New Hampshire Magazine March 2020

N E W H A M P S H I R E M AG A Z I N E MARCH 2 02 0

THE MUSIC HALL THAT BUILT A CITY Revelations from a new book about Portsmouth’s famous theater Page 60

THE BOTTLING OF TAMWORTH The local café offers grilled cheese and time travel Page 48

TA M W O R T H D I S T I L L I N G & C A F É BAC KCO U T RY S K I I N G O U T I N G MUSIC HALL MEMORIES

bliss cOUntry Keeping things mindfully chill during a thrilling day on the backcountry slopes

Katherine Englishman taking on the Gulf of Slides at Pinkham Notch

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We were more than happy to put the phones away and disconnect. Because sometimes, that’s the first step in reconnecting. Especially when you’re with your favorite people in a place like this. Run after exhilarating run, we ‘liked’ and ‘loved’ and ‘lol-ed’ away the day. And tomorrow we’ll do it all over again. This is me.

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New Hampshire Magazine® is published by McLean Communications, Inc., 150 Dow St., Manchester, NH 03101, (603) 624-1442. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any mistakes in advertisements or editorial. Statements/opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect or represent those of this publication or its officers. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, McLean Communications, Inc.: New Hampshire Magazine disclaims all responsibility for omissions and errors. New Hampshire Magazine is published monthly.

USPS permit number 022-604. Periodical postage paid at Manchester 03103-9651. Postmaster send address changes to: New Hampshire Magazine, P.O. Box 433273, Palm Coast, FL 32143.

Printed in New Hampshire

Contents

from left: photos by joe klementovich, kendal j. bush and david j. murray cleareyephoto.com; inset food

&

drink photo by jenn bakos; all others courtesy

40 First Things 6 Editor’s Note 8 Meet the New Publisher 10 Contributors Page 12 Feedback

48

60

603 Navigator

603 Informer

603 Living

14 Top Events

28 Maple Month

70 Local Dish

visit a local sugarhouse

photo by Jenn Bakos

Meet Brian Coombes of Rocking Horse Studio in Pittsfield.

by Casey McDermott

A yoga and backcountry skiing retreat for women blends adventure with relaxation.

by Birch Malotky photos by Joe Klementovich

CBD Oil

by Karen A. Jamrog

32 Blips

38 Transcript

40 Backcountry Bliss

82 Health

lost nation maple

Features

86 Calendar of Events

nh in the news

galleries and Museums

33 Politics

18 Our Town

by James Pindell

by Emily Heidt

Wolfeboro

by Barbara Radcliffe Rogers

22 Food & Drink

no love for mayors

34 Out and About

you should have been there

35 Artisan

Galina Szakacs

48 Tamworth Distilled

On the surface this town in the shadow of Mt. Chocorua is a quintessential New Hampshire village, but upon closer look, something new is beginning to emerge.

What to do this month

by Anders Morley photos by Kendal J. Bush

edited by Emily Heidt

60 Ten Takeaways From

91 Dine Out good eats

by Susan Laughlin

Music Hall History

Portsmouth’s historic Music Hall is a familiar place to many, but we bet even its regular patrons don’t know all 10 of these facts about the storied venue.

Vegan Black Beans Empanadas

by Mariela Marrero

30 Sap to Syrup

by Kelsey McCullough

by David Mendelsohn

March 2020

36 What Do You Know?

Luchador Tacos

by Jess Saba photos by Jenn Bakos

Franklin Pierce’s plumbago pit

96 Ayuh

a new exit strategy

by Mike Morin

by Marshall Hudson

by J. Dennis Robinson

ON THE COVER Katherine Englishman skiing down the Gulf of Slides at Pinkham Notch during a Backcountry Bliss ski and yoga retreat. Read more on page 40. Photo by Joe Klementovich

Volume 34, Number 3 ISSN 1560-4949 nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Odes to Mud Why does mud get such a bad rap? It’s what politicians sling when they run out of good arguments. It’s what your name becomes when you screw up publicly. It’s also the nickname of the “off ” season that is now upon us.

CUBICLE CONCERTS The Cubicle Concerts series features local musicians as they drop in to the New Hampshire Magazine offices, set up in our tastefully decorated cubicle, and do what they do best.

UP NEXT FROM THE CUBE: RUBY & THE GROOVE

TOM PIROZZOLI

Watch all the Cubicle Concerts at www.cubicleconcerts.com.

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nhmagazine.com | March 2020

A

long with being the beginning of “mud season,” March hopefully marks the end of the previous year’s unfinished business — a time filled with annual wrapups, Golden Globes, Oscars and Grammys, all looking back. (Add to this list a local night of artsy glamor, the NH Theatre Awards — we posted a couple of shots from the event on page 34.) In at least that sense, March is the true beginning of a new year unencumbered by the past, no matter what you were drunkenly singing when the ball dropped in Times Square.

With all the warm lushness of the season ahead to anticipate (including those two magical weeks when the air is mild and the black flies haven’t yet arrived), mud season should be a herald of joy, but the harshness and confinement of winter fade slowly from memory, and mud makes a lousy herald of anything, I suppose.

Still, mud season is really the time when things start to clear up. Apply this to the human world, and it’s pleasant to think that the mucky mess we observe on the 24-hour news channels is just the result of a big thaw that will soon bloom into bright green trails to explore beneath a warm American sun.

As a dog walker, I can tell you that navigating mud season, even on paved backroads, can be lonely business, but that makes its spectacles more precious. Strolling with a creature whose ancestors ran wild for a million years tends to open your senses to hidden things. For the dog, it’s the rush of smells and other clues, long embedded in slush, that hold the most fascination. For me, it’s the energy of long-shackled nature reemerging. The swell of ice-dammed streams and ponds overflowing into their ancient channels is something you both see and feel as you explore.

While our political system seems to have frozen into a caricature of itself, we can only

hope that young explorers, out to make a better world, will sense a similar power as new energy rises to sweep away the dregs of the past. But even seasonal dregs have staying power. Especially here in northern climes where the seasons can play tricks on you.

In his poem “Two Tramps in Mud Time” our poet laureate Robert Frost wrote of chopping wood in mud season and how, even in the warmth of May ...

But if you so much as dare to speak, A cloud comes over the sunlit arch, A wind comes off a frozen peak, And you’re two months back in the middle of March.

Other New Hampshire poets have found associative power in mud. E.E. Cummings, who kept a summer home in Madison, coined the word “mud-luscious” for his famous, birth-of-spring poem “[in Just-].”

Poet Donald Hall used mud as a metaphor in his poem “Affirmation” that he penned at the turn of the century, short years after the unexpected loss of his wife and fellow poet Jane Kenyon, and more than a decade before his own long-anticipated death. His thoughts turned not to the new beginnings that mud foretells, but to the ever-grinding cycles of life that produce it. “To grow old is to lose everything,” he begins, following with a list of common misfortunes that imbue even the sweetest of lives. He ends with this challenge: Let us stifle under mud at the pond’s edge and affirm that it is fitting and delicious to lose everything.

Conservationist Mary Lyn Ray of South Danbury was a friend of Hall’s who writes prize-winning children’s books with a poetic flair. She ends her brightly illustrated “Mud” with these hopeful words of spring: “Hills will remember their colors. Winter will squish, squck, sop, splat, slurp, melt in mud.”

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE

and for her mentorship and friendship as two decades sped by, underscored by unfathomably massive changes in digital technology that have reshaped not only the publishing business but all of human life.

A nerdy example of the scope that change: One of my initial challenges back in 1999 was to code the company’s websites, all flat HTML files at the time (if that means anything to anybody in the age of Wordpress and Squarespace), and eventually redesign and migrate them into early content management systems. In some cases, it was my job to cajole, coax and explain to remaining skeptics why media companies ought to have websites at all.

Looking forward from the technologically quaint year of 1999: • By 1999, internet revenues had already climbed from millions per quarter back in ’96 to billions and finished the year at $4.6 billion. The first half of 2019 alone saw ad spending hit $57.9 billion.

• Facebook wouldn’t launch until 2004.

• YouTube launched in 2005.

• In 2000, only 52% of American adults even used the internet. By 2019, that number was 90%.

• The iPhone launched in 2007. But in the 12 years between then and 2019, internet traffic from smartphones grew to 51.5%.

