The spark for Winter Warmer, a virtual music festival that kicked off Jan. 16, came in the sweltering days of August. Along with fellow musician Nick Phaneuf, Mike Effenberger and his wife, videographer Amanda Kowalski, produced an outdoor, multi-camera video project and came away elated with the results.
As they watched the playback, the thought occurred to them that filming a series of professionally staged shows could provide a boost to the area scene when gigs grew scarce. They reached out to Martin England, who frequently uses his barn, dubbed North Buick Lounge, for house concerts. With plenty of space and good ventilation, it was a perfect venue for what they had in mind, Phaneuf said in a recent joint interview with Effenberger.
“The idea was to film when it was warm and safe, so that musicians could … monetize their work in the winter by having a high-quality concert to sell tickets to,” he said. “It would keep the local audience engaged with the scene by providing them with content to keep them caring.”
Area bands, spanning multiple genres, jumped on board immediately. Eleven sets were shot over two weekends, straddling the end of September and the start of October. The first performance filmed was by Boston rap group STL GLD (pronounced “Still Gold”). Effenberger wasn’t sure how the neighbors would react, even though they’d been advised of the plans.
“It’s 11 in the morning and there’s high-volume hip-hop happening that was exciting and briefly nerve-racking, but nobody complained,” he said. “Their set was incredible.”
The livestreams premiered in mid-January with New Orleans channelers Soggy Po’ Boys, and the March 27 finale stars Dan Blakeslee and the Calabash Club. Effenberger and Phaneuf are members of both groups. Upcoming shows include bluegrass from Green Heron (Jan. 23), Americana trio Young Frontier (Feb. 27) and harmony-rich quartet River Sister (March 20).
Phaneuf’s favorite was Seacoast rockers Rick Rude.
“I’ve only got to see them a couple of times over the years, and it was great being up close while we were capturing the concert,” he said. “Their music is joyful and chaotic, in all the best ways. That was a refreshing set to listen to.”
A key benefit for participating musicians is that they’ll retain full ownership of their performance video.
“Creating high-quality content that the bands could then continue to monetize or utilize after the series is done” was a key goal of the effort, Phaneuf emphasized. “We feel pretty good as an outcome of this that we can give them that.”
Both Effenberger and Phaneuf had a limited schedule during 2020, but when they did perform, they were pleased by the outpouring of support from the community.
“I was personally blown away at the dollar value that people put on the thing that we do,” Phaneuf said. “Doing this for a living, you spend at least some amount of your time as musical wallpaper. … You’re seen and not heard. People paying $50 to lock down a table at a Portsmouth pop-up to hear a show made me feel the community really valued music more than I thought they did. It was sort of an ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ situation, where there was less music, but the audience dedication to being at those shows was impressive.”
Effenberger liked how venues adapted, and how a few new ones sprouted up overnight. “It was an uphill battle,” he said, noting a farm in Kensington that “simply built a stage and bought a PA, and said, ‘Let’s do this and see if the community bites’ — and they did.”
Almost all the money from Winter Warmer will go to the artists, with five percent benefiting Continuum Arts Collective, an effort run by Martin England that puts musical instruments and equipment in the hands of kids who don’t have access. The series also received critical assistance from Seacoast nonprofit Project MusicWorks.
Shows will be available for viewing after they premiere, for the rest of 2021.
“We’re encouraging people to have a group experience,” Phaneuf said, “but if you miss it on that Saturday, you can watch it later.” Winter Warmer Online Concert Series
Winter Warmer Online Concert Series Shows debut on Saturdays at 8 p.m. on seacoastmusicsupport.com
Premiere dates: Green Heron, Jan. 23 Rick Rude, Jan. 30 STL GLD, Feb. 6 Jim Dozet Band Record Release Show, Feb. 13 Jazzputin and the Jug Skunks, Feb. 20 Young Frontier, Feb. 27 Earthkit, March 6 Sojoy, March 13 River Sister, March 20 Dan Blakeslee and the Calabash Club, March 27
• Rocker: When playing plugged in with his band, Max Sullivan can positively wail, channeling guitar gods from Jimmy Page to Stevie Ray. Solo, Sullivan gets soulful, doing a cool version of Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands” and the Stevie Wonder groove fest “Boogie On Reggae Woman.” His set list mixes things up; he can pivot to punk rock as easily as to a Motown hit. Thursday, Jan. 21, 5:30 p.m., Homestead Restaurant & Tavern, 641 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 429-2022.
• Twanger: Start the weekend with comfort food and country comfort as Eric Grant performs solo at a Lakes Region haven. Over a dozen years fronting his eponymous band, the singer, songwriter and guitarist has won awards and a solid following, opening for stars like Blake Shelton, Lady A, Sugarland and others. “Who Would You See,” his 2017 tribute to a friend and fan who battled cancer, is a gem. Friday, Jan. 22, 7 p.m., 405 Pub & Grill, 405 Union Ave., Laconia, 524-8405
• Joker: While the quest for herd immunity goes on, laughter is a great medicine; Brian Beaudoin will provide plenty. The veteran comic performs consecutive nights, drawing from absurdities in everyday life while engaging in crowd banter to hilarious effect. He’s won awards in his home state of Rhode Island, including the annual Comic Throwdown’s Grand Prize. Friday, Jan. 22, and Saturday, Jan. 23, 8 p.m., Chunky’s Cinema & Pub, 707 Huse Road, Manchester. Tickets $20 at chunkys.com.
• Etcher: Live music is back at a Queen City craft brewery as Nate Cozzolino entertains. The Providence singer-songwriter has serious guitar prowess and an ethereal vocal delivery; writer Vic Garbarini likened him to “early Van Morrison,” calling him “one of the most promising artists working today.” Along with his musical prowess, Cozzolino is a talented visual artist; his etched glass work is particularly striking. Saturday, Jan. 23, 4 p.m., To Share Brewing, 720 Union St., Manchester, 836-6947.
Carey Mulligan plays a woman who can’t move on from the wrong done to her friend and the resulting devastation in Promising Young Woman, a dark, occasionally darkly funny, brutal revenge thriller that is expertly well made.
Promising Young Woman is so much more emotionally torturous than comes across in the trailers, which highlight the revenge element but serve it up with dark humor. While it does have dark humor, actually seeing the story play out and knowing the characters, makes everything so much grimmer. I’ve read and heard lots of commentators point this out but it’s worth really highlighting this fact now that the movie is available for home viewing. (I believe this movie is still in area theaters as well.) Be warned: This is not a “bad-girl” funny good time.
That said, this is also an exceptionally well-made movie. It is surgical in its writing; every line has a point. It looks great; so much care has clearly been taken with every shot and with where characters are in the frame and where the movie is directing you to look. I was amazed with how it is all staged and how everybody is costumed and how that all works into what is being conveyed with each scene.
And the performances are strong. Carey Mulligan brings a lot of layers to Cassie, a 30-year-old woman who is stuck in her grief. During the day, Cassie is being her “real” self — but with a wall of dry humor and disinterest to keep people at arms length.
At night, Cassie goes out as someone else. She’s made up and dressed up and nearly-falling-down drunk. Or really “drunk,” because the unsteady walk and halting speech are just an act. Eventually, some Nice Guy (played by Adam Brody or Sam Richardson or Christopher Mintz-Plasse) comes over to “help her,” to “protect her from those jerks.” This seems to eventually involve taking her to their house, offering her more intoxicants and starting to make out with her, or really make out on her because she doesn’t engage. And then, suddenly, she soberly looks them in the eyes and asks them what they think they’re doing, to their absolute terror.
