A look at the 33rd Hampton Beach Seafood Festival
By Katelyn Sahagian, Curt Mackail & Betty Gagne
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Seafood is the main attraction at the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival, which will also feature more than 40 food trucks and demonstrations in the culinary tent by Wicked Bites.
There will also be approximately 70 local artisans selling their crafts; live music around the clock; a cornhole tournament; a road race and other family-friendly activities. The festival will have two main stages: the Beach Bar and the Seashell Stage. Instead of doing two bar locations like they have in the past, Bridle said, there will be one supersized bar.
“We call ourselves ‘the largest bar in New England’ on those days,” festival director Nicholas Bridle said. “It’s over 40,000 square feet of bar on the sand.”
The bar area will be family-friendly, like the festival overall, and will also be the site of the cornhole competition. Other new features this year include shuttle buses to transport visitors to the festival from parking lots, and a digital ticketing system.
Seafood galore
More than 25 food vendors are on the bill, many of them long-established local favorites.
“This will be our 20th year,” said Sylvia Cheever, owner of Rye Harbor Lobster Pound.
Cheever said she’s looking forward to entering her specialities in the judging competition and hopes to win again.
“Our traditional creamy New England clam chowder, our fluffy clam chowder that’s topped with lobster, our lobster roll and our lobster bisque always do well,” she said.
Through the past six years Rye Harbor Lobster Pound earned a winner or runner-up award eight times in three different categories.
Perennial local favorites including the North Hampton Fire Department, serving breakfast sandwiches for early goers, and Hampton’s Saint James Masonic Lodge No. 102, a former champ in the fried seafood category, are returning too.
Swell Oyster Co., the first-ever Hampton Harbor oyster farm and the only one in New Hampshire using a suspended aquaculture system, is back for its second year. Co-founder Russ Hilliard said the system produces consistent, deep, easily shucked shells with plump meat. The company harvested its first oysters in 2018.
“We’re very excited to be participating in the seafood fest again this year,” Hilliard said. “Our menu includes our Swell oysters in the half shell shucked to order. We’ll also offer grilled oysters with Rockefeller butter or our chipotle bourbon butter, grilled clams casino, and extra-large shrimp cocktail.”
Mexican food is showcased at Lupe’s 55 Cantina booth.
“The menu features first and foremost our signature haddock taco with fried haddock, house slaw in a crispy corn flour shell, cilantro, pico de gallo and Chef Nicki’s mango habanero salsa,” owner Nicole Leavitt said. “Other features are shrimp ceviche cocktail, elotes, a lobster empanada with lemon crema, and mangonadas. A mangonada is a great way to stay cool with a house-made Mexican chili sauce featuring lime salt, cinnamon, sugar and other secret spices layered in with a mango-style slushie served with a Tajin straw.”
More than seafood
There are plenty of options if you’re not a seafood fan: roast beef sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers, barbecue, gyros, french fries, pizza, pastry and desserts.
Shane’s Texas Pit BBQ, winner in the non-seafood category last year, is one vendor to look for if your taste runs to Austin-style smoked, fall-off-the-bone meats and classic southern “fixin’s” on the side.
When you’re ready for a sweet treat, several options fill the bill, including Clyde’s Cupcakes, Susie’s Sweets and the Boston Cannoli Co, which offers Little Italy-style crispy pastry shells stuffed with traditional ricotta fillings. But Boston Cannoli also pushes the established boundaries a bit with their ice cream, cheesecake and Oreo cannoli.
“A customer from New York City last year told us our cannoli are better than anything she’s ever had there,” said founder Peter Karras, who credits his standard recipes to his 1903 Sicilian forebears.
Clyde’s Cupcakes’ pink dessert truck stands out visually and for its scratch-made delectables. Individual cheesecakes served in a Mason jar, freshly baked shortcake topped with fresh strawberries and a scoop of ice cream, and hot apple crisp are all on the festival menu.
Grab a bite
One of the highlights of this year’s Hampton Beach Seafood Festival is the Wicked Bites culinary demos.
Wicked Bites (wickedbites.tv) is a well-known food show where the staff searches for the best food in the area, and during the festival some of the greatest chefs they’ve found will feature live cooking demonstrations in the culinary tent next to the Hampton Chamber of Commerce beach office.
“The Seafood Festival is always a great time, and the culinary tent is a fabulous part of the fun,” said Dyana Martin, who oversees the tent.
The tent is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Visitors will be able to watch cooking demos and sample some of the food.
“The audience can watch the food being prepared live, and there’s also a television screen and camera that are set up to show a bird’s eye view of the preparation,” Martin said. “After the food is cooked, myself along with a group of volunteers pass out samples to the spectators. Afterward, the audience has a brief time to talk to the chefs via questions and answers about the food that was prepared and their methods of cooking.”
The tent will feature eight chefs on Saturday and five on Sunday. Most of the chefs are local, and they love to entertain the audience with their skills and their recipes.
“The chefs are animated and creative,” Martin said. “The crowd loves them, and they love the crowds.”
She encourages people to come early to get a seat inside the tent.
“The tent fills quickly, and there are always people standing outside of the tent to look on, but they may or may not get a chance at trying a dish because there are so many people there,” she said.
Hampton Beach Seafood Festival
Where: Ocean Boulevard (Route 1A North), Hampton Beach. Street will be closed to vehicle traffic and transformed into a pedestrian mall. Free parking at designated locations (see “Parking” box) is available, with shuttle service to the festival.
When: Friday, Sept. 9, noon to 9 p.m.; Saturday, Sept. 10, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sunday, Sept. 11, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Price: $24 for full weekend, $8 per day. Digital tickets can be purchased in advance online under the “Admissions” section of the website.
More info: seafoodfestivalnh.com
Featured photo: Hampton Beach Seafood Festival. Courtesy photo.
