Category: Food

Sleazy Vegan’s new digs

The vegan eatery finds a new brick and mortar home in Concord

K.S. LeBlanc is happy to put down roots.

LeBlanc is the owner and operator of Sleazy Vegan, a popular food truck that has finally found a permanent brick-and-mortar location after a long journey.

“When we first started, we opened as a ghost kitchen back on April 1 of ’22. In September of this past year we were told that that place was no longer going to be available to us, and so we had to skedoodle. We had to find a new commercial kitchen to do our catering from and to be our commissary for food trucking, even though we don’t have a food truck exactly right now. We moved to what was formerly known as State Street Kitchen in Concord. There were actually two identities here. There was State Street Kitchen that was meant to be a pay-by-the-hour community-based kitchen for [new entrepreneurs]. And then in the front there’s a retail space that was, for a while, Pilar Art Studio. When we reached out to the owner of this building, to see about coming in and really having a much bigger footprint than just a community kind of user and taking over the kitchen and using that front spot, he was very amicable to the idea, and loved the idea of having the space get used more than it had been. So we moved in here in October and we took over that front retail spot as the Sleazy Vegan Cafe. And we’ve actually been running from here from seven in the morning until two in the afternoon, since October.”

Since then, LeBlanc said, she and her chef have been fine-tuning their menu, focusing on baking.

“We did all of our Thanksgiving catering from here,” she said, “all of our Christmas catering from here. Lots of pies. We’re making sourdough bread every week. We’re making three or four different kinds of vegan muffins every week. We’ve got … a sourdough cinnamon roll that we’re making every week.”

As of this week, however, the Sleazy Vegan will be open all day, LeBlanc said.

“[It will be] a full-service day here, where we’ll be running breakfast, lunch and dinner from the new location. We did two seated six-course dinners that were really great. They were lovely. It’s very private, kind of glam up the front, and the seating is limited to 10 or 12 people per service. So it’s very intimate and very quiet and private and a little more glammed up version of sleazy vegan chefery going on. We did two of those events in January that were fantastic, and we have another event coming up for Valentine’s Day. We’re doing a 6 p.m. service — a six-course dinner — and an 8 p.m. service.”

“So now there’ll be kind of two locations that will be here in Concord,” LeBlanc said. “There will be the Sleazy Vegan Cafe, which will be in the front, and then Sleazy Vegan Mobile Catering is in the back. And that’s where we’ll be doing our catering and our cooking classes. We’ll be hosting a Food is Medicine meetup once a month. At each meetup we will bring in an expert to help guide us through some plant-based health secrets and some plant-based health lies that we might believe and help us get healthier and more educated around what we can do for our health with plants. Our next one is going to be Feb. 18.”

LeBlanc said the new location gives her confidence that there is a demand for high-quality, plant-based food in Concord.

“People come here,” she said, “and it’s not by accident. They didn’t just accidentally show up someplace where everything happened to be vegan on the menu. They’re coming here because this is what they wanted, and they’re very excited to have some place where they can look at a menu and know that everything on the menu is right for them.”

The Sleazy Vegan
205 N. State St., Concord, thesleazyvegan.com. Open Wednesday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Featured photo: Sleazy Vegan Concord location. Courtesy photo.

The Weekly Dish 26/02/12

• Weather delay: The Fire on Main event hosted by 603 Brewery (42 Main St, Londonderry, 404-6123, 603brewery.com) originally scheduled for this weekend has been postponed due to anticipated weather conditions. It will be held Saturday, March 14, instead. Visit 603brewery.com/fire-on-main-bonfire-event.

• There’s always room for dessert. And wine. LaBelle Winery Amherst (345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898, labellewinery.com) will host a Chocolate Desserts & Wine Pairing Class Thursday, Feb. 12, at 6 p.m. Wine Educator & Sommelier Marie King leads this interactive event where you’ll enjoy four desserts, each paired with LaBelle wines. The cost is $48.16.

• All you need is truffles: Van Otis Chocolates (341 Elm St., Manchester, 627-1611, vanotis.com) will hold a chocolate truffle-making class Friday, Feb. 13, at 5:30 p.m. Guests ages 18+ will tour the chocolate factory, where a chocolatier will demonstrate how to make a chocolate ganache. Tickets are $55.20.

• Cookie season: Girl Scout cookie booth season has begun, with booths scheduled across the area throughout the weekend including at the Irving Gas Station in Bow on the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 13; Chunky’s Cinema and Remix Roller Skating in Manchester at times on Saturday, Feb. 14, and Sunday, Feb. 15; the Brookline Transfer Station in the morning (through 1 p.m.) on Saturday, Feb. 14, and Sully’s in Suncook on Sunday, Feb. 15, from noon to 8 p.m., according to girlscoutsgwm.org. Click on “Find Cookies” to find booths this weekend and beyond.

• Food and theater: The Capitol Center for the Arts (44 S. Main St., Concord, 225-1111, ccanh.com) will partner with Street Restaurant (76 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2125, streetfood360.com) on Feb. 17 for a special Community Night eventfrom 5 to 9 p.m. When you dine in at STREET and mention the Capitol Center for the Arts to your server, 20 percent of your meal will be donated to support it.