Cassie does this in the name of Nina, her best friend from childhood through their time in medical school. We learn piece by piece that something terrible happened to Nina, who is always talked of in the past tense. The terrible thing — which the movie makes clear involved sexual assault even before we know the details — has traumatized Cassie too. She lives with her parents (Jennifer Coolidge, Clancy Brown), who seem supportive but also scared and sad for their daughter. She works at a coffee shop and won’t even consider the promotion offered by her kind boss (Laverne Cox). And she has no contact with any other friends or anybody from school, at least until Ryan (Bo Burnham) comes into the shop and, after some chat, asks her out. She is wary with him too but slowly starts to wonder if maybe he really is a nice guy and maybe there could be more to her future.
This movie is written and directed by Emerald Fennell (known, as an actress, for roles in Call the Midwife and The Crown). This is her first feature-length movie, which makes the excellence in execution seem all the more extraordinary. I heard somebody on a podcast (maybe This Had Oscar Buzz) compare her to Jordan Peele and his initial outing Get Out and I thought of that comparison while watching the movie. There is a similar thoughtfulness and preciseness in both movies. It’s rare to see someone completely ace their first outing the way Peele did and Fennell does here. I don’t know that I’ll ever bring myself to watch this movie again but I can’t wait to see what she does next. A
Rated R for strong violence including sexual assault, language throughout, some sexual material and drug use, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman is an hour and 53 minutes long and is distributed by Focus Features. It is in local theaters and available for rent.
One Night in Miami (R)
Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown hang out together after Ali’s fight with Sonny Liston in One Night in Miami, a movie based on a play of the same name and directed by Regina King.
You can still feel the play in elements of this movie, which is largely made up of the four men hanging out in a hotel room, talking and arguing. Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir); Muhammad Ali, still going by Cassius Clay (Eli Goree); football player-turned-actor Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and singer Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) gather in Malcolm’s room after the fight in 1964. The plan is to have a party but Malcolm offers only vanilla ice cream and conversation. Cassius is on the verge of announcing his conversion to Islam. Malcolm seems proud but also conflicted — he is in the process of making a break from the Nation of Islam. Jim has recently shot his first movie and seems to be considering leaving the NFL. Sam is preparing for a show at a venue where he previously bombed — and working on some new music. The friendship of these men is strong but the momentum of their own careers and their various approaches to the civil rights movement are points of friction between them.
To some extent the movie at its core is “just” conversation, but it’s engrossing conversation between people who feel multidimensional, with more layers than just “history’s Malcolm X.” We see just enough of these men’s lives to get a hint of what they’re bringing into the room, their hopes, their insecurities, what things inform their point of view.
The performances here are stellar across the board but I will admit that my eyes kept landing on Odom and his take on Cooke. He plays Cooke as someone who is canny about his profession and how to make it make money for himself and for other African American artists but he still has those desires to say something more through his songs. Maybe Hamilton just sort of taught me to look for “guy working at several levels” from Odom but I feel like he’s doing it again here and it pulls his Cooke to the center of the story even if Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali have the bigger personalities. A
Rated R for language throughout, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Regina King with a screenplay by Kemp Powers (who also wrote the play), One Night in Miami is an hour and 54 minutes long and is distributed by Amazon Studios and available via Amazon Prime.
News of the World (PG-13)
Tom Hanks plays the Tom Hanks character who is unexpectedly tasked with bringing an orphan to her distant relatives in post-Civil War Texas in News of the World.
This is basically Hanks’ Greyhound if you replace “get convoy of ships to the U.K.” with “get little girl to the Texas Hill Country” and “outrun Nazi submarines” with “outrun Old West-y villains.”
I mean that in the best way; I liked Greyhound. Here as there, Hanks is a man who calls on his quick thinking and basic decency to complete his hero’s journey. Is chicken parm the most inventive dish in the world? No, but few things are better than a really good chicken parm. Hanks is serving up some very classic cuisine and doing it expertly.
Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Hanks), mostly just called Captain, was once a Confederate soldier but he seems very “bind up the nation’s wounds” for some “just and lasting peace” about the whole thing. Now, 1870-ish, he travels the Texas countryside and reads newspapers to audiences who pay a dime a person for this in-person Walter Cronkite action. Captain is lively but down the middle with his news reading, not allowing meetings to turn into anti-federal-troops gripe sessions, for example.
While on the road, he comes across a wrecked wagon and an African American federal agent who has been lynched — which, the movie makes clear, Captain finds appalling. He figures out that the man was tasked with transporting Johanna (Helena Zengel), the young blonde girl hiding nearby, who had been living with the Kiowa tribe. When the Kiowa were forced off their land, Johanna’s Kiowa parents were killed and Johanna, who only knows her name as “Cicada,” found herself orphaned for a second time. She lost her biological parents as a young girl when their settlers’ village was raided. She doesn’t appear to retain any memory of that life — or of being called Johanna — and doesn’t speak English.
Captain tries to turn her over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the next town but he’s told that the agent won’t be back for months. Eventually he agrees to take her on the several weeks’ drive south to find a biological aunt and uncle. Along the way they encounter various people who want to kill (or in Johanna’s case, kidnap) them, but Captain’s Hanks-y cleverness helps them deal with dicey situations. To pay for their journey, he continues his news-reading work, with Johanna collecting dimes from the crowd and learning to enjoy his stories.
There is nothing surprising here but everything here is done really well. Zengel is a solid child actor, communicating a lot with her face. Hanks, of course, is top notch, turning in the high-quality performance that seems like rote for him but is really the demonstration of extraordinary skill. Director Paul Greengrass is able to show us a country still mired in all kinds of conflict and aware of what our modern opinions will probably be without turning Captain into some kind of anachronistic saint. Even when the movie veers into “OK, this is a bit much” it is able to pull off the sandstorms and the town full of weird and violent separatists thanks to the skill of everybody involved. B
Rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images, thematic material and some language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Paul Greengrass with a screenplay by Paul Greengrass and Luke Davies (from a novel by Paulette Jiles), News of the World is an hour and 58 minutes long and distributed by Universal Studios. It is playing in local theaters and available for rent.
Olive, Mabel & Me: Life and Adventures with Two Very Good Dogs by Andrew Cotter (The Countryman Press, 205 pages)
During the Covid lockdown, a few creative and bored people entertained themselves by making videos and posting them online. Some people lip-synced Trump’s speeches. Some put events to music. Professional sportscaster Andrew Cotter narrated his two Labrador retrievers eating breakfast.
The video of Olive and Mabel was cute, and most internet people agreed that it was clever to hear the routine canine event treated as if it were high sport. It served as a much-needed break from the tediousness and frustration of not being able to go to live sports events. Soon Cotter created more videos featuring his dogs.
The videos all went viral on Twitter. And, from this experience, Cotter wrote the book Olive, Mabel & Me: Life and Adventures with Two Very Good Dogs.
When I’ve taught writing classes and we discuss memoirs, I tell my students that with this genre in particular you have to be careful.
A person winning a $20 million lottery is not a compelling story.
A person winning a $20 million lottery and then using that money to build wells in Africa or to create educational systems that change people’s lives is a compelling story.
In this case, Cotter simply won the internet lottery. Which makes this a very non-compelling story. It’s a tale retrofit to justify the emergence of a good idea for videos.
