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10 Best of 2023! You voted and now the results are in for the readers’ favorite spot for coffee, blueberry muffins, a romantic date, a cheap date, a hike and so much more. And the “bests” are ...
Also on the cover Easter is Sunday, April 9, and brings with it an array of meal, takeout and sweet treat options. Check out the list of local offerings starting on page 34. Find some new books to add to your reading list and get a glimpse at the writing process at Conversations with Concord Authors on Wednesday, April 5 (see page 26 for the details). A dinner and concert on Saturday, April 1, in Concord will feature the trio Hot Skillet Club and raise money for humanitarian aid for Ukraine (see page 43 for Michael Witthaus’ story).
news & notes
4 news In BrIef
6 Q&A
7 sports
8 QuAlIty of lIfe Index
9 thIs week
the Arts
26 Authors In concord, poets In AprIl
27 Arts roundup
InsIde/outsIde
29 GArdenInG Guy
Henry Homeyer offers advice on your outdoors.
30 treAsure hunt
There’s gold in your attic.
30 kIddIe pool
Family fun events this weekend.
32 cAr tAlk
Automotive advice.
food
34 eAster eAts Where to dine in, where to get takeout from and who’s got the candy; In the Kitchen; Weekly Dish.
pop culture
40 revIews CDs, books, film and more. Amy Diaz will probably watch John Wick: Chapter 4 at least three more times this calendar year.
nIte
43 BAnds, cluBs, nIGhtlIfe
Nite Roundup, concert & comedy listings and more.
43 comedy thIs week
Where to find laughs.
44 musIc thIs week
Live music at your favorite bars and restaurants.
Roxanne Macaig, Ext. 127 rmacaig@hippopress.com
Tammie Boucher, support staff, Ext. 150
Unsolicited submissions will not be returned or acknowledged and will be destroyed. Opinions expressed by columnists do not represent the views of the Hippo or its advertisers.
46 concerts
Big ticket shows.
46 trIvIA nIGhts
Find some friendly competition.
odds & ends
47 rock ‘n’ roll crossword
47 ken ken, word roundup
48 Jonesn’ crossword, sudoku
49 sIGns of lIfe, 7 lIttle words
release. “There is nothing more professionally rewarding for me personally than to assist students seeking to achieve their educational goals.”
success. A healthy diet can give a child the energy to think, work and play.” The bill will now go to the Senate.
The second annual Evolution Expo will be held at the Grappone Conference Center in concord (70 Constitution Ave.) on Sunday, April 2, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. According to a press release, the expo, presented by Nashua Restorative and Cosmetic Dentistry and hosted by Holistic Pros, will feature 20 presentations and workshops and more than 70 exhibitors and vendors highlighting wellness, spirituality and holistic health. Admission is free with advance reservations or $10 at the door. Visit holisticnh.org/evolution-expo.
The New Hampshire School Administrators Association has named Kearsarge Regional School District Assistant Superintendent Michael Bessette the recipient of NHSAA’s 2023 Outstanding Service Award. According to a press release, the award is given to an outstanding New Hampshire school system leader who is not a Superintendent of Schools, who works to improve district educational programs and services, contributes to workplace climate and high morale, anticipates and acts to resolve emerging problems and demonstrates professional growth and involvement. Bessette has served as Assistant Superintendent for seven years. Previously, he worked as a school administrator and principal in the Hopkinton, Timberlane and Derry school districts. “New Hampshire’s public schools offer students the critical skills, content, and competencies necessary to prepare them for college and career readiness,” Bessette said in the
The Nashua School District recently completed a nearly $800,000 project to install hightech air purification systems in eight of its 17 schools. According to a press release, the district contracted with Sanalife of Tyngsborough, Mass., to upgrade the air purification systems, which use a new kind of technology to not only remove harmful pollutants and bacteria from the air but also release air-scrubbing molecules throughout a space to reduce airborne and surface contaminants. Nashua School District is one of the first school districts in New Hampshire to install this type of air quality technology in its schools.
The New Hampshire House voted on March 22 to pass HB 572, a bill that would allow more New Hampshire families to qualify for their children to receive free school meals. According to a press release, eligibility requirements for families would be expanded from 130 percent of the federal poverty level to 300 percent. “No child should go hungry because of circumstances beyond their control,” Rep. Muriel Hall, prime sponsor of the bill, said in the release. “The importance of food in a child’s education is obvious. School meals play a critical role in a student’s attendance, well-being, and academic
Limited-income New Hampshire residents have until April 9 to apply for the Northeast Organic Farming Association’s 2023 Farm Share Program, New Hampshire Bulletin reported. The program allows qualifying residents to access community-supported agriculture shares, commonly known as CSAs, for discounted prices across the state. NOFA-NH covers 50 percent of the cost of each farm share while the recipient contributes 25 percent and local farms donate the rest. The program has partnered with 15 farms and provided 167 shares to more than 550 community members since its inception in 2017. For more information and to apply, visit nofanh.org/ farm-share-program.
The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services has received approval from the Executive Council on two new contracts that will expand acute inpatient mental health bed capacity in the state. According to a press release, an agreement with SolutionHealth will support the construction of a new facility in southern New Hampshire that will have 120 beds: 72 for adults, 24 for older individuals with gero-psychiatric issues and 24 for children and adolescents, voluntarily or involuntarily admitted for care. An agreement with Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital will
The londonderry Senior Center (535 Mammoth Road) and the Londonderry Arts Council present For the Love of Music, a new acoustic jam session featuring local musicians, with a first session Sunday, April 16, from 2 to 5 p.m. Members of the Londonderry Senior Center and Londonderry residents over age 55 are welcome to attend. “This is a great opportunity … and we hope to make this a regular event,” Ilona Arndt, Senior Affairs Director, said in a press release.
support the construction of the first five beds in the Lebanon region designed to serve adult patients involuntarily admitted for care. “In 2019, the Department set an ambitious course to fundamentally rebuild New Hampshire’s behavioral health system,” DHHS Interim Commissioner Lori Weaver said in
The Michael LoVerme Memorial Foundation will host its annual free computer clinic Saturday, April 22, from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the merrimack Public Library (470 Daniel Webster Hwy.). According to a press release, volunteer technicians will be available to sit down with participants one-onone to answer technology-related questions, troubleshoot a computer problem or provide training and instruction on how to use computers and technology, including Macs, PCs, tablets and mobile devices. Visit mlmf.org/events/computer-clinic to register.
the release. “Together with our partners, we are building a more comprehensive, high-value, integrated system. As a result, we are making significant progress on the 10-Year Mental Health Plan and remain committed to full implementation.”
Everett Arena , Concord, NH
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years!
kind,
empathetic, compassionate and knowledgeable staff.
Meet a new member of the Manchester Proud team
Meet Lauren Boisvert, who recently became the first community communications coordinator for Manchester Proud, a community-based movement committed to celebrating and strengthening the successes of students attending Manchester’s public schools. Visit manchesterproud.org.
What is Manchester Proud?
Manchester Proud is about championing student success [by] celebrating the amazing things that our students are doing, from sports games to band practices to science fairs … and providing opportunities [for student success]. We work very closely with the district and with community partners such as the Boys & Girls Clubs, the YMCA and Gear Up to amplify the things they are doing to help families, community members and students have access to resources. … We also have something called the Compass, which is basically a tool where our community partner organizations can post what resources and opportunities they offer. Then, community members can log into that portal and see who offers day care on a snow day, or who offers mental services, things like that.
What led you to Manchester Proud?
Love, love, LOVE them! Better prices than Amazon, combined with the friendly staff, makes Granite State Naturals rise above the competition.
Thanks for being an awesome store.
What an amazing store! Staff is incredible, kind and caring! It’s everything you’d want from a store like this and much more. So glad to have found this place l
1,000’s of carefully curated, highest quality products to support your healthy lifestyle
We stopped ordering vitamins online and now come here, we save money, time and every visit we have a great experience.
OPEN EVERY DAY!
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170 N. State St., Concord, NH | (603) 224-9341
They needed somebody who could be the liaison for communication to make sure that families know about this organization and its resources. … I think my background fits well with the mission of Manchester Proud. I graduated from the New Hampshire Institute of Art, got a degree in education and art, and I taught for a while. Having educational experience in the K-through-12 school setting really helps me understand the different groups of people we’re appealing to — the parents, the students, the teachers — and how to support them.
What does your job as community communications coordinator entail?
I maintain our social media accounts and our website, and I create flyers and send out newsletters. I’m part of meetings and planning committees, and I work with the district staff to execute their communication and strategic plans. There are also random things that pop up; for example, right now we have a student scholarship opportunity that we’re advertising, so I’m working with our community partners to get the word out about that.
What would you like to accomplish?
The biggest challenge for Manchester Proud — and the whole reason they brought me on board — is to make sure people know about us and to get more community involvement. … My goal is for Manchester Proud to be more active
on social media, because that’s the best way to reach the most people. Previously we only had a Facebook and a Twitter page. I created an Instagram and LinkedIn page, because I want to make sure we’re on all of the platforms so that we can appeal to the community members’ different preferred platforms. I’m also making sure that we’re posting consistently. … Finally, I’m talking with students, families and community members directly to find out what are the best ways to reach them and get them involved.
What would you like people to know about Manchester Proud?
That we want to give as many opportunities as possible to as many different students as possible. … The scholarship opportunity that I mentioned, for example, is not just for students who are going to college; it’s also for students who may be going into the armed forces or students who are taking a gap year.
What do you enjoy most about this work?
The biggest thing for me is making a difference by bringing a positive to the district; helping out the students by making sure they know [about] and have access to all these resources and tools; and making sure that the students and all the amazing things that are happening in the district are celebrated.
— Angie SykenyUnbelievably
caring,
The Big Story: The Red Sox kick off the season Thursday, March 30, at Fenway against the Baltimore Orioles. After three last-place finishes in four years and jettisoning the face of the franchise for the second time in four years it is a season that is met with the lowest sense of anticipation since the Butch Hobson era 30 years ago.
It’s so bad I’ve got the over-under for ticket sales at under two million. For a franchise that sold out every seat for 10 straight years that’s an amazing fall from grace. And if they get off to a bad start look out below.
The expectations are so low that I have not mentioned them once all spring in this space.
They have no one to blame but themselves as the owner decided to go small market in 2019 by firing Dave Dombrowski less than a year after putting the best Red Sox team in the franchise on the field and replaced him with a stat geek GM who can’t judge talent and who plays an awful style of baseball while giving the impression that he is thoroughly over his head. And they only signed Raffy Devers after John Henry got booed off the stage at a ticket caravan event in Springfield, Mass. And then he did what he always does — caved to fan pressure with the same kind of penny wise and pound foolish move that cost $190 million on Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez
Beyond all that I’m really bullish on the season ahead.
Thumbs Up: Two weeks ago it was Devin McCourty who was hanging them up and now it’s fellow three-time champ teammate Dont’a Hightower. He officially retired last week after sitting out 2023. Three cheers for a career filled with great leadership and clutch play.
News Item – NCAA Hockey Regional
Returns: With the Bruins careening toward the possible best regular season in NHL history, Boston got a measure of revenge against the team that shockingly deep-sixed them the last time they did that, as Boston U downed Cornell on Saturday night in front of 7,143 fans in the Northeast Regional at the SNHU Arena. It’s sorta revenge because when the Bobby Orr- and Phil Esposito-led Bs were doing it to the NHL in 1970-71 they were undone by Montreal goalie Ken Dryden, who was all of six games into his career after leaving Cornell at the conclusion of his college career.
And Another Thing – Back to the Sox: Here are questions I have as the season gets started.
(1) What is the over-under on wins for alleged ace Chris Sale? Though how you can call anyone who is 11-12 over the last three years “ace” is beyond me. (2) Will the double-play combo of Christian Arroyo and Kiké Hernandez make anyone think of Rick Burleson and Jerry Remy? (3) Will Masataka Yoshida turn out to be Japan’s answer to Rusney Castillo or the real
deal he looked to be in the World Baseball Classic? (4) Which will vaunted rookie first baseman Triston Casas turn out to be: the slugger he looked to be hitting five homers in 75 September at-bats, or the one who was .197 then?
Dramatic Moment of the Week: Can’t have a much more dramatic moment than the way the World Baseball Classic Final ended. Two out, full count bottom-of-the-ninth confrontation between huge stars and L.A. Angels teammates Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout with Japan leading 3-2. It gave the WBC the ending it could only dream of with the win going to Japan when Ohtani got his teammate to swing and miss on a final-pitch slider.
The MVP went to Ohtani after a performance many imagined the first true two-way player since the Babe might have someday, hitting .435 with a homer, four doubles, 10 walks and eight RBI to go with a 2-0 record on the mound with 11 Ks in 9.2 innings with a 1.86 ERA.
Thanks for the Memories Award – Willis Reed: May 8, 1970, was the greatest game of my fan experience. And it was all because of Willis Reed, who passed away last week at the age of 80 in Houston.
I can still hear the roar from the Garden crowd as a young Marv Albert told us watching on TV with the sound down and the radio volume up, “Here Comes Willis.”
Never in my lifetime has a player lifted an entire city up the way Willis Reed did by playing through pain of a torn hip muscle in that moment for NY Knicks fans. And believe it or not Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Knicks and Lakers was won right there. Especially after he scored the first two baskets of the game.
So RIP, big fella.
In My Not So Humble Opinion: There has been a lot of chatter about the Patriots having set their sights on Arizona’s DeAndre Hopkins and Denver’s Jerry Jeudy as their top targets in the quest to land a lead receiver with primo speed, raising the so far unanswered question of why would Denver trade their best receiver who is still on his rookie contract. My two cents are, go for Jeudy.
While Hopkins at his peak has the higher upside, he’s coming off two descending years and is at the same age (30) at which similar elite receivers A.J. Green and Julio Jones started losing it, in part because of age-related nagging leg injuries. Jeudy on the other hand is on the rise and coming off a year when had a tad under 1,000 receiving yards. Plus he’s still on a rookie contract and makes about $15 million less than Hopkins, so bringing him on board won’t lead to any cuts for salary cap reasons. He’ll cost more in draft capital (asking price is a first-rounder), but he’s ready on Day 1 and they can extend him after 2023 if they like what they see. So the better plan is Jeudy.
Email Dave Long at
com.
The peregrine falcon pair living in New Hampshire Audubon’s peregrine nest box atop the Brady Sullivan Tower in Manchester have welcomed their first egg of the season. According to the Audubon’s daily peregrine falcons log, the egg was laid on Sunday, March 26, at 4 a.m., which is right on schedule as the peregrines typically lay their eggs in late March, hatch their chicks at the end of April and fledge their young by early June. You can watch the falcons on the Audubon’s 24/7 high-definition livestream of the nest box on YouTube; visit nhaudubon.org/education/birds-and-birding/ peregrine-cam for links and more information.
QOL score: +1
Comment: The first egg of 2022 was laid on March 21, with four eggs to follow, one laid every two to three days.
A recent WalletHub study ranked New Hampshire the ninth most innovative U.S. state. The study looked at various factors, such as the numbers of STEM professionals, science- and engineering-degree holders, invention patents, accelerated start-ups, households with internet access and more. New Hampshire ranked especially high for eighth-grade math and science academic performance (No. 2), projected STEM job demand by 2030 (No. 8) and share of technology companies (No. 9).
QOL score: +1
Comment: Massachusetts is the only New England state to join New Hampshire in the top 10, coming in at No. 2, behind District of Columbia.
The U.S. Postal Service will honor prolific New Hampshire children’s author and illustrator Tomie dePaola with the issuance of a Forever stamp. According to a press release, the stamp art features an illustration from the cover of Strega Nona, the first book in dePaola’s popular series of the same name, published in 1975, depicting the book’s title character, which translates from Italian to “Grandma Witch.” A first-day-of-issue event and dedication ceremony for the stamp will take place at the Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St., Manchester), free and open to the public, on Friday, May 5, at 11 a.m. Visit usps. com/tomiedepaola.
QOL score: +1
Comment: Tomie dePaola, who died in March 2020 at the age of 85, wrote and illustrated more than 270 children’s books during his 50-plus-year career.
The tick-borne disease babesiosis has reached the status of “endemic” in New Hampshire, meaning that it is considered to be a regularly occurring disease in the state, New Hampshire Bulletin reported. A study recently released by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that the number of reported cases of babesiosis in New Hampshire had risen from 13 in 2011 to 63 in 2019, an increase of more than 370 percent within the eight-year period. The disease, typically carried to humans by infected black-legged or deer ticks, can cause flu-like symptoms and the destruction of red blood cells, or it can show no symptoms. Elderly people and people with weakened immune systems are at the highest risk of developing serious health complications.
QOL score: -1
Comment: Visit tickfreenh.org for local resources and information to prevent and protect against tick-borne illnesses.
QOL score: 61
Net change: +2
QOL this week: 63
What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire?
Let us know at news@hippopress.com.
The 48th Annual NH Camping & RV Show is today from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Hampshire Dome (34 Emerson Road, Milford) and will continue Saturday, April 1, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The show will have the latest RVs, trailers, pop-ups, tents and camping equipment on display. Tickets cost $15 for adults, $10 for ages 13 to 17, and free for ages 12
Friday, March 31
The Bank of NH Stage (16 S. Main St., Concord) is hosting the Wild & Scenic Film Festival today. The doors will open at 5 p.m. and movies start at 6 p.m. The festival will show movies that use the art form of film to inspire activism. Tickets range from $15 to $60 and can be purchased at ccanh.com.
care items, jewelry, glass and more as well as specialty foods, according to castleberryfairs. com. Tickets will be sold online and at the door. Price is $8 for adults, under 14 get in free; one admission is good for both days.
Saturday, a pril 1
performed, is bringing its brand of soul, jazz, and rhythm and blues to New Hampshire audiences. Tickets start at $50 and can be bought at tickets.tupelohall.com.
silent films, will provide live
and younger with an adult. Visit nhlovescampers.com for more information.
Saturday, a pril 1
Today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, April 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Capital City Craft Festival is back at the Douglas N. Everett Arena (15 Loudon Road in Concord). The event will have 125 artisans selling arts and crafts including folk art, candles, apparel, metal art, fiber arts, personal
Balin Books (375 Amherst St., Nashua) is having three local poets do a reading and discussion today at 1 p.m. for National Poetry Month. The poets, Meg Kearney, Charles Kell and Kevin McLellan, will read some of their recent works, discuss their processes and do a book signing. For more information, call 673-1734.
See the American jazz fusion band Spyro Gyra today at 7 p.m. at Tupelo Music Hall (10 A St., Derry). The band, with more than 40 years of experience, 30 studio albums, and 5,000 shows
The epic silent science-fiction movie Metropolis is being shown at the Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St., Manchester) tonight at 7 p.m. The movie, from 1927, will be a remastered screening, including footage that was rediscovered in Argentina in 2007. Jeff Rapsis, who specializes in scoring
Save the date! Friday, april 14
Join the Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St., Manchester) for its annual gala and art auction today at 6 p.m. The event’s theme is inspired by spring and all things floral, as well as the bloom of new perspectives at the museum. Artists, including Chris Gustin, Al Jaeger, Richard Haynes Jr. and Carl Hyatt, will present and discuss the artwork for auction. Individual tickets cost $350 with tables of eight available for purchase. Visit currier.org for more information.
It’s the most important vote you cast all year.
Sure, governmental elections involve, like, the future of your town and its schools and stuff, but this vote had pizza. And doughnuts. And beer.
In the Best of 2023 Readers’ Poll, you not only voted for your favorite pizza place, you weighed in on the correct way to eat pizza (not with a fork and knife, seems to be the general consensus). Readers also voted for their favorite spots to lace up and go for a long run, where to order lunch from when the boss is paying, where to go for a good margarita, who has the prettiest cupcakes and which fitness instructors keep you in top cocktail-drinking, cupcake-eating form.
Here we present you with, generally, the top five winners in each category — though sometimes we have supersized it and let a few more reader faves join the winners court. And we’ve sprinkled some specific reader responses throughout, because they’re fun.
Looking for a place where they make your coffee perfect every time or a restaurant that will make you love vegetables? Here are Hippo readers’ favorites...
Best of the best: Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester, 668-5588, palacetheatre.org
Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, 4375100, tupelohall.com
Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord, 225-1111, ccanh.com
Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion, 72 Meadowbrook Lane, Gilford, 293-4700, banknhpavilion.com
This survey is for entertainment purposes only and all results are final.
The results of Hippo’s readers’ poll are based on readers’ answers to a poll conducted online in February. Readers typed in the names of people and locations they voted for. In situations where the vote is tied or otherwise unclear, Hippo editorial staff makes an effort to determine the will of the greatest number of voters. Hippo reserves the right to disqualify individual votes, ballots and/or entries when they are incomplete or unclear, do not meet the letter or the spirit of the question asked or otherwise do not meet the requirements to make them a usable vote.
Hippo’s editorial staff makes the ultimate determination of the winners in the categories. Hippo’s advertisers play no role in the determination of the winners. All results are final.
The Best of 2023 is a celebration of all things local and is meant to serve as a snapshot of
Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, 668-5588, palacetheatre.org/venues/ rex-theatre
Best of the best: Ballet Misha’s production of The Nutcracker, performed by professional dancers and students of Dimensions in Dance, at the Dana Center for the Humanities (St. Anselm College, 100 Saint Anselm Drive, Manchester) on Saturday, Dec. 17, and Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022.
A Christmas Carol, mainstage production of the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, 668-5588, palacetheatre.org), ran Nov. 25 through Dec. 23, 2022.
Grease, mainstage production of the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, 668-5588, palacetheatre.org), ran Oct. 21 through Nov. 12, 2022.
Legally Blonde, mainstage production of the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, 668-5588, palacetheatre.org), ran June 3 through June 26, 2022.
The All New Piano Men, mainstage production of the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, 668-5588, palacetheatre.org), ran Jan. 20 through Feb. 5, 2023.
Best of the best: Craftsmen’s Fair, nhcrafts. org/annual-craftsmens-fair. The annual nine-day craft fair hosted by the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen is held outdoors at Mount Sunapee Resort starting the first week of August. It features hundreds of craftspeople with vendor booths, plus special craft exhibitions, demonstrations, hands-on workshops and more.
League of New Hampshire Craftsmen Concord Fine Craft Gallery, 36 N. Main St.,
the people and places in southern New Hampshire. Large national and international chains are, for the most part, not included in the count. Information presented here is gathered from sources including the location’s website and social media pages. Double check with the spots before heading out to make sure times, locations and menu items haven’t changed.
Questions, comments, concerns? Did we get an address or phone number wrong? Do you have an idea for a new category? Let us know. Contact editor Amy Diaz at adiaz@hippopress. com. Corrections will appear on the first page of the news section in future issues. Is your favorite category missing? Categories change regularly, with some categories taking a sabbatical and new categories introduced, so please send your suggestions for a category for next year. And, again, all results are seriously final. Hey, there’s always next year.
Concord, 228-8171, concord.nhcrafts.org. The craft organization’s flagship retail shop and gallery features a variety of traditional and contemporary crafts created by juried New Hampshire craftspeople.
Mosaic Art Collective, 66 Hanover St., Suite 201, Manchester, 512-6209, mosaicartcollective.com. The art cooperative features a gallery with rotating exhibitions and hosts community events and educational programming.
Manchester Craft Market, Mall of New Hampshire, 1500 S. Willow St., Manchester, manchestercraftmarket.com. This year-round gift shop features handmade items by more than 125 local artisans.
The Museum Shop at the Currier, Currier Museum of Art, 150 Ash St., Manchester, 669-6144, currier.org. The gift shop offers art supplies and gifts for artists and art-lovers, including novelty items inspired by the museum’s special exhibitions.
Best of the best: Abraham Lincoln statue at Central High School, 535 Beech St., Manchester. The original model of this statue depicting our nation’s 16th president was presented to the city of Manchester by sculptor John Rogers in 1895.
General John Stark statue at Stark Park, 550 River Road, Manchester, starkpark.com. Born in Londonderry in 1728, General John Stark was a Revolutionary War hero and the author of New Hampshire’s motto, “Live Free or Die.”
Millie the Mill Girl statue in downtown Manchester’s Millyard, manchesternh.gov. This 10-foot bronze statue commemorates the female employees of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Co., who represented one third of Manchester’s population in 1880. The Mill Girl Stairs Rehabilitation project began this past summer and is ongoing — the result will prominently feature the Mill Girl statue and improve public access from Commercial to Bedford streets.
Daniel Webster statue at New Hampshire Statehouse, 107 N. Main St., Concord, nh.gov. According to information from the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources, this bronze statue of Portsmouth lawyer and Dartmouth College graduate Daniel Webster was designed in 1853, one year after his death.
Ralph Baer statue at Arms Park (between the Merrimack River and Commercial Street), Manchester, manchesternh.gov. Arms Park is home to “Baer Square,” featuring a memorial statue and bench of Ralph Baer, a longtime Manchester native widely considered to be “the father of video games.”
Best Bookstore
Best of the best: Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com
Bookery Manchester, 844 Elm St., Manchester, 836-6600, bookerymht.com
Balin Books, 375 Amherst St., Nashua, 673-1734, find them on Facebook @balinbooks. Balin is the new name of the former Toadstool Bookshop in Nashua.
The Toadstool Bookshop, 12 Depot St., Peterborough, 924-3543, toadbooks.com
Water Street Bookstore, 125 Water St., Exeter, 778-9731, waterstreetbooks.com
Best Bowling alley
Best of the best: Lakeside Lanes, 2171 Candia Road, Manchester, 627-7722, lakesidelanes.com
Merrimack Ten Pin Center, 698 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 429-0989, merrimacktenpin.com
Leda Lanes, 340 Amherst St., Nashua, 889-4884, ledalanes.com
Boutwell’s Bowling Center, 152 N. State St., Concord, 224-0941, boutwellsbowl.com
Yankee Lanes, 216 Maple St., Manchester, 625-9656, manchester.yankeelanesentertainment.com
Best Comic Book Store
Best of the best: Double Midnight Comics, 252 Willow St., Manchester, 669-9636, dmcomics.com.
Merrymac Games & Comics, 550 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 420-8161, merrymacgc.com
Jetpack Comics & Games, 37 N. Main St., Rochester, 330-9636, jetpackcomics.com
Double Midnight Comics, 341 Loudon Road, Concord, 715-2683, dmcomics.com
Midgard Hobbies and Games, 55 Crystal Ave., No. 21, Derry, 260-6180, midgardhobbiesandgames.com.
Best of the best: Chuckster’s Family Fun Park, 9 Bailey Road, Chichester, 798-3555, chuckstersnh.com. The park is currently closed for the season, but its miniature golf, batting cages and go-karts are scheduled to open on April 14.
Mel’s Funway Park, 454 Charles Bancroft Hwy., Litchfield, 424-2292, melsfunwaypark. com. Opening date for the 2023 season TBA. The park offers a wide variety of attractions, including miniature golf, go-kart racing, batting cages, arcade games and more.
Chuckster’s Family Fun Park, 53 Hackett Hill Road, Hooksett, 2101415, chuckstersnh.com, This Chuckster’s location is also opening on April 14, and the miniature golf course boasts 36 different holes to test your skills on.
The Links at LaBelle Winery, 14 Route 111, Derry, 672-9898, labellewinery.com. The winery’s onsite 18-hole miniature course is currently closed but is scheduled to reopen in April.
Hilltop Fun Center, 165 Route 108, Somersworth, 742-8068, hilltopfuncenter. com. Miniature golf at Hilltop Fun Center is scheduled to open for the season on April 1.
Best of the best: Studio 550 Arts Center, 550 Elm St., Manchester, 232-5597, 550arts. com. Pottery is the name of the game at this art center. Right now Studio 550 is offering a spring cleaning sale on classes through April 1.
Tuscan Market, 9 Via Toscana, Salem, 952-4875, tuscanbrands.com. Tuscan Market maintains a monthly schedule of cooking classes, with signups available for all skill levels.
603 Charcuterie, 603charcuterie.com. The charcuterie businesses, which regularly holds charcuterie board building classes at
area breweries and wineries, has recently come under new ownership.
Leah and Tom Bellemore, who own Vine 32 Wine + Graze Bar in Bedford, have taken over the reins of the store, as announced by 603 Charcuterie in a March 22 Facebook post.
Muse Paintbar, 42 Hanover St., Manchester, 607-6873, musepaintbar.com. Paint-and-sip classes are available to all skill levels.
Best of the best: Boards & Brews, 941 Elm St., Manchester, 232-5184, boardsandbrewsnh.com
Game Knight, 545 Hooksett Road, Unit 18, Manchester, 606-2299, gameknightnh. com
Aviation Museum of New Hampshire, 27 Navigator Road, Londonderry, 669-4820, nhahs.org. New Hampshire’s only working museum devoted to aviation history in the Granite State features a variety of exhibits covering important people, places, events and artifacts, and features year-round programming geared toward families.
Double Midnight Comics, 252 Willow St., Manchester, 669-9636, dmcomics.com. In addition to selling comic books, the shop
holds game events as well as a day of celebration on Free Comic Book Day (Saturday, May 6, this year).
McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, 2 Institute Drive, Concord, 271-7827, starhop. com. This hands-on learning center highlighting astronomy, space and aviation also features a planetarium. During the school year the center is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission costs $12 ($9 for children ages 3 to 12, $11 for 62+ and ages 13 to college, free for children 2 and under); planetarium shows cost $6 for ages 3 and up.