• Observing a wine holiday: Join Barrel and Baskit (377 Main St., Hopkinton, 746-1375, barrelandbaskit.com) Wednesday, Feb. 18, for a celebration of National Drink Wine Day with a free wine tasting by Ruby Wines.

Make it bitter

Most Americans don’t seem to appreciate bitter tastes. We’re fine with other strong flavors — we love sweets, many of us will go at a bag of salty snacks like it’s been away at war, there are certainly chili-heads who crave intensely spicy foods, and some children eat sour candies that would make the head of an adult collapse in on itself. But what about bitter foods?
I enjoy some bitterness from time to time, so on the off chance that you do, too, or are in the middle of a contentious break-up, here is a bitter but delicious cocktail, with a very bitter name:

Remember the Alimony

  • 1 1/4 ounces Fino sherry – I’m not exactly sure what “fino” means in this context, but whatever full-bodied sherry you have on hand.
  • 1 1/4 ounces Cynar or other bitter Italian liqueur. Cynar is the one with an artichoke on the label.
  • 3/4 ounce medium-shelf, London dry gin — Because of the strong flavor of this drink, subtle flavors will be overwhelmed; this is not a job for your best top-shelf gin. I used Gordon’s, and I do not regret the decision.

We will not be using a cocktail shaker for this drink. Add several ice cubes to a mixing glass, then add the sherry, Cynar and gin, then stir gently but thoroughly.
Strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass.

As expected, this is a bitter drink — not bitter to the extent that you’ll have to smash your fists against the table to force it down or anything, but there’s no getting around its bitterness. When you take your first sip of it, your immediate impression will be a bit of raisinyness from the sherry, quickly followed by bitter notes from the Cynar. It actually has a smooth finish and goes down easily, but there is a tail of bitterness in the aftertaste.
This is a very grown-up drink, for sitting by a window and watching the snow or rain come down and thinking about the turns your life has taken.

Featured photo: Photo by John Fladd.

Smoothie move

New location and new name for smoothie purveyor born in the mall

The name is different, but the smoothies are still excellent, said Jonathan Allard.

“We’re called That Smoothie Spot,” he said. “We are a 100 percent natural smoothie spot. We used to be Nature’s Nectar in the Mall of New Hampshire. We were there for 16 years, but we felt it was finally time to change and move on. Nobody really associated the name with smoothies, so that’s when my wife and I came up with That Smoothie Spot. It just made sense. My wife managed the other spot, Nature’s Nectar, for over 12 years for the previous owner. She sold it to us in November of 2024. And now we’re here. We’ve been able to expand our menu, add some food items — some gluten-free, some dairy-free.”

“Here” is on March Avenue in Manchester, just off South Willow Street, in the plaza where Panera Bread and Broadway Shoes are located.

Allard said the new smoothie shop offers “refreshers, coffees, lattes, sandwiches, toasties and things like that. But our bread and butter is the smoothies for sure.”

“I believe what makes a good smoothie,” Allard said, “is just good natural fruit, making sure it’s blended properly, and in the proper combinations. We make all our bases fresh in-house. Our piña colada has been one of the biggest hits for 16 years. You can’t get anything like our piña colada base that we make here. We use cream of coconut and fresh pineapple. It’s our most popular base. A lot of smoothie places will use either milk or yogurt or oat milk or almond milk, something like that. We emulsify our natural fruit into our base and that’s what makes the liquid for the base. It helps make it creamier. It just tastes better. We don’t add any additional sugar, so we’re diabetic-friendly, and we’re able to keep it that way by making everything ourselves.”

“One of our biggest sellers on the menu right now has dragonfruit in it,” Allard said. “We love using it. Something else that a lot of people only use for bowls mostly is acai, but we use those in our smoothies as well. It just blends really well. Acai has immense benefits for your body and your immune system. We try to add as many good things as we can. Some fruits that I’d love to start kind of playing around with, and I don’t think many places use it, is like jackfruit. We use kiwi, but I think we can add kiwi a little bit more to some of our blends. We have some ideas for the summer, maybe sipping out of a coconut with a fresh smoothie.”

Selling smoothies from a stand-alone location has been an adjustment, Allard said, but customers have found it.

“It’s definitely a more intentional customer,” he said. “In the mall we were able to maybe stand out in the hallway, hand out some samples, maybe get a customer here or there. It feels more intentional here. We’ve become more of a destination spot. Our regulars that we had for 15 years in the mall have come to us now, knowing that we’re in a new spot. We’re definitely getting more regulars here.”

“Because we’re known for our dairy-free and gluten-free smoothies,” he said, “we really want to take that into our food aspect and offer just a really good place to go that has gluten-free, dairy-free options. We’re very allergy-friendly. If you have a peanut allergy, any type of allergy, we definitely accommodate anything like that. So our main goal is to just be that spot where you can go get a sandwich one day, get a smoothie the next, maybe get a coffee, and be confident in what you’re getting.”