Good to Be Back Meet the new boss, who might look familiar by ernesto burden, photo by karen bachelder

W

ell, the wheel has turned again, and here I am. It’s good to be back. I’ve missed you folks. Although I’ve popped in and out of the pages of New Hampshire Magazine as a contributor or source a few times in the intervening years, it’s been more than a decade since I occupied a desk at the McLean Communications offices in the Manchester Millyard.

Back then, I was the vice president of digital media for McLean and The Telegraph in Nashua, at the time both part of the same company. If I keep strolling backward in time, I come across another five-year stretch as

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nhmagazine.com | March 2020

online editor for McLean and The Telegraph.

That was my introduction to the company.

The almost-numinous synchronicity about that is former publisher Sharron McCarthy, McLean’s beloved leader of more than 20 years, is one of the three people who interviewed me for that first job.

In December, she left McLean to become the CEO of Girls Inc. of New Hampshire.

It is from her former chair here at McLean, figuratively and literally, that I’m writing this column. I’m deeply grateful to her for believing in that callow 29-year-old newspaper editor/budding web developer,

• And for those fans of Moore’s Law: The number of transistors you can squeeze on an integrated circuit has gone from about 27.4 million in 1999 to 39.54 billion in 2019. That kind of exponential growth almost feels like it blurs the line between science and magic. All you have to do to grok the distance we’ve come is think about the computing power of the 2019 iPhone you bought your teenager compared to your brand-new Ericsson flip phone back in 1999.

Back in those early days, the internet was still green enough that perhaps a majority of businesses didn’t have websites, and we ran a gala awards event called the New Hampshire Internet Awards to honor those businesses that had made the leap and had the most standout designs. Imagine that.

Throughout the decades since, I’ve had the great fortune to labor at the nexus of technology and publishing for a number of excellent media companies, working

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE

with many talented people to figure out how traditional media fits inside this exponentially rapidly evolving landscape of devices, connectivity, social media, digital advertising, video and audio technology, and human culture.

But I’m not back at McLean as a technologist this time around, although I plan to bring that experience to bear on McLean’s digital initiatives and enlist the very talented team here in some strategic new digital hijinks. As publisher, I’m responsible for creating and supporting a space where the team can bring their amazing passion and creative prowess to bear on all of our products: print magazines and newspapers, which I still believe have an important future, custom publishing, live events like the Best of NH and BOBs, and, of course, growing digital products such as our email newsletters, websites and more.

Which leads me to something that hasn’t changed in the face of all of this technological upheaval. At the heart of this whole business is connection: connecting people to each other, to place and to story.

That’s something McLean has always done brilliantly, largely because of the culture inside the company, which has been from my earliest memories of it back in 1999, one of support, respect, unbridled creativity, fun and an exuberant passion for excellence.

In the early days, when the New Hampshire Magazine offices were below Main Street in Nashua, Sharron and New Hampshire Magazine Editor Rick Broussard (how he could hold forth with comic erudition and self-deprecating Southern charm as master of ceremonies at an office party is the stuff

That’s something McLean has always done brilliantly, largely because of the culture inside the company, which has been from my earliest memories of it back in 1999, one of support, respect, unbridled creativity, fun and an exuberant passion for excellence.

- Ernesto Burden of legend) helped form a baseline template in my mind of what great, cool, creative magazine culture was. I’m deeply moved to have the opportunity to make my own contribution to that now.

Adding further to the appeal and potency of that culture, family-owned Yankee Publishing Inc. (Yankee Magazine, The Old Farmer’s Almanac and now Family Tree Magazine) bought McLean Communications seven years ago, bringing McLean under the umbrella of its own rich and storied heritage and worldwide brand recognition.

On my second day on the job this time around, I had the opportunity to attend New Hampshire HOME magazine’s Design Awards event. I was asked to thank our sponsors and make a few remarks to the room full of architects and designers.

These felt as though they wrote themselves: “It feels truly fitting the Home Design Awards would be my first event back at McLean, because I have always associated this company with the highest standards of design. And because it feels so much like coming home.” NH

Once Upon a Time

As our new publisher notes, he’s been around the block once or twice with New Hampshire Magazine and our parent company, McLean Communications. Along with heading up web ventures like the New Hampshire Internet Awards, we even convinced him to model for the cover of our annual publication Destination New Hampshire back in 2007. Along with his duties here, Burden writes fiction, plays the piano and guitar, and is an avid student of literature, religion and the Spanish language. He enjoys single malt Scotch, dry martinis and fly fishing. nhmagazine.com | March 2020

9

Contributors Anders Morley, who wrote the feature story “Tamworth Distilled,” is a freelance writer and translator from New Hampshire. He divides his time between the Granite State and Canada, the latter of which is the subject of his first book, “This Land of Snow: A Journey Across the North in Winter.” Due out from Mountaineers Books in fall 2020, it tells the story of a winter spent traveling alone on skis across northwestern Canada.

Photographer Kendal J. Bush took the photos for the feature story “Tamworth Distilled.” You can see more of her work at kendaljbush.com.

Both the cover photo and photos in the feature story “Backcountry Bliss” were taken

by Joe Klementovich. See more at klementovichphoto.com

David J. Murray of Clear Eye Photo contributed to “Ten Takeaways From Music Hall History.” See more of his work at cleareyephoto.com.

Birch Malotky, who wrote the story “Backcountry Bliss,” is a conservation practitioner and freelance writer.

for March 2020

Author J. Dennis Robinson, who wrote “Ten Takeaways From Music Hall History,” is an expert in New Hampshire history and culture.

Mariela Marerro, who wrote “Local Dish,” is the photographer and recipe developer behind The Hungry Dragonfly. thehungrydragonfly.com

About | Behind The Scenes at New Hampshire Magazine For most of us here at the magazine, running is far from our idea of fun, and a marathon exponentially less so. But there’s one marathon we can get behind — the On Tap for CASA of NH barstool marathon. New The stein hoist is one of the day’s most Hampshire Magapopular team competitions. zine is both a proud sponsor of and participant in this event, which takes place this month at New England’s Tap House Grille in Hooksett. On March 21, teams will pledge to occupy a barstool from 12 p.m.-12 a.m., 10

nhmagazine.com | March 2020

competing in games and raising money throughout the day, in addition to the online donations they’ve been collecting for months. All money raised benefits CASA of NH, and this year the goal is $100,000. We are confident we’ll reach that amount, thanks to the many dedicated team members and to the generosity of our host, New England’s Tap House Grille. Co-owners Dan Lagueux and Valerie Vanasse have helped grow the event to the point that On Tap will, for the first time, be large enough to occupy the main section of their restaurant and bar. Everyone involved in On Tap for CASA of NH is extremely grateful for the generous donation of this space, and to the skilled Tap House staff who are instrumental in pulling it all off. It may be too late to form a team, but everyone is welcome to come see what On Tap is all about — you can enter the 50/50 raffles, enjoy live music by Rebel Collective (5-7 p.m.) and NH Pipe and Drum (opening ceremony at 12 p.m.), donate to your favorite team or just enjoy the atmosphere. Learn more at casanh.org/ontap.

photo by kendal j. bush

Marathon of Fun

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Send letters to Editor Rick Broussard, New Hampshire Magazine, 150 Dow St. Manchester, NH 03101 or email him at editor@nhmagazine.com.

Feedback

emails, snail mail, facebook, tweets

nhmagazine.com, facebook.com/NHMagazine & @nhmagazine

Just One “N” in Kancamagus

Hit the Disrespect Button

lifelong new hampshire cover photo by jared charney

Just want to say thanks for Rob Burbank’s article regarding the Kancamagus Highway [“Back to the Drawing Board,” December 2019]. I always grit my teeth when people pronounce the name with an “n” in it. I can still remember, as a kid, seeing the great divide from the Lincoln side looking over toward Conway before the road was completed. My father worked for the US Forest Service in the White Mountain National Forest for over 35 years, so Sunday afternoon drives were often to different sites/ sights in the forest.

Janis MacDonald Marshall Rochester

Snowbirds Lifelong NH: The Good

We’ve subscribed to New Hampshire Magazine for years and have always loved it.

However, you’ve completely outdone yourselves with the first edition of Lifelong New Hampshire. My husband and I couldn’t put it down. Absolutely fascinating personal stories and such great health and wellness information. We certainly hope there’ll be more editions to come.

Don and Renee Reid Loudon

Lifelong NH: The Bad

Just finished reading the Lifelong New Hampshire 2020 issue of New Hampshire Magazine. Or should I say, I just finished searching the pages for something of interest. What was that!? I want informative content so I can make my own personal “lifelong” story in this state. One such story each month would be entertaining but not an entire issue.