Granite State Comic-Con, held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown, 700 Elm St., Manchester, 669.9636, granitecon.com. Granite State Comic-Con
is scheduled to return from Friday, Sept. 15, through Sunday, Sept. 17.
Midgard Hobbies and Games, 55 Crystal Ave., No. 21, Derry, 260-6180, midgardhobbiesandgames.com. In addition to having board games and tabletop role playing games for sale, Midgard has open gaming spaces, a private game room and a regular tournament gaming schedule.
Best of the best: The Collective Studios, 4 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 216-2345, thecollective-studios.com. The Collective Studios boasts a regular schedule of yoga, meditation and fitness classes. See their website for details on how to join a class.
The Nest Family Cafe, 25 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 404-2139, thenestfamilycafe.com. This Londonderry cafe, which opened in June 2022, was specially designed to cater to families with young children, with a variety of built-in amenities like a Montessori-style play area, a “treehouse” reading nook, a chalk wall, changing tables and a bottle-warming station, all in addition to a menu of coffees, teas, smoothies, baked goods, kid-friendly snack dispensers, bento boxes and more. The roughly 1,500-square-foot space includes traditional cafe seating that’s adjacent to the gated play area, designed to look like a bird’s nest.
The Dam Brewhouse, 1323 Route 175,
Most NH Thing you Regularly do
“Wear non-matching flannel (a.k.a. New Hamp-chic)”
Campton, 726-4500, dambrewhouse.com. The Dam Brewhouse hosts music bingo on Fridays from 5:30 to 7:45 p.m. and maintains a regular schedule of other events, like Paint and Pint on the third Sunday of every month.
Strive Indoor Cycling, 10 Hills Ave., Concord, 513-9464, striveindoorcycling.com. This indoor cycling center maintains a regular schedule of classes. See their website for the full calendar.
Feathered Friend Brewing Co., 231 S. Main St., Concord, 7152347, find them on Facebook @featheredfriendbrewing. Feathered Friend Brewing Co., which opened in March 2022, is a popular spot for its pop-ups with local restaurants, as well as its live music and video game nights. See their Facebook page for details on upcoming events and happenings.
Strange Brew Tavern, 88 Market St., Manchester, 666-4292, strangebrewtavern.net
Best Bar with an Outdoor deck
Best of the best: The Derryfield Restaurant, 625 Mammoth Road, Manchester, 623-2880, thederryfield.com
Backyard Brewery & Kitchen, 1211 S. Mammoth Road, Manchester, 623-3545, backyardbrewerynh.com
Stumble Inn Bar and Grill, 20 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 432-3210, stumbleinnnh.com
KC’s Rib Shack, 837 Second St., Manchester, 627-7427, ribshack.net
The Dam Brewhouse, 1323 Route 175, Campton, 726-4500, dambrewhouse.com
Best of the best: Industry East Bar, 28 Hanover St., Manchester, 232-6940, industryeastbar.com
Stumble Inn Bar and Grill, 20 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 432-3210, stumbleinnnh.com
The Hop Knot, 1000 Elm St., Manchester, 232-3731, hopknotnh.com
The Farm Bar & Grille, 1181 Elm St., Manchester, 641-3276, farmbargrille.com
815 Cocktails & Provisions, 815 Elm St., Manchester, 782-8086, 815nh.com
Best live Music Venue
Best of the best: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, 437-5100, tupelohall.com
Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion, 72 Meadowbrook Lane, Gilford, 293-4700, banknhpavilion.com
Bank of New Hampshire Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord, 225-1111, ccanh.com
Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom, 169 Ocean Blvd., Hampton, 929-4100, casinoballroom.com
The Flying Monkey Movie House & Performance Center, 39 Main St., Plymouth, 536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com
Best Restaurant, Bar or Brewery for live Music
Best of the best: Stumble Inn Bar and Grill, 20 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 4323210, stumbleinnnh.com
The Shaskeen Pub and Restaurant, 909 Elm St., Manchester, 625-0246, shaskeenirishpub.com
Area 23, 254 N. State St., Concord, 5520137, thearea23.com
The Goat Bar and Grill, 50 Old Granite St., Manchester, 844-603-4628, goatnh.com
Best Pub or Bar
Best of the best: The Shaskeen Pub and Restaurant, 909 Elm St., Manchester, 6250246, shaskeenirishpub.com
Stumble Inn Bar and Grill, 20 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 432-3210, stumbleinnnh.com
Industry East Bar, 28 Hanover St., Manchester, 232-6940, industryeastbar.com
The Farm Bar & Grille, 1181 Elm St., Manchester, 641-3276, farmbargrille.com
Strange Brew Tavern, 88 Market St., Manchester, 666-4292, strangebrewtavern.net
Best Weekly Bar Event
Best of the best: Trivia Heather, with Heather Abernathy, find her on Facebook @ triviaheather. Held various weeknights, most often at Chunky’s Cinema Pub (707 Huse Road, Manchester) and The Farm Bar & Grille (1181 Elm St., Manchester).
Open Mic Nights with Paul Costley and Nate Comp. Held Tuesday nights, from 8 to 10 p.m., at KC’s Rib Shack, 837 Second St., Manchester, 627-7427, ribshack.net.
Trivia Nights with Bill Seney, see “Trivia Night with Bill Seney” on Facebook.
Held Thursday nights, at 8:30 p.m., at The Hop Knot, 1000 Elm St., Manchester, 232-
1 Maple syrup — “Maple syrup … sorry, Vermont, ours is better!”
2 beer
3 people
4 apple cider doughnuts
5 ice cream
6 place to live — “I wouldn’t live anywhere else”
7 lobster rolls
8 chicken tenders
9 memories
10 granite
3731, hopknotnh.com
Trivia Nights at Area 23, 254 N. State St., Concord, 552-0137, thearea23.com. Held Tuesday nights, at 7 p.m., with prizes awarded. See the Facebook page for an updated list of trivia categories each week.
Ruby Room Comedy, rubyroomcomedy.com. Held Wednesday nights, at 9 p.m., at The Shaskeen Pub and Restaurant, 909 Elm St., Manchester, 625-0246, shaskeenirishpub.com, and featuring a rotating lineup of up-and-coming comics from across the country.
Best of the best: Axel’s Throw House, 4 Bud Way, Unit 2, Nashua, 318-9987, axelsthrowhouse.com
The Rugged Axe, 377 S. Willow St., Manchester, 232-7846, theruggedaxe.com
RelAxe Throwing, 157 Gay St., Manchester, 782-3061, relaxethrowing.com
Game Changer Sports Bar & Grill, 4 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 2161396, gamechangersportsbar.com. Named after one of the popular brand names of cornhole bean bags, Game Changer Sports Bar & Grill opened in May 2020 and features its own indoor cornhole lanes, with tournaments available for the chance to win prizes.
Par 28, 23 S. Broadway, Salem, 4587078, par28.com. Par 28 opened in November 2022. The full-service restaurant and bar also features virtual indoor golf and ax throwing with projected targets, and is also home to Rae’s Coal Fired, featuring pizza and appetizers cooked out of a custom-built coal-fired oven.
Best of the best: The Farm Bar & Grille, 1181 Elm St., Manchester, 641-3276, farmbargrille.com
Tandy’s Pub & Grille, 1 Eagle Square, Concord, 856-7614, tandyspub.com
The Hop Knot, 1000 Elm St., Manchester, 232-3731, hopknotnh.com
Red River Theatres, 11 S. Main St., Concord, 224-4600, redrivertheatres.org
RelAxe Throwing, 157 Gay St., Manchester, 782-3061, relaxethrowing.com
Best of the best: Axel’s Throw House, 4 Bud Way, Unit 2, Nashua, 318-9987, axelsthrowhouse.com
Boards & Brews, 941 Elm St., Manchester, 232-5184, boardsandbrewsnh.com
Canobie Lake Park, 85 N. Policy St., Salem, 893-3506, canobie.com. Featuring more than 100 rides, games, live shows and attractions, Canobie Lake Park is expected to reopen later this spring.
RelAxe Throwing, 157 Gay St., Manchester, 782-3061, relaxethrowing.com
603 Brewery & Beer Hall, 42 Main St., Londonderry, 404-6123, 603brewery.com
The Farm Bar & Grille, 1181 Elm St., Manchester, 641-3276, farmbargrille.com
Best Place to Meet a Blind date
Best of the best: The Farm Bar & Grille, 1181 Elm St., Manchester, 641-3276, farmbargrille.com
Boards & Brews, 941 Elm St., Manchester, 232-5184, boardsandbrewsnh.com
City Hall Pub, 8 Hanover St., Manchester, 232-3751, cityhallpub.com
Vine 32 Wine + Graze Bar, 25 S. River Road, Unit 107, Bedford, 935-8464, vinethirtytwo.com
RelAxe Throwing, 157 Gay St., Manchester, 782-3061, relaxethrowing.com
Best Restaurant
Best of the best: Copper Door Restaurant, 15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677, copperdoor.com
• The Puritan Backroom Restaurant, 245 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 669-6890, puritanbackroom.com
• Revival Kitchen & Bar, 11 Depot St., Concord, 715-5723, revivalkitchennh.com
• Buckley’s Great Steaks, 438 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 424-0995, buckleysgreatsteaks.com
• The Farm Bar & Grille, 1181 Elm St., Manchester, 641-3276, farmbargrille.com
Best New Eatery
Best of the best: Rambling House Food & Gathering, 57 Factory St., Suite A, Nashua, 318-3220, ramblingtale.com. Featuring seasonally inspired menus — with a diverse offering of meat, seafood and vegetarian options — and an outside dining area with unparalleled rooftop views of the Nashua River, Rambling House Food Gathering opened its doors in early March 2022. It’s co-owned and co-founded by members of the Gleeson family, who have also run 2nd Nature Academy (formerly known as The Nature of Things) since 1997. On the first floor below Rambling House you’ll find its sister company, the TaleSpinner Brewery, which can be accessed at the opposite end of the building on Water Street.
The Nest Family Cafe, 25 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 404-2139, thenestfamilycafe.com. This Londonderry cafe, which opened in June 2022, was specially designed to cater to families with young children, with a variety of built-in amenities like a Montessori-style play area, a “treehouse” reading nook, a chalk wall, changing tables and a bottle-warming station, all in addition to a menu of coffees, teas, smoothies, baked goods, kid-friendly snack dispensers, bento boxes and more. Owners Jamie and Ryan Getchell, themselves the parents of three kids, said the idea for the business came to them following their own experiences visiting cafes and coffee shops with their kids
“Neighbors: they don’t intrude but they are always available in an emergency!”New Hampshire Makes the Best ___
in tow. The roughly 1,500-square-foot space includes traditional cafe seating that’s adjacent to the gated play area, designed to look like a bird’s nest.
Pressed Cafe, 216 S. River Road, Bedford, 606-2746, pressedcafe.com. Pressed Cafe, a local chain known for its scratch-made menu of paninis, sandwiches, smoothies and bowls, opened its fourth New Hampshire location inside the former Canoe Restaurant & Bar space in Bedford in March 2022. It’s open for breakfast all day and features a double drive-thru and a full bar.
Most NH Thing you Regularly do
Ansanm, 20 South St., Milford, 5541248, ansanmnh.com. Chris Viaud, owner of Greenleaf in Milford and a Season 18 contestant on Bravo’s Top Chef, opened this Haitian restaurant with his family in October 2022 in the former Wicked Pissah Chowdah storefront on South Street, just a stone’s throw away from the Milford Oval. Ansanm, which gets its name from the word meaning “together” in Haitian Creole, continues the success of the family’s restaurant concept following nearly a year and a half of hosting monthly pop-up dinners. Ansanm’s menu continues to include items that were main staples at the pop-ups — the griot, or a marinated twice-cooked pork, and the poule nan sós, or braised chicken in Creole sauce, to name a couple — as well as all kinds of authentic dishes totally new to the space, and a few new spins on classic flavors.
Los Reyes Street Tacos & More, 127
Shorts for non-workout wear: summer, year-round or no thank you?
Rockingham Road, Derry, 845-8327, losreyesstreettacos.com. Manchester couple Jose and Isabel Reyes opened this Mexican restaurant inside Derry’s Hillside Plaza in April 2022. They’re perhaps best known for their birria — Jose Reyes comes from multiple generations of street food vending in Mexico, serving authentic birria, most commonly served on a plate in the form of goat meat. You won’t find goat on their menu, but you can try quesabirras, inspired by the traditional stew and featuring beef, onion, cilantro and a side of consommé, or the stewed broth. Los Reyes is also known for its street tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos and chimichangas.
Best Fine dining
Best of the best: Hanover Street Chophouse, 149 Hanover St., Manchester, 644-2467, hanoverstreetchophouse.com
Buckley’s Great Steaks, 438 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 424-0995, buckleysgreatsteaks.com
Bedford Village Inn, 2 Olde Bedford Way, Bedford, 472-2001, bedfordvillageinn. com
Copper Door Restaurant, 15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677, copperdoor.com
Revival Kitchen & Bar, 11 Depot St., Concord, 715-5723, revivalkitchennh.com
Best Restaurant from which to Get Takeout
Best of the best: The Puritan Backroom Restaurant, 245 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 669-6890, puritanbackroom.com
Goldenrod Restaurant, 1681 Candia Road, Manchester, 623-9469, goldenrodrestaurant.com
Lilac Blossom Restaurant, 650 Amherst St., Nashua, 886-8420; 385 E. Dunstable Road, Nashua, 888-9588; lilacblossom.us
Troy’s Fresh Kitchen & Juice Bar, 4 Orchard View Drive, No. 6, Londonderry, 965-3411, troysfreshkitchen.com
Dos Amigos Burritos, 26 N. Main St., Concord, 410-4161, dosamigosburritos.com
Best date Night Restaurant
SUMMER 59% YEAR-AROUND 16% NO THANK YOU 25%
“haha this is the most NE question ever, I plead the fifth”
“No thank you please get dressed”
“PUT SOME DANG CLOTHES ON IT’S NEW ENGLAND!”
“Year-round, baby”
Best of the best: Copper Door Restaurant, 15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677, copper door.com
The Foundry Restaurant, 50 Commercial St., Manchester, 836-1925, foundrynh.com
The Crown Tavern, 99 Hanover St., Man chester, 218-3132, thecrownonhanover.com
Cotton Restaurant, 75 Arms St., Man chester, 622-5488, cottonfood.com
Buckley’s Great Steaks, 438 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 424-0995, buckleysgreatsteaks.com
“Complain about Massachusetts drivers”
Best of the best: Troy’s Fresh Kitchen & Juice Bar, 4 Orchard View Drive, No. 6, Londonderry, 965-3411, troysfreshkitchen.com
The Puritan Backroom Restaurant, 245 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 669-6890, puritanbackroom.com
Copper Door Restaurant, 15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677, copperdoor.com
KC’s Rib Shack, 837 Second St., Manchester, 627-7427, ribshack.net
Surf Restaurant, 207 Main St., Nashua, 595-9293, surfseafood.com
Best of the best: Messy Mike’s Barbecue & Catering Co., messymikesbbq.com. Messy Mike’s reopened for the season on March 16 — find them in the parking lot of Rockingham Acres Greenhouse (161 Rockingham Road, Derry).
The Derryfield Restaurant, 625 Mammoth Road, Manchester, 623-2880, thederryfield.com
Best of the best: Bearded Baking Co., 819 Union St., Manchester, 647-7150, beardedbaking.com
The Crust & Crumb Baking Co., 126 N. Main St., Concord, 219-0763, thecrustandcrumb.com
Bread & Chocolate, 29 S. Main St., Concord, 228-3330, find them on Facebook @ breadandchocolateconcordnh
Buckley’s Bakery & Cafe, 436 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 262-5929, buckleysbakerycafe.com
B’s Tacos & More, nhtacotruck.com. Find them outside the BP gas station (2 Mohawk Drive, Londonderry) from May through October. B’s Tacos, meanwhile, has a brick-and-mortar location on Manchester’s West Side, at 372 Kelley Street.
Up In Your Grill, upinyourgrill.com. When he’s not catering for an event, Up In Your Grill owner and pitmaster Dan DeCourcey of Merrimack can often be found in the parking lot of Vault Motor Storage (526 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack) — the dates and times vary but are regularly updated on Facebook.
The Sleazy Vegan, thesleazyvegan.com. Find this plant-based food truck at pop-ups across southern New Hampshire — the dates and locations vary but are regularly updated on the website and on Facebook. The truck also offers delivery and catering services.
One Happy Clam Seafood & More, find them on Facebook @onehappyclam. Operated by longtime former Clam Haven owner Rick Metts, One Happy Clam has multiple public events on the schedule this spring and summer across southern New Hampshire.
Buxton’s Pizza, find them on Facebook @buxtonspizza. Find this Derry-based brick oven pizza truck at several pop-up locations mostly throughout the spring and summer months.
Best of the best: Downtown Cheers Grille & Bar, 17 Depot St., Concord, 228-0180, cheersnh.com
KC’s Rib Shack, 837 Second St., Manchester, 627-7427, ribshack.net
The Crown Tavern, 99 Hanover St., Manchester, 218-3132, thecrownonhanover.com
Backyard Brewery & Kitchen, 1211 S. Mammoth Road, Manchester, 623-3545, backyardbrewerynh.com
Klemm’s Bakery, 29 Indian Rock Road, Windham, 437-8810, klemmsbakery.com
Best of the best: KC’s Rib Shack, 837 Second St., Manchester, 627-7427, ribshack.net
Smokeshow Barbeque, 231 S. Main St., Concord, 227-6399, smokeshowbarbeque. com. In March 2022, Smokeshow Barbeque relocated into a new space in Concord’s South End, nearly tripling its seating capacity and sharing a building with Feathered Friend Brewing Co.
Smokehaus Barbecue, 278 Route 101, Amherst, 249-5734, smokehausbbq.com
Messy Mike’s Barbecue & Catering Co., messymikesbbq.com. Messy Mike’s reopened for the season on March 16 — find them in the parking lot of Rockingham Acres Greenhouse (161 Rockingham Road, Derry).
Goody Cole’s Smokehouse & Catering Co., 374 Route 125, Brentwood, 679-8898, goodycoles.com
Best of the best: Troy’s Fresh Kitchen & Juice Bar, 4 Orchard View Drive, No. 6, Londonderry, 965-3411, troysfreshkitchen.com
Hotrize Bagel Cafe, 634 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 424-3367, find them on Facebook
Klemm’s Bakery, 29 Indian Rock Road, Windham, 437-8810, klemmsbakery.com
O’Shea’s Caife & Tae, 44 Nashua Road, Londonderry, 540-2971, osheasnh.com
The Crust & Crumb Baking Co., 126 N. Main St., Concord, 219-0763, thecrustand-
crumb.com
Bearded Baking Co., 819 Union St., Manchester, 647-7150, beardedbaking.com
Best Breakfast
Best of the best: Tucker’s, 80 South St., Concord, 413-5884, tuckersnh.com
Tucker’s, 95 S. River Road, Bedford, 413-6503, tuckersnh.com
Tucker’s, 1328 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 206-5757, tuckersnh.com
MaryAnn’s Diner, 29 E. Broadway, Derry, 434-5785, maryannsdiner.com
The Post Restaurant, 58 N. Main St., Concord, 227-6686; 125 Fisherville Road, Concord, 228-0522; postrestaurantnh.com
Best of the best: The Foundry Restaurant, 50 Commercial St., Manchester, 836-1925, foundrynh.com
Copper Door Restaurant, 15 Leavy Drive, Bedford, 488-2677, copperdoor.com
Firefly American Bistro & Bar, 22 Concord St., Manchester, 935-9740, fireflynh.com
Rambling House Food & Gathering, 57 Factory St., Suite A, Nashua, 318-3220, ramblingtale.com
Troy’s Fresh Kitchen & Juice Bar, 4 Orchard View Drive, No. 6, Londonderry, 965-3411, troysfreshkitchen.com
Best of the best: The Barley House Restaurant & Tavern, 132 N. Main St., Concord, 228-6363, thebarleyhouse.com
Vibes Gourmet Burgers, 25 S. Main St., Concord, 856-8671, vibesgourmetburgers. com
The Tuckaway Tavern & Butchery, 58 Route 27, Raymond, 244-2431, tuckaway. com
Papa Joe’s Humble Kitchen, 237 South St., Milford, 672-9130, papajoeshumblekitchen.com
River Road Tavern, 193 S. River Road, Bedford, 206-5837, riverroadtavern.com
Best of the best: The Puritan Backroom Restaurant, 245 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 669-6890, puritanbackroom.com
Goldenrod Restaurant, 1681 Candia Road, Manchester, 623-9469, goldenrodrestaurant.com
Charlie’s, 1 Pinard St., Goffstown, 6061835, charliesgoffstown.com
The Red Blazer Restaurant & Pub, 72 Manchester St., Concord, 224-4101, theredblazer.com
T-Bones Great American Eatery, 39 Crystal Ave., Derry, 434-3200, t-bones.com
Vintage Pizza, 241 Candia Road, Manchester, 518-7800, vintagepizzanh.com
Best Fish & Chips
Best of the best: The Lobster Boat Restaurant, 453 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack,
424-5221, lobsterboatrestaurant.com
The Peddler’s Daughter, 48 Main St., Nashua, 821-7535, thepeddlersdaughter.com
Lobster Claw II, 4 S. Main St., Derry, 437-2720, lobsterclaw2.com
Goldenrod Restaurant, 1681 Candia Road, Manchester, 623-9469, goldenrodrestaurant.com
Rambling House Food & Gathering, 57 Factory St., Suite A, Nashua, 318-3220, ramblingtale.com
Petey’s Summertime Seafood & Bar, 1323 Ocean Blvd., Rye, 433-1937, peteys. com
Where the French Fries are So Good They Could Be a Meal
Best of the best: The Farm Bar & Grille, 1181 Elm St., Manchester, 641-3276, farmbargrille.com
The Puritan Backroom Restaurant, 245 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 669-6890, puritanbackroom.com
River Road Tavern, 193 S. River Road, Bedford, 206-5837, riverroadtavern.com
Goldenrod Restaurant, 1681 Candia Road, Manchester, 623-9469, goldenrodrestaurant.com
603 Brewery & Beer Hall, 42 Main St., Londonderry, 404-6123, 603brewery.com
Eatery with Home Cooking like Grandma used to Make
Best of the best: Local Baskit, 10 Ferry St., Suite 120A, Concord, 219-0882, localbaskit. com
Diz’s Cafe, 860 Elm St., Manchester, 606-2532, dizscafe.com
Chez Vachon, 136 Kelley St., Manchester, 625-9660, chezvachon.com
The Common Man, 1 Gulf St., Concord, 228-3463, thecman.com
The Common Man, 88 Range Road, Windham, 898-0088, thecman.com
Best lasagna
Best of the best: Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop, 815 Chestnut St., Manchester, 6259544, angelaspastaandcheese.com
Angelina’s Ristorante Italiano, 11 Depot St., Concord, 228-3313, angelinasrestaurant. com
Villaggio Ristorante, 677 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 627-2424, villaggionh.com
Fratello’s Italian Grille, 155 Dow St., Manchester, 624-2022, fratellos.com
Ralphie’s Cafe Italiano, 91 S. Broadway, Salem, 893-3777, ralphiescafeitaliano.com
Best Mac & Cheese
Best of the best: Mr. Mac’s Macaroni & Cheese, 497 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 6061760, mr-macs.com
The Tuckaway Tavern & Butchery, 58 Route 27, Raymond, 244-2431, tuckaway. com
The Common Man, 1 Gulf St., Concord, 228-3463, thecman.com
“excuses for not having decent mass transit”
O Steaks & Seafood, 11 S. Main St., Concord, 856-7925, osteaksconcord.com
Pressed Cafe, 216 S. River Road, Bedford, 606-2746, pressedcafe.com
The Farm Bar & Grille, 1181 Elm St., Manchester, 641-3276, farmbargrille.com
Best Pizza
Best of the best: 900 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria, 50 Dow St., Manchester, 641-0900, 900degrees.com
Alley Cat Pizzeria, 486 Chestnut St., Manchester, 669-4533, alleycatpizzerianh. com
New Hampshire Pizza Co., 76 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2125, newhampshirepizzaco.com
Constantly Pizza, 39 S. Main St., Concord, 224-9366; 108 Fisherville Road, Penacook, 227-1117; constantlypizza.net
Vintage Pizza, 241 Candia Road, Manchester, 518-7800, vintagepizzanh.com
Best Sandwich
Best of the best: Steak Bomb at USA Subs, 66 Crystal Ave., Derry, 437-1550, usasubs.com. Available in three sizes, this tried and true classic features tender shaved steak that’s grilled with peppers, onions, mushrooms, cooked salami and your choice of American or provolone cheese.
The Cardiac Sam at KC’s Rib Shack, 837 Second St., Manchester, 627-7427, ribshack. net. This sandwich is stacked with pulled chicken, pulled pork, bacon, cheese, roasted red peppers, lettuce and a garlic and herb mayonnaise.
Roast beef sub at Bentley’s Roast Beef, 134 Route 101A, Amherst, 883-2020, bentleysroastbeef.com. Bentley’s uses eight ounces of freshly thin-sliced USDA choice Midwestern beef for its subs, which are served on a toasted 12-inch Piantedosi sub roll.
Messy 3-Way at Messy Mike’s Barbecue & Catering Co., messymikesbbq.com.
“If it ain’t messy, it ain’t barbecue” — that’s the motto of Messy Mike’s. The Messy 3-Way features melt-in-your-mouth pulled pork, served on a bun with mayonnaise, American cheese and James River barbecue sauce. Messy Mike’s reopened for the season on March 16 — find them in the parking lot of Rockingham Acres Greenhouse (161 Rockingham Road, Derry).
Fried chicken sandwich at Ansanm, 20 South St., Milford, 554-1248, ansanmnh. com. Putting a new spin on traditional Haitian flavors, this sandwich features chicken thigh marinated in epis (a blend of peppers, garlic and herbs) and topped with a house epis aioli, crispy plantain and pikliz (a spicy slaw) on a house-made adobo brioche roll.
Greenleaf, 54 Nashua St., Milford, 2135447, greenleafmilford.com
Green Elephant Vegetarian Bistro & Bar, 35 Portwalk Place, Portsmouth, 427-8344, greenelephantnh.com
Buckley’s Great Steaks, 438 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 424-0995, buckleysgreatsteaks.com
“1 of each please”
“Cheap hot dogs, expensive hamburgers”
“Usually burger … but a good dog can win me over”
Best Subs
Best of the best: Nadeau’s Subs, 776 Mast Road, Manchester, 623-9315; 110 Cahill Ave., Manchester, 669-7827; 673 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 644-8888; 1095 Hanover St., Manchester (inside the Kwik Stop Mobil), 606-4411; nadeaussubs.com
USA Subs, 66 Crystal Ave., Derry, 4371550, usasubs.com
Bill Cahill’s Super Subs, 8 Kimball Hill Road, Hudson, 882-7710, find them on Facebook @billcahills
Great American Subs, 44 Nashua Road, Unit 3, Londonderry, 434-9900, greatamericansubsnh.com
Jeannotte’s Market, 2 Courtland St., Nashua, 882-0161, jeannottesmarket.com
Best of the best: Nuevo Vallarta Mexican Restaurant, 791 Second St., Manchester, 7828762, vallartamexicannh.com
Dos Amigos Burritos, 26 N. Main St., Concord, 410-4161, dosamigosburritos.com
La Carreta Mexican Restaurant, 545 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 628-6899; 1875 S. Willow St., Manchester, 623-7705; lacarretamex.com
Hermanos Cocina Mexicana, 11 Hills Ave., Concord, 224-5669, hermanosmexican. com
Los Reyes Street Tacos & More, 127 Rockingham Road, Derry, 845-8327, losreyesstreettacos.com
Best of the best: Troy’s Fresh Kitchen & Juice Bar, 4 Orchard View Drive, No. 6, Londonderry, 965-3411, troysfreshkitchen.com
The Sleazy Vegan, thesleazyvegan.com. Find this plant-based food truck at multiple pop-ups across southern New Hampshire — the dates and locations vary but are regularly updated on the website and on Facebook. The truck also offers delivery and catering services.
The Green Beautiful Gourmet Vegan Cafe, 168 Wilson St., Manchester, 606-1026, greenbeautifulcafe.com
Best Chocolate or Candy Shop
Best of the best: Granite State Candy Shoppe, 13 Warren St., Concord, 225-2591, granitestatecandyshoppe.com
Van Otis Chocolates, 341 Elm St., Manchester, 627-1611, vanotis.com
Granite State Candy Shoppe, 832 Elm St., Manchester, 225-2591, granitestatecandyshoppe.com
Lickee’s & Chewy’s Candies & Creamery, 53 Washington St., Suite 100, Dover, 343-1799, lickeesnchewys.com
Nelson’s Candy & Music, 65 Main St., Wilton, 654-5030, nelsonscandymusic.com
Best Cookies
Best of the best: The Crust & Crumb Baking Co., 126 N. Main St., Concord, 219-0763, thecrustandcrumb.com
Bearded Baking Co., 819 Union St., Manchester, 647-7150, beardedbaking.com
The Black Forest Cafe & Bakery, 212 Route 101, Amherst, 672-0500, theblackforestcafe.com
Buckley’s Bakery & Cafe, 436 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 262-5929, buckleysbakerycafe.com
Frederick’s Pastries, 109 Route 101A, Amherst, 882-7725, pastry.net
Pats Peak Ski Area, 686 Flanders Road, Henniker, 428-3245, patspeak.com
Best of the best: Queen City Cupcakes, 816 Elm St., Manchester, 624-4999, qccupcakes.com. In January, Queen City Cupcakes moved all its operations a few doors down, joining forces with its sister gift shop, Pop of Color, at 816 Elm St.