All true dog lovers treat their dogs like children and shower them with love, but other than simply being pets these two dogs are not extraordinary in any way. They didn’t save Timmy from the well like Lassie did. They didn’t alert anyone to an impending epileptic seizure. These two dogs simply grew up together in a household. There is no real plot or journey line in this book. It’s simply a story about two good dogs who belong to an unemployed sportscaster.
Beside there being no journey or plot in this book, there is also a significant issue with the author’s voice. He is clever, he is witty. But it’s to the point where every paragraph has some kind of snarky comment or joke in it. This causes a problem for the reader because it quickly becomes apparent that you can’t trust what the author is saying. While reading a sentence, I found myself constantly wondering if this was factual or if it was a setup for a joke. Losing faith in a reader’s message is the kiss of death for any book.
It’s clear that Cotter is not a writer. Oh, to be sure, he wrote a book (won the lottery again!) but to those of use who are writers, it feels like cheating. He is not disciplined. There is no solid construction to the story. It simply exists as a retelling of fond dog memories with a lot of jokes tucked in.
“All I would say is that despite the fact that our house is not what it was and the sofas are now a hue that a paint catalog might call ‘Displeasingly Off-Beige’ in their color chart, despite the fact that all clothes are now made of a dog-hair blend and getting more than six hours sleep is a thing of the past, despite the fact that their wants and needs can seem to rule our day, I couldn’t imagine ever living that clean, tidy, sane, dog-free life again.”
And yes, that paragraph was one sentence.
On the plus side, anyone who has raised dogs will be able to relate (somewhat) to the stories of puppy love and damage, new dogs in the house, and going on walks with your best buds. I’m just not sure that that connection is enough to hold anyone’s attention for the entire book.
And in the way that I was one of the few people who actually enjoyed the chapter on the history of whaling in Moby Dick, I did find the chapter on how the Labrador breed came to be interesting. I actually learned a few things that I hadn’t known, so for that I am grateful to this book.
Look, I take no pleasure in giving a book a bad review. I hope to be published myself someday and I know it would break my heart if someone didn’t like or appreciate my work. But I’m here to tell you my book review opinions based on my reading and writing experiences.
If you are thinking about what book to read next, you’d be doing yourself a big favor by taking a pass on this one. C-
—Wendy E. N. Thomas
Book Clubs
Author events
• REBECCA CARROLL Author presents Surviving the White Gaze. Virtual livestream hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., Feb. 2, 7 p.m. Tickets cost $5. Call 436-2400 or visit themusichall.org.
• SUSAN CONLEY Author presents Landslide. Hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Online, via Zoom. Thurs., Feb. 11, 7 p.m. Registration required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.
• DIANE REHM Author presents When My Time Comes. Virtual livestream hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., Feb. 23, 7 p.m. Tickets cost $5. Call 436-2400 or visit themusichall.org.
• THERESA CAPUTO the star of TLC’s Long Island Medium will present “Theresa Caputo: The Experience Live” at the Capitol Center for the Arts (44 S. Main St. Concord, ccanh.com) on Wed., April 7, 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $39.75 (with option for a VIP Photo Op for an additional $49.95).
• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.
• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.
• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.
Language
• FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSES Offered remotely by the Franco-American Centre. Six-week winter session runs Jan. 21 through Feb. 25, with classes held Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Spring session dates TBA. $225. Visit facnh.com/education or call 623-1093.
Special events
• EXETER LITFEST Literary festival will feature local authors, keynote speaker Victoria Arlen, book launches, a Saturday morning story hour for kids, and programs on various topics including publishing tips, mystery writing and homeschooling. Hosted virtually via Zoom by Exeter TV. Thurs., April 1, through Sat., April 3. Free and open to the public. Visit exeterlitfest.com.
Featured photo: Olive, Mabel & Me: Life and Adventures with Two Very Good Dogs
Sorry I missed the PR email when this CD came out officially on Dec. 11, but better late than never, I always say. I assume you’re aware of Ward’s collaborations with Monsters of Folk, Norah Jones, Bright Eyes and all that, but maybe you’ve passed on his solo stuff, which does have a tendency to be a bit sparse. Good news is that sparse is the perfect way to be if one wants to cover Billie Holiday’s entire Lady In Satin album and be somewhat edgy at the same time. That record was her final one, released in 1958, and it, like other examples of her output, was a big inspiration to Ward, who pays a sort of alternate-universe tribute to it. Ward’s mumbly voice is nothing compared to Holiday’s, of course, and the production is not much beyond boombox level, but poignance and sincere reverence do drip from his stabs at “It’s Easy To Remember” and “I Get Along Without You Very Well,” among all the others. There’s an odd sort of verisimilitude at work either way; Holiday’s version came out when her voice was largely trashed, whereas Ward’s voice has always been, you know, a non-starter or whatever. B+
The Avalanches, We Will Always Love You (Astralwerks Records)
Another bit of catch-up here, the most recent LP from the criminally underreported (at least in the U.S.) Australian electronic duo, who’ve counted none other than Baltimore-based rapper Spank Rock as one of their touring members. These guys originally came up in the late ’90s, hoping to make it big (if you count bands like Drive Like Jehu as “big”) in the OG-emo scene, and those roots are part of why they’re so rich and delicious: They’re mildly noisy, in fact no-fi at times, but still a good choice for afterparty vibe. This time, guests include Orono, MGMT, Neneh Cherry and — wait, what — former Clash band member Mick Jones. As you can tell, it’s one of those Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World-style cameo-fests, and the vibes are, by and large, up to the task. The title track is old-school Moby-ish pseudo-soul stuff; “We Go On” is throwback disco as put through a deep house filter; “Until Daylight Comes” gives us a broke-down trip-hop effort from a perfectly placed Tricky. A+
Retro Playlist
Exactly 10 years ago to the week, I covered a couple of albums that were actually in my sweet spots, even if they were a bit disparate in their target audiences. Of the Jan. 18, 2011, release from Decemberists, The King Is Dead, I blathered, “With the one-off ‘concept album’ experiment from Decemberists that was 2009’s Hazards of Love now in the books, the band turns again to the hayloft-indie space while claiming that three-minute pop songs are more difficult to put together than conceptual magnum opuses.” What I was implying with that little mouthful was that they were trying to edge toward more commercial things, but — wait, calm down, I didn’t hate the band for selling out a little. I was pretty nice to this album, actually. Aside from not outright complaining about Peter Buck’s completely unnecessary guest shot, I also gave them props for the album’s curve balls: “a grog-and-whaling accordion/fiddle break in the wry mining storyteller ‘Rox in the Box’; a nod to Jimmy Buffett in the sedate, Christmasy ‘January Hymn’; and some not-unlikeable NASCAR bluegrass (‘All Arise’). It’s an OK album, see, even if half your friends will assume it’s an Arcade Fire joint and judge it accordingly.
The other bit that week was Tao of the Dead, from And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead. Now there’s a band I can only like so much, which isn’t to say I dislike them, just that nowadays I find them about as compelling as a PBS workout video. Sure there were moments of heaviness, which, come on, is their real selling point (“The sounds spring from ideas Blue Oyster Cult, Offspring, Foo Fighters and Minus the Bear could have had, meaning you stubborn old-schoolers will have to allow for Hello Kitty-fied half-punk whimsy between the walls of noise, which are, I assure you, psycho-heavy at times [‘Weight of the Sun’].” But in the end, the band itself is their biggest problem; their indie-ness is an obvious handicap, as I alluded to later: “…imagine Foo Fighters trying to write a sequel to Tommy while being very mindful of their limits in both technical aptitude and imagination, but a little more interesting than that.”