Linda (last name withheld by request) Windham

Lifelong NH: The Ugly

Sadly, I point out an error in this article [“The Timeless Troubadour”]. Not every New Hampshire citizen would agree, but our state has an horrendous system for funding our schools — the property tax.

I believe Mr. Davidson intended to say “No income or sales tax.” Unfortunately, this editorial correction does not change this tax inequity.

Phil Cournoyer Jaffrey 12

nhmagazine.com | March 2020

Photos of tundra swans in Orford by Tom Thompson

Enclosed are two photos of tundra swans, which I was lucky enough to see (thanks to a neighbor alerting me) in the backwater on the Connecticut River in Orford on November 30.

The tundra, sometimes called the whistling swan, are the smallest of the swans, [weighing] around 14 pounds and with a wingspan of 6 to 7 feet.

My guess is they were migrating south from northern Canada (breeding range) to the Chesapeake Bay area for the winter. The pair of tundra swans made a picturesque Christmas card.

Tom Thompson Orford

I received my January/February 2020 issue of New Hampshire Magazine in the mail today. Gracing the cover are various campaign buttons, whether or not they’re legitimate, I’m not sure. What I find very offensive is the one with a picture of Hillary Clinton behind bars and the words “Hillary for Prison” underneath the photo.

I can’t even begin to tell you how much this upset me. If anyone should have bars in front of their face, it’s Donald Trump!

I don’t understand why you would be so disrespectful to Hillary. I fail to see why this was included on the cover. There is no other male with prison bars gracing his button. If you’re trying to relay some kind of message, I’m not getting the message.

Future issues of your magazine will go in my trash unless the next one apologizes for this insensitive treatment of Hillary Clinton. No apology from you and my subscription will not be renewed. Do the right thing and in the future, keep your hatred of Hillary to yourself.

Name and town withheld by request Editor’s Note: The various catchphrases and memes of every political year become part of history as soon as the election ends. There were other buttons that disparaged other candidates (and one that lobbied for a Giant Meteor to decide matters for us), but the last election certainly left a lot of bitterness in the body politic, so I suppose we could have been more cautious in our curation. Hope you found something to enjoy in the issue as well.

Spot four newts like the one above (but much smaller) hidden on ads in this issue, tell us where you found them and you might win a great gift from a local artisan or company. To enter our drawing for Spot the Newt, send answers plus your name and mailing address to:

Spot the Newt c/o New Hampshire Magazine 150 Dow St., Manchester, NH 03101 Email them to newt@nhmagazine.com or fax them to (603) 624-1310.

Last month’s “Spot the Newt” winner is Renee Costantini of Milford, Conn.

Jan/Feb issue newts were on pages 2, 16, 33 and 87.

NEED A GOOD REASON FOR SPOTTING THE NEWT? This month’s lucky Ne

One lucky Newt Spotter will receive a 2020 membership for two adults to Bedrock Gardens in Lee, a $60 value.

Membership includes admission from May to October, plus discounts on branded items, classes and events. Bedrock Gardens is an emerging public garden that integrates unusual botanical specimens and unique sculptures into an inspiring landscape journey. They are also proud members of NH Made (as is New Hampshire Magazine), the state’s official booster of locally made products and special local attractions. bedrockgardens.org, nhmade.com

Thin Ice

Use Extreme

Caution

safewaters.com

nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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603 Navigator “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” — Banksy

Open World: Video Games and Contemporary Art March 21-June 28, Currier Museum of Art, Manchester

This dynamic exhibition explores how contemporary artists have been influenced by video games, a large part of popular culture since the 1970s. It will feature paintings, sculptures, textiles, prints, drawings, animation, video games, video game modifications, and game-based performances and interventions. The artworks reference a broad cross-section of games, ranging from early text adventure and arcade games to modern multiplayer online roleplaying games and first-person shooters. Participating artists are influenced by some of the most popular video game franchises, including “Super Mario Bros.,” “The Legend of Zelda,” “The Sims” and “Final Fantasy.”

“Invader, Rubik Wipe Out,” 2014, Rubik’s Cubes on perspex 62 5/8-by-55 1/8 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Over the Influence, Los Angeles

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nhmagazine.com | March 2020

Courtesy photo

Top Events 14 Our Town 18 Food & Drink 22

nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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TOP EVENTS

March | Picks Art Exhibits

Patio Life

Through March 29 3S Artspace, Portsmouth

tions, bedford gallery lesher center for the arts in walnut creek, california

photo by james collins/courtesyof organizer carrie lederer, curator of exhibi-

At this unique exhibit, explore the world of insects. All of the photos were taken outdoors on artist James Collins’ backyard or front porch as a way to remember that “you don’t have to travel far to find neighbors if you look close enough.” Patio Life features over 20 large-format reproductions of macro life, an overhead map showing the locations of where the insects were photographed, identification guide and his fun fact photo book. 3sarts.org

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photo by steven lipofsky/ipX

X

TOP EVENTS

From Cut Up/Cut Out Gabriel Schama, “Untitled (Irises)�

2015, plywood, 21-by-31-by-1.75 inches

Cut Up/Cut Out

Through March 4, Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter

From an excavated comic book to a hand-cut decorative rubber tire, the works in this exhibit use historical techniques of paper cutting to reflect contemporary concerns in transformative ways. It features over 50 artists working across the United States and internationally who repurpose items such as leaves, Tyvek, maps, plywood and cash register rolls to reimagine the world. Artists, including Charles Clary and Nikki Rosato, use a variety of methods to produce their work, from cutting shapes by hand to creating intricate, large-scale works with computer-aided design software and plasma cutters. exeter.edu

Emerging: Annual PSU Student Juried Art Exhibit

Through March 26, Museum of the White Mountains, Plymouth

Highlighting the strength, energy, passion and technical skill of PSU art students, this annual show features the best efforts of students from all levels of art-making. Through exploration and experimentation inside and outside the classroom, this exhibition includes a wide variety of media from drawing, painting, photography and video to graphic design, sculpture and mixed media. plymouth.edu/ museum-of-the-white-mountains

Hidden Treasure Exhibition

Through March 27, League of NH Craftsmen, Concord

There are many hidden treasures to be found at this engaging multimedia exhibition created by the juried members at the League. nhcrafts.org

Ann Steuernagel

March 6-29, 42 Maple Contemporary Art Center, Bethlehem

This exhibit features the works of experimental filmmaker and sound artist Ann Steuernagel. It consists of films, sound, nonelectric movies and small sculptures that explore the frailty of the human body, subtle human gestures and the aural world. 42maple.org

1. Cut Up/Cut Out, Exeter 2. Emerging: Annual PSU Student Juried Art Exhibit, Plymouth

5

3. Hidden Treasure Exhibition, Concord 4. Patio Life, Portsmouth 5. Ann Steuernagel, Bethlehem 6. Open World: Video Games and Contemporary Art, Manchester

2 3 6

1,4

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OUR TOWN

photo by stillman rogers

603 NAVIGATOR

All-Season Fun

Wolfeboro — it’s not just for summer

By Barbara Radcliffe rogers

T

he eastern side of Lake Winnipesaukee is often called the quiet side, since it has fewer of the traditional beach attractions. This makes it less popular perhaps with families, but may appeal to those who enjoy the genteel charms of a more serene lake vacation than they’ll find at Weirs Beach.

The lakes that sit at either side of Wolfeboro’s compact business district shape its character today just as they shaped its history. It was Lake Wentworth to the east that gave the town the right to claim the title of America’s First Summer Resort. In 1768 New Hampshire’s first royal governor, Benning Wentworth, built a summer home with stories 18 feet high on the shore of the lake that was named for him. This is considered the first summer “cottage” built in America — you can see its impressive stone cellar hole in Wentworth State Park.

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Wentworth was not the last to summer in Wolfeboro. Its position on the shore of the larger Lake Winnipesaukee made it a popular resort that grew as city people sought cooling breezes in the summer.

Hotels sprang up along its shore — Sheridan House had its origins in 1795, and the larger Pavilion Hotel opened to 250 guests in 1845.

The even grander Glendon House, with its double layers of wraparound verandas, was added in 1874; none remain today.