Bearded Baking Co., 819 Union St., Manchester, 647-7150, beardedbaking.com
Carina’s Cakes, 14B E. Broadway, Derry, 425-9620, find them on Facebook @carinas. cakes
Cupcakes 101, 132 Bedford Center Road, Bedford, 488-5962, cupcakes101.net
Wild Orchid Bakery, 836 Elm St., Manchester, 935-7338, wildorchidbakery.com
Frederick’s Pastries, 109 Route 101A, Amherst, 882-7725, pastry.net
Best of the best: Klemm’s Bakery, 29 Indian Rock Road, Windham, 437-8810, klemmsbakery.com
Brothers Donuts, 426 Central St., Franklin, 934-6678, find them on Facebook @ brothersdonuts
New Hampshire Doughnut Co., 2 Capital Plaza, Concord, 715-5097, nhdoughnutco. com
Flight Coffee Co., 209 Route 101 West, Bedford, 836-6228, flightcoffeeco.com
New Hampshire Doughnut Co., 410 S. River Road, Bedford, 782-8968, nhdoughnutco.com. The company’s newest shop, which opened on South River Road in Bedford in September 2022, expanded the menu offerings to include yeast ring and filled doughnuts for the first time, in addition to fritters and French crullers.
Best of the best: The Puritan Backroom Restaurant, 245 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 669-6890, puritanbackroom.com
Moo’s Place Homemade Ice Cream, 27 Crystal Ave., Derry, 425-0100, moosplace. com. Moo’s opens for the season on April 1.
Ilsley’s Ice Cream, 33 S. Sugar Hill Road, Weare, 529-6455, find them on Facebook @ilsleysicecream. Opening date for the 2023 season TBA.
Hayward’s Homemade Ice Cream, 7 Daniel Webster Hwy., Nashua, 888-4663, haywardsicecream.com
Goldenrod Restaurant, 1681 Candia Road, Manchester, 623-9469, goldenrodrestaurant.com
Best Beer Selection in a Shop
Best of the best: Bert’s Beer & Wine, 545 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 413-5992, bertsnh.com
Thing We Forgot to ask about
“Best Heavy Metal Band, which would be Swarm of Eyes”
Lazy Dog Beer Shoppe, 27 Buttrick Road, Suite B4, Londonderry, 434-2500, lazydogbeer.com
The Beer Store, 433 Amherst St., Nashua, 889-2242, thebeerstorenh.com
The Packie, 581 Second St., Manchester, 232-1236, thepackienh.com
East Derry General Store, 50 E. Derry Road, Derry, 432-5302, eastderrygeneralstore. com
Best of the best: 603 Brewery & Beer Hall, 42 Main St., Londonderry, 404-6123, 603brewery.com
Pipe Dream Brewing, 49 Harvey Road, Londonderry, 404-0751, pipedreambrewingnh.com
Spyglass Brewing Co., 306 Innovative Way, Nashua, 546-2965, spyglassbrewing.com. In late January, Spyglass Brewing Co. moved all of its operations across Nashua to its current location at 306 Innovative Way, where a full kitchen is now available featuring smash burgers, sandwiches, tacos, salads, appetizers and more.
Backyard Brewery & Kitchen, 1211 S. Mammoth Road, Manchester, 623-3545, backyardbrewerynh.com
Concord Craft Brewing Co., 117 Storrs St., Concord, 856-7625, concordcraftbrewing.com
Best of the best: LaBelle Winery, 345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898, labellewinery.com
LaBelle Winery, 14 Route 111, Derry, 672-9898, labellewinery.com
Zorvino Vineyards, 226 Main St., Sandown, 887-8463, zorvino.com
Flag Hill Distillery & Winery, 297 N. River Road, Lee, 659-2949, flaghill.com
Fulchino Vineyard, 187 Pine Hill Road, Hollis, 438-5984, fulchinovineyard.com
Appolo Vineyards, 49 Lawrence Road, Derry, 421-4675, appolovineyards.com
Best of the best: Cosmo at Copper Door Restaurant, 41 S. Broadway, Salem, 458-2033, copperdoor.com. The Copper Door’s signature Cosmo features Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Gran Gala orange liqueur, freshly squeezed lemons, pomegranate juice and a sugar rim.
Frozen mudslides at The Puritan Backroom Restaurant, 245 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 669-6890, puritanbackroom. com. The Puritan’s original mudslide features Bailey’s Irish Cream, Kahlua coffee liqueur and vodka, while other variations include an Almond Joy Slide, a Milky Way slide, a Snickers slide and a Peanut Butter Cup slide.
C.R.E.A.M. at Industry East Bar, 28 Hanover St., Manchester, 232-6940, industryeastbar.com. Standing for “Cucumber Rules
Everything Around Me,” the C.R.E.A.M. cocktail at Industry East is one of the bar’s signature offerings, featuring Mi Campo tequila, ancho verde liqueur, Dolin Blanc, a cucumber shrub, lemon juice and jalapeno tincture. It’s then garnished with a cucumber ribbon, salt and pepper.
Squam Shrub at New Hampshire Pizza Co., 76 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2125, newhampshirepizzaco.com. Changing its flavors with the seasons, from cranberry in the fall or blueberry in the summer to other combinations like apricot rosemary, this craft cocktail features Ice Pik vodka, a simple syrup and soda water.
Painkiller at KC’s Rib Shack, 837 Second St., Manchester, 627-7427, ribshack. net. Known for being the KC’s Rib Shack’s best-selling specialty drink, the Painkiller features a blend of Cruzan aged Virgin Island rum, coconut cream, pineapple and orange juices, topped with freshly grated nutmeg.
Best of the best: Hermanos Cocina Mexicana, 11 Hills Ave., Concord, 224-5669, hermanosmexican.com
La Carreta Mexican Restaurant, 545 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 628-6899; 1875 S. Willow St., Manchester, 623-7705; lacarretamex.com
El Rincon Zacatecano Taqueria, 10 Lake Ave., Manchester, 232-4530, elrinconnh.com
Puerto Vallarta Mexican Grill, 865 Second St., Manchester, 935-9182, vallartamexicannh.com
Nuevo Vallarta Mexican Restaurant, 791 Second St., Manchester, 782-8762, vallartamexicannh.com
Best of the best: Tandy’s Pub & Grille, 1 Eagle Square, Concord, 856-7614, tandyspub. com
The Farm Bar & Grille, 1181 Elm St., Manchester, 641-3276, farmbargrille.com
The Hop Knot, 1000 Elm St., Manchester, 232-3731, hopknotnh.com
Industry East Bar, 28 Hanover St., Manchester, 232-6940, industryeastbar.com
T-Bones Great American Eatery, 404 S. Main St., Concord, 715-1999, t-bones.com
Best of the best: Revelstoke Coffee, 100 N. Main St., Concord, revelstokecoffee.com
Flight Coffee Co., 209 Route 101 West, Bedford, 836-6228, flightcoffeeco.com
A&E Coffee & Tea, 1000 Elm St., Manchester, 578-3338, aeroastery.com
O’Shea’s Caife & Tae, 44 Nashua Road,
Londonderry, 540-2971, osheasnh.com
Hometown Coffee Roasters, 80 Old Granite St., Manchester, 703-2321, hometownroasters.com
Best of the best: Pressed Cafe, 216 S. River Road, Bedford, 606-2746, pressedcafe.com
The Bridge Cafe, 1117 Elm St., Manchester, 647-9991, thebridgecafe.net
Troy’s Fresh Kitchen & Juice Bar, 4 Orchard View Drive, No. 6, Londonderry, 965-3411, troysfreshkitchen.com
Pressed Cafe, 108 Spit Brook Road, Nashua, 718-1250; 3 Cotton Road, Nashua, 402-1003 (this location is drive-thru only); pressedcafe.com
The Works Cafe, 42 N. Main St., Concord, 226-1827, workscafe.com
Dos Amigos Burritos, 26 N. Main St., Concord, 410-4161, dosamigosburritos.com
Best of the best: Pressed Cafe, 216 S. River Road, Bedford, 606-2746, pressedcafe.com
Pressed Cafe, 108 Spit Brook Road, Nashua, 718-1250; 3 Cotton Road, Nashua, 402-1003 (this location is drive-thru only); pressedcafe.com
The Puritan Backroom Restaurant, 245 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 669-6890, puritanbackroom.com
The Bridge Cafe, 1117 Elm St., Manchester, 647-9991, thebridgecafe.net
Pressed Cafe, 1 Artisan Drive, Salem (inside Tuscan Village), 458-5922, pressedcafe.com
Best of the best: Industry East Bar, 28 Hanover St., Manchester, 232-6940, industryeastbar.com
815 Cocktails & Provisions, 815 Elm St., Manchester, 782-8086, 815nh.com
Chuck’s BARbershop, 90 Low Ave., Concord, 856-7071, find them on Facebook @chucksbarbershopnh
New Hampshire Pizza Co., 76 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2125, newhampshirepizzaco.com
Rambling House Food & Gathering, 57 Factory St., Suite A, Nashua, 318-3220, ramblingtale.com
Best of the best: Hampton Beach Seafood Festival, Route 1A, Hampton, seafoodfestivalnh.com. The festival will be back Friday, Sept. 8, through Sunday, Sept. 10, with shopping, live music, entertainment and, of course, lots of seafood.
Taco Tour in Manchester. According to tacotourmanchester.com, the self-proclaimed “World’s Largest Taco Tour,” organized by the Greater Manchester Chamber, will be coming back on Thursday, May 4, from 4 to 8 p.m. in downtown Manchester and will include more than 60 restaurants selling tacos for $3 each.
Glendi, St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 650 Hanover St, Manchester, 6229113, stgeorgenh.org. This festival will take place Friday, Sept. 15, through Sunday, Sept. 17, and will feature a wide selection of Greek food, including lamb, gyro, pastries and more.
Great American Ribfest at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, 221 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 595-1202, greatamericanribfest. com. The food truck festival that features barbecue, live music, kids attractions and more is back Friday, July 21, through Sunday, July 23.
Concord Multicultural Festival, Keach Park, Concord Heights, 2 Newton Ave., Concord, 568-5740, concordnhmulticulturalfestival.org. Scheduled this year for Sunday, Sept. 24, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Concord Multicultural Festival features food, music and live entertainment, artists and makers and more — all with the goal of showcasing the many cultures of the community, according to the website.
Best of the best: Concord Farmers Market, which runs Saturday mornings from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Capitol Street between North Main Street and State Street (next to the lawn in front of the Statehouse). The farmers market opens for the season on May 6 and will run through Oct. 28, according to concordfarmersmarket.com.
Contoocook Farmers Market, which runs Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. The winter market takes place November through April at Maple Street School (194 Maple St.); the summer mark et runs from May through October at the Contoocook gazebo, according to the market’s Facebook page.
Salem Farmers Market, which takes place year-round on Sundays starting at 10 a.m., according to salemnhfarmersmarket. org. The market’s Easter Market will be held Sunday, April 2; the market will be closed on Sunday, April 9, the website said. The winter market, which runs November through April, is at LaBelle Winery (14 Route 111, Derry, 833-2311) and goes until 1 p.m.; the summer market will open May 7 at the Mall at Rockingham Park (77 Rockingham Park Blvd. in Salem).
Bedford Farmers Market, which takes place at Murphy’s Taproom (393 Route 101 in Bedford) on Tuesdays from 3 to 6 p.m. The
Thing We Forgot to ask about
“How my day is going”
market will open for the season on June 13 and will run through Oct. 17, according to bedfordnhfarmersmarket.org.
Derry Homegrown Farm and Artisan Market, which runs Wednesdays from 3 to 7 p.m. at 1 West Broadway in Derry. The season will open on June 7, according to derryhomegrown.org.
Best of the best: Penguin Plunge for Special Olympics. This year’s Penguin Plunge took place in February at Hampton Beach, where 720 participants jumped into the cold ocean to raise funds to support Special Olympics New Hampshire, according to sonh.org/ events/penguin-plunge.
Rock ‘N Race. This race, which features 5K walk, 5K run and 1-mile run options, takes place in downtown Concord and supports Concord Hospital Payson Center for Cancer Care. The race will kick off at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 18 (with a pre-race program at the Statehouse Plaza at 5:45 p.m.), according to giveto.concordhospital.org.
Glendi, St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 650 Hanover St, Manchester, 6229113, stgeorgenh.org. This festival will take place Friday, Sept. 15, through Sunday, Sept. 17, and will feature a wide selection of Greek
(94 Silk Farm Rd, Concord, 856-8756, popememorialspca.org). It’s slated for Sunday, Oct. 1, and will start at Northeast Delta Dental in Concord; details are to come.
Wags to Whiskers Festival, a day of dog demonstrations, kid activities, pet vendors and more to support The Humane Society of Greater Nashua (24 Ferry Road, Nashua, 889-2275). This year’s event is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 16, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Anheuser-Busch in Merrimack.
Best of the best: Concord Market Days Festival. Concord’s downtown celebration with music, food, live entertainment, family activities, vendors and more will take place Thursday, June 22, through Saturday, June 24. See marketdaysfestival.com.
Glendi, St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 650 Hanover St, Manchester, 6229113, stgeorgenh.org. This festival will take place Friday, Sept. 15, through Sunday, Sept. 17, and will feature a wide selection of Greek food, including lamb, gyro, pastries and more.
Milford Pumpkin Festival. This celebration of pumpkins and Halloween in downtown Milford will run Friday, Oct. 6, through Sunday, Oct. 8, and historically features live music, a haunted trail, a pumpkin weigh-in, pumpkin carving, scarecrow making, a rubber
Giant Pumpkin Weigh Off and Regatta. Run by Goffstown Main Street, the Regatta has in the past taken place over two days in October and has featured as its highlight a race of carved pumpkin boats in the river. See goffstownmainstreet.org.
Derry After Dark, a celebration of breweries and restaurants that in the past has been scheduled to coincide with Derryfest in September. For information, contact Cask and Vine (1 East Broadway in Derry; 965-3454, caskandvine.com).
entertainment, vendors and more. See downtownnashua.org.
Midnight Merriment. Organized by Intown Concord (intownconcord.org), the Capital City’s holiday event is usually the first Friday in December and has in the past run from 5 p.m. to midnight. The evening features music, kids’ activities, Santa Claus, shopping and more, according to the website.
“The sunset at work, Autofair Nissan in Stratham (no joke)”
Winter Holiday Stroll. This downtown Nashua celebration takes place the Saturday after Thanksgiving (this year, that’s Saturday, Nov. 25). Taking place in the evening (in 2022 it ran from 5 to 10 p.m.), the Stroll in the past has featured the lighting of the holiday tree, a Santa’s Village, live entertainment, vendors and more. See downtownnashua.org.
Best of the best: Winter Holiday Stroll. This downtown Nashua celebration takes place the Saturday after Thanksgiving (this year, that’s Saturday, Nov. 25). Taking place in the evening (in 2022 it ran from 5 to 10 p.m.), the Stroll in the past has featured the lighting of the holiday tree, a Santa’s Village, live
Halloween Howl. In 2022, this Halloween event from Intown Concord (intownconcord.org) took place the Friday before Halloween and featured trickor-treating on Main Street in the downtown, family activities and a trunk-or-treat, according to the website.
LaBelle Lights at LaBelle Winery (14 Route 111 in Derry, 672-9898, labellewinery.com). In 2022 this lights display was twice the size as in the first year’s, with artistic sculptures that the winery commissioned exclusively for the event, which ran through the holiday season and into January.
Milford Pumpkin Festival. This celebration of pumpkins and Halloween in downtown Milford will run Friday, Oct. 6, through Sunday, Oct. 8, and historically features live music, a haunted trail, a pumpkin weigh-in, pumpkin carving, scarecrow making, a rubber
duck race, live entertainment, a pumpkin catapult, vendors, kids’ activities, food and more, according tomilfordpumpkinfestival.org
Manchester St. Patrick’s Parade. The parade traditionally takes place a week or so after St. Patrick’s Day (this year it was Sunday, March 26) and steps off at noon, running down Elm Street through the city’s downtown. See saintpatsnh.com for the countdown clock to next year’s parade.
Best of the best: Aviation Museum of New Hampshire, 27 Navigator Road, Londonderry, 669-4820, nhahs.org. New Hampshire’s only working museum devoted to aviation history in the Granite State features a variety of exhibits covering important people, places, events and artifacts, and has year-round programming geared toward families.
The Nest Family Cafe, 25 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 404-2139, thenestfamilycafe.com. This Londonderry cafe, which opened in June 2022, is specially designed to cater to families with young children, with a variety of built-in amenities like a Montessori-style play area, a “treehouse” reading nook, a chalk wall, changing tables and a bottle-warming station, all in addition to a menu of coffees, teas, smoothies, baked goods, kid-friendly snack dispensers, bento boxes and more. Owners Jamie and Ryan Getchell, themselves the parents of three kids, said the idea for the business came to them following their own experiences visiting cafes and coffee shops with their kids in tow. The roughly 1,500-square-foot space includes traditional cafe seating that’s adjacent to the gated play area, designed to look like a bird’s nest.
Livingston Park, 156 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 624-6444, manchesternh.gov. This park includes a walking trail that circles Dorrs Pond.
Griffin Park, 101 Range Road, Windham, 434-7016, windhamnh.gov. Amenities include a playground and basketball and tennis courts.
Mel’s Funway Park, 454 Charles Bancroft Hwy., Litchfield, 424-2292, melsfunwaypark.com. Opening date for the 2023 season TBA. The park offers a wide variety of attractions, including miniature golf, go-kart racing, batting cages, arcade games and more.
Best of the best: The Puritan Backroom Restaurant, 245 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 669-6890, puritanbackroom.com
Backyard Brewery & Kitchen, 1211 S. Mammoth Road, Manchester, 623-3545, backyardbrewerynh.com
T-Bones Great American Eatery, 39 Crystal Ave., Derry, 434-3200, t-bones.com
Tucker’s, 95 S. River Road, Bedford, 413-6503, tuckersnh.com
The Red Blazer Restaurant & Pub, 72 Manchester St., Concord, 224-4101, theredblazer.com
T-Bones Great American Eatery, 25 S. River Road, Bedford, 641-6100, t-bones.com
Hollywood Hounds Pet Spa, 250 Wallace Road, Bedford, 472-7387, hollywoodhoundsnh.com
Pawtopia Pet Grooming Salon & Boutique, 244 Sheep Davis Road, Concord, 227-6140, pawtopiapets.com
Best doggie daycare
Best of the best: All Dogs Gym & Inn, 505 Sheffield Road, Manchester, 669-4644, alldogsgym.com
Superdogs Daycare, 637 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 424-1515, superdogsdaycare.com
The Barking Dog, 208 Londonderry Turnpike, Hooksett, 833-688-0745, thebarkingdog.com
“Weirdos”
Best of the best: The Nest Family Cafe, 25 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 404-2139, thenestfamilycafe.com. This Londonderry cafe, which opened in June 2022, is designed to cater to families with young children, with a variety of built-in amenities like a Montessori-style play area, a “treehouse” reading nook, a chalk wall, changing tables and a bottle-warming station, all in addition to a menu of coffees, teas, smoothies, baked goods, kid-friendly snack dispensers, bento boxes and more. Owners Jamie and Ryan Getchell, themselves the parents of three kids, said the idea for the business came to them following their own experiences visiting cafes and coffee shops with their kids in tow. The roughly 1,500-square-foot space includes traditional cafe seating that’s adjacent to the gated play area, designed to look like a bird’s nest.
Best dog Groomers
Best of the best: Sarah’s Paw Spa, 16 Manning St., Derry, 512-4539, find them on Facebook @sarahspawspa
Grooming at Tiffany’s, 127 Rockingham Road, Derry, 432-8000, groomingattiffanys. com
Bark Now!, 237 S. Main St., Concord, 229-3700, barknow.com
Honey Dog Salon & Bakery, 501 Mammoth Road, Londonderry, 674-9718, salonhoneydog.com
The correct way to eat a slice of pizza: bites from a slice held flat, fold it lengthwise and tilt your head slightly, or with a knife and fork?
Cowabunga’s Indoor Kids Play & Party Center, 725 Huse Road, Manchester, 935-9659, cowabungas.com
Fun City Trampoline Park, 553 Mast Road, Goffstown, 606-8807, funcitygoffstown.com
Krazy Kids Indoor Play and Party Center, 60 Sheep Davis Road, Pembroke, 228-7529, krazykids.com
Best of the best: Benson Park, 19 Kimball Hill Road, Hudson, hudsonnh.gov/bensonpark. Benson Park is a 166-acre public park that opened in 2010. The former property of Benson’s Wild Animal Farm, a private zoo and amusement park open for much of the early half of the 20th century, the park is now a popular area for hiking, dog walking, fishing and picnicking.
White Park, 1 White St., Concord, 2258690, concordnh.gov. Amenities include a basketball court, a seasonal pool, walking trails and an ice skating rink.
Canobie Lake Park, 85 N. Policy St., Salem, 893-3506, canobie.com. Featuring more than 100 rides, games, live shows and attractions, Canobie Lake Park is expected to reopen later this spring.
Mel’s Funway Park, 454 Charles Bancroft Hwy., Litchfield, 424-2292, melsfunwaypark.com. Opening date for the 2023 season TBA. The park offers a wide variety of attractions, including miniature golf, go-kart racing, batting cages, arcade games and more.
Funspot, 579 Endicott St. N, Laconia, 366-4377, funspotnh.com. With more than 600 games including classic arcade cabinets, 10-pin and candlepin bowling and indoor minigolf, Funspot is the largest arcade in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
Aviation Museum of New Hampshire, 27 Navigator Road, Londonderry, 669-4820, nhahs.org. New Hampshire’s only working museum devoted to aviation history in the Granite State features a variety of exhibits covering important people, places, events and artifacts, and features all kinds of specialty year-round programming geared toward families.
KNIFE & FORK 10%
American K9 Country, 336 Route 101, Amherst, 672-8448, americank9country.com
Pawquet’s Play & Stay, 302 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 216-1147, pawquetsplaystay.com
Chewie’s Playland, 472 Amherst St., No. 24, Nashua, 921-1875; 217 W. Hollis St., Nashua, 921-0745; chewiesplayland.com
Best Pet Retail Store
Best of the best: Woofmeow, 19 Manchester Road, Suite A, Derry, 965-3218, woofmeownh.com
Sandy’s Pet Food Center, 141 Old Turnpike Road, Concord, 225-1177, sandyspetfood.com
Pets Choice, 454 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 424-7297, petschoicenh.com
The Wholistic Pet, 341 Route 101, Bedford, 472-2273, thewholisticpet.com
State Line Pet Supply, 137 Plaistow Road (Route 125), Plaistow, 382-6873, statelinepetsupply.com
Best Place to let your dog Off leash
Best of the best: Hooksett Dog Park, 101 Merrimack St., Hooksett, 485-8471, hooksett.org. This park is open daily from 6 a.m. to dusk.
FOLDED 59% FLAT 31%
“Any way that gets it in my mouth”
“Bite from the crust first to freak people out.”
“Depends on how many toppings, if left over, and how hungry”
“Fold it in half. Fork? Get outta heah”
“Go back to New York if you fold it. Go back to Mars if you use cutlery. Hold it normal and take bites.”
“WHOLE. LIKE AN ANIMAL.”
Hudson Dog Park, located inside Benson Park, 19 Kimball Hill Road, Hudson, 886-6000, hudsonnh.gov. This dog park is securely fenced in and located just inside Benson Park as you enter. It features two separate areas, large and small, for dogs to play leash-free.
Derry Dog Park, Fordway and Transfer Lane, Derry, 432-6136, derrynh.org. Open daily from sunrise to sunset, this dog park also contains a designated area for smaller dogs.
The Dam Brewhouse, 1323 Route 175, Campton, 726-4500, dambrewhouse.com. Well-behaved dogs are welcome off leash outdoors.
Dog Park at Terrill Park, Old Turnpike Road, Concord, 225-8690, concordnh.gov. This fenced in dog park is maintained by the Pope Memorial SPCA and open daily from dawn to dusk.
Best of the best: Benson Park, 19 Kimball Hill Road, Hudson, hudsonnh.gov/bensonpark. Benson Park is a 166-acre public park that opened in 2010. The former property of Benson’s Wild Animal Farm, a private zoo and amusement park open for much of the early half of the 20th century, the park is now a popular area for hiking, dog walking, fishing and picnicking.
Mine Falls Park, Whipple Street, Nashua, 589-3370, nashuanh.gov. This park has around 8 miles of trails across 325 acres of forest, open fields and wetlands, bordering the Nashua River, Millpond and canal system on the north side.
Livingston Park, 156 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 624-6444, manchesternh.gov. This park includes a walking trail that circles around Dorrs Pond.
Bear Brook State Park, 61 Deerfield Road, Allenstown, 485-9874, nhstateparks.org. At more than 10,000 acres, this is the largest developed state park in New Hampshire. There are around 40 miles of trails that run through this heavily forested park, offering a variety of options for hikers and dog walkers. Leashed pets are permitted in the campground and on the trails only — not in the beach area.
Best Spa
Best of the best: Renew MediSpa, 23 Crystal Ave., Derry, 931-4345, renewmedispa.com
Pellé Medical Spa, 159 Frontage Road, Manchester, 627-7000, pellemedicalspa.com
Serendipity Day Spa, 23 Sheep Davis Road, Pembroke, 229-0400, serendipitydayspa.shop
Chill Spa, 1224 Hanover St., Manchester, 622-3722, chillspa.com
Innovations Salon & Spa, 228 Naticook Road, Merrimack, 880-7499, innovationsnh. com
Where They do a Good Brow
Best of the best: Beauty Works, 123 Nashua Road, Londonderry, 275-8672, beautyworksnh.com
Renew MediSpa, 23 Crystal Ave., Derry, 931-4345, renewmedispa.com
“Avoid sales tax”
Head’s Pond Trail, off Post Road, Hooksett, 485-5322, hooksett.org. This roughly 1.5-mile trail runs adjacent to Head’s Pond in Hooksett and features mostly flat terrain.
Best Barber Shop
Best of the best: Lucky’s Barbershop and Shave Parlor, 50 S. State St., Concord, 7155470, luckysbarbershop.biz/concord
The Polished Man, 707 Milford Road, Unit 3A, Merrimack, 718-8427, thepolishedman.com
• Varnished Gentlemen’s Salon & Shave Parlor, 1019 Hanover St., Manchester, 7828628, varnishednh.com
Dude’s Barbershop, 1328 Hooksett Road, Unit 14, Hooksett, 626-0533, dudesbarbershop.com
HomeGrown Barber Co., 18 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 818-8989, homegrownbarber.com
Best Salon
Best of the best: Blank Canvas Salon, 1F Commons Drive, No. 38, Londonderry, 8184294, blankcanvassalon.com
Mari Lossi Hair Studio, 40 S. River Road, Unit 63, Bedford, 782-3908, marilossihairstudio.com
Cachet Beauty Lounge, 44 Bridge St., Suite 100B, Manchester, 782-8030, cachetbeautylounge.com
Salon North, 102 Bay St., Manchester, 483-3011, 102salonnorth.com
Salon Bogar, 25 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 434-2424, salonbogar.com
Chill Spa, 1224 Hanover St., Manchester, 622-3722, chillspa. com
Mari Lossi Hair Studio, 40 S. River Road, Unit 63, Bedford, 782-3908, marilossihairstudio.com
Pellé Medical Spa, 159 Frontage Road, Manchester, 627-7000, pellemedicalspa.com
Best of the best: Glossy Nails, 1 S. River Road, Bedford, 935-8383, glossynails.net
Glossy Nails, 655 S. Willow St., Manchester, 518-5557, glossynails.net
Chill Spa, 1224 Hanover St., Manchester, 622-3722, chillspa.com
Karma Nails Lounge, 17 Premium Outlets Blvd., Unit B, Merrimack, 420-8699, karmanailslounge.com
Exotic 9 Nails, 30 Crystal Ave., Suite 6, Derry, 425-7731, exotic9nails.com
Greatest band of all time?
To have you prove you were not a bot, we asked you to consider the greatest band of all time.
1. The Beatles
2. Rolling Stones
3. Led Zeppelin
4. Queen — “Queen feels too basic of an answer but I’m gonna say it anyway”
5. Aerosmith
6. AC/DC
7. Journey
8. Eagles
9. Metallica
10. U2
“Genre really plays into this but the Jennifer Mitchell band is top 10 for sure”
“Taylor Swift she no band but slay”
“Who listens to bands anymore?”
“Some Russian doom metal probably”
Best of the best: New Inkland Tattoo Co., 1358 Elm St., Suite C, Manchester, 518-7493, new-inkland-tattoo-co.business.site
Tattoo Angus, 179 Elm St., Unit C, Manchester, 935.9398, tattooangus.com, This shop is owned by Jon Thomas, the founder of the Live Free or Die Tattoo Expo, who also owns Spider-Bite Body Piercing in the same location.