Both albums, then, belonged in the “better luck next time” bin.
PLAYLIST
A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases
• The Jan. 22 general-CD-release-date is just about here, which can only mean one thing: some indie band from Canada is about to break it big, if by “big” we mean city bus fare totally covered and enough money to take the whole fam to Burger King. No, I’m kidding, this band called Kiwi Jr., which is from Toronto, was probably in Nylon magazine, and if so, the reviewer put down their vape pen just long enough to go straight into glitch-mode and make up some nonsense words to describe the band’s first album, whatever it was called. But now this weirdo band is on Sub Pop Records, so all of us actual critics have to put down our vape pens in an elegant, refined manner and pretend we’re paying attention to the band’s upcoming new album, Cooler Returns, because otherwise we’ll be considered hacks who don’t know what we’re talking about, as if we ever do. They have a weird stream-of-consciousness trip going on, although to be honest the weirdness mostly appears to stem from stupid nonsensical lyrics (“Throwing dead birds into the air, singing howdy neighbours how’d you like my new ride?”). I mean, the title track is nice and jangly and stupid, like, if you like hopeless college-rock nonsense like Parquet Courts or Franz Ferdinand you might dig it, and at least there’s a dated-sounding stun-guitar solo at the end that might impress you, if you’re impressed that the guitarist for a hipster band would even learn how to play a guitar solo.
• Speaking of sophomore albums I’m not particularly excited to have to deal with, Austin, Texas, soundsystem Thee Conductor is releasing Spirit Of A Ghost this week. I call this twosome a soundsystem because it’s basically two guys, a producer and an engineer, and that’s it, but this time they have help on the vocal end from Bonnie “Prince” Billy (a.k.a. Will Oldham), on the single “Tsk Tsk,” a track steeped in slow finger-picked acoustic guitar and made more than palatable by Oldham’s voice. The fadeout is decent, as the guitar is suddenly drowned in UFO noise, but not before the thing has sort of taken hold of your brain as a chill earworm. I don’t hate it in any way, which automatically makes this column a rare collectible that you should pass on to your grandchildren.
• Delving further into the paltry amount of new albums to talk about his week, the mostly obscure electronic dance guy known as TRZTN is New Yorker Tristan Bechet, whose new album, Royal Dagger Ballet, is on the Walmart trucks for delivery as we speak. The album cover is deconstructionist and kind of gross, but that only means that it’s Important, but remember, if you ever hope to be cool, learn to love art that grosses you out. Jonathan Bree guests on the single “Mirage,” a sexytime deep-techno joint made out of faraway-sounding vocals and pseudo-’80s Stranger Things vibe.
• Finally, we have James Yorkston And The Second Hand Orchestra’s new LP, The Wide Wide River, a pretty cool record if you like emo for grown-ups, a la Elbow and such. Album opener “Ella Mary Leather” has a bonky but tasteful piano line, a bit like Ben Folds, of course, but more refined.
One fairly common New Year’s resolution is to read more classics of literature. I didn’t actually make that resolution this year, because I really don’t need any more sources of failure and self-recrimination. But that said, I’m probably ahead of the game and have read more classic literature during the first few weeks of this year than many people who did make that resolution.
To wit, 1951’s The Holiday Drink Book.
I did rather well for myself over the holidays and was given several antique cocktail books, this being easily the most festive.
Is it dated? Yes. Does it include dated references to ingredients — claret or sauterne, for example — that we don’t use anymore? Undoubtedly. Does it include unfortunate illustrations of leprechauns, cannibals and serving wenches? Um, yes. That, too.
That said, given the first few weeks of this new year, I think we could all use a stiff drink. And if you are looking for a stiff drink, I say, go to the source — the 1950s, the era of the Three-Martini Lunch. And, if you are looking for a stiff drink from the 1950s, you could do worse than go with the grandfather of all stiff drinks, a Zombie. TheHoliday Drink Book puts it rather well: “In appearance and effectiveness the Zombie is the king of all table drinks.”
I’m a big believer in sticking strictly to a recipe the first time I make something. It drives me crazy when someone omits all the butter from a recipe and replaces half the flour with oat bran, then complains that their muffins taste cardboardy. It’s a good idea to cook what the recipe’s author had in mind before messing with it too much.
But you do need to draw the line somewhere.
Did I use four types of rum in my test Zombie, as specified? I did. Did I garnish it with fresh mint leaves and a dusting of powdered sugar? Yes.
But here’s where The Holiday Drink Book and I parted ways: Their recipe calls for papaya juice.
Now, I don’t want to hurt your feelings if you happen to be a papaya, but certain harsh truths need to be recognized. Papaya is a trash fruit. If fruit cocktail and oatmeal had a torrid half-hour in the alley behind a bar, the result would be something very much like papaya. So I had to play with the recipe a bit. Ultimately, this is what I came up with:
The Purple Zombie
The juice of one lime – approx. 2 oz. 1 oz. pineapple juice 1 oz. frozen grape juice concentrate – the deeply purple kind 1 oz. golden rum 2 oz. dark rum – I used Meyers’s 1 oz. white rum – I went with Mr. Boston ½ oz. apricot brandy
Enough over-proof rum to float on the surface of the cocktail – in my case, Gosling’s Black Seal 151-proof dark rum
4 up-market cocktail cherries – right now, I really like Luxardo.
Fresh mint leaves to garnish
1) Combine the first seven ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until very cold. I like to include one of the spent lime halves, as well. I don’t know for a fact that it improves the flavor, but I like to give limes the vote of confidence. They are the hardest-working members of the citrus family, and I like to make them feel needed.
2) Remove the lime half, then pour the contents of the shaker — ice and all — into the most garish tiki glass you own.
3) Float ½ an ounce or so of the 151 over the top of the drink. Pour it over the back of a spoon, much like you would the whiskey in an Irish Coffee, so it stays on the surface.
4) Garnish with snobby cocktail cherries and fresh mint. If your mint leaves are large, chiffonade them (cut them into ribbons).
Three important points about The Purple Zombie:
a) The mint leaves totally make this drink. Somehow the herbiness of the mint plays very well off the dominant taste of the cocktail, which is the rum. Don’t skip the mint.
b) Do skip the powdered sugar. I’m not entirely sure what they were thinking with that one.
c) “Wait a second. You got all snobby about papaya, then replaced it with frozen grape juice concentrate? What kind of beatnik hypocrite are you?” What can I say? It works. The drink needs some sweetness to balance the alcohol and the grape juice concentrate does that very well while adding to the fruitiness. Why not just grape juice? It isn’t quite sweet enough. You need to go with the hard stuff.
Plus, it turns your Zombie purple.
Am I saying that drinking a Zombie will remove any of the heavy weight that the past year has put on your shoulders? No. But I am saying that if you approach it right, a good Zombie might give you the emotional shoulder pads to allow you to claw your way through to February.
Most wines produced today are made up of a blend of wines from different casks or vats. Fundamentally the goal of blending wines is for the final product to be greater than the sum of its constituent parts. These “parts” could be wines from different grape varieties, or simply distinct parts within the same vineyard.