Tourism grew in the 1870s with the construction of the Wolfeboro Railroad line from Sanbornville to Wolfeboro’s dock, connecting passengers from Portsmouth to the popular steamers that Mount Washington Cruises had just begun operating on the lake. Before long, an 1812 farmhouse in the center of town began offering food to guests, in what would become the Wolfeboro Inn. The first overnight guests came in the 1930s

Wolfeboro Station

and by the 1960s the inn was a well-recognized feature of Wolfeboro’s shore. A three-story extension in 1987 added spacious guest rooms with lake views.

The inn has its own replica turn-of-thecentury lake paddleboat, Winnipesaukee Belle, one of several scenic cruises from Wolfeboro. Mount Washington Cruises still operates the M/S Mount Washington, which replaced the previous 1870s steamer in 1946. The NH Boat Museum offers lake tours on the vintage Millie B, and along with the chance to ride in a historic lake boat, passengers get a free ticket to see more small crafts at the museum.

With two lake shores, Wolfeboro is well supplied with places to swim: Brewster Beach and the smaller Carry Beach are near each other on Lake Winnipesaukee, the latter with shallow water for young swimmers.

Albee’s Beach is on Lake Wentworth, and on the opposite side of the lake is

RWD-116 4.625 x 7.45 NH mag Franzs ad.qxp_Layout 1 11/15/19 10:12 AM Page 1

photo by stillman rogers

A CONCEPT SO SMART, IT BELONGS IN A COLLEGE TOWN.

The Clark House Museum, built in 1778, was once a one-room schoolhouse.

the beach at Wentworth State Park; all have lifeguards in the summer. Put-ins for canoes and kayaks are easy to find on both lakes, and rentals are available at Hole in the Wall on Main Street.

The lakes are all-season playgrounds, and in the winter you’ll see colorful bob houses dot the frozen surface. Rainbow and lake trout, perch and large- and small-mouth bass are the most common here. All the equipment, including a bob house, can be rented at Hole in the Wall, where the staff shares tips and advice.

Ice fishing isn’t the only excuse to get outdoors here in the winter. Abenaki Ski Area, founded in 1936 and billing itself as America’s oldest small ski area, has five well-groomed trails with snowmaking, a terrain park, glades, a high-speed tow and a slower one on the learner’s slope. Weekday rates for nonresidents are $20, weekend $25. Cross-country skiers will find trails at Abenaki or can ski on one of the town’s several multiuse trails, two of which begin in the village. The half-mile Bridge Falls Path from the old train depot is good for snowshoeing and another, the Cotton Valley Rail Trail, follows the old rail line to Lake Wentworth and Albee Beach.

In other seasons the lakeside trail is a favorite for birders, and opposite Wentworth Lake, Elie’s Woodland Walk leads through Ryefield Marsh, where you can see wildflowers, herons, beaver houses, and perhaps deer or moose.

It was a love of the natural environment that inspired the collections of Dr. Henry Forrest Libby, which he housed in the Libby Museum, New Hampshire’s oldest natural history museum. The thoroughly

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OUR TOWN

charming and sometimes idiosyncratic museum also includes Abenaki artifacts, historical items, an outstanding collection of antique fans and a pair of Egyptian mummy hands. Free live animal demonstrations are presented on Wednesday afternoons in the summer.

Those with a bent for history will find a lakeside park with a small group of buildings preserved by the Wolfeboro Historical Society: the authentically furnished 1778 Clark House, a one-room school from 1805, an 1820s barn and a collection of antique fire-fighting equipment that includes a rare restored Amoskeag horsedrawn fire engine. Clark Park is also the site of the Wolfeboro Area Farmers Market between June and October.

Wolfeboro’s Main Street and Town Docks area is worth exploring for its variety of shops, galleries and places to eat.

We, of course, would begin at Winnipesaukee Chocolates on North Main Street for one of their White Mountains Chocolate bars, probably the Mount Monadnock — dark milk chocolate with cardamom and pistachios. Farther along North Main is The Kalled Gallery, featuring Jennifer Kalled’s bold and colorful jewelry. The Art Place features fine prints, paintings,

Learn more Mount Washington Cruises (603) 366-5531 cruisenh.com

The Wolfeboro Inn (603) 569-3016 wolfeboroinn.com

NH Boat Museum (603) 569-4554 nhbm.org

Hole in the Wall (603) 569-4653 nhholeinthewall.com The Winnipesaukee Belle is a replica of a 19th-century paddleboat.

photographs and intricate stacked-wood maps. Along with fine art and photography, Artisans Corner carries pottery, fiber arts and other handwork.

Browse or stop to read a chapter in one of the cushy chairs at The Country Bookseller or in the cafĂŠ over a cup of locally roasted coffee and a slice of lemon gingerbread.

More solutions to satisfy a sweet tooth are at the well-named Yum Yum Shop, a bakery and ice cream bar. NH

Abenaki Ski Area

(603) 569-2513 wolfeboronh.us/abenaki-ski-area

Libby Museum

(603) 569-1035 (June-Columbus Day) (603) 520-0593 (off season) thelibbymuseum.org

Winnipesaukee Chocolates (603) 569-4831 winnipesaukeechocolates.com

The Country Bookseller (603) 569-6030 thecountrybookseller.com

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603 NAVIGATOR

FOOD & DRINK

What’s So Great About a Taco?

Head to Luchador Tacos to find out

BY JESS SABA, PHOTOS BY JENN BAKOS

The menu at Luchador Tacos in North Conway includes salads, burritos and burrito bowls, but the star of the show is the taco.

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FOOD & DRINK

I

told my grandfather about Luchador Tacos. As a lifelong New Hampshire resident exposed to grocery store hardshell taco kits and underwhelming Mexican food, he said, “I don’t know how you’ll write about a taco. What’s so great about a taco?”

On the drive over the icy winter backroads up to North Conway to find out, I wondered the same thing. Hungry from the trip up, I turned onto Route 302 and scanned the road in search of Luchador, finally spotting the large yellow sign.

Co-owners Katherine and Josh Mitchell opened this second location just under a year ago. The expansion happened on a whim when a real estate agent suggested Katherine “just take a look” at this vacant kitchen along the busy strip of White Mountain highway. She considered the easy parking, the diner-style cafeteria space and large windows. Mitchell knew right away that she could recreate an experience she missed so much: the culture of the in-and-out street taco shops she grew up with in LA. The Mitchells’ first location is in Paris, Maine, where they perfected the menu that’s evolved from years of eating homemade Mexican food, their own taco-shop hopping,

and customer feedback.

Here, they offer a menu stripped down to traditional favorites and bestsellers: A salad, burrito bowl, burrito and taco made with your pick of four bases — veggies

Below: Choose from an array of toppings and ingredients, which are replaced throughout the day for freshness.

($9.50), chicken ($9.50), steak ($11) and carnitas ($10).

I love to see a simple menu. It’s a positive indicator that what’s offered has a good

603 NAVIGATOR chance of being satisfying and fresh.

Josh Mitchell, who manages the North Conway location, aims to have the line stocked at 11 a.m., not a minute sooner, and the ingredients are replaced throughout the day for optimum freshness. Guacamole, pico de gallo and the sauces are hand-blended multiple times a day as well.

You can personalize your meal with your combination of fillings, toppings and sauces.

I recommend opting for sliced pickled red onions. The process of pickling turns the onions a beautiful deep pink color and removes the inherent bitterness, leaving them sweet and crisp.

As for the main meal, burritos are a popular choice. “People love the burritos because they are really big and they’re filling and delicious,” says Katherine Mitchell. “But if you’re open to trying something traditional, try the tacos.”

The quintessential LA-style street taco is a carne asada taco made with marinated and grilled skirt steak topped with fresh onions and cilantro, a choice of homemade red or green salsa and a squeeze of lime juice on a corn tortilla. Traditionally, it does not include cheese, sour cream or lettuce.

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I find that, when a chef loves and respects a cuisine as much as the Mitchells love Mexican food, we benefit. Luchador is fun and easy.

The food is fresh and flavorful, and the recipes here evolve with local tastes.

Tacos, a burrito bowl and Jarritos sodas, which are imported from Mexico

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FOOD & DRINK

603 NAVIGATOR

FOOD & DRINK

Luchador Tacos owners Katherine and Josh Mitchell

LIVE GAMES. REAL MONEY. MORE FUN!

A set of tacos is served as a trio ($11).

This is the taco that inspired the Mitchells to open the shop.

Next come more choices. Cilantro rice or Mexican rice? Red sauce or green sauce?

Mild? Spicy? Guac? Pico?

The customer in front of me ordered a burrito without the tortilla, a burrito bowl. The server filled the bowl beyond the container’s reasonable limits and expertly wrestled the contents in with the cover. The server next to him laughed and said, “He always overstuffs the bowls but somehow makes it all fit.”