Capital City Tattoo, 8 N. Main St., Concord, 224-2600, capcitytat.com
Blood Oath Tattoo, 15 Pleasant St., Concord, 227-6912, find them on Facebook @ bloodoathtattoo
Underworld Tattoo Co., 282 Main St., Salem, 458-7739, find them on Facebook @ underworldtattoocompany
Buzz Ink Shop, 85 Manchester St., Concord, 715-1808, buzzinkshopnh.com
Best of the best: Get Fit NH, 41 Terrill Park Drive, Suite A, Concord, 848-6138, getfitnh. com
Strive Indoor Cycling, 10 Hills Ave., Concord, 513-9464, striveindoorcycling.com
The Collective Studios, 4 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 216-2345, thecollective-studios.com
SPENGA, 493 Amherst St., Nashua, 3240355, nashuanh.spenga.com. A combination of spin, strength and yoga, SPENGA focuses on three 20-minute sessions of each activity.
Executive Health & Sports Center, 1 Highlander Way, Manchester, 668-4753, ehsc. com
Best independent Clothing or Shoe Store
Best of the best: Alec’s Shoes, 1617 Southwood Drive, Nashua, 882-6811, alecs-shoes. com
Gondwana & Divine Clothing Co., 13 N. Main St., Concord, 228-1101, gondwanaclothing.com
Joe King’s Shoe Shop, 45 N. Main St., Concord, 225-6012, joekings.com
Alapage Boutique, 25 S. River Road, Bedford, 622-0550, alapageboutique.com
George’s Apparel, 675 Elm St., Manchester, 622-5441, georgesapparel.com
Kelly’s Kloset, sales are coordinated through the Facebook group “Kelly’s Kloset LLC,” with pick-ups and drop-offs based in Hooksett
Best of the best: Corey’s Closet, 1329 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 722-2712, coreyscloset.org
M&C Clothing and Gifts, 135 Route 101A, Amherst, 886-6727, mcclothingandgifts.com
Lilise Designer Resale, 7 N. Main St., Concord, 715-2009, liliseresale.com
Kelly’s Kloset, sales are coordinated through the Facebook group “Kelly’s Kloset LLC,” with pick-ups and drop-offs based in Hooksett
Chic Boutique Consignments, 126 S. River Road, Bedford, 935-7295, chicboutiqueconsignments.com
Best of the best: Manchester Craft Market, Mall of New Hampshire, 1500 S. Willow St., Manchester, manchestercraftmarket.com. This year-round gift shop features handmade items by more than 125 local artisans.
Junction 71, 707 Milford Road, Merrimack, 213-5201, junction71.wixsite.com/ mysite. The shop sells an eclectic mix of home decor and gifts.
The Terracotta Room, 1361 Elm St., Suite 102, Manchester, 935-8738, theterracottaroom.com. This downtown sustainable lifestyle boutique features a wide selection of botanicals as well as sustainably sourced, ethically made clothing and accessories, jewelry, beauty and wellness products, home decor and gifts.
Viking House, 19 N. Main St., Concord, 228-1198, vikinghouse.com. This European imports shop carries food, clothing and gifts from more than 10 European countries.
Deja Vu Furniture & More, 113 Hillside Ave., Londonderry, 437-5571, dejavufurniture.net. This warehouse boutique sells high-end new and used furniture, lighting fixtures and architectural pieces in a variety of styles.
Best of the best: Seasonal Specialty Stores, 120 Route 101A, Amherst, 880-8471, seasonalstores.com
House by the Side of the Road, 370 Gibbons Hwy., Wilton, 654-9888, housebythesideoftheroad.com
Manchester Craft Market, Mall of New Hampshire, 1500 S. Willow St., Manchester,manchestercraftmarket.com. This year-round gift shop features handmade items by more than 125 local artisans.
Bedford Fields Home & Garden Center, 331 Route 101, Bedford, 472-8880, bedfordfields.com
Cyr Lumber & Home Center, 39 Rockingham Road, Windham, 898-5000, cyrlumber.com
Demers Garden Center, 656 S. Mammoth
Road, Manchester, 625-8298, demersgardencenter.com
Empire Pools & Hot Tubs, 655 Mast Road, Manchester, 668-7665, empirepoolsnh.com
Grasshoppers Garden Center, 728 River Road, New Boston, 497-5788, grasshoppersgardencenter.com
Best of the best: Sunnycrest Farm, 59 High Range Road, Londonderry, 432-7753, sunnycrestfarmnh.com. Pick-your-own opportunities, depending on the season and on availability, include apples, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, grapes, cherries and flowers.
Mack’s Apples, 230 Mammoth Road, Londonderry, 434-7619, macksapples.com. Pick-your-own opportunities, depending on the season and on availability, include apples, pumpkins, peaches and pears.
Best of the best: Bear Brook State Park, 61 Deerfield Road, Allenstown, 485-9874, nhstateparks.org. At more than 10,000 acres, this is the largest developed state park in New Hampshire. There are around 40 miles of trails that run through this heavily forested park, offering a variety of options for hikers and dog walkers. Leashed pets are permitted in the campground and on the trails only — not in the beach area.
Pawtuckaway State Park, 128 Mountain Road, Nottingham, 895-3031, nhstateparks. org. The park offers campers a family beach on the lake and hiking trails across a diverse landscape, where they can see wildlife and natural points of interest.
Lull Farm, 65 Broad St., Hollis, 465-7079, livefreeandfarm.com. Pickyour-own opportunities, depending on the season and on availability, include strawberries and apples. The farm has additional locations in Milford and Nashua.
Apple Hill Farm, 580 Mountain Road, Concord, 224-8862, applehillfarmnh.com. Pick-your-own opportunities include several varieties of apples.
Carter Hill Orchard, 73 Carter Hill Road, Concord, 225-2625, carterhillapples.com. Pickyour-own opportunities, depending on the season and on availability, include blueberries, apples and peaches.
Best of the best: White Park, 1 White St., Concord, 225-8690, concordnh.gov. Amenities include a basketball court, a seasonal pool, walking trails and an ice skating rink.
Livingston Park, 156 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 624-6444, manchesternh.gov. This park includes a walking trail that circles Dorrs Pond.
Benson Park, 19 Kimball Road, Hudson, 886-6000, hudsonnh.gov. Benson Park is a 166-acre public park that opened in 2010. The former property of Benson’s Wild Animal Farm, a private zoo and amusement park open for much of the early half of the 20th century, the park is now a popular area for hiking, dog walking, fishing and picnicking.
Greeley Park, 100 Concord St., Nashua, nashuanh.gov. A public city park spanning 125 acres, Greeley Park features a stage, playgrounds, picnic areas and more, and is a popular spot for outdoor festivals.
Mine Falls Park, Whipple Street, Nashua, 589-3370, nashuanh.gov. This park has around 8 miles of trails across 325 acres of forest, open fields and wetlands, bordering the Nashua River, Millpond and a canal system on the north side.
Franconia Notch State Park, 260 Tramway Drive, Franconia/Lincoln, 823-8800, nhstateparks. org. Franconia Notch State Park is located in the White Mountain National Forest and is home to the Franconia Notch, a mountain pass crossed by a parkway extending from Echo Lake to the Flume Gorge. Visitors can enjoy hiking, swimming, fishing, biking, horseback riding, camping and more.
Wellington State Park, 614 W. Shore Road, Bristol, 744-2197, nhstateparks.org. Wellington State Park offers hiking trails, picnic areas and volleyball and horseshoe courts, and is known for having the largest freshwater swimming beach in the New Hampshire state park system.
Ellacoya State Park, 266 Scenic Road, Gilford, 293-7821, nhstateparks.org. Ellacoya State Park is located on the southwest shore of New Hampshire’s largest lake, Lake Winnipesaukee. It features a 600-foot-long sandy beach area open for swimming, fishing, canoeing and kayaking, with views of the Sandwich and Ossipee mountains across the lake, as well as picnic areas, a playground and an RV campground.
Wallis Sands State Beach, 1050 Ocean Blvd., Rye, 227-8722, nhstateparks.org. Wallis Sands State Beach is a sandy beach with ocean swimming and views of the Isles of Shoals. Amenities include a store with food and drinks, a bathhouse with hot and cold showers, walking trails and a grassy area with picnic tables.
Best of the best: Mount Monadnock, 169 Poole Road, Jaffrey, 532-8862, nhstateparks. org. The 3,165-foot mountain features more than 35 hiking trails of various levels of difficulty leading to the summit.
Mount Major, Alton, nhstateparks.org. The mountain’s 1.5-mile Mount Major Trail and 1.6-mile Boulder Loop Trail form a loop at its 1,785-foot summit, which offers a pan-
“Jenny, 867-5309”
oramic view of Lake Winnipesaukee to the north.
Mine Falls Park, Whipple Street, Nashua, 589-3370, nashuanh.gov. This park has around 8 miles of trails across 325 acres of forest, open fields and wetlands, bordering the Nashua River, Millpond and a canal system on the north side.
Mt. Uncanoonuc Trails, Mountain Road, Goffstown. The North Uncanoonuc Trail, about a 0.6-mile hike, is steep in some spots and is known for its wilderness and panoramic views of Goffstown. At about 0.8 miles, the South Uncanoonuc Trail is slightly longer, also serving as a snowmobiling and ATVing trail that features views of Mount Monadnock from a distance.
Pulpit Rock Conservation Area, New Boston Road, Bedford, plcnh.org/pulpit-rocktrails. The 338-acre conservation land features 10 marked trails totalling 3 miles, including a connector trail from the gorge and ledge called Pulpit Rock, through Amherst to Bedford’s Joppa Hill Conservation Land.
Best of the best: Granite State Rail Trail, from Londonderry through Salem, gsrtnh. org. The southern portion of the trail network connects the Londonderry Rail Trail, Derry Rail Trail, Windham Rail Trail and Salem Bike-Ped Corridor, ending in Salem at the Massachusetts border.
Nashua River Rail Trail, Nashua. This paved trail is 12.5 miles and runs along the Nashua River, connecting Nashua to Ayer, Mass.
Northern Rail Trail, fnrt.org. The 59-mile trail runs from Boscawen to Lebanon, crossing nearly a dozen towns across two counties.
Mine Falls Park, Whipple Street, Nashua, 589-3370, nashuanh.gov. This park has around 8 miles of trails across 325 acres of forest, open fields and wetlands, bordering the Nashua River, Millpond and a canal system on the north side.
Goffstown Rail Trail, Goffstown, goffstownrailtrail.org. The 5.5-mile trail runs between Goffstown and Manchester, connecting Pinardville, Grasmere and Goffstown Village.
Best of the best: Mine Falls Park, Whipple Street, Nashua, 589-3370, nashuanh.gov. This park has around 8 miles of trails across 325 acres of forest, open fields and wetlands, bordering the Nashua River, Millpond and a canal system on the north side.
Manchester rail trails, manchesternh. gov/departments/parks-and-recreation/ parks-trails-and-facilities/recreational-trails.
The City of Manchester is working to develop a rail trail network, with four rail trails in
various stages of planning and development.
Rockingham Rail Trail is 3.1 miles and runs from Tarrytown Road to Lake Massabesic; South Manchester Rail Trail runs 2.4 miles parallel to South Willow Street; Heritage Trail runs for 6.1 miles along the Merrimack River and includes the Riverwalk in the Millyard; and Piscataquog Trail runs for 2.4 miles through the West Side of Manchester and connects to the Goffstown Rail Trail.
Goffstown Rail Trail, Goffstown, goffstownrailtrail.org. The 5.5-mile trail runs between Goffstown and Manchester, connecting Pinardville, Grasmere and Goffstown Village.
Londonderry Rail Trail, londonderrytrails.org. The 4.5-mile trail runs through North Londonderry, ending at Harvey Road in Manchester near the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.
Nashua River Rail Trail, Nashua. This paved trail is 12.5 miles and runs along the Nashua River, connecting Nashua to Ayer, Mass.
Best of the best: Pats Peak Ski Area, 686 Flanders Road, Henniker, 428-3245, patspeak. com
Loon Mountain Resort, 60 Loon Mountain Road, Lincoln, 745-8111, loonmtn.com
McIntyre Ski Area, 50 Chalet Way, Manchester, 622- 6159, mcintyreskiarea.com
Mount Sunapee Resort, 1398 Route 103, Newbury, 763-3500, mountsunapee.com
Cannon Mountain Ski Resort, 260 Tramway Drive, Franconia, 823-8800, cannonmt. com
Best of the best: Lake Massabesic, off the Londonderry Turnpike, Manchester, 6426482, manchesternh.gov. Spanning 2,500 acres in Manchester and Auburn, the lake is the centerpoint for a network of dozens of trails, including a loop to the Massabesic Audubon Center, a wildlife sanctuary situated on a historic farm site in Auburn. The trails range in length from half a mile to more than 3 miles.
Newfound Lake, Wellington State Park, 614 W. Shore Road, Bristol, 744-2197, nhstateparks.org. A boat launch is located just outside the park, providing free 24/7 access to the 4,106-acre lake.
Pawtuckaway Lake, Pawtuckaway State Park, 7 Pawtuckaway Road, Nottingham, 8953031, nhstateparks.org. The park offers canoe and kayak rentals at its camp store as well as a public boat launch for the 784-acre lake.
Squam Lake, Grafton, Carroll and Belknap counties, lakesregion.org/squam-lake. Big and Little Squam lakes are naturally springfed and connected by a channel in Holderness.
Big Squam is the second-largest lake located entirely in New Hampshire, at 6,791 acres long with 61 miles of shoreline. The lakes are also host to 67 islands.
Canobie Lake, Salem and Windham, canobielake.org. The 375-acre lake is known for its peaceful waters and resident loons. Canoes and kayaks can be carried into the water from the North Policy Street parking lot.
Lake Winnisquam, Water Street, Laconia, winnisquamwatershed.org/public-access.
With 4,264 acres, the lake, fed by Lake Winnipesaukee, is the state’s fourth largest, spanning across the towns of Laconia, Tilton, Sanbornton, Belmont and Meredith. There are two public boat ramps and a floating dock in Laconia.
Most inventive Chef
Best of the best: Chris Viaud, Greenleaf, 54 Nashua St., Milford, 213-5447, greenleafmilford.com
Corey Fletcher, Revival Kitchen & Bar, 11 Depot St., Concord, 715-5723, revivalkitchennh.com
Bobby Marcotte, The Tuckaway Tavern and Butchery, 58 Route 27, Raymond, 2442431, thetuckaway.com
Rylan Hill, New Hampshire Pizza Co., 76 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2125, newhampshirepizzaco.com
Troy Ward Jr., Troy’s Fresh Kitchen and Juice Bar, 4 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 965-3411, troysfreshkitchen.com
Best of the best: Rambling House Food & Gathering, 57 Factory St., Suite A, Nashua, 318-3220, ramblingtale.com
The Nest Family Cafe, 25 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 404-2139, thenestfamilycafe.com
KC’s Rib Shack, 837 Second St., Manchester, 627-7427, ribshack.net
Troy’s Fresh Kitchen and Juice Bar, 4 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 965-3411,
The Hop Knot, 1000 Elm St., Manchester, 232-3731, hopknotnh.com
Best of the best: Ashley Daigle (Ashley Frosher), Get Fit NH, 41 Terrill Park Drive, Suite A, Concord, 848-6138, getfitnh.com
Courtney Giddis, Strive Indoor Cycling, 10 Hills Ave., Concord, 513-9464, striveindoorcycling.com
Laura Collins, The Collective Studios, 4 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 216-2345, thecollective-studios.com
Emily Corbin, Pure Barre, 79 S. River Road, No. 4, Bedford, 218-3817, purebarre. com
Megan Ferns, Strive Indoor Cycling, 10 Hills Ave., Concord, 513-9464, striveindoorcycling.com
Best Barber
Best of the best: Hannah Coleman, Ritual Grooming, 557 Daniel Webster Hwy., Unit 3, Merrimack, 365-4319, ritualgroomingnh.com
Emilio Risoni, Belair Beauty and Barber, 19 Nashua St., Milford, 554-1704, find them on Facebook @belairbeautyandbarber
Jesus “Zeus Cuts” Lajara, Rossi’s Barbershop, 1D Commons Drive, Londonderry, 404-3447 rossisnh.com
Benny D’Ambrosio, The Polished Man, 707 Milford Road, Unit 3A, Merrimack, 7188427, thepolishedman.com
Kelly Smith, HomeGrown Barber Co., 18 Orchard View Drive, Londonderry, 8188989, homegrownbarber.com
Rick Lindof, The Polished Man, 707 Milford Road, Unit 3A, Merrimack, 718-8427, thepolishedman.com
Best of the best: Mari Bartalossi, Mari Lossi Hair Studio, 40 S. River Road, Unit 63, Bedford, 782-3908, marilossihairstudio.com
Katie Terrio, Cachet Beauty Lounge, 44 Bridge St., Manchester, 782-8030, cachet-
When will we get the last big snow of the season: March, April or the day after you put away your winter gear?
MARCH 49%
APRIL 26%
MAY 1 %
JUNE LESS THAN 1 % THE DAY AFTER YOU PUT AWAY YOUR WINTER GEAR 24%
“April, and it will suck”
“When the snowblower goes back into the shed.”
“I’ll put the gear away in october like i always do, before i drag it all back in two weeks later”
“I don’t trust NE, I never put my winter gear away”
beautylounge.com
Desirae Burdick, Cachet Beauty Lounge, 44 Bridge St., Manchester, 782-8030, cachetbeautylounge.com
Taylor Parker-Suprey, Blank Canvas Salon, 1F Commons Drive, No. 38, Londonderry, 818-4294, blankcanvassalon.com
Coco Lever, Blank Canvas Salon, 1F Commons Drive, No. 38, Londonderry, 8184294, blankcanvassalon.com
Tashia Landry, Salon North, 102 Bay St., Manchester, 483-3011, 102salonnorth.com
Friendliest dentist
Best of the best: Dr. Nicholas Rizos, 103 Riverway Place, Bedford, 669-4384, drnickdmd.com
Dr. Elizabeth Spindel, Spindel General and Cosmetic Dentistry, 862 Union St., Manchester, 669-9049, elizabethspindel.com
Doug Duval, Vanguard Dental Group, 1142 Somerville St., Manchester, 622-9225, book.vanguarddentalgroup.com
Dr. Larry Puccini, Puccini & Roberge, 505 Riverway Place, Bedford, 622-3445, pucciniroberge.com
Ray Orzechowski, 280 Pleasant St., No. 4, Concord, 228-4456, orzechowskiarndt.com
Friendliest Mechanic
Best of the best: Tony Morin at MotorSport Tire & Auto Repair Center, 3 Tinkham Ave., Derry, 434-1561, motorsportsderry.com
Bill Morin, Morin’s Service Station, 1091 Valley St., Manchester, 624-4427, morinsservicestation.com
Dave Keith at Sunoco, 8 Nashua Road, Londonderry, 437-6530
Dan Weed at Weed Family Automotive, 124 Storrs St., Concord, 225-7988, weedfamilyautomotive.com
Will Chestnut at Will’s Auto Service of Manchester, 720 E. Industrial Park Drive, No. 10, 222-9296, wills-auto-service-of-manchester.business.site
Best Musical act
Best of the best: Jennifer Mitchell, 2361015, jennifermitchellmusic.com. Also known as “JMitch,” Mitchell is a singer and instrumentalist who has been winning awards since she was in high school. Mitchell specializes in classic rock, Southern rock, today’s hits and original music.
Justin Jordan, 721-9548, find him on Facebook @justinjordanmusic. Jordan, a Manchester-based singer, bassist and acoustic guitarist, is known for his country and rock stylings. He performs solo as Justin Jordan Music, in the duo 21st and 1st, and in his band Small Town Stranded.
Recycled Percussion, recycledpercussion.com. The Laconia-based band placed third on Season 4 of America’s Got Talent, the highest for a non-vocalist group.
Nicole Knox Murphy, 339-0732, nkmsings4u.com,
The country singer-songwriter has three Nashville-recorded studio albums and has won several accolades from the New Hampshire Country Music Awards. Her song “My 603” was recognized in 2020 by the New Hampshire Senate.
Kevin Horan, kevinhoranmusic.com, In addition to being a solo artist performing everything from high-energy rock to stripped down acoustic, Horan gives in-person lessons on guitar and drums and runs summer rock camps for kids ages 8 to 10 and 11 to 14 through the Merrimack Parks and Recreation department.
Brad Myrick, bradmyrick.com, A composer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer and educator, Myrick has released four albums of original music and has had multiple successful tours in the United States and Italy, as well as touring as a guitarist for singer Vinx.
Best local Comedian
Best of the best: Juston McKinney, justonmckinney.com. With two Comedy Central specials, two Amazon Prime specials and multiple appearances on the Tonight show with both Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, McKinney has been making audiences cry with laughter across the country since he retired from his sherriff job in the late 1990s.
Bob Marley, bmarley.com. Besides holding the Guinness World Record for the longest stand-up comedy show, Marley is known for being a fairly regular presence on Sirius XM radio.
Matt Barry, mattbarrycomedy.com. Since landing third place at “Last Comix Standing” in 2015, Barry has opened for national acts including Tom Green, Gilbert Gottfried and Harland Williams.
Jay Chanoine, find him on Facebook @jay.chanoine. The Manchester-born and -raised stand-up comedian has been performing since 2009. His most recent comedy album, The Texas Chanoinesaw Massacre, reached No. 1 on the Amazon comedy chart.
Jimmy Dunn, jimmydunn.com. The actor and comedian has performed at some of the biggest events in comedy, including Denis Leary’s Comics Come Home, Montreal’s International Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, and the Late Show with David Letterman. Most recently, Dunn co-starred on the CBS comedy The McCarthys, as Sean McCarthy.
Best of the best: Cat Alley, Dean Ave., Manchester, orbitgroup.com/cat-alley-revival. Located between the Bookery and Wild Orchid Bakery, just off Elm Street, Cat Alley
Thing We Forgot to ask about
“My age — but that can be our little secret, right?”
features the unique works of more than a dozen local muralists.
Benson Park, 19 Kimball Hill Road, Hudson, hudsonnh.gov/bensonpark. Benson Park is a 166-acre public park that opened in 2010. The former property of Benson’s Wild Animal Farm, a private zoo and amusement park open for much of the early half of the 20th century, the park is now a popular area for hiking, dog walking, fishing and picnicking.
Flume Gorge, 852 Daniel Webster Hwy., Lincoln, nhstateparks.org/ visit/state-parks/flumegorge. This natural gorge extends 800 feet at the base of Mount Liberty. It’s located within Franconia Notch State Park, which was also the home of the famous Old Man of the Mountain.
Lake Massabesic, off the Londonderry Turnpike, Manchester, 642-6482, manchesternh.gov. Spanning 2,500 acres in Manchester and Auburn, the lake is the centerpoint for a network of dozens of trails, including a loop to the Massabesic Audubon Center, a wildlife sanctuary situated on a historic farm site in Auburn. The trails range in length from half a mile to more than 3 miles.
Greeley Park, 100 Concord St., Nashua, nashuanh.gov. A public city park spanning 125 acres, Greeley Park features a stage, playgrounds, picnic areas and more, and is also a popular spot for outdoor festivals.
Best of the best: New Hampshire Statehouse, 107 N. Main St., Concord, nh.gov. Built between 1816 and 1819, the New Hampshire Statehouse is the oldest state capitol in which both houses of the legislature meet in their original chambers, according to a document from the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources.
Robert Frost Farm Historic Site, 122 Rockingham Road, Derry, 432-3091, robertfrostfarm.org. This historic site was home to acclaimed New Hampshire poet Robert Frost from 1900 to 1911. Seasonal programs are available to the public from May to October. Admission is free for New Hampshire residents 65+ and under 17; admission costs $4 for residents ages 18 to 64.
9/11 memorial at Benson Park, 19 Kimball Hill Road, Hudson, hudsonnh.gov/ bensonpark. This monument was unveiled in September 2011 during a memorial service for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. One of the twin structures contains a steel beam from the elevator shaft of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. A grassy structure in the shape of a pentagon surrounds the two beams (representative of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.), and the sidewalk that leads into the memorial was
shaped to represent the path of United Airlines Flight 93 before it crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Stark Park, 550 River Road, Manchester, starkpark.com. One of the first public parks to be incorporated in the Queen City, Stark Park occupies a 30-acre tract that was once the site of the Stark family farm in Manchester’s North End. The park is open daily from sunrise to sunset.
Strawbery Banke Museum, 14 Hancock St., Portsmouth, 4331100, strawberybanke. org. Located in the heart of downtown Portsmouth, Strawbery Banke is an authentic nearly 10-acre outdoor museum featuring several historic buildings, preservation programs and more, with an overall collection of around 30,000 artifacts. According to its website, the historic houses will reopen for tours on May 1. Though there are admission fees for the historic houses ($19.50 for adults gets you admission for two days; admission for a family of two adults and children ages 5 to 17 costs $48), veterans and active military (including the families of activie military members up to five people) receive free admission. The Museum’s StoryWalk project is free and open to the public.
Best of the best: Aviation Museum of New Hampshire, 27 Navigator Road, Londonderry, 669-4820, nhahs.org. New Hampshire’s only working museum devoted to aviation history in the Granite State features a variety of exhibits covering important people, places, events and artifacts, and features all kinds of specialty year-round programming geared toward families.
Mt. Washington Auto Road (Route 16, Gorham, mt-washington.com) and Cog Railway (thecog.com). You can get to the summit of Mt. Washington — the highest peak in the Northeast, at 6,288 feet — by driving up the Auto Road or by taking the Cog Railway. See each website for scheduling and ticket pricing details.
Flume Gorge, 852 Daniel Webster Hwy., Lincoln, nhstateparks.org/visit/state-parks/ flume-gorge. This natural gorge extends 800 feet at the base of Mount Liberty. It’s located within Franconia Notch State Park, which was also the home of the famous Old Man of the Mountain.
Canobie Lake Park, 85 N. Policy St., Salem, 893-3506, canobie.com. Featuring more than 100 rides, games, live shows and attractions, Canobie Lake Park is expected to reopen later this spring.
Andres Institute of Art, 106 Route 13, Brookline, 673-7441, andresinstitute.org.
Co-founded in 1998 by engineer Paul Andres
Thing We Forgot to ask about
“Best Renaissance Faire = The New Hampshire Renaissance Faire, Fremont, N.H.”
and master sculptor John M. Weidman, the Andres Institute of Art spans more than 10 miles of trails over 140 acres and features more than 100 sculptures representing dozens of countries. Trails are open daily, from dawn to dusk.
Currier Museum of Art, 150 Ash St., Manchester, 669-6144, currier.org. Founded in 1929, the Currier is known for its exhibits featuring paintings, sculptures, photographs and other works from internationally renowned American and European artists.
New Hampshire SPCA, 104 Portsmouth Ave., Stratham, 772-2921, nhspca.org. The oldest and largest animal shelter in the area, the New Hampshire SPCA celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2022 and serves more than 120 communities across New Hampshire, southern Maine and northern Massachusetts.
Manchester Animal Shelter, 490 Dunbarton Road, Manchester, 628-3544, manchesteranimalshelter. org. For more than two decades the Manchester Animal Shelter has provided more than just homes for animals. The nonprofit has sheltered, provided medical care for and spayed or neutered more than 25,000 animals since its founding.
treatment of all animals. Qualified staff medically and behaviorally evaluate all animals that come through the shelter’s doors, provide necessary veterinary care and work closely with prospective adopters to create successful matches and place pets in loving homes that are committed to lifetime care.
Best Homemade Jams and Jellies: Laurel Hill Jams & Jellies, Bedford, laurelhilljams. com. Newly owned and operated by Bedford sisters Rachel Mack and Sara Steffensmeier, Laurel Hill features more than 50 flavors of gourmet jams and jellies, made from local fruits, wines and teas — see the website for a full list on where to find them locally.
Best Dance Studio: Dimensions in Dance, 84 Myrtle St., Manchester, 668-4196, dimensionsindance.com. Founded in 1995 by Michele Leslie, a professional dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dimensions in Dance was taken over in 2007 by current director Amy Fortier, who also founded the nonprofit dance company Ballet Misha that same year. The studio offers a wide range of dance programs and classes, including ballet, pointe, jazz, lyrical, acro, hip-hop, tap, partnering, contemporary and more.
Best Massage Therapist: Bethany
Families in Transition, 122 Market St., Manchester, 641-9441, fitnh.org. With headquarters in Manchester and additional locations in Concord, Dover and Wolfeboro, Families in Transition is dedicated to preventing and breaking the cycle of homelessness in New Hampshire. The organization has served thousands of individuals and families with everything from serving meals to providing emergency shelters, and holds a variety of fundraising events throughout the year, including the annual Walk Against Hunger, which returns for the 33rd year on May 21. Families in Transition also includes the Outfitters Thrift Store and Willows Treatment Center brands.
CASA of New Hampshire, 138 Coolidge Ave., Manchester, 626-4600, casanh.org. Founded in 1989, Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA, is a nonprofit that recruits, trains and supports community volunteers to serve as advocates for New Hampshire children who have experienced abuse or neglect. CASA volunteer advocates get to know a child and the important people in that child’s life to provide vital information to help a judge make decisions based on the child’s best interests.
Pope Memorial SPCA, 94 Silk Farm Road, Concord, 856-8756, popememorialspca.org. Pope Memorial SPCA is dedicated to protecting and advocating for abandoned and homeless pets and promoting the humane
J. Chabot. Chabot is a licensed massage therapist and the owner and founder of 444 Hands Innately Integrative Massage and Energy Therapy (36 Baboosic Lake Road, Merrimack, 834-2758, 444hands. com). She received her certificate for Massage Therapy and Bodywork from MacIntosh College in Dover in 2004 and her national and state license in 2005. See 444hands.com for a full list of her services; new clients are by referral only.
