, and we felt like it was the perfect tie-in for restaurant week. It’s an easy theme for the restaurants — different margaritas and Caribbean dishes that feel like a party.”

Given that Jimmy Buffett’s signature song was titled “Margaritaville,” it’s not surprising that many of this year’s participating restaurants have developed variations on margaritas for Restaurant Week. Stashbox (866 Elm St., Manchester, 606-8109, stashboxnh.com), for instance, will offer a “Floral Margarita.” Co-owner Jeremy Hart said the sweet element of the cocktail — usually triple sec or cointreau — will be replaced with creme de violette, which will also give the margarita a gentle purple color.

Nick Carnes, the owner of Shopper’s Pub and Eatery (18 Lake Ave., Manchester, 232-5252, shoppersmht.com) is one of the downtown business owners who is especially enthusiastic about promoting restaurants along and adjacent to Elm Street. He said Restaurant Week is a good way for Manchester to build its reputation as a cultural magnet.

“… the Palace has been trying to help incentivize their guests to really adapt the model of eat, play, stay in Manchester,” he said. Carnes said he and other downtown restaurant owners have made a conscious effort over the past few years to come together as a community.

“Almost 95 percent of small businesses on Elm Street are either under new management or just new in general since Covid,” he said. There are only a few restaurants downtown that were able to weather the changes of the pandemic. “Everything else has flipped ownership,” he said, ‘flipped their management, or just pushed new concepts. So, we just lost the connection … We didn’t know who we were as a community.”

Carnes’ own contribution to this year’s Margaritaville-themed Restaurant Week, a Cheeseburger in Paradise, is inspired by the lyrics to Jimmy Buffett’s 1978 song of the same name. “It’s just as Jimmy Buffett would like it,” he said. “Lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57, and french fried potatoes, a big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer.”

Other offerings according to the website are a Fruity Pebbles Margarita at 815 Cocktails & Provisions; a Golden Sands Margarita and Tropical Pulled Pork Quesadilla at Diz’ Cafe; a specialty margarita and chicken Parmesan at Piccola Italia; an Asian Pear Martini at Thai Food Connection; a Rover-rita at The Wild Rover Pub & Restaurant, and a Mexican chocolate stout and nachos at To Share Brewing.

Manchester Restaurant Week

Friday, Feb. 28, through Sunday, March 9
palacetheatre.org/restaurant-week-2025
See the website for participating restaurants
and their offerings as well as discount
at other businesses in downtown Manchester
with a purchase at a Restaurant Week
establishment

Featured photo: Greater Manchester Restaurant Week Header

Never a dull moment

Chefs can stay sharp with proper knife care

By John Fladd

[email protected]

The first thing Jim Renna wants you to know about kitchen knives is that the sharper a knife is, the less likely it is that you’ll cut yourself.

“There’s more injuries on a dull knife than a sharp knife,” he said, “because you’re using more pressure on a dull knife.” And if the knife slips while you’re cutting, all that pressure you’ve been applying to an onion gets directed to your hand or fingers.

Renna has been a chef and cafe owner for 30 years. He has recently expanded his business to sharpening blades, particularly kitchen knives, at Kitchen on Demand Knife Sharpening (3 Executive Park Drive, Bedford). Last spring, Renna bought a new toy.

“I purchased this unit back in June,” he said, proudly nodding at his sharpening machine. “This is a Tormek T8. It’s water-cooled. It’s got all types of jigs for axes and scissors, pocket knives, just all different kinds of anything that needs to be sharpened. I did a lot of practicing, reading up and watching a lot of videos online, so for five months that’s all I did was practice, because I didn’t want to start advertising until I knew what I was doing and everything was going to be perfect.”

After decades of using knives professionally, Renna knew there is much more to kitchen knives than most home cooks think about.

Different styles of knives, for instance, are not interchangeable with each other. Each is designed for a particular use.

“You’ve got your paring knife,” he said, “which is a smaller one. You’ve got your boning knife with a thinner, more flexible blade. Then you’ve got your regular chef knives, which everybody uses for cutting. And you’ve got your serrated knives for bread and things like that.” He said that when choosing a chef’s knife, for instance, a cook should look for one that fits well in their hand and is heavy. ”So you want a heavy, balanced knife that you don’t have to apply a lot of pressure to,” he said. You’ll get safer, more exact cuts.

Renna said most home cooks don’t get their knives sharpened nearly often enough. “The recommended [frequency] is six to eight months,” he said. “Most people do like five years. Most people don’t even think to have them sharpened.”

Each knife has an ideal angle that it should be sharpened at.

“Most kitchen knives are sharpened at a 15-degree angle,” Renna said. “But a customer just brought a knife in that’s supposed to be sharpened at a 20-degree angle, so that’s a big difference. Shun [brand] knives are at 16-degree angle, so that’s a one-degree difference, but it does make a lot of difference.” Renna’s sharpening unit has several ways to ensure an exact angle when he sharpens a blade, but it gets even more complicated — as he sharpens blades on the grindstone wheel of his sharpener, the wheel wears away slightly. He needs to measure the wheel regularly and work its new size into his calculations.

One other thing Renner wishes more home cooks knew about is the difference between honing and sharpening.

If you have a round “chef’s steel” in a knife set — the type you see television chefs running their knives along — its job is not to sharpen a knife. It hones it. As you put a knife to work, the microscopic edge of the blade gets bent out of shape.