Look for a colorful display of long-necked glass bottles of Jarritos sodas imported from Mexico, which can be hard to find in the US. Made with real sugar and natural flavors, they are sweet and act as a soothing bubbly palate cleanser to go with a spicy meal.

As I got ready to order, I flipped choices around. Burrito or taco? Traditional or Americano style with cheese or lettuce? How much heat am I looking for today?

To honor the fresh, authentic, LA-style street tacos tucked in this northern mountain town, I took Mitchell’s recommendation.

“When you eat a plain taco with the

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603 NAVIGATOR warm tortilla and you taste the oils and seasonings from the meat and the crunchiness of the onion, and then you can squeeze lime on it ... it is just the most wonderful thing,” says Mitchell.

She’s right. This street taco is perfect. The carne asada is flavorful and charred just enough to bring the grilled flavor through.

The pico is mixed with juicy tomatoes, citrus and salt, and the tortillas are fresh.

As I enjoyed my taco and looked around, I noticed the posters of luchadores and wondered about the name. “I always liked the wrestlers as a kid,” Mitchell says. “The Luchador masked wrestler is the mascot for this whole thing because it’s a colorful and unique icon of Mexican culture.”

In Mexico, many people watch wrestling matches in the same way someone in the US might watch football, basketball, hockey or baseball. Instead of burgers and fries, viewers snack at the taco trucks that line the arena.

If you need some table talk, try this: Luchadors stay masked in public throughout

FOOD & DRINK

Luchador Tacos is a casual cafeteria-style restaurant where you place your order at the counter.

their entire career, only revealing their face in the final match of their career, if they lose to their arch rival. The winner walks away

from the high-stakes matchup with the right to maintain their anonymity and keeps the mask of the exposed and defeated wrestler.

The cafeteria-style eating space is made for a quick-in-and-out meal for all group sizes, and there’s something for everyone here. Plus, special diets are taken seriously as the sauces are now vegan — made without the traditional chicken stock. The rice and beans are also vegan. The corn tortillas are gluten-free.

I highly recommend Luchador. I find that, when a chef loves and respects a cuisine as much as the Mitchells love Mexican food, we benefit. Luchador is fun and easy. The food is fresh and flavorful, and the recipes here evolve with local tastes.

As I drove back to the Seacoast, I realized that I understand my grandfather’s reluctance. We’ve never had Mexican food like this in New Hampshire before. I’m going to have to take him on a little drive up to North Conway so he can try Luchador’s food and find out “what’s so great about a taco” for himself. NH

Find It

Luchador Tacos

1833 White Mountain Hwy. North Conway Facebook (603) 730-5429 Open Tuesday-Sunday 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

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Going Places?

Have we got a magazine for you!

Photo by Alex Tourigny

Coming in May Best Places New Hampshire This special edition of New Hampshire Magazine will map out the best places in the state to get a new job, buy a home, find the right school or stroll the sweet spots of local culture, nightlife and tax-free shopping.

Interested in advertising?

Contact Kimberly Lencki at (603) 413-5154 or klencki@mcleancommunications.com.

603 Informer “New York has people, the Northwest rain, Iowa soybeans, and Texas money. New Hampshire has weather and seasons.”

— Donald Hall, “Here at Eagle Pond”

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Photo by Jenn Bakos

Blips 32 Politics 33 Out and About 34 Artisan 35 What Do You Know? 36

Maple Month Be a part of New Hampshire tradition (and enjoy the sweet stuff)

Heritage Farm Pancake House in Sanbornton offers the full maple sugaring experience, from production to enjoying the result on a stack of pancakes.

The New Hampshire Maple Producers Association, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the Granite State’s sugarhouses, is celebrating 75 years. Once again, they're organizing Maple Sugaring Month from March 7 to 28. There’s fun happening throughout the month, but the official 25th annual NH Maple Weekend — when many sugarhouses open their doors to the public with special events — is March 21-22. Visit the website at nhmapleproducers.com/ maple-month for details on contests and to find a sugarhouse near you, and read on to page 30 to learn about Lost Nation Maple in Groveton, which will take part in the weekend’s festivities. nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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INFORMER

Maple syrup is great, but so are other maple treats like these candies from Lost Nation Maple in Groveton.

Sap to Syrup

An inside look at maple sugaring in the North Country KELSEY MCCULLOUGH

N

ew Hampshire maple syrup is simply the best. OK, I might be a little biased, but getting to snowshoe through the woods to find leaks in the lines, and taste it hot out of the evaporator has made me appreciate the unique, sweet, slightly caramelized New Hampshire goodness even more.

The process of making quality maple sugar is both a trade and an art, a mix of agriculture and industry. According to the NH Maple Producers Association, there are currently over 350 maple syrup producers in the state. Maple sugaring here ranges from

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backyard set-ups of spigots with buckets on trees and boiling sap over an open fire to huge 90,000-tap operations with vacuum lines and evaporators. Maple syrup is a New Hampshire tradition that has been celebrated in the North County for centuries.

A local (and personal) favorite is Lost Nation Maple, a sugarhouse in the quaint town of Groveton with taps also located in Stratford. Lost Nation Maple is made up of about 4,000 taps and produces about 1,000 gallons per season. This operation is run by a dynamic duo, husband-and-wife team Stephen and Brenda Tilton, who reflect the

best of North Country craftsmanship. Their sugarhouse combines family tradition with the latest technologies of sugar making to create the best maple syrup.

Over the years they’ve expanded beyond syrup, adding maple candies and butter, plus maple sugar-based spice mixes to their offerings. Lost Nation products can be found in local stores, cafés, farmers markets and online at lostnationmaple.com.

It’s safe to say that most Granite Staters have a basic understanding of how maple syrup is made, but there’s more to it than boiling buckets of sap.

It begins when trees are tapped, generally in January through February. Maples of all varieties produce sap that can be boiled down to syrup, with the sweetest sap coming from the sugar maple. Sugar maple sap can range from having a sugar concentration of 1% Brix (1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution) to nearly 6% in an exceptionally good year. To achieve the highest quality syrup, maple producers must use methods that ensure healthy tree growth and production. One spout is placed in a tree with a diameter of 10 inches. This is done by making a cleanly drilled tap hole and then softly tapping a spout into the maple. If the temperature is too cold, or the spout gets hit too hard into the tree, you run the risk splitting the tree and causing a dead spot on the maple.

The actual sugar season begins as the trees start to thaw, usually around the end of February through April. Freezing nights and warm days will allow the sap to flow out of the taps. Some warm spring days will result in thousands of gallons of sap, which means around-the-clock collecting. The cold, never-ending winter of 2019 resulted in notably lower syrup production in New Hampshire.

Maple sugarmakers are hoping for better weather this mud season.

Lost Nation Maple utilizes vacuum pumps, which connect taps through a series of tubing lines that release into a collection tank. Ideally, the lines will run downhill to allow gravity to do some of the work.

During sugar season, the sugarmaker is constantly watching the vacuum pressure to identify areas where the lines are disconnected. Lines can be disrupted by animals, snow and falling trees. Even with the convenience of vacuum lines, the sugarmaker is often walking miles of woods each day chasing leaks in the lines.

It takes 40 gallons of sap to produce a

courtesy photo

603 INFORMER

603 INFORMER

INFORMER

courtesy photos

Maple syrup production in action at Lost Nation Maple

single gallon of maple syrup. The collected sap is run through an RO (reverse osmosis) to condense the sap before entering the evaporator. This removes some of the water content to cut down on the time spent in the evaporator, which boils sap into syrup.

An evaporator is a set of pans that are heated by oil or wood and greatly resembles something out of the Willy Wonka factory. The goal is to heat the sap to about 219 degrees, depending on atmospheric pressure.

The sap will journey through the evaporator until the proper density is reached. Once the right density is achieved, the sap is put into the finish pan, and the soon-to-be-syrup will be tested with a hydrometer to ensure the proper density is reached. This is also when most sugarmakers will take a swig of their product. Insider tip — when you see steam coming out of sugarhouse cupolas, this can be a great time to pop on by. The sap has

transformed from being about 2% sugar and 98% water to syrup, which is 66% sugar.

After the syrup is drawn off, it’s run through a series of filters called a press. The filter presses remove any unwanted particles like niter or “sugar sand.” This process creates that warm, amber, clear product we all know and love. From here the syrup will be barreled into 40-gallon drums and is ready to be enjoyed.