Best Florist: Flowers by Jennifer, Manchester, flowersbyjennifer.com. A freelance floral artist based out of Manchester, Flowers by Jennifer specializes in artistic floral arrangements for special occasions and events, as well as weekly subscriptions for local businesses.
Best Cigar Shop: Twins Smoke Shop, 80 Perkins Road, Londonderry, 421-0242, twinssmokeshop.com. Twins Smoke Shop’s Londonderry location houses more than 20,000 cigars and is also home to the 7-20-4 Lounge upstairs, offering a wide range of premium tequilas, bourbons, whiskeys and more.
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Back by popular demand is Conversations with Concord Authors, produced by local authors Margaret Porter and Paul Brogan and moderated by Concord-based journalist and longtime NHPR radio host Laura Knoy. The event will return for a second year to the Bank of NH Stage on Wednesday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m.
“[Brogan] had this idea … sometime over a year ago, I think, to bring together Concord-area authors on a stage … and have Laura … interview them about not just their books but the writing process and … being part of the creative community here,” Porter said of how the event first came to be last April. “We immediately knew … that this was something that we wanted to carry on
When: Wednesday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Bank of NH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Cost: Free admission. Reservation is required.
Visit: ccanh.com
Exhibits
• YAM! Kimball Jenkins (266 N. Main St. in Concord; kimballjenkins.com, 225-3932) is hosting the 2023 Concord School District Youth Art Month Show now through Wednesday, April 12. The show will feature works by Concord art teachers in the Jill C. Wilson Gallery.
• LOVE OUR PLANET The Manchester Artists Association has original art works on display in the exhibit “Love Our Planet” at the New Hampshire Audubon Massabesic Center (6 Audubon Way in Auburn) through Saturday, April 29, from noon to 5 p.m. on
and have it perhaps be an annu al event.”
In addition to the inter views there will be a question-and-answer session as well as a book signing sponsored by Gibson’s Bookstore.
Porter participated in theater growing up and went on to study film in graduate school, writing continuously on the side.
“I’ve been a writer all my life, really,” she said. “Ever since I could hold a crayon I think … I was making up stories in my head and writing them down and illustrating them.”
Writing took the forefront for Porter after she moved across the country to Colorado, where she and her husband lived for 11 years while still seasonal New Hampshire residents on Lake Winnipesaukee. She moved
days the center is open, according to a press release. Artists will exhibit more than 30 original works in oil, acrylic, pastel, watercolor, mixed media and photography, and the works will be available for purchase, the release said. See manchesterartists.com.
• “MULTI-MEDIUMS” exhibit featuring works on canvas and panel, wall reliefs in ceramic and metal and sculptures in stone and wood is open now at the Art 3 Gallery (44 W. Brook St. in Manchester; 668-6650) through Sunday, April 30, according to a press release. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 1 to 4:30 p.m. and a virtual exhibit should
be available soon, the release said.
• “GEE’S BEND QUILTS” exhibit, on display at the Currier Museum of Art (50 Ash St. in Manchester; 669-6144, currier. org), features five quilts from Gee’s Bend in Alabama, where several generations of women collectively developed a distinctive style of quilt making, according to the website. Museum admission costs $15 for adults, $13 for seniors age 65 and up, $10 for students, $5 for youth ages 13 through 17 and is free for children age 12 and under and museum members. Current museum hours are Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday through Sunday, from
here full-time about 30 years ago. Having left behind many of her radio and film contacts, Porter found herself without any projects and decided to dedicate her time to writing. Her background in film serves as the basis for many of her stories.
“A lot of my inspiration comes from real-life activities I’ve had,” she said. “I tend to write novels about people … often in the performing arts, actresses or dancers, or [books] set in the golden age of Hollywood about people who were in the film business. … Film history is an area that’s important to me.”
Porter has 15 published historical novels set in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. Many of these stories are set in England, an area she is familiar with due to the time she spent there studying in her teenage and col-
10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Monday through Wednesday.
• “MEMOIRS OF A GHOST GIRLHOOD: A BLACK
GIRL’S WINDOW” In the exhibit on display at the Currier Museum of Art (50 Ash St. in Manchester; 669-6144, currier.org), “artist Alexandria Smith has created an immersive multimedia environment using wallpaper, paintings on wood, found objects and sculpture. It will be accompanied by an original site-specific composition, //windowed// by Liz Gre,” according to the website. Museum admission costs $15 for adults, $13 for seniors age 65 and up, $10 for students, $5 for youth ages 13
lege years and for her husband’s job. She has recently branched out into the contemporary fiction genre, drawing on her experiences on film sets in production and as an extra.
Porter, Brogan and Knoy have been planning this year’s event for months. In addition to Porter and Brogan, authors Kathleen D. Bailey, Sarah McCraw Crow and Dan Lawton will also be featured. While it is free to the public, reservation is required.
“New Hampshire is historically and currently a very supportive and nurturing place for creative people, and writers in particular,” Porter said. “It’s a very vibrant community and we like to celebrate that within this event.”
through 17 and is free for children age 12 and under and museum members. Current museum hours are Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Monday through Wednesday.
• DON’T TALK TO THE ACTORS produced by Lend Me a Theatre will run at the Hatbox Theatre (270 Loudon Road in Concord; hatboxnh.com, 7152315) Friday, March 31, through Sunday, April 16, with shows at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays. Tick-
ets cost $22, $19 for seniors and students.
• FANCY NANCY Southern NH Youth Ballet will present Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet in two performances at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St. in Manchester; palacetheatre.org, 6685588) on Sunday, April 2, at 1 and 4 p.m. There will be a fancy tea and meet-and-greet with Fancy Nancy and her friends 45 minutes prior to each show for an additional $20 per person, according to a press release. The company will also perform The Ugly Duckling at the shows, the release said. Tickets cost $25 for adults, $20 for children ages 12 and under.
• The festival comes home: The New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival held its in-person wrap party on March 26 but the virtual portion of the festival continues through Sunday, April 16. Purchase ticket packages or individual tickets to see the 11 feature films available through the festival — including Dedication and Out of Exile, two films originally not slated for virtual screening — as well as the short films package. See nhjewishfilmfestival.com to purchase tickets and to watch trailers for most of the films.
• Hats off: The Women’s Caucus for Arts’ NH Chapter will present the exhibit “Head’s Up: The Many Hats Women Wear” at Twiggs Gallery (254 King St. in Boscawen; 975-0015, twiggsgallery.org) Saturday, April 1, through Saturday, May 27. The show opens with an artist reception on Saturday, April 1, from 1 to 3 p.m. “The hat theme is expressed in a wide variety of works that include paintings, sculptures, one-of-a-kind artist books, small installations, photography and mixed media pieces,” according to a press release. The gallery is open Thursdays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday, noon to 4 p.m.
• New Nashua exhibit: The Gallery at West Pearl Street (100 W. Pearl St. in Nashua; HollisArtsSociety.org) will feature an exhibit from Ukrainian guest artist Natalia Yuresko-Belous, a new member of the Hollis Arts Society who works in landscapes, still life, portraits and mural paintings, according to a press release. The exhibit, her first major exhibition in America, will be on display until Tuesday, May 30, the release said. The gallery will be open Saturday, April 1, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; Thursday, April 13, from 6 to 8 p.m.; Saturday, April 15, from 6 to 8 p.m.; Friday, April 21, from 6 to 8 p.m.; Saturday, April 22, from 3 to 5 p.m., and Saturday, April 29, from 2 to 4 p.m. — dates and times that correspond with the nearby Nashua Center for the Arts,
which opens this Saturday, April 1, according to the Society’s March newsletter.
• Thursday concert: The Bob McCarthy Trio (described as performing “an eclectic blend of original and traditional music drawing on many styles”) will perform Thursday, March 30, from 7 to 8 p.m. as part of the Belknap Mill’s Bell and Brick Winter Concert Series at the mill (25 Beacon St. East in Laconia; 524-8813, belknapmill.org). Tickets cost $10 at the door.
• Garden art: The exhibit “In Full Bloom: Floral Still Life & Garden Paintings from the 19th century to the present” is on display at the New Hampshire Antique Co--op (323 Elm St. in Milford; nhantiquecoop.com, 6738499) through Thursday, Aug. 31. The gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Craft fair: The Founders Academy (5 Perimeter Road in Manchester) will hold a craft fair on Saturday, April 1, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The fair is the school’s first spring craft fair and was organized by a student for her senior project, according to a press release.
• April exhibit: New Hampshire resident and scenic designer Hannah Joy Hopkins will have her paintings on display at the New Hampshire Art Association’s Art Center Dover (1 Washington St., Suite 1177, in Dover; nhartassociation.org, 978-6702) in the exhibit “Heart Matters” through Sunday, April 30. A reception for the exhibit will be held Saturday, April 1, from 6 to 9 p.m. The gallery is open Mondays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
While the nation celebrates National Poetry Month in April, the Poetry Society of New Hampshire will take a more personal tone with some of its events.
The Society plans to honor Charles Simic, a former United States Poet Laureate, who died in January at 84 years old. Melanie Chicoine, president of the Poetry Society, said Simic helped drive literary culture in America and beyond. One of the most fitting ways to tribute him, Chicoine said, was to offer a reading of some of Simic’s poetry at University of New Hampshire, where he taught for 34 years.
“Simic’s influence reaches far beyond even the U.S.,” Chicoine said. “He has had such a lasting impact on … the poetry community…. So many up and coming and established poets have studied under him.”
When Simic died, Chicoine said, the Society wasn’t sure exactly how to honor him outside of his ties to UNH. It took time, but now the group, in conjunction with New Hampshire State Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary, has decided to run a contest in his memory.
The contest is open to amateur and professional adult writers around the world. Chicoine said the poem’s theme is to be commemorative of Simic, whether it be about him, be written in a style like his, or have a phrase or line borrowed from his own work.
Charles Simic Memorial Event
Where: Hamilton Smith Hall, University of New Hampshire, 95 Main St., Durham
When: Monday, April 19, 5:15 p.m.
Come Closer and Listen: A Community
Reading of Charles Simic Poems
Where: Hopkinton Town Library, 13 Main St.
When: Sunday, May 7, 3-5 p.m.
Visit: psnh.org
• DEATH BY DESIGN a mystery comedy set in an English country manor, will be presented by the Majestic Theatre (88 Page St. in Manchester; 669-7469, majestictheatre.net) on Friday, April 14, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, April 15, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, April 16, at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $15 to $20.
• RIDE THE CYCLONE 3S Artspace (319 Vaughan St. in Portsmouth; 3sarts.org, 766-3330) will team up with RGC Theatre (rgctheatre.art) to present a short run of the musical Ride the Cyclone at 3S Artspace on Friday, April 14, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, April 15, at 2 and 7 p.m., and Sunday, April 16, at 2 p.m., according to a press release. “The plot follows a group of teenagers who
“This contest will be a nice way to honor him, and hopefully we can look for other ways to do so as well,” Chicoine said.
In addition to a monetary prize made up in part from the competition’s entry fees, winners of the competition will have their poem read at another memorial event for Simic on May 7. National Poetry Month in general is dedicated to bringing more people into the world of poetry.
“Poetry has a reputation of being out of reach and academic,” said Chicoine. “One of our goals is to make it more accessible.”
Peary said that, in addition to the competition for Simic, she’s offering another competition for teens to write. As part of her work as laureate, she focuses on teaching children and young adults how to express themselves through poetry. Her competition will seek submissions from students around the world, and she hopes to dedicate part of her youth-edited literary magazine Under the Madness to the winning submissions.
In April the Poetry Society’s website will have more information about both competitions. While the month is dedicated to reading, Peary wants people to challenge themselves to practice the art form she loves so much.
“I’m more interested in getting people to write [poetry] and pushing their own boundaries and surprising themselves,” Peary said. “That brings me so much joy, seeing what people are capable of with this genre.”
board the Cyclone roller coaster. During the ride, the axle breaks, causing the roller coaster to derail at the apex of the loop de loop, and hurtling the teens to their deaths,” the release said. See the 3sarts.org website for in person and live virtual tickets.
• COMMUNITY BAND CONCERT The Windham Community Bands will present a concert on Saturday, April 1, from 5 to 10 p.m. featuring the Windham Swing Band and the Windham Concert Band performing “a variety of Earth-themed music to reflect this year’s theme, ‘The Blue Marble,’” according to a press release. The concert will take place at Castleton Banquet
& Conference Center (58 Enterprise Drive in Windham) and dinner is included with admission. Tickets cost $55 per person or $500 for a table of 10, the release said, and the evening will include a cash bar, raffle baskets and dancing. Call 425-3284 or email info@windhamcommunitybands.org.
• PIANO CONCERT Pianist and conductor Stephen Drury will play a concert at the Johnson Theatre (Paul Creative Arts Center at UNH in Durham) on Thursday, April 6, at 8 p.m. as part of the UNH Department of Music/ Arlene Kies Piano Recital and Master Class Series, according to a press release. The concert is free and you can also view it remotely at youtube.com/unhmusic.
Even though spring has arrived according to the calendar, I fear winter is not done with us yet. Mother Nature is full of tricks,but to reassure me that she will provide us with flowers this spring, I am forcing her hand a bit. Or should I say, forcing some woody stems to blossom indoors now.
The easiest to force are forsythia and pussywillows. But it is also possible to force magnolias, rhododendrons and azaleas, apples and crabapples, cherries, plums, dogwood, spirea and peach. Of course cutting stems off your young peach or plum tree will reduce your fruit crop.
Trees and shrubs that bloom early in the season are quicker to produce their flowers. Shrubs like hydrangeas that bloom in late summer or fall will not bloom now, no matter what you do. I’ve never had much luck with lilacs, though perhaps if I tried closer to bloom time it would work.
In general, flower buds tend to be bigger and fatter than leaf buds. Apple and crabapple trees produce flower buds on short “fruit spurs” but not on those tall water sprouts that appear each summer. So if you are pruning your apples now, look
for branches with short spurs and fat buds. Keep those, and bring them into the house.
I lost a plum tree this winter — it broke under the weight of snow and ice. It took 20 years from the time I planted a bare root twig to the time it first produced fruit. This year it was loaded with fruit spurs and I was looking forward to a big crop of plums. I am making the best of it by cutting lots of stems with fruit spurs and placing them in vases in the house. I should get a multitude of blossoms in a few weeks.
I am also cutting stems from forsythia bushes, one of the first to bloom outside and one of the easiest to force inside. It produces bright yellow flowers in quantity. Look for branches with pointy buds on stems that are at least two years old. You will see skinny new-looking branches that grew last year. They probably won’t produce flowers. Stems that are closer in diameter to pencils are what you want. Older branches have stems growing out of them, often with flower buds.
Then there are the pussy willows. What we call pussywillows are actually the male catkins — pollen-producing parts — of two species of willows (Salix caprea and Salix discolor). Both grow wild, and are available at nurseries. Pussy willows, like all willows, like wet, swampy areas.
They will grow up to be small trees but can be kept to a manageable size with yearly pruning — and now is a good time to do so. The more you trim your pussy willows, the more productive they will be. Left unpruned, pussy willows can easily reach 20 feet tall. Since they bloom on their upper branches, picking good-looking stems can be difficult unless you have a pole pruner.
An established pussy willow is next to impossible to kill. If you have wild pussy willow that is tall and gangly, you can take a saw and cut it all right to the ground. It will come back. It can grow 4 feet or more in a single season.
If you see yellow dust on your pussy willows, they are already producing pollen. So if you are allergy-prone, don’t pick stems with yellow on them. But you can halt pussy willows from producing pollen: pick them at their peak of beauty, and place them in a dry vase. They will stay looking the same for a year. If you pick them before they are fully developed, put them in a vase with water to let them mature. Drain off the water when the little gray kitties are at their cutest.
In 2005 I worked as a volunteer on an organic farm in the Dordogne region of France that grew willow for making baskets. I worked through an organization called Willing Workers on Organic Farms (wwoof.org). In exchange for four to six
hours of work each day I got room and board, lived with a family, and learned a lot about willows, including how easy it is to root them.
To root willows, cut 8- to 12-inch sections of vigorous young stems in May or June. Strip off the lower leaves, and push the stems into moist soil, leaving just 2 inches above ground. Roots will develop at each node (where leaves start) on the stem below ground; new stems and leaves will grow above ground, so long as you leave at least one node above ground. Depending on your soil, you may need to poke a hole in the ground with a screwdriver before inserting your willow stem; be sure the ground is firmed up around it when you are done.
So cut some stems to flower and chase away the late winter blues.
Reach Henry at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. He is the author of four gardening books.
• The Southern New Hampshire Youth Ballet is performing Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet on Sunday, April 2, at 4 p.m. at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester). The dancers will also perform The Ugly Duckling. Fancy Nancy follows two girls, Nancy and Bree, as they audition for the exciting and glamorous ballet Deep-Sea Dances. Tickets cost $25 for adults and $20 for children ages 12 and younger. See palacetheatre.org.
• Classic fairytales are retold in the Sondheim classic Into the Woods performed by the Palace Youth Theatre on Monday, April 3, and Tuesday, April 4, at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $15 for adults, $12 for children ages 6 to 12. For more information, visit palacetheatre.org
• Join the Lions Clubs of Pinardville and Goffstown on Saturday, April 1, at Roy Park playground (31 Rosemont St., Goffstown) for an Easter egg hunt. Ages 1 and 2 hunt at 9 a.m., ages 3 to 5 at 9:45 a.m., ages 6 to 9 at 10:30 a.m., and ages 10 to 12 at 11:15 a.m. The clubs encourage hunters to bring their own egg baskets. Visit goffstownlions.org.
• Starting on Saturday, April 1, Charmingfare Farm (774 High St., Candia) will have Easter egg hunts from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The hunts will continue on Sunday, April 2, and Saturday, April 8, and Sunday, April 9. Kids ages 2 to 12 can hunt for a dozen candy-filled eggs that are prepackaged for them to bring home. The farm’s website gives a hint on where the eggs are located: Find the Easter Bunny and you will find the eggs. The hunt costs $22 a person and tickets must be purchased in advance at visitthefarm.com.
• Join the Educational Farm at Joppa Hill (174 Joppa Hill Road, Bedford) for its
Hello, Donna.
My name is Gayle and I have inherited this piece. Not sure what it is — it was used as a doorstop. It is very heavy — 15 pounds, 12 inches high, 6 inches wide (at wheels) and 7 1/2 inches long. Not sure if it is brass or if it is plated. I see no markings. Your input would be greatly appreciated.
Dear Gayle, I have to say you got me!
Using it as a doorstop with that weight is a great use for it. I do think it’s all brass; it has a warm smooth rounded finish to it like copper. Brass would make it heavy as well.
Gayle, as far as what it was originally, I think it was just a decorative piece. The value
Egg-citing egg hunt on Saturday, April 1, at either 10 a.m. or noon. In addition to collecting eggs, kids can meet the Easter bunny, and get a special prize if they find the special golden egg. Tickets for the egg hunt cost $20 and can be purchased at theeducationalfarm.org
• The Easter Bunny will arrive at the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road, Londonderry) on a student-built airplane at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 1. He will pass out candy and be available for photos until 12:30 p.m. Visit nhahs. org.
• Ring in spring at the Goffstown Citizens Committee SpringFest 2023 at Goffstown High School (27 Wallace Road) on Saturday, April 1, at 10 a.m. There will be a kids’ carnival featuring bounce houses, slides, table games, face painting, a vendor area with 70 booths set up, a food court for snacks and meals, and more. Tickets are $5 for adults; children 12 and younger are free. Visit allevents.in/goffstown/200024205160156.
• The Educational Farm at Joppa Hill (174 Joppa Hill Road, Bedford) is hosting Goat Stories and Masks for kids ages 1 to 6 on Monday, April 3, at 1 p.m. Kids will get to go around the farm and see and learn more about the goats before having the chance to make their own goat mask out of material provided for them. Tickets cost $15 per child. Visit theeducationalfarm.org for more information.
• Join the Our Promise to Nicholas Foundation at the NH Sportsplex (68 Technology Drive, Bedford) for an indoor maze and egg hunt on Saturday, April 8, at 8:30 a.m. There will be 15,000 plastic eggs filled with candy and other prizes for kids to find spread out across the plex’s turf. Tickets for one egg hunter cost $8 online, $10 at the door, with pricing options available for families and larger groups as well. Visit ourpromisetonicholas.com to purchase tickets.
would be in the range of $50 decoratively. Using it as a doorstop is priceless!
Thanks for sharing, Gayle.
DonnaDonna Welch has spent more than 30 years in the antiques and collectibles field, appraising and instructing, and recently closed the physical location of From Out Of The Woods Antique Center (fromoutofthewoodsantiques.com) but is still doing some buying and selling. She is a member of The New Hampshire Antiques Dealer Association. If you have questions about an antique or collectible send a clear photo and information to Donna at footwdw@aol.com, or call her at 391-6550 or 624-8668.
698 Beech St, Manchester NH 03104
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North End Montessori School is planning a DY-NO-MITE summer filled with fun.
Join us to learn about fossils and dinosaurs from Allosaurus to Zephyrosaurus.
We will have archeological digs, complete dinosaur skeletons and much more.
Summer Session: June 19 – September 1, 2023 Monday
Our sister school – Meeting House Montessori School in Bow, NH – will also have Paleontology Camp this summer. Contact that office at 603-227-9300 or email casadeibambini@comcast.net for more information.
Dear Car Talk:
I am moving from Fountain Valley, California (92708) to Spirit Lake, Idaho (83869). I have a 2019 front-wheeldrive Chevy Trax with 15,728 miles. As I am not used to driving in super cold weather with snow and ice, I’m guessing I should probably trade for a four-wheel-drive vehicle ... with heated seats and a heated steering wheel. Do you have any recommendations? I’m looking to keep the price below $30,000, and newer is better so I can get a warranty. —
more limited in Spirit Lake, Idaho. You’ll get more for it by selling it in California, where it’s a perfectly useable car.
By Ray MagliozziYou might even get a better deal on your new car before you move, too, since all-wheeldrive is (usually!) unnecessary in Southern California, and a dealer may be slightly more motivated to move one. Very slightly.
In terms of what car to get, you’re in luck, Jennifer. Compact, all-wheel-drive crossovers are among the most popular vehicles sold right now. It seems that everybody wants one. So, there are tons of choices.
the original owner). I drive it about 20 miles a week, and it has about 75,000 miles on it now.
Of course, it was designed to be used with leaded gasoline. For a while, I used a lead additive. But then I just switched to using the highest-octane gas I could get. Now I’m getting conflicting advice on whether or not to use the lead additive. The car runs the same with or without it. What is your advice regarding using it or not? Thanks very much. — Allan
I wouldn’t bother at this point, Allan.
had cars made during the lead era.
So, you can find a “lead substitute” (not real lead, obviously) on the market and add it to each tank of gas, but that’s inconvenient and expensive.
My advice would be to save the $10 a tank and just drive the car.
Eventually, it’s possible your Mustang will need a valve job. And at that point, you can decide if you want to fix it, sell it, or torch it.
JenniferFirst of all, thanks for providing your new zip code. Now I know where to ship you 10 pairs of Bronko Nagurski long underwear. Yes, you should definitely get a vehicle with all-wheel drive, heated seats and a heated steering wheel. If they have heated seat belts and radio dials, consider those, too.
You might even want to get four snow tires when you get to Idaho depending on how comfortable you feel driving there and how often you have to drive in unplowed snow.
I would recommend you get your new car before you move. Why? Because the market for your two-wheel drive Chevy Trax will be
I can give you a few names of vehicles I like, but you’ll have to go out and drive them, and make sure your bouffant doesn’t scrape the headliner when you drive.
Some of my favorites in that class are the Honda CR-V and HR-V, the Toyota RAV4, the Nissan Rogue, and the Subaru Forester and Crosstrek.
You should be able to get reasonably wellequipped versions of those cars for right around your price range. But consider limiting your budget to $29,000. That way you’ll have another thousand for heated socks. Good luck.
Dear Car Talk:
I love your column and your NPR show. I have a 1973 Ford Mustang convertible (I am
Gasoline companies used to put lead in fuel to boost octane. As a side benefit, they learned that the lead also cushioned the blow of the hot exhaust valves as they slammed against their valve seats.
So, when the Environmental Protection Agency figured out that the lead in gasoline was causing us to all grow four chins -- OK, I already had two, but you get my point -- oil companies were forced to stop adding lead.
Some years later, we noticed that some older cars were developing a problem called valve seat recession. You may remember reading about the great valve seat recession of 1978 in school.
Anyway, to combat that problem, car makers started making their valve seats harder. Problem solved. Except for folks like you who
If you fix it, the valve job will cost you a couple of grand, and they’ll use new, hardened valve seats.
But at only 20 miles a week, it might be your heirs that do the valve job, Allan, not you.
Or you may need major engine work for some other reason -- engines didn’t last as long in 1973 -- and at that point, you’ll get your hardened valve seats.
By the way, the higher-octane fuel you’re buying doesn’t do anything to protect those valve seats. Higher than recommended octane is only helpful if you have pinging or pre-ignition.
So, if your car doesn’t ping on regular unleaded, take the 60 cents a gallon, plus the $10 a tank you’re saving on lead substitute, and put into a valve job cookie jar and pass it down to your kids, along with the Mustang. Visit Cartalk.com.
• Celebration of brews: Join the New Hampshire Brewers Association in celebrating New Hampshire Craft Beer Week — the 10-day campaign returns from Thursday, April 6, through Saturday, April 15. Organized to coincide each year with National Craft Beer Day (April 7), New Hampshire Craft Beer Week features more than 120 events statewide. Among this year’s happenings is the inaugural downtown Nashua craft beer tour — participants are encouraged to visit each of the Gate City’s six downtown craft breweries during the week for access to special food and beverage deals, available with a special stamp book. Tickets are $30 per person and also include commemorative pint glasses. See downtownnashua.org/beertour for more details, and be sure to follow New Hampshire Craft Beer Week’s Facebook page @nhcraftbeerweek for updates on more ongoing events and campaigns as they become available.
• And speaking of beer: The Rodgers Memorial Library (194 Derry Road, Hudson) will host “Brewing in New Hampshire: An Informal History of Beer in the Granite State from Colonial Times to the Present,” a program scheduled for Wednesday, April 5, at 7 p.m., in partnership with New Hampshire Humanities. Presenter and author Glenn Knoblock will explore the history of the state’s beer and ale brewing industry from its colonial days to today’s modern breweries and brew pubs. Admission is free, but registration is required. Knoblock is also scheduled to hold similar lectures at the Campton Public Library (1110 Route 175, Campton) on Monday, April 17, at 6 p.m., and the Epsom Public Library (1606 Dover Road, Epsom) on Monday, April 24, at 6:30 p.m.. Visit nhhumanities.org.
• Grow your knowledge: The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire recently announced the rollout of its “Feeding the Family” organic gardening series. According to a press release, the series comprises four online workshops, to be held Thursday evenings from March 30 through April 20, and one in-person workshop on Saturday, April 29. Each installment in the series offers instruction for home growers “seeking to build skills to feed themselves and their families,” according to the release. Topics include The Science and Art of Tomato Culture (online, on Thursday, March 30); Protecting Edible Crops from Deer Damage (online, on Thursday, April 6); Understanding Forest and Garden Impacts of the Invasive “Jumping” Earthworm (online, on Thursday, April 13); Integrating Nitro-
With Easter Sunday right on our doorstep (Sunday, April 9), now is the time to make your plans. Whether you’re looking to reserve your spot to enjoy a brunch buffet, or you want to bring your Easter meals or desserts home this year, check out this list of local restaurants, function halls, bakeries and churches offering specialty items. Be sure to contact each establishment directly for the most up-to-date details on reservation availability. We’ve also included candy and chocolate shops on this list that have you covered for those Easter baskets and other sweet treats. Did we miss anyone that’s serving an Easter brunch or specials menu? Tell us about them at food@hippopress.com.
• 110 Grill (875 Elm St., Manchester, 8361150; 27 Trafalgar Square, Nashua, 943-7443; 110grill.com) will serve special brunch menu features for Easter on Sunday, April 9, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., in addition to its regular menus. Options will include steak and eggs Benedict, chicken and waffles, crab cakes Benedict and several assorted brunch cocktails.
• 603 Charcuterie (603charcuterie.com) is taking orders for a variety of charcuterie specials for Easter, including pink (serves 4 to 5) or purple (serves 6 to 8) charcuterie boxes filled with local cheeses, meats and other accoutrements, as well as large (serves 16 to 20) and extra-large (serves 25 to 30) charcuterie platters; charcuterie “bouquets” (serves 5 to 6) and specialty painted cookie sleeves, courtesy of Zeezee Cookies. Order for pickup at The Factory on Willow (252 Willow St., Manchester) on Saturday, April 8, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. All charcuterie items are best if consumed within 24 hours of pickup.
• Airport Diner (2280 Brown Ave., Manchester, 623-5040, thecman.com) will be open during its regular business hours on Easter Sunday (from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.), serving its daily menus with specials.
• Alan’s of Boscawen (133 N. Main St., Boscawen, 753-6631, alansofboscawen.com) will serve a special Easter brunch buffet on Sunday, April 9, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., which will include fresh fruit, assorted cheeses and crackers, Danishes and breads, and carving stations featuring roast leg of lamb, sliced tenderloin and Virginia baked ham. Other options will include chicken piccata, tortellini alfredo, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables and assorted desserts. The cost is $34.99 for adults, and complete Easter dinners are also available to order for takeout.