Wines exposed to or without oak barrels, or different vintages and other variations, such as percentages of each wine component, can make up a blend. Blending is a skill developed by experience, requiring a fine palate and the foresight of how the different flavors will work together.
Champagne and American sparkling wine is a blend. It can be a blend of different chardonnay wines, or a chardonnay blended with pinot noir. This blend results from the process of making the wine, as new wine is added to the bottle during the dosage. A white wine such as sauvignon blanc will often have sémillon added to it to quiet the acidity and citric notes of the sauvignon. Even Prosecco, the wine from a particular region in northeast Italy, is made mainly from the glera grape but can have up to 15 percent chardonnay, pinot bianco, pinot grigio or some less familiar native grapes to add to its sweetness and complexity.
Chianti, the darling of Italian restaurants with red-checkered tablecloths, gets its name from the hills that stretch south from Florence to Siena. While the main grape is 80 percent sangiovese, up to 20 percent canaiolo, cabernet sauvignon and merlot are added to provide the wine with a silkier texture, finer finish and more fruit flavors than 100 percent sangiovese wine can offer.
Bordeaux is more than a world-famous wine region; it is a wine empire, with 463 square miles of vineyards (half the size of the state of Rhode Island) and 57 appellations of grape growers, vineyard owners and numerous cooperatives. Bordeaux is well-known for its red wine, the blends made from cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc and petit verdot combined in varying percentages based on the estates’ locations, soils and weather of the growing season, an intricate balance that changes from year to year. The cabernet franc is lighter than the lead cabernet sauvignon and, when added, contributes a finesse to the more robust leading grapes of cabernet sauvignon and merlot.
Blends do not always have to be traditional or formulaic. In an exclusive offer to the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, Frog’s Leap Vineyards owner John Williams presents his 2018 Granite Red Blend (originally priced at $54.99, reduced to $19.99). While almost all the wines produced and bottled by Frog’s Leap Vineyards are estate grown, sometimes, due to weather or the estate’s production in a given year, they will supplement with purchased grapes. For the 2018 Granite Red Blend, Frog’s Leap used carignan grapes from a Mendocino County vineyard planted in 1942. Typically the carignan grape is used in blends, as it has a tannic, rustic quality. It has a dark red color and produces a wine with notes of the dark red fruit of cherries and plums. While this blend of mostly carignan along with some cabernet sauvignon lacks a long finish, it is the perfect wine for the weeknight dinner.
In the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet’s website under Education is a window titled “The Tasting Room.” As part of their “90 Days Around the World” promotion, there is an hour-long Zoom interview with John Williams from November ― “Wines of Frog’s Leap with John Williams.” It is highly entertaining and informative as John is an endearing personality who presents his philosophies of making wine, protecting the environment and living life to the fullest. It’s worth checking out.
Featured photo: Rory and John Williams. Courtesy photo.
Laura Fucella of Concord is the owner of E(at)xactly Cakes (eatxactlycakes.com), a homestead business specializing in custom designed cakes, cupcakes and cake pops for weddings, birthday parties and other events. Born and raised in New Hampshire, Fucella completed a nine-month intensive program in baking and pastry arts at Le Cordon Bleu College in Cambridge, Mass., in 2011. She also held various baking and restaurant management positions before returning to her home state — E(at)xactly Cakes was later launched in early 2017. She offers a variety of signature cake flavors, like lemon, pistachio with cherry filling and buttercream, and cookies and cream cake with a layer of cookie dough. But you can also go with something more familiar, like red velvet, vanilla or chocolate cake. Most cakes require at least a seven-day advance notice. E(at)xactly Cakes has been named a 2021 Best of Wedding Vendors award winner by The Knot for its custom designed wedding cakes.
What is your must-have kitchen item?
I always need a spatula. That’s the most versatile tool. I also always have a cup of coffee in my hand when I’m baking or decorating.
What would you have for your last meal?
An Italian lobster tail pastry, which is called sfogliatelle. It’s a giant flaky crusty pastry with an amazing diplomat cream in the center. I don’t allow myself one often, so I think that would be my one indulgence.
What is your favorite local restaurant?
Colby’s in Portsmouth. They do breakfast all day and have a really delicious corned beef hash, so that’s always a win.
What celebrity would you like to bake something for?
Mary Berry. She was one of the original judges of The Great British Bake Off. I just love that she always approaches things very humbly with constructive criticism. Even if it wasn’t something amazing, she’s really [good] at speaking about how it could be improved.
What is your favorite thing that you’ve ever baked for someone?
The year I started the business, I made an amazing mandarin orange cake for my husband for his birthday. It was probably a three-day process to make, but it was really good. … My personal favorite signature cake that I do is The Goomah, which is kind of my take on an Italian lemon cake. It has lemon curd, a ricotta filling and a light lemon buttercream. For summer weddings, it’s definitely one of the more go-to flavors.
What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
Doughnuts are really big right now. I’ve seen more doughnut shops opening up and bakeries doing doughnuts, and it’s very much finally time New Hampshire got on that trend.
What is your favorite thing to cook or bake at home?
Cookies! I love just a good traditional chocolate chip cookie or peanut butter cookie.
Chocolate chip banana bread From the kitchen of Laura Fucella of E(at)xactly Cakes in Concord
4 ripe bananas (5 if bananas are on the small side) ⅓ cup unsalted butter, melted 1 cup granulated sugar 1 egg, beaten 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1½ cups flour 1½ cups milk chocolate (either chocolate chips or a good quality chocolate bar cut into chunks)
In a medium bowl, mix together flour and baking soda. Set aside. Measure out a little more than ⅓ cup of butter and place in a microwave safe bowl or cup. Microwave butter for about one minute until fully melted. Peel bananas and place in a large bowl. Mash well using a fork. Add sugar, vanilla and melted butter to mashed banana and mix until combined. Add and mix in the beaten egg. Add flour, baking soda mixture and chocolate to banana mixture and mix until fully incorporated. For the best flavor, cover batter and set aside for four hours or overnight. Allowing the ingredients to sit all together will create further ripening and yield a very flavorful loaf, although the batter can be baked right away if you don’t want to wait. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a nine-inch loaf pan using oil or butter and coat in flour. Pour batter into the prepared pan and place in the oven. Bake for one hour, or until you can insert a knife in the center and it comes out mostly clean. Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool. The best way to enjoy a slice, according to Fucella, is by taking half-inch slices and placing them in a frying pan with butter, letting them cook for a few minutes to make a crispy outer layer and a gooey inside.
Wood-fired Pizza Nights at the Hilltop Cafe in Wilton on Fridays and Saturdays became a huge hit over the summer for owners Michael and Sandy Zielie. Now the Zielies have expanded into a new takeout business in Milford, where their handcrafted pizzas are available every day, along with a menu of salads, dessert pizzas, milkshakes, homemade Italian sodas, espresso drinks and sandwiches made with folded pizza dough known as “ZZandwiches.”
Zizza Authentic Pizzeria, which opened Jan. 15 near the Milford and Wilton town line, makes all its own pizzas to order in a Hot Rocks conveyor oven, using a chewy sourdough crust made in house, a light and savory sauce made from ground tomatoes, herbs and spices, and freshly sliced mozzarella cheese. The dough, according to Michael Zielie, is made from the same sourdough starter used to make the breads at the Hilltop Cafe.
“One of our goals is to make great food that’s accessible and convenient, and pizza is a perfect example,” Zielie said. “I always say that even bad pizza is good, but good pizza is great.”