You’ve seen the letters A or B on your bottles, but you’re forgiven if you don’t know exactly what those letters mean or how they’re determined, as maple syrup grading has changed over the years. In fact, as of 2015, there is no longer a grade B. The grade names are now based on both flavor and color. The four main grades are grade A: golden color delicate taste, amber color rich taste, dark color robust taste or very dark color strong taste. Generally, the lighter

Maple Walnut Muffins Enjoy one of my favorite maple recipes that’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser.

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour 1 ½ tsp. baking powder Pinch of salt 2 tsp. ground cinnamon 2 large eggs ¼ cup melted butter ¼ cup whole milk ½ cup maple syrup ¾ cup toasted walnut pieces Optional maple drizzle: 2 tbsp. maple syrup 1 tbsp. brown sugar

the syrup the more delicate the taste, while darker syrup has stronger notes of caramel.

The color and the taste of the syrup are largely affected by the time of the season.

Usually, syrup is lighter at the beginning of the season and gets darker as time passes.

Sugar season tends to last only about 4-6 weeks. Once spring has sprung, and the trees begin to bud, the season is over. Time to clean out the lines and sell some syrup.

As a dietitian, I feel like we have to talk about the nutrition of maple syrup. It tastes so good that it must be bad for you, right?

Not exactly. It’s a form of a simple carbohydrate, meaning it is quickly digested and absorbed into the bloodstream. Carbohydrates are our bodies’ primary energy source, as they fuel our muscles and brains.

Maple syrup has a slightly lower glycemic index than honey and cane sugar, meaning it has a slightly smaller impact on blood sugars. There are about 110 calories per 2 tablespoons, and it provides a variety of minerals and antioxidants. Most notably it is considered a great source of manganese and a good source for riboflavin. This natural sweetener provides a diverse nutrient makeup, which makes it a great choice for sweetening up your kitchen creations. To replace cane sugar with maple syrup in a recipe, simply use ¾ of a cup of maple syrup for every 1 cup of sugar. You may need to also slightly reduce the wet ingredients in the recipe to get the same texture you would with cane sugar.

I encourage you to visit your local sugarhouses, including Lost Nation Maple, during the 25th annual Maple Weekend happening March 21-22. It’s a fun way to learn more about maple sugaring, support local business and eat some yummy treats. NH

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tin or line with baking cups.

Stir together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large separate bowl, whisk together eggs, butter, milk and syrup.

Slowly stir flour mixture into the wet ingredients.

Stir in walnuts.

Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until they are light golden brown.

Optional maple drizzle: Combine syrup and brown sugar, heat on low, stirring until it’s the thickness of honey. Drizzle over muffins. nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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603 INFORMER

IN THE NEWS

Blips

awareness of LEGOs as something that is not just for kids, something that is for creative adults who want to dig a little bit into their childhood selves, in a way that is mindful or relaxing,” he says.

You can catch Newman on LEGO Masters Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on FOX. NH

The LEGO Master

A talent for building leads to the chance of a lifetime

BY CASEY MCDERMOTT

P

lenty of us played with LEGOs when we were young.

If we’re lucky, a few of our best sculptures might still be somewhere in a corner of our parents’ basements.

Not so for Aaron Newman though. The 24-year-old Manchester resident has managed to, quite literally, use his passion for the building blocks to build a career.

And now, his prowess for constructing intricate plastic sculptures is also landing him on national TV. Newman is part of the debut cast of FOX’s “LEGO Masters,” a competition that pits pairs of “LEGO-obsessed” creators “in ambitious brick-building challenges until the top teams face off for a cash prize, the ultimate LEGO trophy and the grand title of LEGO Masters.” It’s hosted by actor and producer Will Arnett of “Arrested Development” fame.

To Newman, it was the opportunity of a lifetime. He couldn’t disclose too many details about the specific challenges he was put through on the competition, but all of them offered chances to stretch his creative muscles farther than ever before.

“I built so many things I never would have thought to make on my own,” he says.

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LEGOs are much more than a hobby and a ticket to reality show fame for Newman. He’s an instructor with Playwell Technologies, a company that uses LEGOs to teach kids about engineering. He’s also built an enterprise as a “Brick Designer,” chronicling his LEGO creations on Instagram, Facebook, Flickr and more — and also offering his services to clients looking for custom-built sculptures.

At the end of the day, it’s not just a job.

“LEGO is in its own way kind of a meditative tool,” Newman says. “At least for me, it brings me out of … the difficulty of life and puts me into a world where I am surrounded by this creative medium, basically unlimited, paid for by my imagination. For many, many, many years I’ve used LEGO as a way to refresh, recharge, invigorate myself.”

And with that in mind, Newman is especially pumped to be part of a program that’s showing off the possibilities of this medium — at a time when headlines in the pages of lifestyle publications suggest more of his peers are turning, or returning, to LEGOs as a place to unplug from the buzz of their digital devices.

“If anything, I hope the show continues to grow the

Wicked Fishing: If LEGOs aren’t your thing, no worries: There are plenty of other Granite State connections to be found in this spring’s television lineup.

New Hampshire will be well represented in the new season of “Wicked Tuna,” the hit National Geographic reality competition focused on fishermen (and women).

As noted by SeacoastOnline, the show will feature a pair of siblings and Portsmouth High alumni, Samuel Law and Carrie Law-Jones, along with Capt. Tyler McLaughlin, a veteran “Wicked Tuna” star from Rye. New Idol: Loyal followers of this page might recall a feature a few months back on Rochester’s own Kyle Tanguay, who broke barriers as one of the first men to join the Philadelphia Eagles cheer squad in three decades. Now, Tanguay is stepping out into a new spotlight: ABC’s “American Idol.” No matter how far he advances in the hit talent competition, we’re excited to be the ones cheering him on for a change.

courtesy photos

Team Superman and Clark Kent Christian Cowgill (left) and Aaron Newman (right)

courtesy photos

Monitoring appearances of the 603 on the media radar since 2006

illustration by peter noonan

POLITICS

Mayor Who?

New Hampshire has no love for mayors

BY JAMES PINDELL

I

t’s no secret that New Hampshire residents get to meet some of the biggest names in politics. As we just witnessed a few weeks ago, when the state’s firstin-the-nation presidential primary rolls around, there are governors and senators and presidents and former presidents who visit the state hoping to meet and talk with everyday people.

This reality, combined with the Granite State’s laws of extreme checks and balances limiting power from everyone from the twoyear term governor on down, has served to prevent many a local politician from developing an ego.

After all, if someone like John McCain walked up to a woman in Derry three different times and directly asked for her vote, is it fair to expect this same woman to be amazed to meet her state senator? Then again, at least her state senator isn’t a mayor.

In New Hampshire, mayors are essentially given zero respect and largely never discussed outside of their city.

This is not a column singing the praises of mayors as unsung heroes who step up in their local communities. Someone else can do that. This is a column pointing out how weird New Hampshire is when it comes to

those who carry the title of mayor. In my travels around the country as a political reporter, this second-class politician status for mayors is basically unique to the Granite State. It is not that mayors in other states deserve more respect. It’s just that they often do get respect in ways that has to make the average New Hampshire mayor quite jealous.

By definition, the role of mayor only exists in cities and not in towns. In towns, which make up nearly all municipalities in the state, the loftiest role might be chair of the select board. There are only 13 cities and they can elect mayors in all types of ways.

Lebanon, for example, lets the city council pick one of its members and it is largely a ceremonial role. In Portsmouth, everyone runs for city council as a group, and the top vote-getters are named mayor and assistant mayor. Most of the 13 cities hold nonpartisan mayoral elections every two years, though rarely do these races get covered in statewide media outlets. This despite the elections usually happen when there are no other races going on in the state.

There are two exceptions to this. First, the mayor’s role in Nashua is structurally the strongest statewide. Mayors here serve

603 INFORMER

four-year terms as opposed to the usual two.

They also have a lot of staff they hire and fire as they please. Oh, and they almost never, ever lose reelection.

The second exception is Manchester. The mayor of the state’s largest city gets more attention than any other mayor. Some of that is logical enough, especially when one factors in that statewide news outlets like WMUR-TV and the Union Leader newspaper are based there. But even with all of that press, when Manchester mayors try to go to some higher office like governor or Congress, their win-loss record is notoriously bad. In fact, Frank Guinta is the only former Manchester mayor to win one of those high offices (US House of Representatives).

