NE Hot Sauce Fest comes to Hampton

By Maya Puma
[email protected]

Hot sauce companies from across the Northeast will come together for the second annual New England Hot Sauce Fest, happening at Smuttynose Brewery in Hampton on Saturday, July 29. The event is organized by Gabe DiSaverio, owner of his own hot sauce company, Spicy Shark.

“I wanted to put New England on the map as a spicy region and bring this unique event that has never been done before in New England,” DiSaverio said.

DiSaverio opened the Spicy Shark six years ago and travels across the country to different hot sauce festivals to sell his product.

“There were so many people that helped us early on to get exposure … and I was able to get our sauce out to a lot of different places,” he said. “I really wanted to provide that for Northeast hot sauce companies.”

The event is bigger this year with an addition of nine new hot sauce vendors, bringing the total number to 35. Some vendors include Angry Goat Pepper Co., Butterfly Bakery, High River Sauce and Bodacious Heat. Each vendor will be giving attendees free samples of their products. There will also be 10 food trucks, including Seacoast Street Eats, the Big Bad, Wing-itz, Tacos & More, Chubba Wubba’s, Sweeties, Bees and Thank You, Palms to Pines Empanadas and Kona Ice of the Seacoast. Smuttynose Brewery will also be serving beer.

Festivities begin at 11 a.m. with the first spicy eating contest, the Jalapeño Contest, at noon, where local participants compete to see who can eat the most jalapeños in 10 minutes. The next event of the day will be the SAGES family-friendly magic show. Another spicy eating contest will follow at 1:30 p.m., where contestants are challenged to eat progressively hotter chicken wings. According to DiSaverio, this contest is inspired by the celebrity interview show Hot Ones and features sauces with five levels of spiciness, beginning with Spicy Shark’s hottest sauce. Each contestant must eat two wings with each sauce. Those who make it to the fifth level will compete in a challenge of who can eat the wings the fastest. The super hot contest is next, at 2:30 p.m., and participants will eat progressively hotter hot peppers, beginning with a jalapeno and ending with a California reaper. According to DiSaverio, the California reaper was crossbred by Ed Curry from PuckerButt Pepper Co., and it is widely known as the hottest pepper. Curry recently created a new pepper called Pepper X which is only available through PuckerButt hot sauces and their Duel Chips.

“Picture a potato chip that’s completely covered in Pepper X powder,” DiSaverio said. “One of those would destroy a regular human being.”

“[This] has never been done before, a Pepper X chip challenge,” DiSaverio continued. “These six people are going to be on stage to see who can eat the most pepper and chips in an hour, but also, maybe, [to see] if one of them can break the all-time record of most Pepper X chips eaten.”

The Duel Chip challenge will take place at 3:30 p.m. and is a new addition to the festival.

Back from last year are MCs Bella and Dark from YouTube channel “Heat 101,” and there will be a DJ playing ’80s music all day.

The majority of the festival’s proceeds will go to two nonprofits, the Seacoast Science Center and the Blue Ocean.

“The Spicy Shark [got its name] because I’m a scuba diver and very passionate about shark conservation, so when I put together the festival, I wanted that to be a piece of it,” DiSaverio said.

According to Jen Kennedy from The Blue Ocean, the funds will support ocean research and education programs in the Seacoast region.

Karen Provazza, chief communications officer at Seacoast Science Center, said, “We are so grateful to be part of this festival and will use the funds to expand our education program.”

2nd Annual New England Hot Sauce Festival
When: Saturday, July 29, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (opens at 10 a.m. for VIP ticketholders)
Where: Smuttynose Brewery, 105 Towle Farm Road, Hampton
Cost: $11 general admission and $15 for VIPs
Visit: newenglandhotsaucefest.com

Featured photo: New England Hot Sauce Fest. Courtesy photo.

Breakfast and lunch restaurant to open in Hooksett

By Mya Blanchard
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Your potential new favorite place to grab breakfast or lunch is set to open in August in Hooksett. The Spot Eatery will serve coffee, espresso, smoothies and juices, pastries, breakfast and lunch sandwiches as well as scrambler bowls and salads, Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. They will have seating as well as a grab-and-go section.