• All Real Meal (87 Elm St., Manchester, 782-3014, allrealmeal.com) is taking orders for special Easter feasts, with multiple sizes serving two, four or six people. Meals include marinated baked turkey, glazed baked ham, homestyle buttery mashed potatoes, cranberry apple stuffing, almond green beans, homestyle cornbread
and mixed berry cheesecake for dessert. Order online for curbside pickup or delivery on Saturday, April 8.
• Alpine Grove Banquet Facility (19 S. Depot Road, Hollis, 882-9051, alpinegrove.com) will serve a special Easter brunch buffet on Sunday, April 9 — three time slots are available to choose from: 9 to 10:30 a.m., 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and 1 to 2:30 p.m. Fea tured breakfast menu items will include assorted mini pastries and gourmet doughnuts, a local fruit and cheese display, Belgian waffles with maple syrup and seasonal compote, crepes, scrambled eggs and applewood bacon and sausage. For lunch options there will be grilled chick en breast with a honey glazed lavender sauce, baked Virginia ham with a rum sauce, slow roasted prime rib, baked macaroni and cheese, seasonal vegetable medley and more. The cost is $35 for adults, $30 for seniors, $15 for kids ages 3 to 12 and free for kids under 3. Reservations are being accepted online.
• Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop (815 Chestnut St., Manchester, 625-9544, angelaspastaandcheese.com) is taking orders for a variety of dessert pies courtesy of Slightly Crooked Pies of Bedford (cherry, black and blue crumble, and triple berry or blueberry lavender hand pies); dinner rolls and loaves from Iggy’s Bakery; quiches, pies and cakes in assorted flavors from The Crust & Crumb Baking Co.; and house pastries like seasonally-themed whoopie pies, shortbread cookies and more. Order by March 31. Pickups will be on Saturday, April 8, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Assumption Greek Orthodox Church (111 Island Pond Road, Manchester, 623-2045, assumptionnh.org) will host a walk-in Easter bake sale on Saturday, April 8, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. inside its church hall. Spinach peta, cheese peta, Greek cookie and pastry platters and tsoureki (Easter bread) will be available for sale in limited quantities while supplies last.
• Atkinson Resort & Country Club (85 Country Club Drive, Atkinson, 362-8700, atkinsonresort.com) will serve a special Easter brunch buffet on Sunday, April 9, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. inside its Legacy Ballroom. The menu will include chef-attended omelet and waffle stations, hand-carved prime rib, a smoked ham carving station, and breakfast options, like scrambled eggs, bacon, cinnamon swirl French toast and more. The cost is $80 for adults, $30 for kids ages 3 to 10 and free for kids under 3. Reservations are required. Merrill’s Tavern and Stagecoach Grille, meanwhile, will each be serving a special Easter menu from noon to 4 p.m. that day.
• The Bakeshop on Kelley Street (171 Kelley St., Manchester, 624-3500, thebakeshoponkelleystreet.com) is taking orders for a variety of specialty sweets and treats for Easter, including
an Easter egg bread (sweet bread with colored cooked Easter eggs on top) and bottom layer carrot cake with a top layer cheesecake and cream cheese frosting. Also available to order are assorted flavors of pies, cakes, cookies, rolls, Danishes, tea and coffee cakes. Order by April 5. Pickups will be available through Saturday, April 8 (the shop will be closed on Easter Sunday). Bearded Baking Co. (819 Union St., Manchester, 647-7150, beardedbaking.com) is taking orders for eight-inch cakes (carrot or lemon poppy), lemon dream cheesecakes (serves eight to 12 people), chocolate flourless Parisian slices, blueberry lemon or carrot cake vegan doughnuts, and Easter candy cupcake boxes, featuring assorted cupcakes topped with Cadbury egg pieces, Reese’s peanut butter cups and cookies and cream pieces. Order by April 2. Pickups will be on Saturday, April 8.
• Bedford Village Inn (2 Olde Bedford Way, Bedford, 472-2001, bedfordvillageinn.com) will serve a special three-course prix fixe Easter Dinner on Sunday, April 9, with reservations available from 2 to 7 p.m. Meals will include your choice of a first course (Heron Pond Farm carrot bisque, New England clam chowder with chives, poached Nellie’s Farm egg or prosciutto and fruit salad); an entree (grilled tournedos of beef, pistachio and matcha crusted Icelandic cod loin, braised lamb shank, smoked North Country ham, boneless Cornish game hen, or herb roasted cauliflower “steak”); and a dessert (mixed berry Napoleon, matcha crème brûlée, chocolate mousse dome, “blackout” tiramisu, or blueberry crisp with cinnamon ice cream). The cost is $75 for adults and $39.98 for kids ages 10 and under.
• Belmont Hall & Restaurant (718 Grove St., Manchester, 625-8540, belmonthall.net) will serve an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet on Easter Sunday, with seatings at 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. or 12:30 p.m. The cost is $18.99 per person. Additionally, the restaurant will be open for walk-ins only that day — no reservations required.
• Birch Wood Vineyards (199 Rockingham Road, Derry, 965-4359, birchwoodvineyards. com) will serve a special Easter Sunday brunch on Sunday, April 9, with seatings at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. All meals will be served from a prix fixe menu — no substitutions. Entree options will include French toast, chicken and waffles, eggplant Napoleon, frittata, brown sugar maple glazed ham, baked haddock Newburg, braised lamb shank or slow roasted prime rib. All breakfast and lunch entrees will each be served with a salad (fruit salad with breakfasts), a variety of fresh baked breads, milk, juice or coffee, and a dessert buffet. The cost ranges from $55 to $70 per adult entree and $35 per kids’ entree. Reservations are required by April 2.
• The Black Forest Cafe & Bakery (212 Route 101, Amherst, 672-0500, blackforest-
cafeandbakery.com) is taking orders for pies (apple, Dutch apple, strawberry rhubarb, cherry, gluten-free chocolate cream and gluten-free grasshopper); cakes (carrot, lemon daisy, old-fashioned coconut, limoncello and chocolate mousse); and assorted shortbread cookies and Easter pastries. Order by April 5. Pickups will be on Friday, April 7, and Saturday, April 8 (the shop will be closed on Easter Sunday).
• Buckley’s Great Steaks (438 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 424-0995, buckleysgreatsteaks.com) will be open on Sunday, April 9, from noon to 5 p.m., serving its regular menu in addition to some chef specials, like carrot and ginger bisque, smoked spiral ham and baked stuffed haddock. Call or visit the website to make a reservation.
• Buckley’s Bakery & Cafe (436 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 262-5929, buckleysbakerycafe.com) and Buckley’s Market & Cafe (9 Market Place, Hollis, 465-5522) are taking orders for cakes (carrot, hummingbird, double chocolate caramel and gluten-free lemon blueberry); eight-inch pies (chocolate cream, Key lime, mixed berry crumble and lemon meringue); assorted breakfast and dessert pastry trays, Parker House rolls, cinnamon raisin bread and raspberry almond crumb cake. Order by April 5.
• The Cake Fairy (114 Londonderry Turnpike, Hooksett, 518-8733, cakefairynh.com) is taking orders for nine-inch pies (lemon cream, eclair and peach); four-inch cheesecakes (strawberry, lemon and blueberry); traditional whoopie pies, nine-inch blueberry cobbler, assorted Danish boxes and Easter bunny hut cupcake kits, featuring two vanilla cupcakes, two bags of frosting, two rings and three assorted toppings. Order by April 1. Pickups will be on Saturday, April 8, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Carina’s Cakes (14B E. Broadway, Derry, 425-9620, find them on Facebook @carinas. cakes) is taking orders for a variety of specialty cupcake flavors for Easter, like Peeps marshmallow, Andes mint, chocolate chip cookie dough, Oreo, Reese’s peanut butter cup, Funfetti, toasted coconut, carrot cake and more. Orders will be accepted through April 6 or until the shop reaches capacity.
• Caroline’s Fine Food (132 Bedford Center Road, Bedford, 637-1615, carolinesfood.com) is taking orders for Easter dinners serving four or eight people, featuring your choice of maple glazed pork loin, pan seared lemon rosemary chicken breast or garlic and rosemary roasted leg of lamb. All entrees are additionally served with shallot whipped potatoes, lemon honey caramelized carrots and sauteed asparagus. Several items are also available a la carte, like prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, charcuterie platters, roasted summer vegetables with dip, baby greens salad with a red wine vinaigrette, ham, Swiss and spinach or caprese quiches, and blueberry or lemon poppyseed scones. Order by April 3 at 2 p.m. Pickups will be Friday, April 7, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Castleton Waterfront Dining on Cobbetts (58 Enterprise Drive, Windham, 898-6300, castletonbcc.com) is taking orders for a variety of to-go items for Easter, including dinner packages of spiral glazed ham or roast leg of lamb with
herbs — each comes with its own sides, like vegetables, dinner rolls or carrot cake. You can also customize your Easter dinner with a la carte items, like main courses (tenderloin of beef, spiral glazed ham with pineapple raisin sauce, roast leg of lamb with herbs and roast pork loin with cranberry apple stuffing); sides by the quart (honey glazed carrots, green beans almondine, tender spring peas with pancetta, au gratin potatoes, garlic and chive whipped potatoes, roasted rosemary red bliss potatoes, merlot sauce, mushroom demi glace, lamb gravy and pineapple raisin sauce); hors d’oeuvres by the dozen (scallop and bacon skewers, crabmeat stuffed mushrooms, asparagus and asiago wraps, smoked gouda macaroni and cheese bites, petite arancini, almond raspberry brie tarts and spanakopita); and baked goods (dinner rolls by the dozen, 10-inch carrot cake and 10-inch New York-style cheesecake). Order by March 31 at noon. Pickups will be on Saturday, April 8, from 9 a.m. to noon.
• The Coach Stop Restaurant & Tavern (176 Mammoth Road, Londonderry, 437-2022, coachstopnh.com) will serve a special a la carte menu for Easter on Sunday, April 9, with seatings at noon and 3 p.m., featuring items like spinach and artichoke dip, French onion soup, baconwrapped scallops, roast prime rib of beef, veal Oscar, lobster macaroni and cheese, baked lamb or ham dinners, baked haddock and more. Reservations are being accepted via phone.
• Colby Hill Inn (33 The Oaks, Henniker, 428-3281, colbyhillinn.com) will serve a special three-course prix fixe menu for Easter on Sunday, April 9, with seatings from noon to 5 p.m. and patio and lawn seating also available, weather permitting. The meal will include your choice of a first course (lemon chicken noodle soup, mushroom and buttermilk soup, spring greens and Easter radish salad, baby mizuna salad or red beet deviled eggs); a main course (Greek-style roast leg of lamb in oregano and garlic, maple and cider mustard glazed ham, prime rib smoked with pink peppercorn and rosemary, day boat scallops, rabbit pot pie or carrot spaetzle); and a dessert (Meyer lemon and raspberry chambord sorbet duo, lavender crème brûlée, strawberry rhubarb pie with ginger ice cream, maple walnut carrot cake, or an Easter chocolate trio featuring Belgian chocolate mousse, white chocolate Easter bark and a chocolate peanut butter egg). The cost is $70 per person and reservations are required.
• The Common Man (25 Water St., Concord, 228-3463; 304 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 429-3463; 88 Range Road, Windham, 898-0088; 10 Pollard Road, Lincoln, 745-3463; 21 Water St., Claremont, 542-6171; 60 Main St., Ashland, 968-7030; thecman.com) will be open on Sunday, April 9, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at each of its locations, serving their regular menus with Easter specials.
• Copper Kettle To Go (39 Main St., Wilton, 654-2631, copperkettletogo.com) is taking orders for Easter dinners featuring your choice of lamb shank, ham or braised short rib, in addition to three-layer carrot cake by the slice and traditional sweet Easter pie (featuring a layered phyllo dough shell and a ricotta-orange filling). Orders will be ready for pickup on Saturday, April 8.
• Crosby Bakery (51 E. Pearl St., Nashua, 882-1851, crosbybakerynh.com) is taking orders for eight-inch or 10-inch sized pies (apple, apple crumb, blueberry, banana cream, cherry, chocolate cream, coconut cream, lemon meringue and pecan); eight-inch Bird’s Nest or limoncello cakes, seven-inch lay ered carrot cakes, assorted pastry and cookie platters, and savory items, like gorton (Canadian pork spread), meat pie, salmon pie, Parker House rolls, Boston baked beans and more. Order by April 5.
• The Crust & Crumb Bak ing Co. (126 N. Main St., Concord, 219-0763, thecrustandcrumb.com) is taking orders for a variety of specialty items for Easter, including Shaker squash or butter rolls, vanilla glazed cinnamon buns, pecan sticky buns, sour cream or raspberry lemon coffee cakes, hot cross buns, choreg (seeded Armenian Easter bread), quiches (ham and Swiss, asparagus and goat cheese, or bacon, broccoli and cheddar); French Canadian tourtiere; pork pie with apple, rosemary and sweet potato); sweet cakes (blueberry lemon mousse, raspberry coconut layer cake, flourless chocolate torte and others); and six-inch or nine-inch pies (apple streusel, forest berry crumb, maple bourbon pecan, lemon meringue, blueberry crumb, Key lime, chocolate cream, maple cream or coconut cream; the latter four can be ordered with graham crusts or gluten-free almond oat crusts). Order by April 1. Pickups will be on Saturday, April 8.
• The Derryfield Restaurant (625 Mammoth Road, Manchester, 623-2880, thederryfield.com)
will serve a special Easter brunch on Sunday, April 9, with seatings starting at 10 a.m. The meal will feature an omelet station, a carving station with slow roast prime rib and oven-baked ham, a bread station with items like muffins, croissants and rolls, a salad station and a dessert station. On the main buffet table, there will be French toast, scrambled eggs, corned beef hash, bacon, sausage, fresh seasonal fruit, pancakes, baked beans, seafood Newburg and more. The cost is $34.95 for adults, $32.95 for seniors over 65 and $19.95 for kids under 12. Reservations are being accepted via phone.
• Fratello’s Italian Grille (155 Dow St., Manchester, 641-6776, fratellos.com) will serve a special Easter buffet on Sunday, April 9, with seatings at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., featuring an egg and omelet station, a carving station with slow roasted prime rib au jus and apricot-glazed pork loin roast, and assorted parfaits, cakes and other treats. On the main buffet table there will be breakfast pastries, seasonal fruit, Belgian waffles, bacon and sausage, homestyle potatoes, chicken piccata, dill herb salmon, baked ham with a brown sugar glaze, wild rice pilaf, roasted sweet vegetable medley and more. The cost is $39 for adults, $18.95 for kids ages 4 to 11 and free for kids ages 3 and under. Reservations are required.
• Frederick’s Pastries (109 Route 101A, Amherst, 882-7725; 25 S. River Road, Bedford, 647-2253; pastry.net) is taking orders for an array of specialty sweets and treats for Easter, like bunny cookie kits, speckled robin cakes, sheep
cakes, baby chick or Easter basket-shaped cupcakes, carrot cake cheesecake cups, carrot cake cupcakes and more. Advance online ordering is recommended.
• Friendly Red’s Tavern (22 Haverhill Road, Windham, 437-7251, friendlyredstavern. net) will be open on Sunday, April 9, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., for breakfast only.
• Gauchos Churrascaria Brazilian Steak House (62 Lowell St., Manchester, 669-9460, gauchosbraziliansteakhouse.com) will serve a special Easter brunch buffet on Sunday, April 9, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. featuring rodizio meats carved tableside, along with an all-you-caneat selection of pastries and fresh fruit, and the restaurant’s famous chocolate fountain. The cost is $39.99 for adults, $14.99 for kids ages 6 to 10 and free for kids ages 5 and under.
• Giorgio’s Ristorante & Bar (270 Granite St., Manchester, 232-3323; 707 Milford Road, Merrimack, 883-7333; 524 Nashua St., Milford, 673-3939; giorgios.com) will be open on Sunday, April 9, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., serving its regular menu with chef-inspired specials. Reservations are being accepted via phone.
• Granite Restaurant & Bar (The Centennial Hotel, 96 Pleasant St., Concord, 227-9005, graniterestaurant.com) will serve a special Easter brunch menu on Sunday, April 9, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Items will include peaches and cream Belgian waffles, steak and eggs Benedict, shrimp and grits, red quinoa and farro bowls, “Amishstyle” baked oatmeal with Greek yogurt, seasonal fruit and local honey, asparagus and mushroom toast, the house Centennial burger, a grilled breakfast burrito and more.
• Granite State Candy Shoppe (13 Warren St., Concord, 225-2591; 832 Elm St., Manchester, 218-3885; granitestatecandyshoppe.com) is offering a wide variety of pre-arranged Easter baskets available in three sizes each, featuring white, dark or milk chocolate selections. Other available items include milk chocolate peanut butter or marshmallow eggs, foiled chocolate eggs, chocolate-dipped marshmallow Peeps, pastel malted milk eggs, caramel quail eggs and more.
• The Hills Restaurant (Hampshire Hills Athletic Club, 50 Emerson Road, Milford, 6737123, hampshirehills.com/the-hills-restaurant) will serve a special Easter brunch buffet on Sunday, April 9, from 8 a.m. to noon, featuring French toast, waffles, muffins, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, yogurt, brown sugar Easter ham and more. The cost is $25 for adults and $12 for kids, and reservations are being accepted online.
• The Homestead Tavern & Restaurant (641 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 429-2022, homesteadnh.com) will serve a special a la carte menu for Easter on Sunday, April 9, accepting reservations from 11 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Items will include spinach and artichoke dip, French onion soup, roast prime rib of beef, chicken and broccoli alfredo, baked stuffed haddock, shrimp and scallop risotto, New York sirloin, veal Oscar, roasted rack of lamb, barbecue baby back ribs,
chicken Marsala and broiled salmon.
• Jamison’s Restaurant (472 Route 111, Hampstead, 489-1565, jamisonsrestaurant.com) will serve a special Easter brunch on Sunday, April 9, with items that include slow roasted prime rib au jus, oven-roasted turkey breast, pesto crusted lamb leg, stuffed haddock and glazed spiral ham. Reservations are being accepted via phone.
• KC’s Rib Shack (837 Second St., Manchester, 627-7427, ribshack.net) will serve its annual all-you-can-eat Easter buffet on Sunday, April 9, from noon to 6 p.m., featuring starters like bacon Sriracha deviled eggs and fruit salad; meats, like smoked pit ham, beef brisket, pulled pork, spare ribs and smoked chicken; sides, like green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, corn casserole, cole slaw, applesauce and cornbread; and a variety of desserts. The cost is $30 for adults, $14 for kids ages 5 to 10 and free for kids under 5. The buffet is by reservation only, and the regular menu will not be available that day. The last reservations of the day will be taken at 4 p.m. Call to book parties of more than six people.
• LaBelle Winery (345 Route 101, Amherst; 14 Route 111, Derry; 672-9898, labellewinery. com) will serve a special Easter brunch buffet at both of its locations on Sunday, April 9 — seatings are at 10 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. at each. The buffet will feature a mimosa bar, an interactive doughnut designing station, fruit and bread display, a Belgian waffle station, an omelet station, and assorted breakfast items, like bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs and home fries. Also included will be carving stations with ham and prime rib, salad stations, and lunch items like chicken, baked haddock, vegetable pasta primavera, roasted potatoes and more. A full bar will be available throughout brunch, featuring wine, beer, cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages, while desserts will include chocolate cake, cheesecake, carrot cake, pot de creme, mini cannolis and chocolate-covered strawberries. The cost is $85 for adults, $35 for kids ages 3 to 12 and free for kids ages 2 and under. Reserve your table online with a $50 deposit, which will be applied toward your total brunch cost (only one reservation per party is needed).
• Makris Lobster & Steak House (354 Sheep Davis Road, Concord, 225-7665, eatalobster. com) will serve a special family-style Easter brunch buffet on Sunday, April 9, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring items like fresh fruits and cheeses, a salad bar, a carving station with prime rib and applewood smoked ham, and other main course dishes, like maple Dijon glazed salmon, lamb souvlaki and pasta primavera with a garlic wine sauce. The cost is $34.99 for adults, $31.99 for seniors and $14.99 for kids ages 12 and under.
• Mile Away Restaurant (52 Federal Hill Road, Milford, 673-3904, mileawayrestaurantnh. com) is taking reservations now for Easter, offering special meals that include your choice of one appetizer, salad, entree and dessert. Menu staples include appetizers like corn chowder, Swedish meatballs, fresh fruit plates with sorbet; Caesar salad or garden salad with blue cheese, house ranch, raspberry vinaigrette or balsamic dressing; entrees, like roast leg of lamb, honey-glazed
ham, pork Provencal, piccata Milanese, maple salmon, vegetarian baked eggplant Parmesan, or grilled duck breast with an orange berry sauce; and desserts, like carrot cake, sorbet, cheesecake, chocolate ganache cake, lemon mascarpone cake or chocolate mousse cake.
• Mr. Mac’s Macaroni & Cheese (497 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 606-1760, mr-macs.com) accepts orders for both hot-and-ready and takeand-bake trays of macaroni and cheese, as well as macaroni salads, assorted green salads, desserts and more. Placing orders at least 24 hours in advance is appreciated.
• MT’s Local Kitchen & Wine Bar (212 Main St., Nashua, 595-9334, mtslocal.com) will be open on Sunday, April 9, from noon to 5 p.m., serving its regular menu in addition to some chef specials. Call or visit the website to make a reservation.
• Nelson’s Candy & Music (65 Main St., Wilton, 654-5030, nelsonscandymusic.com) is offering all kinds of specialty sweets and treats for Easter, like hand-poured chocolate mold bunnies, chocolate bunny pops and family-sized bunny boxes, which include assorted themed chocolates, jelly beans, molasses peanut butter zippers, chocolate-dipped Peeps, foiled chocolate eggs, fruit slices and caramel- or chocolate-covered popcorn.
• Presto Craft Kitchen (168 Amory St., Manchester, 606-1252, prestocraftkitchen.com) is taking orders for a variety of specialty items for Easter, including appetizers, like pizzagaina (quiche-like ricotta pie with Italian meats), charcuterie platters, assorted devil’s egg platters (with classic, dill pickle and bacon and chive flavors). Also on the menu are family-sized entrees feeding four to six people (classic three-cheese lasagna, chicken or eggplant Parmesan with pasta and glazed ham with creamy mashed potatoes and carrots); and desserts (macaroons by the dozen, giant breakable chocolate Easter eggs, fresh filled cannolis and “carrot patches,” featuring a dozen strawberries dipped in orange chocolate and buried in a “dirt” of Oreo cookie crumbles). Order by April 1. Pickups will be on Friday, April 7, from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• The Puritan Backroom Restaurant (245 Hooksett Road, Manchester, 669-6890, puritanbackroom.com) will be open on Sunday, April 9, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., serving its regular menu in addition to some Easter specials, like baked ham, roast turkey and roast lamb. Reservations for parties of six or more are being accepted. Walk-ins are welcome, but between noon and 4 p.m. there will not be room for any large parties without a reservation.
• The Red Arrow Diner (61 Lowell St., Manchester, 626-1118; 137 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 552-3091; 112 Loudon Road, Concord, 415-0444; 149 Daniel Webster Hwy., Nashua, 204-5088; redarrowdiner.com) will be open during its normal business hours on Easter Sunday at all four of its locations, serving a special pit ham dinner with mashed potatoes and carrots for $15.99.
• Rig A Tony’s Italian Takeout & Catering (38 W. Broadway, Derry, 425-6116; 13 Rockingham Road, Windham, 685-8122; 254 Wallace Road, Bedford, 488-2877; rigatonysitalian.com)
is taking orders for family-sized Easter dinners, serving six to eight people and including your choice of stuffed pork loin, braised short ribs or spiral ham — each dinner also comes with mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, string beans and Rig a Tony’s house pasta and sauce. Other traditional a la carte Italian Easter specialties available to order include chicken or eggplant Parmesan, stuffed shells or manicotti, lasagna, Italian wedding soup, shrimp scampi, cannolis, homemade Italian cookies, chocolate cream pie and Maine blueberry pie.
• Ruby Cakes (Milford, ruby-cakes.com) is taking orders for specialty flavors of cakesicles, including lemon cake with lemon buttercream frosting and carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Each order consists of three cakesicles in a box. Pre-order online for pickup between Thursday, April 6, and Sat urday, April 8.
• Sky Meadow Country Club (6 Mountain Laurels Drive, Nashua, 888-9000, skymeadow.com) will serve a special Easter brunch on Sunday, April 9, with seatings at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. There will be assorted breakfast pastries and breads, local quiches and freshly sliced fruits, plus an artisan salad station with assorted vegetables and dressings. Lunch items will include maple brown sugar glazed ham, roasted beef tenderloin, braised leg of lamb ragu, potato-crusted haddock, honey garlic spring chicken breast, crispy eggplant cutlets with herb-whipped ricotta and Parmesan potato gratin, while there will also be assorted cakes, pastries and gluten-free desserts. The cost is $60 for adults, $19.95 for kids under 12 and $10 for kids under 5 ($10 for non-member kids under 5). Additionally, Sky Meadow will hold a bring-your-own-basket Easter egg hunt at 10:30 a.m. for kids ages 8 and under.
• St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church (1160 Bridge St., Manchester, stnicholasgreekchurch.com) is taking orders for Greek Easter dessert platters, which include six pieces each of baklava, kourambiethes (powdered sugar cookies) and koulourakia (butter cookies). Order by April 7, for pickup at the church on Friday, April 14 (Greek Easter is observed on Sunday, April 16, this year). Contact parishioner Barb George at 925-330-9966 or email stnicksgochurch@ gmail.com to place your order.
• Stonebridge Country Club (161 Gorham Pond Road, Goffstown, 497-8633, ext. 2, golfstonebridgecc.com) will serve a special Easter brunch on Sunday, April 9, with seatings at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Menu options will include Danishes, scrambled eggs, maple sausage, crispy home fries, cinnamon raisin French toast casseroles, roasted chicken breast in a herb cream sauce, baked haddock with a lemon cream and cracker crust, tortellini tomato pesto, mixed spring vegetables and a mini pastry table, as well as mimosa and bloody mary specials. The cost is $27 for adults, $12 for kids ages 2 to 10 and free for kids under 2. Reservations are being accepted via phone.
• Tilt’n Diner (61 Laconia Road, Tilton, 286-
2204, thecman.com) will be open during its regular business hours on Easter Sunday (from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.), serving its daily menus with specials.
• Tuscan Market (9 Via Toscana, Salem, 9125467, tuscanbrands.com) is taking orders for a variety of items for Easter, including family-sized dinner packages, each serving six to eight people and featuring your choice of bone-in spiral ham, carved roasted turkey breast or boneless roast leg of lamb. A variety of specialty options are also available a la carte, like half trays of scratch-cooked lasagna, pizzagaina (quiche-like ricotta pie with Italian meats), pecorino-stuffed artichokes, risotto and sausage-stuffed bell peppers, chocolate chip ricotta pie, eight-inch carrot, chocolate or strawberry cakes, tiramisu squares and Italian Easter breads with two or three eggs. At least a twoday advance ordering notice is preferred. Pickups will be on Saturday, April 8, from 10 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.
• Van Otis Chocolates (341 Elm St., Manchester, 627-1611, vanotis.com) is offering pre-arranged gourmet Easter baskets available in small or large sizes and featuring items like chocolate bunnies, Evangeline’s caramel corn, chocolate-dipped Peeps, foiled Oreos, jelly beans and Easter egg foils. Most of those items are also available to order a la carte, in addition to other Easter-themed goodies, like milk or dark chocolate Swiss fudge eggs with or without pecans, dark chocolate coconut cream fudge eggs, Easter-decorated chocolate-covered Oreos, and edible baskets made with milk, dark or white chocolate and filled with foiled candies.
• Ya Mas Greek Taverna & Bar (125 Bridge St., Pelham, 635-4230, yamasgreektaverna.com) will serve a special Easter brunch buffet on Sunday, April 9, starting at 11 a.m. and featuring a create-your-own omelet station, a Belgian waffle station, breakfast meats like bacon, sausage and kielbasa, and assorted cheeses, fruits, quiches, cupcakes and cookies. The cost is $29.99 for adults and $19.99 for kids. The restaurant will also hold an Easter dinner at 4 p.m., serving seasonal specials in addition to its full menu, and even has a Greek Easter celebration planned for Sunday, April 16, featuring a family-style menu of items like lemon roasted lamb, spanakopita and tiropita, Greek leek loukaniko (sausage), chicken kabobs and tsoureki (Greek Easter bread). Seatings for the April 16 celebration are available every two hours from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The cost is $83 for adults and $45 for kids.
• Yankee Farmer’s Market (360 Route 103 E, Warner, 456-2833, yankeefarmersmarket. com) is taking orders for holiday meats while supplies last, including pastured pork tenderloin roast, boneless leg of lamb and smoked ham roast. Order online for pickup the week of Easter Sunday.
Looking for Easter brunches a little farther away? Go to hippopress.com to see some additional eateries in the Lakes Region and beyond that have Easter plans of their own.
Kassandra Santana is the executive chef of Tuscan Kitchen (67 Main St., Salem, 952-4875, tuscanbrands. com), a regionally renowned restaurant known for its artisan Italian cuisine. A native of Lawrence, Mass., Santana joined the company in early 2011 as a busser before ultimately working her way up the ranks at both the Salem restaurant and its accompanying market.