Typically, mayors will always lose those positions to someone elected to a position in Concord, no matter how much easier their day-to-day jobs are.

The odd twist in all of this is that New Hampshire is a parochial place. Residents believe there is a huge difference between small towns like Chester and Sandown. So is it true that even people who pay attention to politics in Concord probably cannot name their own mayor, much less name who leads Somersworth or Berlin?

Last year, some dynamic new mayors were elected in Laconia, Dover, Portsmouth and Keene. At a time when the Statehouse is full of partisan gridlock, maybe it’s time to pay more attention to what these folks are doing. NH nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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Out and About

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photos by susan laughlin

You Should Have Been There

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1/23 Winter Wine Spectacular

The annual Winter Wine Spectacular, which featured over 1,800 wines, took place at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown hotel. Proceeds from the tasting event benefited Easterseals New Hampshire. The Spectacular was the main event of New Hampshire Wine Week, which is presented by NH Liquor & Wine Outlets. New Hampshire Magazine is a proud sponsor of this event.

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1/25 New Hampshire Theatre Awards

The 18th annual New Hampshire Theatre Awards showcased the best community and professional theatre companies from all over the state. In addition to naming the winners, the evening featured highlights from this year’s most rousing performances. It took place at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord.

1 Nashua’s Actorsingers perform a scene from the “Mama Mia Megamix.” 2 Ken Martin, co-founder of North Conway’s M&D Productions, accepts the Francis Grover Cleveland Lifetime Achievement Award. 3 Staff and board of the Bank of NH Stage accept the Matty Award for Vision and Tenacity.

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photos by jessica arnold/arnold imaging llc

1 From left: Detroit Pistons legend and NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas and E.J. Powers, executive vice president and partner of Montagne Communications 2 Reid Klei, Chateau Ste. Michelle winemaker 3 Steve Wood of Farnum Hill Ciders in Lebanon, New Hampshire 4 From left: Miss Souhegan Valley Amelia Faith Herring, Miss Winnipesaukee Ashley Marsh, Miss New Hampshire Sarah Tubbs and Miss Stratham Jana El-Sayed 5 Charles Saunders, Biagio Cru supplier representative 6 One lucky attendee won the tower of wine prize. 7 Scott Cote of Pine State Beverage 8 Diane Carter, owner and managing director of New England Uncorked 9 Kristin Butke of Wilson Daniels

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ARTISAN

Clay Conversation Galina Szakacs creates complex patterns

BY SUSAN LAUGHLIN

courtesy photos

W

hen you are raised in Russia, you have to make sure everything is perfect,” says Galina Szakacs, who emigrated from Moldova, formerly part of the Soviet Union, settling in Nashua 26 years ago. As a trained biochemist, she is now using the same discipline to create technically complicated imagery in polymer clay.

The former Pfizer employee had recently begun a life-coaching career when, after gifting her web designer Barb Young with a small polymer clay vase, Young told her: “Stop. This is what you really should be doing.” The life coach was coached herself, and she turned to clay. Within a few months, Szakacs produced a large body of work, which she sold most of at a recent trunk show. It was a 180-degree career change.

Now, the newly minted artist says, “I’m starting to trust the new Galina.”

Her “conversation with clay” methodology sounds simple, but in reality is painstaking. The clay is extruded into strands, and the strands are combined in a myriad of ways into multicolored canes. The canes are then sliced with a “guillotine” wire into thin cross sections. The design revealed can look like anything from abstract art to a blossom to a kalidoscope pattern. But here’s where the real fun begins for Galina: She combines the sections by bookending patterns, or rotating them or adding one cane cross section to another. The story continues — the resulting statement is as visually intriguing as a complicated patchwork quilt.

With a variety of flattened patterns in clay

at the ready, Szakacs lets herself get a little wild, not sure exactly where every piece is headed. One of her favorite combinations of square shapes has been dubbed Klimt-inspired, in reference to the complicated backgrounds in many of Gustav Klimt’s paintings. The final design is rolled onto the back of a ready-made glass objects, such as bowls, plates or vases, and then fired lightly in an oven. When the light shimmers through the array of patterns on patterns, the conversation begins again, this time with the observer. NH Galina Szakacs’ work is available on the facebook page Conversation With Clay. Prices range from $35 to $200. Objects are washable as they are given a protective coating, but are not dishwasher- or microwave-safe.

Find It

Conversation With Clay Galina Szakacs Nashua, (603) 566-1352 facebook.com/conversationwithclay nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

Left: The trail down to the plumbago pit Above: Marks left behind on the sides of the excavation where they must have drilled and then filled the holes with black powder

Pierce’s Pencil Mine It’s where Franklin went to get the lead out

BY MARSHALL HUDSON

I

’m trying to write on a piece of paper with a rock. Not just any ordinary rock — this rock was once owned by Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States. I’m in a remote corner of Goshen, a couple of miles into the woods beyond the end of a narrow dirt road where I’ve left my truck. On foot, I followed an old skidder road until it petered out and then a goat trail that climbed most of the way up the western slope of Sunapee Mountain.

I’m now looking down into a 30-foot-deep chasm that was once President Pierce’s plumbago pit, or “Pierce’s lead mine” as it was called when Pierce owned it.

“Plumbago” and “black lead” were names used in the early 1800s for the mineral that

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today we call graphite. The raw graphite was so similar to lead ore that miners called it plumbago — which is Latin for lead ore or, colloquially, black lead. Graphite is actually a crystal form of carbon and is chemically unrelated to lead, but the two ores had a similar appearance, resulting in some confusion and comingling of the names.

Graphite, or plumbago, had several uses, including as a lubricant, iron-blackening stove polish and for the “lead” in graphite pencils. Pulverized plumbago powder mixed with a clay binding agent and encased in wood made for a portable writing implement that was more convenient than a quill and ink bottle. Errors made with a plumbago pencil could also be erased with a

“rubber,” whereas errors, splotches and spills made with quill and ink meant the frustrated writer would have to start all over. As there was a demand for pencils in the early 1800s, there was money to be made in the mining of plumbago.

In 1844, Dr. Charles T. Jackson wrote a report on the geology and mineralogy of New Hampshire. His report states: “The beds of plumbago are never large and only employ the farmers during those intervals in agricultural labor when hands can be spared from other work. The most extensive and profitable plumbago mine is wrought in Goshen by Mr. Henry D. Pierce of Hillsborough, who operates it in the way above alluded to and finds the business profitable.

He sells about twenty tons of the ground mineral per annum at prices varying from three to five cents per pound. ... The quality is not equal in quality to that obtained at Ticonderoga and does not sell at top quality price but sells at a good second quality price.”

This mine was first owned

by Franklin Pierce’s father, Benjamin Pierce, a Revolutionary War general.

General Benjamin Pierce had served as governor

photos courtesy of marshall hudson

The mineral deposit still yields plenty of plumbago should anyone want to make their own pencils.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

The Franklin Pierce Homestead is a historic house museum and state park in Hillsborough.

photos courtesy of marshall hudson

of New Hampshire from 1827 to 1828 and again from 1829 to 1830. When his term ended in 1830, he retired to his farm in Hillsborough, where he was content to live the life of a gentleman farmer. Benjamin Pierce partnered with his youngest son, Henry, and bought this Goshen property in 1835 primarily for cow pasture, but he knew that there was ore on the property. Benjamin and Henry Pierce began development of the mine and bought an ore mill, which was put into use at the mine. The crushed plumbago was sorted in a shed at the mouth of the mine, and then barreled and hauled by oxen over the mountain to Hillsborough where it was shipped by railroad to Boston.

Former governor Benjamin Pierce died in 1839, leaving portions of the family farm and mine to his middle son Franklin. While Henry Pierce had been busy

Pierce sold his plumbago (or graphite) mine just a few years before his death in 1869.

working at the family mine, older brother Franklin was busy as a lawyer in Concord, serving in the New Hampshire Legislature, and representing New Hampshire in Washington, first in the House of Representatives and then as a senator.

Sen. Franklin Pierce volunteered for military service during the Mexican War between 1846 and 1848, and he achieved the rank of brigadier general. When the war ended, he returned home to a successful law practice in Concord, and enjoyed some local fame and gravitas as a former general and senator. In 1852, when the Democratic National Convention found the delegates bitterly divided into bickering factions, Franklin Pierce emerged as a compromise candidate. The delegates had voted unsuccessfully 48 times, eliminating all the well-known candidates. Pierce was a relative unknown who offended no one and who had served in the Mexican War with some distinction. Pierce won the party’s nomination on the 49th attempt at choosing an acceptable candidate.