“It’s definitely been a lot of work,” said Sarah Lucas, owner of The Spot Eatery. “There’s been a lot of setbacks … and we didn’t realize how not up to code everything was [in] the place we took over, so it’s taken a little longer than we hoped for, but it’s also been kind of fun at the same time to be able to create something from scratch.”

Lucas comes from a family with lots of restaurant experience, and will be running The Spot with her mother, Jill Lucas.

“My entire family has always been in the business,” Sarah said. “My parents have owned a couple different places around New Hampshire, Vermont and … Pennsylvania.”

Her family eventually settled down in Hooksett, where Sarah was born and raised. She went on to graduate from Keene State College with a bachelor’s degree in business management.

“I [didn’t really] have much of an idea of what I wanted to do,” Sarah said.

When the owners of Bavaria, the restaurant where Jill worked, retired in September 2022, Jill Lucas started her own online business, Nana’s Cookie Jar. It was a month or two later when Sarah Lucas got the idea to also start something of her own that would also serve as a physical location for her mother’s cookie business.

“They decided to retire, so we decided it [was] time to do something for ourselves, and then decided to open The Spot,” Sarah Lucas said. “My parents have always wanted to do a breakfast [and] lunch spot.”

The original idea was to set up shop in the former space of Bavaria, but upon noticing an open space below that was smaller and would require less work, Sarah decided this would be the best fit. She felt the location on Hooksett Road near a daycare and a bus stop would see a good amount of traffic to bring in business, especially with people passing through on their way up north, while being far enough away from the main area of town to be an option for people on the outskirts and in surrounding areas.

“I wanted it to be a spot [where] people can come and just kind of hang out [or] do some work,” Sarah Lucas said. “The college kids from SNHU can come and do homework and group projects and stuff like that, … so I thought, like, ‘Oh, just go to The Spot,’ like it’s just a spot that everyone goes to.”

The Spot Eatery
Where: 1461 Hooksett Road, Hooksett
Opening: August
Hours: Monday through Saturday, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
More info: thespoteatery.com

Featured photo: Photo courtesy of the Spot Eatery.

News from the local food scene

• Bubble Tea: The Teen Advisory Board at Chester Public Library (3 Chester St., Chester) invites those ages 10 and up to make and taste bubble tea on Thursday, July 27, from 4 to 5 p.m. at the library. Attendees will learn how bubble tea has grown in popularity, the variations and possible toppings. They will be supplied with everything they need to make and enjoy bubble tea on the patio. It is free to attend. Reserve your spot via Eventbrite.

• Pup crawl: Don’t miss The Humane Society for Greater Nashua’s third annual pup crawl from Friday, July 28, to Sunday, July 30. The event begins with a kickoff party at The Biergarten (221 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack) on Friday, July 28, from 5 to 8 p.m. where those who registered can pick up their Pup Crawl t-shirt and “paws-port,” which can be used to earn raffle entries. Visit any of the participating breweries throughout the weekend and get your paws-port stamped or signed at each location. Each stamp or signature will earn a raffle ticket. The finale will be held on Sunday, July 30, from 1 to 3 p.m. (location TBA), when raffle winners will be announced. Participating breweries include Pipe Dream Brewing in Londonderry, Long Blue Cat Brewing Co. in Londonderry, Spyglass Brewing Co. in Nashua, Rockingham Brewing Co. in Derry and From the Barrel Brewing Co. in Derry. The event will benefit the pets waiting to be adopted. For more info or to purchase your $20 ticket, visit hsfn.org.

• Charcuterie board workshop: Get your tickets for an upcoming charcuterie board workshop at Vine Thirty Two wine and graze bar in Bedford (25 S. River Road) on Monday, July 31, from 6:15 to 8:15 p.m. The event features Theresa from 603 Charcuterie, a Manchester-based company, who will walk you through the process while you cut, arrange and sample local cheeses and salami. Included is a locally made wooden serving board to keep, $15 worth of wine and cheese and salami samplings during the class. Tickets can be purchased at 603charcuterie.com.