She is the first — and, to date, the only — female executive chef of Tuscan Brands, which also has restaurants in downtown Portsmouth and in Burlington and Newburyport, Mass., as well as in Boston’s Seaport District.
What is your must-have kitchen item?
A spoon, because I’m constantly tasting everything.
What would you have for your last meal?
My go-to would be some miso ramen soup.
What is your favorite local restaurant?
That would be Grand India. It’s pretty new in Salem. I love their mango shrimp curry — it’s outstanding.
What celebrity would you like to see trying something on your menu?
I would say Zendaya, the actress. I’ve always loved her, and she seems like a very kind-hearted person, for sure.
What is your favorite thing on your menu?
That would be the tortelli brasato [braised short rib stuffed pasta]. That was the first dish I actually walked to a table when I first
Oat banana bread
got my chef jacket. … I’ve always loved it, and I think it’s because that sauce is the most time-consuming sauce to make. It takes about six hours just to cook the demi to create that sauce, so we put a lot of time and effort into that dish.
What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?
When it comes to trends in New Hampshire, I feel like it’s comfort food [and] cheesy dishes — the type of food that you take your time cooking all day. … Our wild boar ragu with truffled gnocchi is a good example and checks all of those boxes.
What is your favorite thing to cook at home?
I can’t go wrong with something from my own culture. I like to cook a true traditional Hispanic meal — it would be different types of rice and just a nice braised steak or an oven-roasted chicken.
— Matt IngersollFrom the kitchen of Kassandra Santana, executive chef of Tuscan Kitchen in Salem
2 large bananas
1 large egg
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
Walnuts or chocolate chunks (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl or blender. Whisk or blend on high until the texture is smooth. Add chocolate chunks or walnuts to your liking. Pour batter onto a greased loaf pan. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes. Slice and enjoy.
Continued from page 34
gen Fixing Plants into Diverse Settings (online, on Thursday, April 20); and Truly No-Till Beds with Sheet Mulching (in person, at Dandelion Forest Farm in Nottingham, on Saturday, April 29). Register for each of the workshops online at nofanh.org/gardeningseries.
• Spirit of the environment: The New Hampshire Liquor Commission, in partnership with Jack Daniel’s whiskey, is celebrating Earth Month with the launch of “Bring Back Jack, ” a new program that encourages customers to return and recycle glass bottles at select Liquor & Wine Outlet locations, according to a press release. Each Saturday
from April 1 through May 20, customers can bring empty glass wine and spirits bottles to participating stores statewide to be recycled and receive special perks, including $25 coupons off a purchase of $150 or more for every 12 glasses, and $5 discounts off single Jack Daniel’s products for every branded bottle. Additionally, the release said, all New Hampshire on-premises licensees who bring at least 107 empty glass bottles (an ode to Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7) will receive 10 percent off an in-store purchase up to $10,000. See liquorandwineoutlets.com/bringbackjack for a full list of participating stores.
• Wolfish B+
Includes listings for lectures, author events, book clubs, writers’ workshops and other literary events.
To let us know about your book or event, email asykeny@hippopress. com. To get author events, library events and more listed, send information to listings@hippopress.com.
FiLM pg42
• John Wick: Chapter 4 B
Sure, these guys are good for what they do, which, for over a decade, has been sort of a cross between T-Rex and the first two Kiss albums (stop cringing). This is a crew of five dudes from San Francisco who are into combining psychedelica, old glam rock, punk, and (sort of) prog in order to table a That 70s Show party vibe. The lead guitarist is decent, reaching for the acidrock stratosphere with squealy, pinched notes around every corner, but what I actually like best is that the backing vocals are a complete mess, probably having been recorded on the cheap with the remaining 20 minutes of recording studio time. I’d venture to say that fans of Black Lips would be jiggy with this, but in the end, if this bunch sticks with this off-the-rack lo-fi engineering, they could probably end up putting out a single that ends up replacing Gary Glitter’s “Rock ’n’ Roll” at football games. Do I expect that to happen? Well, no, but who knows.
A — Eric W. Saeger
I’d say everyone who was club-hopping in the ’80s has heard of this Australian New Wave quintet, but being able to name one of their songs is a whole ’nother trick. If you rack your brain hard enough you might come up with the title of the one song that charted in the U.S., “Under The Milky Way,” which was sort of like what it might have sounded like if Lou Reed had stolen “Eleanor Rigby.” Anyway, they’re back, still led by bass player and singer Steve Kilbey, and they do seem to have evolved a little. They’re still purveyors of a lay-back-and-drink vibe; for instance, “No Other You” has the same sort of laid-back rawk energy as Train’s “Drops of Jupiter” but with a more, you know, throwback New Wave sound. The title track tables the same sort of sleepiness but takes something of a Savage Republic approach. Not sure why I’d ever listen to this record again, but you do you. A —
Eric W. SaegerPLaYLiST
A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases
• A lot has come in lately, so let’s play a little catch-up with some releases from earlier this month, that’d be great. May as well start with So Much (For) Stardust, the new album from emo-rock heroes Fall Out Boy. I saw those dudes open up for someone years ago, I think it was Motley Crue, and they were only provided around a quarter of the stage on which to move around and sing their little emo songs. You’ve heard them before for sure, probably at a Chuck E Cheese or someplace else that has a lot of little kids running around and spazzing to barely punk-ish music that’s sort of like the Velveeta cheese version of Iron Maiden, i.e. the prototype for Imagine Dragons, like that one song of theirs that always plays over loudspeakers when you least expect it, “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark,” with its spazzy millennial-whoop “oh-oh-oh” verse and matching chorus; it’s actually OK now that it’s too old for anyone to really care about anymore, like if you told a 9-year-old it was heavy metal they’d have no choice but to believe you. So this Illinois-based band, which originally tried to be taken seriously in the Chicago punk scene before choosing to rip off Taking Back Sunday and all those guys, wants you to know about this new album and its single, “Heartbreak Feels So Good,” a totally worthless, biodegradably recyclable hunk of music-trash that sounds like Dashboard Confessional trying to rewrite the main theme to Footloose, but first, at the top of the tune’s video, they insist that you watch them “pull a prank” by pretending to kidnap Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo from in front of an ice cream stand or something, but it all hilariously backfires and a bunch of girls start chasing them around like they’re The Monkees, and the total effect is like watching early MTV, when the world got its first insights into how rock stars shouldn’t try to make comedy videos. Talk about awful stuff, let’s move on.
• Borderline-goth-pop pioneers and closet Ultravox wannabes Depeche Mode are back, with their 15th album, Memento Mori. There are approximately 3,291 goth bands I like more than Depeche Mode, but owing to their rabid fan base, I think I can feign interest in them for a short little writeup here, so let’s go. David Gahan and Martin Gore are still in the band, but that’s about it, not that the fact that the band is barely Depeche Mode anymore could possibly detract from their sound, and remember, I don’t care in the first place, but never fear, people who love this band, literally nothing has changed: The single, “Ghosts Again,” may as well have come out in 1987, yes, it’s that dated. You know, Pet Shop Boys are literally a hundred times more listenable than this stuff, even though they’re also really old people, but if you insist, go ahead and pretend it’s relevant, I cannot prevent it.
• You’d probably have heard of British synthpop lady Ellie Goulding, but for the most part she’s really only popular in other countries. This is typical, of course, because the only singers Americans care about are Taylor Swift and Willie Nelson. Her new album, Higher Than Heaven, is coming out this Friday and it includes “Let It Die,” a Michael Jackson-ish tune that showcases her Dolly Parton-esque soprano. It’s OK.
• Lastly, look, it’s those three little Japanese teenage girls, Babymetal, with another album, The Other One! Did you even know they existed? I didn’t, but now I know that there is a band that combines Slayer with happy, super-high-pitched singing that would be more at home on a joke album. These little rascals have played shows in which Rob Halford from Judas Priest got up and sang with them. I give up. — Eric
W. Saeger
After Erica Berry was awarded a fellowship to work on a book about wolves, she took a train from Minneapolis to Portland, where she would spend a few weeks alone researching and writing in the delightful paidfor isolation awarded to writers of promise. By the time Berry had settled in her seat, I had already learned something new: that Amtrak cars are segregated into “families/couples” and “singles.” Maybe everyone in the world but me knew this already, but our brains like learning new things, and I discerned that Berry’s book about wolves and fear would be quite a trip. And it was, just not in the way that I expected.
After Berry settled down comfortably in her seat, happy to “watch the prairie buckle into the mountains” and read, she was dismayed to be joined by a somewhat threatening man who was eventually forcibly removed from the train. It was the first, it turns out, of many times that Berry felt threatened by men, causing her to move throughout the world in the emotional state of a rabbit or other small mammal that is always on cusp of being somebody’s dinner.
Enter the wolf.
More than a decade ago, Berry became interested in the politics of wolves in the West, where in some places wolves were being reintroduced to areas where they had gone extinct. (“More wolves, less politics” is actually a slogan for some wolf advocates.) Some of the wolves have been outfitted with tracking collars (despite the fact that some don’t survive the stress of temporary capture), and they had a cult following as they crossed state lines and found mates. Their exploits, and those of the people who follow them, are in fact more fascinating than much of what is found on network TV.
But Berry took it further. She started to think deeply about archetypes of wolves and why they are so embedded in our culture as animals that inspire fear, so much so that we compare terrorists to wolves. (It is a good question — why do we so frequently identify a killer as a “lone wolf” instead of, say, a lone Grizzly bear?) Wolfish is the result. The book is a gorgeously written, deeply researched and smartly plotted examination of animal
Books
author events
• CHRISTOPHER GORHAM will discuss his new book about Anna Marie Rosen
berg called The Confidante: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win World War II and Shape Modern America
on Thursday, March 30, at 6:30 p.m. at Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St.,
fear that will be well reviewed and possibly win prestigious awards, but will be read by hardly anyone.
That’s in part because Berry is telling two painfully disparate stories: that of these beautiful, wild, unafraid creatures, and that of the crippling anxiety that seems to be part and parcel of the lives of so many young adults, especially women. In the world that Berry describes, young women are always moving through a terrifying forest with wolves around every tree; it is a story that we’ve been told since childhood, and it’s interesting to learn the origins of “Little Red Riding Hood.” (The oldest version in print dates to 1697; similar stories have long histories in China, Korea and Japan.)
And Berry does not seem to be exaggerating in terms of her own life. She has had a staggering number of threatening encounters with men, to include being surrounded by a silent group of men wearing white T-shirts (with slits for eyes) over their faces, to men who follow her in a park, whistle at her while she runs and murmur obscenities to her on a bus — to the point where she says friends have “suggested I was prone to ‘bad luck,’ as if the encounters I had were mistakes, aberrations, not just blips in the field of female — of human! — life.”
No woman, of course, should have to be
Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com).
• RICHARD MIRABELLA will present his novel Brother & Sister Enter the Forest during a virtual presentation via Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord on Tuesday, April 4, at 7 p.m. Register via gibsonsbookstore. com; registration is free. Ticket packages with the book are available.
• MAJKA BURHARDT, a world-famous ice climber, will
subjected to constant threats and harassment, and every woman, whether or not they are as beautiful as Berry as is, has stories about feeling threatened — stories that even years later can leave us, in the language of Emily Dickenson, zero at the bone. But the narrative that Berry employs — interspersing tales of the famous wolf known as OR-7 and his travels, with stories of murdered women and children, and her own crippling fears — makes for unnecessarily dark reading, with just enough light for the occasional eye roll.
Cases in point: her agonizing over the ethics of flying to England for two weeks of wolf-watching paid for with yet another grant (“What could I observe about the wolves to justify two-pickup-truck-beds worth of sea ice melting, the amount the emissions from my round-trip seat will hypothetically finish off?”) and her guilt about calling authorities on another genuinely threatening man who showed up at her home (“It was a story about the power of my white female fear, a fear that could ignite the apparatus of a police state I had long ago come to doubt.”)
And so we go on like this for nearly 400 pages, Berry luring us forward with delectable wolf stories and treats while the reader wishes she had gotten professional help for her fear. Even her mother, it seems, has felt this way; Berry writes, “Whenever I used to tell my mother about being afraid of this or that, she would look worried,” she writes.
“How much fear should you stoke to stay alive? How much trust can you afford before it kills you?” Berry asks, and they seem to be questions she asks in her own defense. Fear is, of course, an evolutionary tool to keep us alive. It is also, like physical pain, more difficult to control once it gets past a certain point. She quotes from the Robert Browning poem “Ivan Ivanovitch,” which is about wolves attacking a family traveling by sled: “Who can hold fast a boy in a frenzy of fear?”
That poem and other stories Berry tells, such as that of a young Alaskan teacher killed by wolves in 2010, remind us that there are in fact frightening beasts in the world that most of us will spend our lives comfortably distant from, seeking adrenalin elsewhere. Wolfish plumbs the depths of fear in interesting ways, but ultimately suffers from an author too much in its grip. B+ — Jennifer Graham
1/2 PRICE
WELL DRINKS
7 days a week
9:30pm - 12pm
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Mon - Friday 2 - 5pm
EVENTS
MONDAY: (all day) Kids Eat Free
TUESDAY: Teacher Appreciation 25% Discount for Teachers!
Open Mic w/ Johnny Friday
WEDNESDAY: Trivia 8 - 10pm
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SUNDAY: $5 Bloody Mary’s
discuss her new book More: Life on the Edge of Adventure — and Motherhood at Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Tuesday, April 11, at 6:30 p.m.
• REBECCA & SALLYANN
MAJOYA, Vermont authors, will come to Gibson’s Bookstore (45 South Main St. in Concord; gibsonsbookstore. com, 224-0562) on Wednesday, April 12, at 6:30 p.m. to discuss their shared memoir Uncertain Fruit: A Memoir of
Infertility, Loss, and Love
• RALPH WHITE will discuss his book Getting Out of Saigon: How a 27-Year-Old Banker Saved 113 Vietnamese Civilians, a book about his own experiences in Saigon in 1975, on Monday, April 17, at 6:30 p.m. at Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St. in Concord; 2240562, gibsonsbookstore.com), according to a press release.
Poetry
• NATIONAL POETRY
MONTH Balin Books (375
Amherst St. in Nashua) will hold a National Poetry Month event on Saturday, April 1, at 1 p.m. featuring regional poets Meg Kearney, Charles Kell and Kevin McLellan reading and discussing their poetry and signing their books.
• MATTHEW E. HENRY will be at Bookery (844 Elm St. in Manchester; bookerymht.com) on Wednesday, April 19, at 4 p.m. to talk about his book of poetry The Colored Page. The event is free; register online.
Now open Wednesday until 12:00am and Thursday, Friday & Saturday until 1AM
1181 Elm St. Manchester NH 03101 603-641-3276
140097
John Wick: Chapter 4 (R)
Keanu reeves gets what feels like more fight scenes and even sparser dialogue in John Wick: Chapter 4
John Wick (Reeves) has recovered from being shot by friend/Continental Hotel manager Winston (Ian McShane) at the end of the last movie (a benevolent shooting, I think?). He’s hanging out with the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne, who is still having the very best time), who gets him a new suit. And off John Wick goes to the desert, to try to get someone to lift his “excommunicado” status in the assassin world (which means that killers worldwide are looking to take him out to collect a sizable bounty).
Meanwhile, back at the Continental, the classy assassin hang-out, the High Table (the underworld’s ruling body) has decided to mark the hotel as condemned, which is even worse than when it was deconsecrated or whatever in the last movie. An hour after The Harbinger (Clancy Brown) shows up to deliver the news about the hotel’s condemnation, the building is demolished like a faded Las Vegas casino and Concierge Charon (Lance Reddick, who was awesome in everything and died on March 17 and will be missed) is, uhm, let go.
The person behind all of this punishment aimed at Winston for the crime of helping John Wick is the Marquis (Bill Skarsgard), a snootypants we will enjoy rooting against. The High Table has given him a blank check to do whatever needs to be done to put an end to John Wick, both the man and the legend. The Marquis calls into service Caine (Donnie Yen), a former assassin who like John Wick tried to leave the life behind (possibly agreeing to have himself blinded to do it?). But he has a daughter and to keep
Film Venues
Chunky’s Cinema Pub 707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com
The Flying Monkey 39 Main St., Plymouth 536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com
Park Theatre
19 Main St., Jaffrey theparktheatre.org
her safe he occasionally freelances, I guess. He reluctantly takes the job to kill John Wick, an old buddy.
Caine is also old buddies with Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada), manager of the Osaka Continental, which is where John Wick goes for help.
Shimazu’s concierge and daughter Akira (Rina Sawayama) isn’t so keen on Wick’s presence at the hotel; she’s less concerned with old friendship and more concerned with their continued survival in the here and now, especially when High Table henchmen show up with Caine.
Also at the Osaka is a character we come to know as Mr. Nobody (Shamier Anderson), a contract killer with a loyal dog because somebody in this movie has to have a Very Good Boy who can do cute doggie faces in the midst of balletic violence. Mr. Nobody is in the game to get John Wick but first he wants the “getting” price to go up and helps orchestrate this bounty inflation by occasionally knocking off competing assassins.
There are several memorable set-piece battles in John Wick Chapter 4: Caine fights a series of
Red River Theatres 11 S. Main St., Concord 224-4600, redrivertheatres.org
Rex Theatre 23 Amherst St., Manchester 668-5588, palacetheatre.org
Wilton Town Hall Theatre 40 Main St., Wilton wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 6543456
• Everything Everywhere All
1st Priority Auto & Towing, LLC will be auctioning for non-payment, impounded/ abandoned vehicles per NH Law RSA 262 Sec. 36-40. To be liquidated: 2012 Chevy Cruze 1G1PJ5SC5C7191256
Vehicles will be sold at Public Auction April 7, 2023 at 10:00 AM at 26 Mason St., Nashua NH.
We reserve the right to refuse/cancel any sale at any time for any reason.
At Once (R, 2022) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord on Thursday, March 30, at 4:15 p.m.; Friday, March 31, through Sunday, April 2, at 12:30 & 6:45 p.m.
• The Lost King (PG-13, 2023) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord on Thursday, March 30, at 4:30 & 7 p.m.; Friday, March 31 through Sunday, April 2, at 4 p.m.
• Inside (R, 2023) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord on Thursday, March 30, at 7:15 p.m.
dudes in a kitchen using motion sensors; John Wick fights guys standing in the street while fast-moving traffic flows around and between them; John Wick fights in a building as we watch from overhead, giving an illusion that we are watching a continuous shot filmed through several rooms; multiple characters fight multiple characters on a steep set of stairs with the up and down climbing and falling part of the choreography of the fight. And in between that are several scenes of smaller battles and one-on-one fights. These scenes are all exciting and extremely well-choreographed. Like, there needs to be an Oscar that recognizes the skill of creating an energetic, technically beautiful fight scene that is also believable both for two humans to participate in and in the context of the movie. There needs to be an Oscar for this and it needs to go to a John Wick movie because this is a skill.
And yet.
And yet maybe this movie could have had fewer of these scens? I can’t believe I’m saying that but I think fewer and better highlighted would have been the way to go with these
• The Quiet Girl (PG-13, 2022) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord on Friday, March 31, through Sunday, April 2, at 2, 4:15 & 6:30 p.m.; Wednesday, April 5, through Thursday, April 6, at 4:15 & 6:30 p.m.
• Close (PG-13, 2022) will screen in the Simchik Cinema (a 22-seat screening room) at Red River Theatres in Concord on Friday, March 31, through Sunday, April 2, at 1:15, 3:45 & 6:15 p.m.; Wednesday, April 5, and Thursday, April
stretches of the movie which, when I think back to consider them individually, really were a marvel. In the movie, however, there is a frosting on frosting on frosting effect in the way this movie piles up fight scenes without the cake that allows the punch of sugar to really come through. The original John Wick was an hour and 41 minutes long. Each sequel has been a little bit longer than its predecessor, with this one clocking in at two hours and 49 minutes. Somewhere in here is a solid, well-paced, energetic hour-and-50-minute movie. But this nearly three-hour version gets bogged down in its questing — John Wick going here to engage with this person, then there, then we’re meeting these people. This has always been a part of these stories, particularly in the second and third installments, but it seemed a little more spinning-its-wheels here than it did in previous movies. Also, I did have the sinking feeling that some of this was setting up potential side-quel elements — Caine, Akira and of course Mr. Nobody and his dog.
So, Chapter 4? Loved the Keanu, as usual; loved the Fishburne and the McShane absolutely acting to, not just the back row, but the people on the street in front of the theater. Loved the precision of the fights, loved the ideas and the cleverness that went into them. This movie isn’t the gleeful ride of its immediate predecessor but it was an overall better-than-average bit of entertainment. B
Rated R for so so so much killing (“pervasive strong violence and some language” is how the MPA describes it, according to filmratings.com).
Directed by Chad Stahelski and written by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch, John Wick: Chapter 4 is two hours and 49 minutes long and is distributed in theaters by Lionsgate.
6, at 3:45 & 6:15 p.m.
• Air (R, 2023) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord on Wednesday, April 5, and Thursday, April 6, at 4 & 6:45 p.m.
• Metropolis (1927) the silent film by Fritz Lang, will screen on Wednesday, April 5, at 7 p.m. at the Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St. in Manchester; 668-5588, palacetheatre.org) with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis. Tickets cost $10.
• Hop (PG, 2011) will screen at all
three area Chunky’s as part of the “Little Lunch Date” series on Friday, April 7, at 3:45 p.m. Admission is free but reserve a seat with a $5 food voucher.
• Decision to Leave (R, 2022) will screen in the Simchik Cinema (a 22-seat screening room) at Red River Theatres in Concord starting Friday, April 7.
• Little Richard: I Am Everything (2023) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord on Tuesday, April 11, at 7 p.m.
• Thirty years on: When their breakthrough album River Runs Red was released in 1993, Life of Agony lead singer Mina Caputo identified as a man; she came out as transsexual (her term) in 2011. Her grunge-limned alt-metal band performed its first concert with her as a front woman in 2014 and has gigged steadily since. Their latest tour marks the anniversary of that album, by a very different group, three decades ago. Thursday, March 30, 7:30 pm., Wally’s Pub, 144 Ashworth Ave., Hampton, $25 at ticketmaster.com.
• New thing now: Mindset X pivots from prog rock into Horsefly Gulch, a band described on its web page as “a mixture of rock, folk, spaghetti western and whatever else comes into play.” The trio makes its hometown debut on a what should be described as a triple headliner bill, laden with local favorites, including blindspot and A Simple Complex. Their first single, “The One That Got Away,” debuted a few days ago. Friday, March 31, 8:30 p.m., Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., Manchester. See horseflygulch.com.
• Gate City gala: After helping open Nashua’s new Center for the Arts, Ruby Shabazz celebrates her birthday with help from her husband, rapper Fee The Evolutionist, along with Adam Payne, Mighty Ceej & Blvck Vynl. It’s a great day for the city, with the new venue selling out its first event weeks in advance, and promising a bevy of bigname talent in the coming months, including Suzanne Vega on April 15. Saturday, April 1, 8 p.m., Fody’s Tavern, 9 Clinton St., Nashua. See facebook.com/rabihah.shabazz.
• Calling all kids: With a brand of folk music that reaches adults but especially children, Okee Dokee Brothers is the duo of Denver pals Joe Mailander and Justin Lansing, who grew up in the Rocky Mountains and decided to use their talents to urge kids and their parents to get outdoors and enjoy nature. They’ve earned four Grammy nominations, winning in 2021 but declining the statue due all the contenders being white. Sunday, April 2, 2 p.m., Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord, $20.75$30.75 at ccanh.com.
• Upta camp comedy: As he begins a six-show run, Bob Marley is a comedian who never does the same show twice. The Maine-centric funny man entered the Guinness Book of World Record with the longest-ever set by a comic a few years back while barely repeating a joke. He’s a perennial favorite at this downtown hall. Wednesday, April 5, and Thursday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, April 7, at 6 and 8:30 p.m., and Saturday, April 8, at 5:30 and 8 p.m.. Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester, $39.50 at palacetheatre.org.
A charity focused on humanitarian aid for a war-besieged country is the beneficiary at an event that includes traditional food and a variety of music. Voices United For Ukraine began as a way for local musician Val Blachly to do something, even from a distance, to help.
“I thought a musical event would be a really nice way of going about raising money, so that’s how I got involved,” she said. “The country’s in need with what’s been going on and we really wanted to give back, and give to the people there.”
Hot Skillet Club will headline the show. They’re a newly formed trio that includes Blachly on upright bass and a pair of musicians she’s played with in other groups: guitarist Liza Constable, part of retro-swing group Swing A Cat, and Ellen Carlson, a fiddler she began working with in Sweet, Hot & Sassy, which had a 12-year run starting in the early 1990s.
A pair of Ukrainian accordion players will serenade during dinner, followed by Northern Lights, a vocal group organized by Concord musician Peggo Hodes. Acoustic quintet Wholly Rollers follows with old-time bluegrass and gospel, and what their website dubs
“sea shanties and land shanties.” Folk singer Andriy Zharkov, another native of Ukraine, will perform between sets and speak about his journey of how he came to the United States.
Voices united For ukraine
When: Saturday, April 1, dinner at 5:30 p.m., concert 7:15 p.m.
Where: UU Church, 274 Pleasant St., Concord
Tickets: dinner $15, concert $20 per person (under 5 free)
After looking at some venues that didn’t fit the benefit’s modest budget, Blachly approached Concord’s Unitarian Church and found a perfect match. After a sit-down meeting, “I said, ‘this is my vision, I’d love to do something for the Ukraine, incorporate music and some people from there,’” she recalled. “They both looked at each other and said, ‘Oh, my God, this is exactly what we want to do … we’ve been talking about doing something like this.’”
Ukrainian native and activist Natalia Karaulova connected Blachly to Sunflower Network, an organization that directs donations to where they’ll do the most good. Karaulova found out about them while visiting Ukraine a few months ago, after a chance meeting with an old high school friend who was working with them to bring aid to the ravaged country.
“Everybody’s trying to help each other, to help displaced people and the army, because they are fighting the fight and making sure that the rest of the country is safe,” Karaulova said from her home in Warner. “That’s how I learned about Sunflower Network, just having that personal connection.”
Asked about the dinner preceding the concert, she said, “If somebody asked me to describe Ukrainian cuisine, I’d say it’s very earthy. People still grow most of their food…. It’s very hearty.” The evening menu will include staples like borscht and cabbage wraps, along with dumplings and a special dessert.
For their set, Northern Lights will perform “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” and a Ukrainian folk song picked by Hodes with help from Karaulova. “She had Natalia assist her and the women in the group with pronouncing the lyrics,” Blachly explained. “This particular song was written by a Russian, so
Venues
Chunky’s 707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham; chunkys.com
Franklin Opera House
316 Central St., Franklin 934-1901, franklinoperahouse.org
Headliners Comedy Club DoubleTree By Hilton, 700 Elm St., Manchester headlinerscomedyclub.com
Millyard Brewery 125 E. Otterson St., Nashua 722-0104, millyardbrewery. com
Murphy’s Taproom 494 Elm St., Manchester
scampscomedy.com/shows
Music Hall Lounge 131 Congress St., Portsmouth themusichall.org
Palace Theatre 80 Hanover St., Manchester 668-5588, palacetheatre.org
Park Theatre 19 Main St., Jaffrey 532-9300, theparktheatre.org
Press Room 77 Daniel St., Portsmouth 431-5186, pressroomnh.com
Rex Theatre 23 Amherst St., Manchester 668-5588, palacetheatre.org
Rochester Opera House 31 Wakefield St., Rochester
335-1992, rochesteroperahouse.com
Ruby Room Comedy 909 Elm St., Manchester 491-0720, rubyroomcomedy. com
Whym Brewery 853 Lafayette Road, Hampton whym.beer
Events
• Josh Filipowski and Friends Press Room, Thursday, March 30, 7 p.m.
• Will Noonan Whym Craft Brewery, Friday, March 31, 8:30 p.m.
• Alex Giampapa Chunky’s Manchester, Friday, March 31, and Saturday, April 1, 8:30 p.m.
• R-Rated Hypnotist Frank Santos Jr. Park Theatre, Saturday, April 1, 7:30 p.m.
the pronunciation was a little different. Peggo called her in and said she really wanted to do it with a Ukrainian accent.”
Closing the show, Hot Skillet Club will draw from an array of selections. Their set will have throwbacks from the Boswell Sisters, a proto-swing vocal group at the center of Blachly and Constable’s band Honest Millie, along with Bob Wills and Asleep at the Wheel-flavored material delivered with a feminine touch.
“We’ve been listening to Swing Sisters and women that came into Western swing, the music that they came out singing, and picking up ideas,” Blachly said. “Ellen has that down on the violin, so it’s kind of a combination of the two.” They’ve also worked up a great version of Merle Haggard’s “Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down,” now up on Blachly’s Facebook page.
More recently, the trio started rehearsing gypsy jazz pioneer Django Reinhart’s song “Limehouse Blues.” The best part is the honey-sweet three-part harmonies that come easy for the old friends. “We’re all stepping up to the plate,” Blachly said.
Beyond the benefit show, there’s more on the way from Hot Skillet Club.
“It’s amazing that in the little time we’ve had together we have a fair amount of tunes,” Blachly said. “We’re so new we don’t even have our website up yet. And we already have 10 gigs.”
• Tim McKeever Headliners, Saturday, April 1, 8:30 p.m.
• Bob Marley Palace, Wednesday, April 5, and Thursday, April 6, 7:30 p.m.;
Friday, April 7, at 6 & 8:30 p.m.; Saturday, April 8, at 5:30 & 7 p.m.