That Smoothie Spot
102 March Ave., Manchester, 408-1390, facebook.com/ThatSmoothieSpotNH
Hours: open Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and weekends, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Warm up with food and music

Bonfire block party at the 603

“When you drive by,” Kellyn Thompson said, “there’s a big field out behind the brewery. They’re clearing the snow, and they actually have started stacking pallets. We take these wooden pallets, stack them — we’re doing two — and we’ll light them, one at 5 p.m. and one at around 7 p.m. So one while the sun is still up, one after the sun has gone down. It’s really just the coolest. It’s just a huge, huge bonfire.”

Thompson is the creative director of 603 Brewery in Londonderry, which is hosting its second annual Fire on Main event across the street from the brewery on Saturday, Feb. 7. She said the bonfire is 603’s vision of a winter block party.

“In addition to the bonfires we will line Main Street. We blockade this whole street out front, and then we bring in local food trucks and food and beverage vendors. They’ll set up shop along the street. There will be a giant beer tent so people can come get drinks. The beer hall will be open with our regular food and beer specials. And there will be a DJ doing live mixing. The owner of Fire N Gin brings a vintage fire truck and parks it right in the middle of the street. He’ll put up some string lights, which is also a really cool [picture to take] because you’ve got this vintage fire truck and then you can pan over to this giant bonfire.”

“In addition,” Thompson said, “we’ll have some burn barrels — picture metal barrels just scattered throughout, so people can warm up and hang out around a smaller fire that’s, you know, less dangerous. This year we’ll have two of these and then we have firefighters who are volunteering to come and light the fire in a safe way. A group of firefighters will have a table. They’ll sell merch, and they’re fundraising for muscular dystrophy awareness. On this street behind us, there’s a tattoo studio inside of this building. So they will be open, doing flash tattoos, which just means they’re small, kind of quick, and cheaper tattoo options, so you can go over there and in 20 minutes for between $50 and $100 get a tattoo. It’s fun and gives you a little bit of respite from the cold.”

Thompson said last year’s inaugural event was extremely successful.

“The outcome totally blew us away,” she said. “I think we had expected maybe 2,000 people and we got over 4,500 people. So it was really epic. I think it really just gives people something to do in this dead of winter that doesn’t involve skiing or having a ton of gear or knowing how to do anything. I remember when this idea was first pitched, the reaction was sort of like, ’OK, so a bonfire — that’s not that revolutionary.’ But then when you saw it all come together and like you saw all of the different moving parts, and then when you saw the turnout and just that many people kind of all coming together, to see this big thing happen, it was just really cool.”

2nd annual Fire on Main bonfire
When: Saturday, Feb. 7, from 3 to 9 p.m.
Where: 603 Brewery, 42 Main St., Londonderry, 404-6123, 603brewery.com
Vendors will include Dead Proof Pizza, Wagon Wheels Mini Donuts, Teeny Weenies, Ken and Mimi’s Gourmet Snacks (formerly Ken’s Corn), Tin Can Co, Fire N Gin, and Barking Sisters Coffee. 603 Brewery has released a special edition Fire on Main smoked beer to mark the occasion, available on tap or in four-packs inside the brewery.

The Weekly Dish 26/02/05

• Reopened-ish: Caesario’s Pizza at 1057 Elm St., which had been closed following a fire in 2022, reopened under new owners for a soft opening on Jan. 29, only to close for a few hours due to a burst pipe, according to a Jan. 30 report at WMUR.com. The shop re-reopened after a few hours and a grand opening is planned for the coming weeks, the WMUR story said. See the eatery’s website, caesariospizzanh.com.

• Food and spirits: Big Dog Eats, Home of Choo Choo’s Cheesecakes (20 South St., Milford, 249-5008, bigdogeats.com) will host The Spirits of Milford, Dinner & Investigation, Monday, Feb. 9, from 6 to 10 p.m. This will be an eerie night of great food and ghost hunting, a dinner and investigation like no other. Tickets are $71.21 through eventbrite.com.

• Valentine’s Day cookies: There will be a Valentine Cookie Decorating Night with Posy Cottage Cookies on Wednesday, Feb. 11, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Brickhouse Restaurant and Brewery (241 Union Square, Milford, 672-2270, brickhousenh.com). Whether you’re a pro or a newbie, join in for creativity, laughs and sweet treats. Bring your friends or participate solo and make some delicious memories. Tickets are $64.80 through eventbrite.com.

• Wine and desserts: Sips & Sweets: Dessert and Wine Pairing will take place at Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 6:30 p.m. This event will feature four classic desserts paired with four complementary wines. There will also be a sparkling wine on arrival. Tickets are $39.19 through eventbrite.com.

• Pierogi! There will be a pierogi-making class at The Culinary Playground (16 Manning St., Derry, 339-1664, culinary-playground.com) on Friday, March 6, from 10 a.m. to noon. Make all the components of this potato-and-cheese-filled Polish dumpling and assemble a dozen to be boiled and pan-fried in butter and onions.The cost is $58 per person through the Culinary Playground website.

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