“Honing straightens the edge of the blade,” Renner said. “If you use [your chef’s steel] often, your old knives will stay really sharp for a long time. There’s a skill to it, and [cooks] should find out how to use it.” He gives the example of a barber running a straight razor along a leather strop. The leather isn’t grinding away at the blade; it’s pulling the edge into line.

Kitchen on Demand Knife
Sharpening

3 Executive Park Drive, Bedford
The cost to sharpen a blade is $1.50
per inch of blade, or scissors for $7 each.
Turnaround is about 24 hours, or over the
weekend for a Friday dropoff.
Visit the Kitchen on Demand page on
Facebook.

Featured photo: Photo by John Fladd.

The Weekly Dish 25/02/27

News from the local food scene

By John Fladd

[email protected]

• New coffee shop: Two Moons Coffee and Curiosities has opened in South of the 6 Salon (155 Dow St., No. 102, Manchester, 782-7198, southofthe6.com). Described on the South of the 6 website as having a “spooky-vintage-bookstore vibe,” it serves coffees, teas, smoothies and baked-in-house pastries. Open Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Food donations and beer: To Share Brewing (720 Union St., Manchester, 836-6947, tosharebrewing.com) will host a food drive to benefit the New Hampshire Food Bank (nhfoodbank.org) Saturday, Feb. 22, beginning at 5 p.m. Bring a donation and get a chance to spin To Share’s Prize Wheel for a chance to win awesome prizes.

• Worldly wines: Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) will host a free wine tasting with Tom from Pearl Lake on Saturday, Feb. 22, between 1 and 4 p.m. Taste four wines from around the world. The store is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. as well.

• Irish and delicious: Peddler’s Daughter (48 Main St., Nashua, 821-7535, thepeddlersdaughter.com) will host its Annual Guinness Dinner Wednesday, Feb. 26, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. There will be four beers, four courses and endless fun conducted by “Cicerone” Michael Reardon, New England Guinness Ambassador, with special guest speaker Malcolm Patterson from Diageo Guinness USA. Tickets are $65 each through eventbrite.com.

• Tea in history: Register now for a special tea lecture. The Cozy Tea Cart (104A Route 13, Brookline, 249-9111, thecozyteacart.com) will host a discussion on “The Social Impact of Tea in Our History,” beginning with the discovery of tea and the spread of tea throughout Europe, the tea trade with China and the Opium Wars, its impact on the U.S., and the First World War. Throughout the presentation, enjoy sipping teas from the major tea-producing countries. The lecture will take place Thursday, March 20, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., but registration is required at least two weeks in advance. Tickets are $30 per person through the Cozy Tea Cart website.

Chocolate Mint Crinkle Cookies

By John Fladd

[email protected]

A brief lesson in food science

There is a trick that some bartenders use called “fat washing.”

It means is that anything that is soluble in fat is usually soluble in alcohol, and vice versa. For the past decade or so, really dedicated bartenders have used this fairly random chemistry fact to bring together bourbon and bacon, or rum and brown sugar.

This recipe turns that process on its head. Fresh mint is steeped in warm melted butter, which strips the mint’s minty mintiness away to give a startlingly delicious flavor note to these deeply chocolatey cookies.

Chocolate Mint Crinkle Cookies

A rubber or silicone spatula will make this recipe easier.

4 Tablespoons (half a stick) butter

¼ cup (28 g) fresh mint leaves and stems, chopped

¾ cup (90 g) all-purpose flour

¼ cup (21 g) cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder – if you don’t remember the last time you bought baking powder, it’s time to replace yours

¼ teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt

½ cup (106 g) brown sugar

1 egg

4 ounces (114 g) bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate – I like the chocolate chips from Trader Joe’s; they have a cocoa content of about 53% and a nice deep flavor

¼ cup or so of granulated sugar

½ cup or so of powdered sugar

Melt the butter with the chopped mint in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, and simmer until “fragrant,” which is recipe language for “Don’t burn it, but cook it until you can smell the mint.” The mint will cook down like spinach. Remove the saucepan from the heat, and let the mint steep in the melted butter for half an hour.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set it aside until you need it.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave, 20 seconds at a time, stirring until all the lumps disappear.

After the butter and mint have spent half an hour getting to know each other better, use a fine-mesh strainer to strain the butter into the bowl of your stand mixer. If the butter has set up a little reheat it briefly on the stove to remelt it.

Beat the melted butter and brown sugar until they are thoroughly integrated — maybe three minutes on medium speed. Add the egg — just the inside, not the shell — then the melted chocolate. Reduce the mixer to its lowest speed, and add the flour mixture — a couple of spoonfuls at a time, so it doesn’t poof up in your face — just until everything is barely mixed together.

At this point take a good look at your cookie dough. If it is stiff and PlayDoh-like, you can move on to the baking phase. If it is a little loose, put it in the refrigerator for half an hour or so to stiffen up.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Divide the dough into balls of one tablespoon each, about the size of a ping-pong ball. Roll each of the balls in the granulated sugar, then in the powdered sugar, then transfer it to a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Place the balls about 2 inches apart; with a little creative reordering, there should be room enough for all of them — about a dozen.

Bake the cookies on the middle rack of your oven for five minutes, then turn the baking sheet and bake for another five minutes, then remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the cookies cool thoroughly. They will have gratifying cracks and crevices across their tops, accentuated by the powdered sugar.

What you will have ended up with are dark, chewy, richly cocoa-y cookies with a minty flavor — but not minty like toothpaste, or breath mints, or mint-chip ice cream. These have a cool, fresh zing to them that makes them something special.

These are second-date cookies.

Featured photo: Chocolate Mint Crinkle Cookies. Photo by John Fladd.

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