Depending on the size of the pizzas, he said, the oven can roll out between 80 and 150 pies an hour, using convection air currents that cook both their top and bottom sides at the exact same rate. Twelve-inch and 16-inch sizes are available, as well as gluten-free pizzas — many of the signature pies from the Hilltop Cafe’s Pizza Nights are returning, like the prosciutto, fig and rosemary, and the mushroom, ricotta and roasted garlic. But you can also order simpler options like cheese, or margherita with tomato and basil, or create your own from a variety of toppings.
A “ZZandwich,” Zielie said, can best be described as a cross between a pizza and a sandwich. Flavors include chicken caprese, chicken Caesar, classic Italian, eggplant Parmesan and others.
“It’s basically a pizza but with non-traditional toppings,” he said. “So we send the pizza dough through [the oven] and it might be covered with chicken or garlic sauce or something, and when it comes out we hit it with cold salad greens or whatever else might be on there, fold it in half, cut it in half and you have a fresh baked ZZandwich.”
Zizza’s menu options also include fresh salads in individual or family serving sizes, a full line of espresso drinks with optional house syrups, and flavored Italian sodas like lemon, pomegranate, cherry, blood orange and blueberry, each made with real fruit juices. Zielie said they will soon be making their own root beer and ginger beer too.
“The Italian sodas are cool, because you put in the ice and pour the syrups on the bottom … and then you hit it with the carbonated water and float a little cream on top of that, so it makes this nice, beautiful layered drink,” he said.
On the dessert side, there are chocolate chip cookies, coconut macaroons and several flavors of milkshakes and dessert pizzas. Hand-filled cannolis will be added to the menu soon.
According to Zielie, Zizza is starting with a takeout-only model, but outdoor seating is expected to be open in the spring.
The eatery has also developed its own mobile app for advance ordering — you can download the “Zizza Pizza” app and use it to place orders. Curbside pickup is also an option through the app.
“The app and the website are kind of one and the same,” Zielie said, “so if you don’t want to download it on your phone, you can use it to order online too.”
Zizza Authentic Pizzeria Where: 653 Elm St., Milford Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. More info: Visit zizzapizza.com, download the “Zizza Pizza” app on Apple’s App Store or on Google Play, find them on Facebook @zizza.pizza or call 249-5767
Featured photo: Prosciutto, butternut squash, caramelized onion and goat cheese pizza. Photo by Matt Ingersoll.
How the food scene in New Hampshire has grown since the Hippo’s debut
The local food scene looked a lot different when the Hippo launched 20 years ago. Farm-to-table menus were few and far between, smoking in restaurants was still allowed, and craft beer was mostly still a thing do-it-yourselfers were brewing in their garages. In the third of our month-long series looking back at some of the subjects Hippo has covered over the years, we talked to a few people who have been part of that food scene about how it’s changed, what it might look like 20 years from now and the challenges ahead.
Alex Ray
Alex Ray
Alex Ray is the owner and founder of the Common Man Family of Restaurants, which includes six Common Man restaurants throughout the state, the Airport Diner in Manchester, the Common Man Roadside at the rest stops in Hooksett off Interstate 93, and several other restaurants in the Lakes Region and beyond. He opened the first Common Man in Ashland in 1971.
How would you describe the local food scene 20 years ago?
Twenty years ago I think there was a greater percentage of independent owner-operated places where the owner, and often the family, was on site every day. Some restaurants were big, some small, but they were predominantly owner-run day to day.
What do you think the most significant changes have been over the last 20 years, pre-pandemic?
I think there’s less individual personality [in] restaurants. I think as a result there’s less variety and more national branded restaurants. Another change is [that there is] less on-site cooking and creating from scratch across the board and more pre-prepped food. This is because labor costs have risen faster than general costs.
What has surprised you about the way the state’s food scene has developed?
There has been a more recent return to independent restaurants with buying local and more individual chefs and owners coming into the industry. In general people don’t come to restaurants just to eat food; they come for an experience. They like the personality of a place. That personality and vibe comes from the greeting and service that are welcoming and enjoyable. The vibe could be a burger shack or a high-end bistro. People return again and again not solely for food but for that consistent experience they enjoy.
What do you think the food scene will be like 20 years from now, and what challenges will it face?
I think this year people are looking for prepared food in markets or grocery stores and to-go food in restaurants. This is a new world restaurants are adapting to based on increasing demand. People value time but still enjoy a well-made meal. Markets have responded well to this demand and restaurants are starting to address this well. Quality food and packaging along with the personality of a place will be important. This is a great new sector for those who pursue it.
What’s your favorite part of owning restaurants in New Hampshire?
The fun is in the dining room — the hum, buzz, cacophony. You hear it when you walk in. Again, people go out for a pleasant experience. It starts when you open the door and stays with you going out [the door] at the end of the evening. But most of all it’s the people who come to the restaurant and who work in the restaurant every day. You said your grandmother worked at the Capital City Diner back in the ’80s. I remember her well. She was that spark that makes a difference to guests. Those are the memories that are my favorites.
Aside from your own place, what’s your favorite local restaurant?
Long-term favorites vary greatly, from the well-oiled Panera to the unique Corner House Inn in Sandwich, and even new places like the Friendly Toast. The Main Street Station diner in Plymouth is also a favorite. I have lots of favorites!
— Meghan Siegler
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Brian Shea
Brian Shea is the owner and executive chef of The Barley House Restaurant & Tavern, which opened on Main Street in downtown Concord in March 2000.
How would you describe the local food scene 20 years ago?
I originally had the idea to open up a brew pub, but then when this location across the street from the Statehouse came up we kind of pivoted to being a tavern and a beer bar. There were a few restaurants around Main Street [in Concord], but I really felt like we were bringing something that was brand new at the time. … I’ve always been a burger guy, and when I was in culinary school, I remember I had this idea in my head that I wanted to build this place called Brew and Burger, which would be an upscale burger place … and I remember we were about three years in at The Barley House, and I think I was down in Brooklyn, New York, and I’m watching all of these cool things that some of these smaller places are doing, like grinding their own beef for their burgers, curing their own pork bacon and things like that, and I had a little bit of an epiphany. I said, ‘Why am I not doing this?’ So that’s exactly what we started doing. We grind and form our own fresh burger patties every single day, we cure our own bacon and smoke it, and we make our own sausage. If that wasn’t new and different in Concord, or even in New Hampshire at that point, I don’t know what was.
What do you think the most significant changes have been over the last 20 years, pre-pandemic?
There has been, kind of, this movement toward comfort foods. For us, we always want to evolve and keep looking for fresh ideas to keep the staff excited, and we try to do that across the board, because we’re going for a smaller and more concise menu with a bigger bang.
What has surprised you about the way the state’s food scene has developed?
I don’t know if anyone could predict that IPAs would become such a big thing. … When craft beer really took off, the IPA went through all these different Americanizations and all of a sudden we’re having three to four IPAs on our draft. I think IPAs really led to the beer drinker becoming more and more engaged and discovering different flavors and styles, and that’s emboldened breweries unbelievably.
What do you think the food scene will be like 20 years from now, and what challenges will it face?
Delivery and takeout is a part of the future, there’s no question about it. I think the days of larger restaurants with 300 seats are gone. Because of Covid, everyone has to think differently now about how to go forward. One of the things we’ve started diving a bit into is Detroit-style deep dish pizza. … I just like things that are kind of simple that you can sort of elevate.