• Lenny Clarke Park Theatre, Thursday, April 6, 7:30 p.m.
• Queen City Improv Rex, Thursday, April 6, 7:30 p.m.
• Joe McDonald Millyard Brewery, Friday, April 7, 6:30 p.m.
• Chris Zito Chunky’s Manchester, Friday, April 7, and Saturday, April 8, 8:30 p.m.
• Best of Boston Comedy Franklin Opera House, Saturday, April 8, 7:30 p.m.
• R-Rated Hypnotist Frank Santos Jr. Rochester Opera House, Saturday, April 8, 8 p.m.
• Marty Caproni Headliners, Saturday, April 8, 8:30 p.m.
Bob Marley• Cory Gee Chunky’s Nashua, Saturday, April 8, 8:30 p.m.
• Jimmy Cash Music Hall Lounge, Saturday, April 8, 8:30 p.m.
• Tape Face Chubb Theatre, Thursday, April 13, 7:30 p.m.
• Lenny Clarke Rex, Friday, April 14, 7:30 p.m.
• Johnny Pizzi Chunky’s Manchester, Friday, April 14, and Saturday, April 15, 8:30 p.m.
alton
Foster’s Tavern
403 Main St., 875-1234
alton Bay
Dockside Restaurant 6 East Side Drive 855-2222
auburn Auburn Pitts 167 Rockingham Road 622-6564
Bedford Copper Door 15 Leavy Dr., 488-2677
Bow Chen Yang Li 520 S. Bow St., 228-8508
Brookline
The Alamo Texas Barbecue & Tequila Bar 99 Route 13, 721-5000
Candia
Town Cabin Deli & Pub 285 Old Candia Road 483-4888
Concord Area 23 254 N. State St., 881-9060
Hermanos Cocina Mexicana 11 Hills Ave., 224-5669
Tandy’s Pub & Grille 1 Eagle Square, 856-7614
Uno Pizzeria 15 Fort Eddy Road 226-8667
Contoocook Gould Hill Farm & Contoocook Cider Co. 656 Gould Hill Road 746-3811
deerfield The Lazy Lion 4 North Road, 463-7374
derry Fody’s Tavern 187 Rockingham Road, 404-6946
dover Cara Irish Pub &
Thursday, March 30
auburn
Auburn Pitts: open jam, 7 p.m.
Bedford
Copper Door: Jordan Quinn, 7 p.m.
Brookline
Alamo: open mic with Travis Rollo, 6 p.m.
Candia
Town Cabin: Nicole Knox Murphy, 6 p.m.
Concord
Hermanos: Brian Booth, 6:30 p.m.
derry
Fody’s: music bingo, 8 p.m.
Epping
Telly’s: Lewis Goodwin, 7 p.m.
Restaurant 11 Fourth St., 343-4390
Epping Telly’s Restaurant & Pizzeria 235 Calef Hwy. 679-8225
Epsom Hill Top Pizzeria 1724 Dover Road 736-0027
Gilford
Patrick’s
18 Weirs Road, 293-0841
Goffstown Village Trestle 25 Main St., 497-8230
Hampton Bogie’s 32 Depot Square 601-2319
CR’s The Restaurant 287 Exeter Road 929-7972
The Goat 20 L St., 601-6928
Gilford
Patrick’s Pub: Sev and Company with Yamica Peterson, 6 p.m.
Goffstown
Village Trestle: Dan Morgan, 6 p.m.
Hampton CR’s: Steve Sibulkin, 6 p.m.
Wally’s: Life of Agony, 7 p.m.
Whym: music bingo, 6 p.m.
Hudson
Lynn’s 102: karaoke w/ George Bisson, 8 p.m.
Kingston
Saddle Up Saloon: karaoke with DJ Jason, 7 p.m.
Laconia
Fratello’s: Duke Snyder, 7 p.m.
L Street Tavern 603 17 L St., 67-4777
Shane’s Texas Pit 61 High St., 601-7091
Wally’s Pub 144 Ashworth Ave. 926-6954
Whym Craft Pub & Brewery
853 Lafayette Road 601-2801
Hudson The Bar
2B Burnham Road
Lynn’s 102 Tavern 76 Derry Road, 943-7832
Jaffrey Park Theatre 19 Main St., 532-9300 Kingston Saddle Up Saloon 92 Route 125, 369-6962
Laconia Belknap Mill
Beacon St. E., No. 1 524-8813
Tower Hill: karaoke w/ Luke Skyrocker, 8 p.m.
Londonderry
Stumble Inn: Jodee Frawlee Duo, 7 p.m.
Manchester City Hall Pub: John Chouinard, 7 p.m.
Currier: Kevin Horan, 5 p.m.
Elm House of Pizza: Chris Lester, 6 p.m.
Foundry: Eyes of Age, 5 p.m.
Fratello’s: Joanie Cicatelli, 5:30 p.m.
The Goat: Sugah Rush, 9 p.m. Strange Brew: Jon Ross, 8 p.m.
Meredith
Giuseppe’s: Austin Pratt, 5:45 p.m.
Merrimack
Homestead: Jess Olson, 5:30 p.m.
The Quebecois quartet le vent du nord have spent the last 20 years bringing their expansive and progressive vision for Francophone folk to a new generation. They cross the border to play a rare stateside show at the Park Theatre (19 Main St., Jaffrey; 532-9300, theparktheatre.org) on Friday, March 31, at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $40 plus fees. Cutline.
The Foundry 50 Commercial St. 836-1925
Fratello’s 155 Dow St., 624-2022
The Goat 50 Old Granite St.
The Hill Bar & Grille McIntyre Ski Area 50 Chalet Ct., 622-6159
KC’s Rib Shack 837 Second St. 627-RIBS
Murphy’s Taproom 494 Elm St., 644-3535
To Share Brewing 720 Union St., 836-6947
Wild Rover 21 Kosciuszko St. 669-7722
Meredith Giuseppe’s 312 Daniel Webster Hwy., 279-3313
Twin Barns Brewing 194 Daniel Webster Hwy., 279-0876
Merrimack Homestead 641 Daniel Webster Hwy., 429-2022
Raga 138 Main St., 459-8566
San Francisco Kitchen 133 Main St., 886-8833
Shorty’s Mexican Roadhouse 48 Gusabel Ave. 882-4070
New Boston Molly’s Tavern & Restaurant 35 Mont Vernon Road 487-1362
Newfields Fire and Spice Bistro 70 Route 108, 418-7121
CJ’s 782 S. Willow St. 627-8600
City Hall Pub 8 Hanover St., 232-3751
Currier Museum of Art 150 Ash St., 669-6144
Derryfield Country Club 625 Mammoth Road 623-2880
Elm House of Pizza 102 Elm St., 232-5522
Pizza Man 850 E. Industrial Park Drive, 623-5550
Salona Bar & Grill 128 Maple St., 624-4020
Shaskeen Pub 909 Elm St., 625-0246
South Side Tavern 1279 S. Willow St. 935-9947
Stark Brewing Co. 500 Commercial St. 625-4444
Strange Brew 88 Market St. , 666-4292
Tortilla Flat: Justin Jordan, 6 p.m.
Milford
Riley’s Place: open mic, 7 p.m.
Nashua
Fody’s: DJ Rich Karaoke, 9:30 p.m.
San Francisco Kitchen: Brad Myrick, 6:30 p.m.
Shorty’s: Kieran McNally, 6 p.m.
Portsmouth
The Goat: Isaiah Bennett, 9 p.m.
The Press Room: Josh Filipowski, 7 p.m.
Salem
Copper Door: Rebecca Turmel, 7 p.m.
Seabrook
Backyard Burgers: Jennifer Mitchell, 6 p.m.
Strafford
Independence Inn: Sam Hammerman, 6 p.m.
Friday,
alton
Foster’s Tavern: Andrea Paquin,
Tortilla Flat 595 Daniel Webster Hwy., 424-4479
Milford The Pasta Loft 241 Union Square 672-2270
Riley’s Place 29 Mont Vernon St. 380-3480
Stonecutters Pub 63 Union Square 213-5979
Nashua Fody’s Tavern 9 Clinton St., 577-9015
Newmarket Stone Church 5 Granite St., 659-7700 Northfield Boonedoxz Pub 95 Park St., 717-8267
Penacook American Legion Post 31 11 Charles St., 753-9372
Portsmouth The Gas Light 64 Market St., 430-9122
The Goat 142 Congress St., 5904628
6 p.m.
auburn
Auburn Pitts: Scalawag, 7 p.m.
Brookline
Alamo: Joe Birch, 6 p.m.
Concord Area 23: Stoned Wasp, 8 p.m.
Epping
Telly’s: Chuck n John Duo, 8 p.m.
Epsom Hill Top: D-Comp, 7 p.m.
Goffstown Village Trestle: Kevin Horan, 5 p.m.
Hampton
CR’s: Clandestine, 6 p.m.
The Goat: Alex Anthony, 8 p.m.
Wally’s: Adam Doleac, 8 p.m.
Hudson
Lynn’s 102: karaoke w/ George Bisson, 8 p.m.
These listings for live music are compiled from press releases, restaurants’ websites and social media and artists’ websites and social media. Call the venue to check on special rules and reservation instructions. Get your gigs listed by sending information to adiaz@hippopress.com.
Laconia
Fratello’s: Paul Warnick, 6 p.m.
Londonderry
Coach Stop: Rebecca Turmel, 6 p.m.
Stumble Inn: Something Else, 7 p.m.
Manchester
Backyard Brewery: April Cushman, 6 p.m.
Bonfire: Maddi Ryan, 9 p.m.
Derryfield: Souled Out Show Band, 8 p.m.
Fratello’s: Justin Jordan, 6 p.m.
The Foundry: Justin Cohn, 6 p.m.
Pizza Man: Brian Walker, 6 p.m.
Shaskeen: Blindspot, Horsefly Gulch, 9 p.m.
South Side Tavern: Cox Karaoke, 9 p.m.
Strange Brew: Off the Map, 9 p.m.
To Share Brewing: Lucas Gallo, 6:30 p.m.
Meredith
Giuseppe’s: Michael Bourgeois, 5:45 p.m.
Twin Barns: Colin Hart, 5 p.m.
Merrimack
Homestead: Dave Clark, 6 p.m.
Milford
Pasta Loft: Lichen, 8 p.m.
Stonecutters Pub: DJ Dave O karaoke, 9 p.m.
Nashua
San Francisco Kitchen: Ryan Williamson, 6;30 p.m.
Newfields
Fire and Spice Bistro: Chris O’Neil, 5:30 p.m.
New Boston
Molly’s: Clint LaPointe, 7 p.m.
Newmarket
Stone Church: Marjorie
Senet & the Broken Home Boys, 9 p.m.
Northfield
Boonedoxz Pub: karaoke night, 7 p.m.
Penacook
American Legion Post 31: JMitch Karaoke, 7 p.m.
Portsmouth
Gas Light: Ralph Allen, 9:30 p.m.
The Goat: Chris Toler, 9 p.m.
Mojo’s: Alex Roy, 7 p.m.
Thirsty Moose: Pop Disaster, 9 p.m.
rochester
Mitchell Hill: M&D Acoustic, 6 p.m.
Salem
Luna Bistro: Sam Hammerman, 6 p.m.
Smuttynose: music bingo, 6 p.m.
Seabrook
Chop Shop: Maiden (Iron Maiden Experience), 6:30 p.m.
Tilton
Pour Decisions: Brad Myrick Duo, 7 p.m.
Saturday, april 1
alton
Foster’s Tavern: Karen Grenier, 6 p.m.
Brookline
Alamo: Dave Clark Jr., 6 p.m.
Bow
Chen Yang Li: Dusty Gray, 7 p.m.
Concord
Area 23: Acoustic Circle, 2 p.m.; 80s night, 8 p.m.
Downtown Farmers Market: Mac Holmes, 9 a.m.
Epping
Telly’s: Rob & Jody, 8 p.m.
Epsom Hill Top Pizza: JMitch Karaoke, 7 p.m.
Goffstown Village Trestle: D-Tastic Duo, 6 p.m.
Hampton L Street: Up-Beat w/J-Dubz, 9 p.m.
Wally’s: Inside Out, 7 p.m. Whym: Sam Hammerman, 6 p.m.
Jaffrey Park Theatre: Bernie & Louise Watson, 5:30 p.m.
Kingston Saddle Up Saloon: The Offramps, 8 p.m.
Laconia Tower Hill: line dancing, 7 p.m.; Chase Campbell Band, 8:30 p.m.
Londonderry Coach Shop: Dave Zangri, 6 p.m.
Stumble Inn: Small Town Stranded, 8 p.m.
Manchester Backyard Brewery: Mikey G, 6 p.m.
Bonfire: Chase Clark, 7 p.m.
Derryfield: Swipe Right Band, 8 p.m.
Fratello’s: Paul Lussier, 6 p.m.
Foundry: Malcolm Salls, 6 p.m.
The Goat: Brooks Hubbard musical brunch, 10 a.m.; 7 Day Weekend, 9 p.m.
Shaskeen: Northern Hands, Birds in Theory, 9 p.m.
Strange Brew: Ken Clark, 9 p.m.
To Share: Mollicious
Intent, 6:30 p.m.
Wild Rover: Taylor Marie, 5 p.m.
Meredith
Twin Barns: The Sweetbloods & Jim Tyrrell, 5 p.m.
Merrimack Homestead: Clint Lapointe, 6 p.m.
Milford
Away Band, 8:30 p.m.
Nashua
Millyard Brewery: Ya Mon Mr. Hot Pepper, 4 p.m.
New Boston Molly’s: Robert & Rich, 7 p.m.
Newbury Mount Sunapee: Paul Driscoll, 3 p.m.
Newmarket Stone Church: Church of Fools, 4:30 p.m.
Portsmouth Gas Light Pub: Justin Cohn, 9:30 p.m.
The Goat: Mike Forgette, 9 p.m.
Thirsty Moose: Fighting Friday, 9 p.m.
rochester Mitchell Hill: Fighting Friday, 7 p.m.
Salem Luna Bistro: Chad LaMarsh, 7 p.m.
Seabrook Chop Shop: AD/HD (The AC/DC experience), 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, april 2
Bedford Copper Door: Steve Prisby, 11 a.m.
Brookline
Alamo: Austin McCarthy, 4 p.m.
Contoocook
Cider Co.: Colin Hart, 2 p.m.
Goffstown Village Trestle: Bob Pratte, 3:30 p.m.
Hampton
CR’s: Rico Barr Duo, 11 a.m.
L Street: Up-Beat w/J-Dubz, 9 p.m.
Hudson
Lynn’s 102: Carter On Guitar, 4 p.m.
Laconia Tower Hill: karaoke w/ DJ Tim, 8 p.m.; Chase Campbell Band, 9 p.m.
Londonderry
Stumble Inn: Joanie Cicatelli Duo, 3 p.m.
Manchester
Foundry: Brad Myrick, 10 a.m. Strange Brew: One Big Soul Jam, 7 p.m.
Milford
Riley’s Place: open mic w/ Blues Jam, 1 p.m.
Newbury
Mount Sunapee: Charlie Chronopoulos, 3 p.m.
Northfield
Boonedoxz Pub: open mic, 4 p.m.
Portsmouth
The Goat: Rob Pagnano, 9 p.m.
Salem
Copper Door: Nate Comp, 11 a.m.
Luna Bistro: Phil Jacques, 4 p.m.
Monday, april 3 dover
Cara Irish Pub: open mic, 8 p.m.
Gilford
Patrick’s Pub: open mic w/
Paul Luff, 6 p.m.
Hudson
The Bar: karaoke with Phil
Londonderry
Stumble Inn: Lisa Guyer, 7 p.m.
Manchester
Fratello’s: Phil Jacques, 5:30 p.m.
The Goat: David Campbell, 8 p.m.
Salona: music bingo with Jennifer Mitchell, 6 p.m.
Merrimack
Homestead: Jodee Frawlee, 5:30 p.m.
Nashua
Fody’s: karaoke night, 9:30 p.m.
Portsmouth
The Goat: Alex Anthony, 9 p.m.
Salem
Luna Bistro: Lilly Innella, 5 p.m.
Seabrook
Red’s: music bingo, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, april 4
Concord
Tandy’s: open mic, 8 p.m.
Hampton
Shane’s: music bingo, 7 p.m.
Londonderry
Stumble Inn: music bingo, 7 p.m.
Manchester
Fratello’s: John Chouinard, 5:30 p.m.
The Goat: Rob Pagnano, 8 p.m.
The Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St., Manchester; 668-5588, palacetheatre.org) brings you 603 Folk, an evening with three singer-songwriters who came up in the New Hampshire folk scene. Check out these up-and-comers on Saturday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $29, plus fees
Alli Beaudry
down
1. Jones of Tool
2. Western state Megadeth is from (abbr)
3. Jethro Tull keyman John
4. Taylor Dayne ‘__ A Lover’
5. Might see ‘Nights In White’ this
6. Jordin Sparks ‘One Step At __’
7. ‘Black Holes And Revelations’ band
8. ‘02 live Grateful Dead album ‘Go __’
9. Kenny Loggins hit ‘This __’
10. Ozzy song off ‘Diary Of A Madman’ (abbr)
11. One of ‘Lady Marmalade’ reworkers
13. Beatles “She’s got a ticket __”
14. Dylan/The Band ‘The Basement __’
19. ‘90 Iggy Pop w/Kate Pierson hit
22. Iconic ‘Ten New Songs’ sing/ songer Cohen (abbr)
23. Steven of Guns And Roses
24. Leathery band from UK?
25. Sam & Dave’s misspelled ‘Hold On, I’m __’
26. 70s Ford Coley
27. KC & The Sunshine Band ‘That’s The Way __ It’
across
1. Nails audition or does this
5. ‘You Send Me’ Cooke
8. ‘This Is Serious Mum’ Aussies (abbr)
12. Stewart of Eurythmics
13. ‘All The Things She Said’ Russians
14. Chicago ‘Hard __ I’m Sorry’
15. ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ engineer Parsons
16. ‘Mr Pitiful’ Redding
17. R&B soulstress Baker
18. ‘88 Queensrÿche album ‘Operation: __’
20. Reggae singer Banton
21. Easternmost state Ray LaMontagne is from
22. Guitar pioneer Paul
23. Move up, as with the charts
26. Allman Bros classic girl’s name instrumental
30. Two musicians is this
31. Steely Dan ‘__ Blues’
34. Stan Lynch is The Heartbreakers this
35. Kilmister of Motörhead
37. Boyz II Men ‘Uhh __’
38. Top floor hotel offering for the big stars
39. Brickell of The Gaddabouts
40. ‘19 Bryan Adams album may ‘__
Light’ on a bad mood
42. Davies brothers, for example
43. Struggling rockers don’t own homes but stay in these
45. Queen classic ‘You’re __ Friend’
47. Revered Texan Joe
48. Foxx that played Ray Charles in biopic
50. Like axe’s new condition
52. Arctic Monkeys ‘__ Of San Francisco’
56. 4 Non Blondes Perry
57. Kool And The Gang ‘Get Down __’
58. Limp Bizkit ‘Ready __’
59. ‘12 Fiona Apple album ‘The __ Wheel’
60. IL ‘Destination Unknown’ pop punkers that bungled things?
61. Pete Townshend reply when asked, “Who can see for miles?”
62. “You know that I would be a __” Doors
63. Drunk fool at show
64. R&Bers __ Toni Tone
28. Cat Stevens ‘The First __ The Deepest’
29. RNDM bassman Jeff
32. They go with “oohs”
33. ‘A Lonely Man’ soul band __-Lites
36. Elvis classic ‘Love __”
38. Weezer ‘__ Ain’t So’
40. Funky Stone
41. Chapman Stick founder
44. Slayer get hitched on ‘__ Of Sacrifice’
46. Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’ smash
48. Tom Petty ‘Mary __ Last Dance’
49. Lady Antebellum pecked us on ‘Just __’
50. Musical Instrument Digital Interface (abbr)
51. Where Missing Persons may walk
52. ‘95 Nixons ‘Sister’ album
53. Kylie Minogue ‘__-Motion’
54. Kian of Westlife
55. Huge label: __ Music Entertainment
56. The Cult ‘__ Devil’
© 2023 Todd Santos
Todd’s new book Rock and Roll Crosswords Vol. 1 is available now on Amazon.
Last Week’s Answers:
● Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 through 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating.
● The numbers within the heavily
11-14-22
outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners.
● Freebies: Fill in single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner.
across
1. Pastime
6. Ballpoint brand
9. “His ‘n’ ___” (1994 Pulp album)
13. Sci-fi character with a Swahili last name
14. In a lazy manner
16. Roasting appliance
17. “Shameless” TV star who has never won the award she shares her name with (or even been nominated)
19. Volcanic outflow
20. ___! at the Disco
21. Neighbor of Peru
23. “Thor: Ragnarok” role
25. Immovable pileup
27. Rocky Mountains grazer
28. “Ode to Joy” symphony
30. Raptors, on a scoreboard
31. Exterminator’s targets
33. Sculptures and such
34. Puts on a show
36. ___ Nas X
37. Novelist featuring Navajo detectives who never won the award he shares a name with (or wrote a play)
42. Source of milk for Roquefort cheese
43. Actress Skye of “La Brea”
44. “Blargh!”
46. Architect who lived to be 102
49. Freelancer’s bill (abbr.)
50. Veer off course
52. “Pass”
53. Pro taking part in amateur events
56. October’s gemstone
57. Area of Manhattan near Soho
59. Moving news channel feature
61. Indie rock band ___ Kiley
62. “Star Wars” film series actor who has never won the award he shares his name with (or even been nominated)
66. Scandinavian capital
67. Spotless
68. Ronstadt of songdom
69. “America ___” (John Michael Higgins game show)
70. “Ghosts” network
71. Bad guy’s look
down
1. Palette selection
2. Resistance unit
3. Meet unexpectedly
4. Lane ___ (clothing chain)
5. Knitter’s purchase
6. Italian almond cookies
7. Check-in requirements, maybe
8. Hasbro kids’ game with no mention of weapons (unlike the adult version)
9. Greeting on Univision
10. Gets away from
11. Nauseate
12. Makes snide comments
15. Dance that always gets some letters
18. Dashboard gauge
22. Experts on diamonds?
23. “... sat ___ tuffet”
24. Unflattering gossip
26. Ryan of “La La Land”
29. Out of kilter
32. Sturdy tree
35. “Evita” narrator
36. “Dancing with the Stars” judge Goodman
38. “Born,” in some announcements
39. With “The,” 1983 song for The
Cure where “We move like cagey tigers”
40. Movie with the bit “... and don’t call me Shirley”
41. Bracketology org.
45. Former Senate Minority Whip
Jon
46. Opening lines
47. Actress Tomei
48. Cheesesteak capital
49. “Soon, OK?”
51. Brings to port
54. Smartphone screen image
55. Movie with the song “Naatu Naatu”
58. Heckler’s chorus
60. Feels a bit off
63. Called-upon transport
64. Lemon additive?
65. Word before pool or wash
© 2023 Matt Jones
Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. See last week's puzzle answers on pg 45.
All quotes are from Mexican Today, by Pati Jinich, born March 30, 1972.
Pisces (Feb. 19 – March 20) The researcher and adventurous cook in me never stops learning about and discovering new dishes from other cooks in Mexico. Never stop learning.
Aries (March 21 – April 19) The minute I set foot in a new place, I start searching for its signature soup. … I know I’ve hit on it when I find many variations of the same soup. Find the soup.
Taurus (April 20 – May 20) The array of salads that can be made using Mexican ingredients has not been fully explored outside of Mexico. This may be a ‘lost in translation’ issue. Translate. Explore. Make salad.
Gemini (May 21 – June 20) This salad … brings together foods that the world is grateful to Mexico for (avocados, chiles, tomatoes) with much-loved ingredients from the Mediterranean (sun-dried tomatoes, olives, feta, olive oil, basil, chickpeas). In their company, jalapeño chiles couldn’t be happier! Networking pays off!
Cancer (June 21 – July 22) I make these tortas for my father to satisfy his taste for sweet and savory pairings. One of his favorite combinations is caramelized plantains with earthy mashed refried beans. Ooh, good one.
Leo (July 23 – Aug. 22)
The combination of mango and avocado has to be one of the best-kept secrets in the culinary world. You can combine your mango with whatever you want.
Virgo (Aug. 23 – Sept. 22) I have three kids with very different tastes, so when I make something that all three devour and ask me to make again, I know that I have a winning recipe. You’ll find it.
Libra (Sept. 23 – Oct. 22) If only I’d known about
casseroles! You may have some catching up to do.
Scorpio (Oct. 23 – Nov. 21) On a lazy weekend morning, I will start the salsa even before I’ve put the coffee on. It’ll wake you up.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 21) People who are unfamiliar with this type of salsa, standard fare in some of my favorite Mexico City taquerias, may be perplexed when they taste it for the first time. Is it a salsa or a guacamole? Who cares!
Capricorn (Dec. 22 – Jan. 19) If you are walking the streets in Mexico and see a man riding a bicycle with a gigantic basket attached to it, run as fast as you can to catch him. You will have a terrific taco experience. Known both as tacos sudados, ‘sweaty tacos’ because they sweat inside the basket (not because you broke a sweat running), and as tacos canasta, ‘basket tacos,’ this is street food at its most comforting. Run.
Aquarius (Jan. 20 – Feb. 18) Much more than a condiment, salsas are often the foundation of a dish. Own your power.
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Already this year, representatives of a fictional country called the United States of Kailasa have participated in two meetings at the United Nations, Oddity Central reported. Founded by Indian fugitive and “supreme pontiff of Hinduism” Nithyananda Paramashivam, the virtual nation claims to be a sovereign state for Hindus who have been “persecuted for over a decade.”
In January, Kailasa suggested it had been officially recognized by the United States of America through a sister-city agreement with Newark, New Jersey, but U.S. authorities later rescinded the arrangement. A U.N. representative explained the country’s access by saying the meetings are open to the public. — Oddity Central, March 13 awesome!
How’s your bracket holding up? If it’s busted, here’s some other basketball news that might cheer you up. Sporting goods company Wilson is reinventing the basketball, Oddity Central reported on March 13, with a new prototype that doesn’t require inflation. The Wilson Airless Prototype uses a “research-grade” polymer material to achieve the necessary bounce; the surface is a lattice design that keeps the traditional binding pattern so players can grip the seams of the ball more easily. There are
still kinks to work out, including how to manage small objects that can get inside the ball. — Oddity Central, March 13
A flamboyant woman named Ashley Cream went before the Boca Raton Planning and Zoning Board on March 2 with a pressing concern: She suggested that March 10 should be designated Sugar Daddy and Mommy Appreciation Day. WFLATV reported that Cream, accompanied by an elderly man in a wheelchair, started her appeal by telling board members they were “looking absolutely fabulous, a little bit serious.” She went on to say that sugar daddies and mommies are “responsible for college educations, cars, homes, rents, jets, Birkin [bags] and the occasional body enhancement” — though she claimed to be “all natural” as she gestured toward her chest. Councilman Arnold Sevell replied that her idea is “a city council issue,” and she and her companion left the meeting. — WFLA-TV, March 10
Nothing went right for a carjacker in East Memphis, Tennessee, on March 10, WREG-TV reported. An unnamed 22-yearold victim pulled into his own driveway that night, only to have a man yank the
driver’s door open and point a gun at him. He asked for the victim’s wallet and keys to the 2006 Honda Element, then tried to back out of the driveway, but as he did so, he rolled down the window. That’s when the victim noticed the thief’s gun didn’t have a barrel, so he reached in and punched the carjacker in the face, causing the car to clip the side of the house and run into a pole. The carjacker jumped out and ran away; police were able to gather prints from the car and a recovered phone, but no arrests have been made. — WREG-TV, March 10
Fans of our favorite rude gesture, rejoice! Flipping the bird is a protected, “God-given” right in Canada, NPR reported, after Judge Dennis Galiatsatos ruled on Feb. 24 that “offending someone is not a crime.” The decision stemmed from a court case between two un-neighborly neighbors in a Montreal suburb. “The complainants are free to clutch their pearls in the face of such an insult,” Galiatsatos said. “However, the police department and the 911 dispatching service have more important priorities to address.” — NPR, Feb. 24
Artificial intelligence has infiltrated television news in China, Oddity Central reported. Ren Xiaorong, a virtual news
anchor, was introduced on March 12 to viewers of People’s Daily. “For 365 days, 24 hours, I will be reporting the news for the whole year, round the clock, without rest,” (Redundant) Ren told viewers. “Whether at news sites or back in the studio, you will always see me.” She has absorbed the talents of “thousands of news anchors” and will continue to evolve based on feedback. Ren can answer many questions, but her answers are all within the parameters of the Chinese Communist Party’s rhetoric. — Oddity Central, March 12
News of the Weird reported in July 2022 that Dean Mayhew of Sussex, England, had his Tesco grocery loyalty card QR code tattooed on his arm. While Mayhew claims he has “no regrets” about the body art, Metro News reported on March 14 that after eight months, he’s saved only 18 British pounds’ worth of points. His goal is to save enough by the end of the year to pay for his Christmas food. “Sometimes when I go in there, the cashier doesn’t believe it’s real — I have to tell them, ‘just scan it, please!’ and they’re shocked,” he said. “I love the tattoo so much.” — Metro News, March 14
Sources according to uexpress.com. From the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication. See uexpress.com/contact