What’s your favorite part of owning a restaurant in New Hampshire?
The best part of this business is the people. The food part of it is great too, but it’s nothing without the people around you. Especially your staff, because you’re with them a lot, and you get to know them and their life and they spend a lot of time with you. … It’s rewarding when you bring somebody in, and maybe it’s their first job in the kitchen, and maybe two months later they are doing prep or six months later they’re up to line cooking, and then eventually they might leave you to go get a very high-paying cooking job somewhere. That’s a great feeling, because The Barley House is a place where you can experiment and pursue your passion. If you show me you have some passion, I want to ignite that.
Aside from The Barley House, what’s your favorite local restaurant?
That’s a good question. I don’t really have a favorite, but for me what really hits home are kinds of places where I can just sit at the bar, like Hermanos, where I can have a beer or a cocktail and just be relaxed.
Carol Lawrence
Carol Lawrence
Carol Lawrence was just 23 years old when she bought the Red Arrow Diner in September 1987. In her more than three decades as owner and president, she has been at the forefront of building on the beloved spot’s brand while staying true to its nostalgic charm. Additional Red Arrow Diner locations under Lawrence’s leadership have opened in Londonderry, Concord and, most recently, Nashua last May.
How would you describe the local food scene 20 years ago?
I grew up in restaurants — my parents actually bought the Belmont Hall [and Restaurant in Manchester] when I was 11 years old. One of the first things that we did at the Red Arrow was we went smoke-free, and that was unheard of in restaurants at the time. Everybody, even my dad, told me that we would go out of business if we went smoke-free, but the following Monday after we did, sales immediately went up 10 percent.
What do you think the most significant changes have been over the last 20 years, pre-pandemic?
I’m still very close with the original owners, the Lamontagne family, who have always been about the quality and consistency in the food. Way back when, our most popular item besides breakfast was called the No. 1 Special, which is a basic hot hamburg sandwich. … They really don’t sell as much as they used to, and in that respect I’ve seen a lot of changes in that way. We’ve put up daily specials where we would be crazy creative with different things and they’d sell well. The power of just even offering items to customers with a lot of different additions, like the burger bar or the poutine bar, has always intrigued me.
What has surprised you about the way the state’s food scene has developed?
Just the nostalgia and the charm of the diner. People, when they hear about us from afar, tend to come to the Manchester location and usually they can never get in. … Every four years, I always ask myself if all the politicians are going to come back and they all do. There have been people that have come in and gotten engaged at the diner, and now they’re married and their kids are coming in, some whose parents I’ve known before they were even married.
What do you think the food scene will be like 20 years from now, and what challenges will it face?
The diner is still going to be the focal point of the community, but I also think that, because of this pandemic, a lot of things are definitely going to change. We’re definitely going to continue with outdoor seating. That has been a new revenue stream for us we never thought we’d have. … We’ve added online ordering too, which I was actually against at first. I said, ‘Who’s going to order eggs online?’ But that’s actually been a huge hit and something that we should have done sooner.
What’s your favorite part of owning a restaurant in New Hampshire?
By far, for me, it’s the history and just meeting so many great people. My staff are like my family. We have some people that have been with us for 20 years.
Aside from the Red Arrow Diner, what’s your favorite local restaurant?
I have two. My husband and I are Mexican food fanatics, and our favorite go-to place is Puerto Vallarta on Second Street [in Manchester]. I also really love the North End Bistro on Elm Street. The sweet and spicy salmon is delicious.
Edward Aloise
Edward Aloise
New York City native Edward Aloise already had more than two decades of hospitality experience in New Hampshire when he and his wife, Claudia Rippee, opened Republic Cafe on Elm Street in Manchester in 2010, followed by Campo Enoteca, a farm-to-table Italian restaurant and wine bar also on Elm Street a few years later. From 1989 to 2000, Aloise and Rippee owned and operated Cafe Pavone in Manchester’s Millyard. They also ran a restaurant consulting company, E&C Hospitality and Consulting Services, in the early and mid-2000s. In August 2020, Republic moved all its operations under the same roof as Campo Enoteca, where both restaurants continue to serve separate menus.
How would you describe the local food scene 20 years ago?
When I first arrived here, it was like the hospitality environment was non-existent, not only in Manchester but in the southern tier. You’re looking at primarily a few ethnic restaurants … and a lot of diner-style American food kind of places. … Right about then, even Boston was just beginning its culinary awakening. That really didn’t happen until the early ’90s, and I think a lot of what was happening down in the Boston area kind of worked its way up here. You had chefs like Jody Adams and Todd English that were doing some really cool culinary stuff … and the hospitality industry, for the most part, follows the market. As a consultant, I can tell you that restaurateurs … are exciting people. They are hardworking people. They are not always risk-takers, contrary to what people believe. They kind of say, ‘Well, what do people want.’ So that was kind of making people look down at Boston and New York and kind of copy them. … The thing that was missing was the farm-to-table aspect, and that’s what Claudia and I saw as an opportunity.
What do you think the most significant changes have been over the last 20 years, pre-pandemic?
In the year 2000, I started [E&C Hospitality and Consulting Services] … and I was able to maneuver myself throughout the southern tier and to watch what was developing in the hospitality area, mostly between Portsmouth, Manchester and Nashua. As the [industry] developed, the city seemed to develop around it as well. … I would say from the year 2000 on, the momentum up here really started to change. The physicality of downtown Nashua changed. The physicality of downtown Portsmouth changed. … Bedford started to become a little more of an engine with the Bedford Village Inn as an institution. … When Claudia and I opened up Republic, that really kicked off a whole other resurgence of the area here as well, because farmers and raisers were now beginning to see that they had a market besides somebody just driving up and buying a couple dozen eggs or a bag of lettuce or something. … [Farm-to-table] was already a big deal from up in the Hudson Valley down to New York City, but New Hampshire was like a desert for that. The first four years of Republic it was a struggle just to keep product in house, but as we got busier and busier, finally we found vendor partners. There were more people who understood what was going on.
What has surprised you about the way the state’s food scene has developed?
The biggest surprise was that it moved so quickly once it started. The hospitality industry was very staid until the ’90s and 2000s, and then it just exploded. Regionally, it was really something to see in the Portsmouth and Boston areas.
What do you think the food scene will be like 20 years from now, and what challenges will it face?
I’m not expecting any explosions of immense creativity or chefs breaking out of their shells … until at least the fall, when there’s some stabilization in the market. … People are going to just open their doors and grab as much business as they possibly can, because they need it. … Once that happens, I’m thinking the next big move is going to be more non-protein-based items. I’m not saying steakhouses are going to be gone, but I think that’s going to be the next underlying, driving trend, is predominantly non-protein-based menus. I mean, we’re finding it out even right now. A good 35 to 40 percent of what we sell here is non-protein-based.
What’s your favorite part of owning a restaurant in New Hampshire?
It wasn’t our intention to come to this state. We came here for financial reasons … and like anything else, we started to look around and get more and more comfortable here. The area appreciated what we were doing from a business perspective and it really rewarded us and solidified us as human beings. We became part of the community … and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Aside from Republic Cafe or Campo Enoteca, what’s your favorite local restaurant?
Our favorite restaurant in the area is Surf down in Nashua. I’ve known [chef and owner] Michael [Buckley] for over 30 years. There’s also a place on the Seacoast … called the Atlantic Grill in Rye. We have a friend that lives out there, so whenever we are in Rye we go there.
Jeffrey Paige
Jeffrey Paige
Jeffrey Paige has owned and operated Cotton Restaurant in Manchester since 2000 and has been part of the New Hampshire food scene since the age of 24, when he became executive chef of Levi Lowell’s Restaurant in Merrimack. In 1988 he became the chef at the Canterbury Shaker Village, and he helped establish the New Hampshire Farm to Restaurant Connection in 1991.
How would you describe the local food scene 20 years ago?
For me, it hasn’t changed that much. I’ve been sourcing local for over 35 years now. [There are] a lot more options now available to source local provisions … and there are a lot more chef-owned establishments continuing to drive the farm-to-restaurant movement. Chef-owners tend to be willing to spend a little more to source local. … There are still a lot of restaurants owned by business people, [or] non-chefs. Sometimes it’s difficult for them to justify spending more for local products when similar products are available by national food vendors at a lower price. This has changed dramatically over the past 10-plus years, as both restaurateurs and chef-owners see the value offered in supporting local.
What do you think the most significant changes have been over the last 20 years, pre-pandemic?
The amount of new cattle, pig and chicken farms, vegetable farms, mushroom foragers and growers, wineries, breweries, distilleries, cheesemakers, fishermen, etc., along with the growth of chef-owned and -operated restaurants, bread bakeries and pastry shops opening. It’s so wonderful to see! If you’re a chef or a consumer, you can pretty much find it now in New Hampshire.
What has surprised you about the way the state’s food scene has developed?
How slow [buying and supporting] local was to catch on here in New Hampshire. Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts have always been several steps ahead of us, but New Hampshire has just as much to offer. It’s nice to see that New Hampshire can hold its own now with our neighboring states. The support has been tremendous the past 10 years and it continues to grow. [I am] also surprised at how craft brewing really took off here.
What do you think the food scene will be like 20 years from now, and what challenges will it face?
I think it’s going to continue to grow with both new restaurants and local vendors and sources. My only concern is that we could reach a saturation point where there are more sources than restaurants and consumers to support each other.
What’s your favorite part of owning a restaurant in New Hampshire?
All of the people I’ve met and the friendships I’ve made, from patrons, employees to vendors, [like] cheesemakers, fruit growers, dairy farmers, vegetable farmers, pig, chicken or cattle ranchers, smokehouses, sugar shacks, breweries [and] wineries.
Aside from Cotton, what’s your favorite local restaurant?
[I have] too many favorite restaurants to narrow it down to one. Polly’s Pancake Parlor, Hanover Street Chophouse, Mint Bistro, O Steaks & Seafood, Buckley’s Great Steaks, Asian Breeze, Bavaria German Restaurant, KC’s Rib Shack and many more.
Kevin Cornish
Kevin Cornish
Kevin Cornish and his business partner, Greg, opened KC’s Rib Shack in Litchfield in 1998 before moving to its current location on Second Street in Manchester.
How would you describe the Manchester food scene 20 years ago?
I think the Manchester food scene was just starting to blow up a little bit around when we opened in ’98. I think the recent additions of cable TV channels such as the Food Network, the Cooking Channel and the Travel Channel played a huge part in many different types of food getting exposure in parts of the country that may have never been heard of before. Cooking-themed shows definitely played a big role in barbecue spreading across the country. People had barely heard of pulled pork when we first opened 22 years ago. That’s certainly not the case now. The restaurant scene was mostly dominated by small privately owned restaurants but that was beginning to change as the larger chain restaurants began to move into town, which [started to push out] many of the smaller locally owned restaurants.
What do you think the most significant changes have been over the last 20 years, pre-pandemic?
I think people were excited for something different as the new chains came to town. Your Bugaboo Creeks, Dave’s Famous BBQ, Chili’s, Ruby Tuesday, Outback Steakhouse and TGIF. The list is long and some of them have survived but I think over the years people started to resent corporate chain restaurants and began to support locally owned business again. Pretty much all of [those] chain restaurants … have all come and gone in the last 20 years and I’ve seen more privately owned local restaurants begin to thrive again.
What has surprised you about the way the state’s food scene has developed?
I think I was surprised the most by the restaurant scene’s growth. I remember in the first decade we were open I could put an ad in the paper for kitchen or front of house help and literally get 50 or 60 applicants. I had to start taking pictures of people as I interviewed them and staple a copy to their application in order to help me remember who I liked and had spoken to that afternoon. There were several times I called and hired a different person than who I thought I was hiring just because I had too many applications on my desk. Fast forward to the restaurant scene just before Covid hit and I was lucky to get one applicant if I posted a job. It was getting very hard to find employees. I was questioning where some of these new restaurants that were coming to town planned on finding people to work for them. Literally every person who wanted a job in the food service industry already had one.
What do you think the food scene will be like 20 years from now, and what challenges will it face?
Boy, isn’t that the golden question? I wish I had a crystal ball for that one. I’m still working on trying to figure out what challenges I will face in the next 20 weeks.
What’s your favorite part of owning a restaurant in Manchester?
My favorite part of owning a restaurant in Manchester is I love that KC’s has become a landmark in not only my hometown of Manchester but in the entire state of New Hampshire. We have gotten notoriety on several worldwide television programs such as Food Paradise and Man vs Food, which just last month proclaimed KC’s Rib Shack as “The Best BBQ in America.” I love cooking barbecue and making people happy. It makes me very proud that out of 327 restaurants listed in Manchester on Tripadvisor we have remained in the Top 5 for the last decade. I’m very grateful for our success and longevity. Prior to Covid we had over 20 years in a row of growth.
We are super thankful for the support Manchester and all of New Hampshire has given us over the years.
Aside from your own place, what’s your favorite local restaurant?
My two favorite local restaurants are Cotton in Manchester and Amphora in Derry.
— Meghan Siegler
Tom Boucher
Tom Boucher
Tom Boucher is the CEO of Great New Hampshire Restaurants, which includes T-Bones, Cactus Jack’s, CJ’s and The Copper Door. He started out as a server at T-Bones, which opened its first location in Salem in 1984.
How would you describe the local food scene 20 years ago?
[There weren’t] nearly as many restaurants as there are today, and healthy options were just starting to become a trend, although at the very early stage of it. Fine dining really did not exist as it does today.
What do you think the most significant changes have been over the last 20 years, pre-pandemic?
The growth in fast casual is probably the most significant change — think Chipotle or Panera concepts. These will continue to see growth in the near future.
What has surprised you about the way the state’s food scene has developed?
It’s really grown to include a variety of cuisines, and the dining scene has splintered into more segments. It used to be fast food or casual dining. It’s now fast food, fast casual, casual, upper casual and fine dining. This brings a lot more choices in — not only the level of dining but the variety of cuisine has certainly expanded.
What do you think the food scene will be like 20 years from now, and what challenges will it face?
That’s a tough one to answer! Certainly the pandemic has already shown what the future will look like with more technology, more delivery, more takeout [and] drive-thru. I think you will see more and more convenience and the lines will continue to blur between restaurants and groceraunts.
What’s your favorite part of owning restaurants in New Hampshire?
I love seeing our employees grow with our company and fully embrace their careers with care and passion.
Aside from your own place, what’s your favorite local restaurant?
I would have to choose Hanover Street Chophouse. We rarely travel to downtown Manchester but when we do it’s to visit the Chophouse.