Because the Whig party candidate, Gen. Winfield Scott, was suspected in the South of favoring the abolishment of slavery, Pierce won the general election with a narrow margin of popular votes and was elected president in 1853. Shortly before being sworn into the highest office in the land, younger brother Henry Pierce deeded the 25-acre tract containing the graphite mine to his big brother. The period of time when the president owned a cow pasture and plumbago mine in Goshen makes for some unique bragging rights and a bright paragraph in Goshen’s history, although the President’s

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There was a demand for pencils in the early 1800s, so there was money to be made in the mining of plumbago. time and energies were probably focused on national affairs, and it is more likely that brother Henry focused on the mine.

Tragically, while on a train headed to Washington two months before he took office, Pierce witnessed his 11-year-old son killed when the train derailed and wrecked.

Pierce entered his presidency grief-stricken with shattered nerves and was unable to deal with the demands of the turbulent years leading up to the Civil War. Pierce, the Goshen plumbago mine owner, served as president from 1853 to 1857 and was not reelected to a second term.

Former president Pierce returned home to New Hampshire to practice law and manage the Hillsborough farm and Goshen mine. Unable to find labor during the Civil War, Pierce sold the old graphite mine in 1864. Coincidently, one of the buyers was named Peirce, no relation, and with a slight variation in the spelling of their last names, Peirce vs. Pierce. Perhaps it provided President Pierce some level of happiness in knowing that it would still be known as Pierce’s lead mine after he sold it. President Franklin Pierce died a few years later in 1869 at age 65.

I’ve selected a pointy rock from the tailings pile at the mouth of the mine and scratch it across my clipboard to see if it will write. Successfully, I spell out Pierce.

I’ve found second-class plumbago but rich history at Pierce’s lead mine. NH nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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TRANSCRIPT

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Music Man Photos and interview by David Mendelsohn

Rocking Horse Studio, high atop a hill in the unlikely town of Pittsfield, is known for capturing the emotional range of music with clockwork precision and laid-back soul. Impresario Brian Coombes commands the crashing cascades of vocal and instrumental brilliance from his tranquil perch at a classic control console. He and his wife Michele ditched their original location in Manchester and, following their dream, relocated to the country.

They built the studio from scratch — comfortable but with ideal acoustics in mind.

No compromises were made so the recording artists don’t need to compromise either.

Rocking Horse Studio grew out of my dream of having a place to record my own music. Back in my days with the band Tristan Park, we were always running from studio to studio.

Analog-to-digital conversion has come a long way since the dawn of digital, and our vintage tube microphones, Trident mixing board and classic outboard processing add all the “analog” tone we need.

Of course, after we opened Rocking Horse, it was a good 10 years before I recorded any of my own music.

Tristan Park is a band I started when I was a senior in high school. The name is from an allegorical short story I had written called “The Screams for an Absent Dawn.”

My influences are split down the middle between the progressive rock of Genesis, Yes, Rush and Pink Floyd, and the intelligent melodic pop that started with the Beatles and Brian Wilson’s Beach Boys and filtered down to artists like Crowded House, Squeeze, the Cars and Joe Jackson.

It grew to become a popular band here in New England, and a few years after that, we signed a recording contract that led us to recording and performing in England quite a bit in the mid-1990s.

I have received a Producer of the Year award from the New England Music Awards, a Best of NH award for best producer and two Emmy Award nominations for our work on the Christmas special we produced with Channel 9 a few years ago. And just recently, Rocking Horse Music Club [a band he formed using his best studio talent] received two Independent Music Awards for our song “Everywhere is Home.”

It’s interesting that I play keyboards on so many projects here at the studio because the keyboard is not my natural instrument. All of my touring and recording back in the Tristan Park days was as a bass player.

Although Rocking Horse has lots of analog recording gear, we only record to digital with Pro Tools HDX.

This crazy industry has given me so many unforgettable experiences over the years. I wouldn’t trade this for anything. My heart is in it.

“THE MELLOTRON is one of the coolest and rarest of the instruments that we have here at the studio and the one that is closest to my heart,” says Coombes. “It’s a keyboard instrument that plays pre-recorded tapes with sounds on them. The sounds could be anything from kazoo to bassoons, but the most famous sounds are the flutes, violins and choirs. I guess you could say that it was the first (or one of the first) samplers. When a player presses down on the keyboard, a motor pulls the tape across a tape play head, which then converts that into audio. When the player lifts up on the keyboard, a spring snaps the tape back and it can be played again.” nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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Hilary McCloy and Bridget Freudenberger leading the way into Gulf of Slides on a typical windy and chilly day in the White Mountains

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y r t n u o c k c a B ort and Finding the balance between eff lley ease in the Mount Washington Va mentovich

By Birch Malotky Photos by Joe Kle

Bliss nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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drove up just as the sun crested the trees. It spilled over frozen Conway Lake, its radiance assuring me in a moment the weekend would be as magical as I had hoped. The snow glittered, the windows of my destination glowed, and I felt myself growing buoyant as excitement swelled, nervousness caught in the undertow. I parked among an assortment of cars, navigated snow and ice to the front door, and peered in.

There was something eminently welcoming about the home I walked into — the smiling women and exuberant golden retriever, the neat table laden with fruits and a tureen of oatmeal, the honeyed light — that whatever trepidation I felt walking into a room full of strangers dissolved. Within minutes, I had a steaming cup of coffee and was talking with Cathryn Anderson, a local snow patroller and educator, about all that New Hampshire has to offer. Within hours, I was cutting turns through a fresh dusting of powder on the sides of Mount Washington. Within days, I was laughing, no longer among strangers, muscles aching but happily rejuvenated, with a newfound confidence in my abilities. Backcountry Bliss, an all-women weekend ski and yoga retreat led by Lindsay Mayock-Nutting and Hilary McCloy, made it happen.

Fast friends and coworkers practicing physical therapy in the Mount Washington Valley, Lindsay and Hilary conceived of this series of retreats, workshops and events to (according to the brochure) “inspire people to connect with themselves and the natural world in a more meaningful way.” Their aim was to use the incredible natural setting of the White Mountains along with their understanding of the human body in order to help folks learn and grow safely in the outdoors. From trail running workshops to backcountry ski outings, Backcountry Bliss is designed holistically, with special care given to injury prevention, nutrition and community as key accompaniments to outdoor adventure.

The ski and yoga retreat I attended, held from Friday to Sunday in February of last year, embodied all of these ideals. Each day began gently, with yoga followed by a nutritious but generous breakfast. Then we hit the slopes, chasing the best conditions with on-mountain instruction provided for the way up and down. Après-ski was warm soup and foot soaks, libations and conversation. It was a weekend that managed to be luxuri42

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ous without excess, full but not exhausting, communal with a personal touch. Above all, it was a chance to connect with a small group of incredible women, to learn and grow together in the comfort and challenge of winter in the Whites.

Breath and body Our first exhalation in the yoga studio was a moment of unity. Large windows facing lakeward flooded golden with sunlight, our yoga mats provided personal islands on a smooth hardwood floor. Lindsay’s voice rode soft swells of music, cuing our arms to rise and our lungs to fill. “Your pelvis is a flowerpot and your spine the stalk,” she said, and we grew taller, faces reaching toward the sun, releasing knotted muscles and self-consciousness. “Find the edge, the sensation, that you can sustain,” she said, and we stretched a line of energy from our toes to our fingertips.

The retreat focused on yoga and backcountry skiing, but also emphasized properly fueling your body. Delicious, nutritious food was served throughout the weekend.

Sun salutations flowed into more advanced postures as we gradually synched our movement with our breath. Though guided by the same words, each woman’s practice was subtly her own. Each body moved within the bounds of its own ability and comfort. To my right was Kat Oakes Englishman, a writer and yoga instructor out of Portland, Maine, who moved confidently and smoothly from pose to pose. In contrast, I opted for the more moderate postures. Some of us reached for blocks, others sank deep into the poses.

All together, we formed variations on a theme, our shapes mirroring each other but reflecting the individual.

“There is no goal here, no point you need to reach,” Lindsay said as we reached towards our toes. “All you need to do is become a really honest observer of your own sensations.” We bent deep into chair pose

and assumed the “hands to heart center” position with our palms together. “Your sensations are going to be different than everyone else’s,” she said. My quads ached, my fingers trembled from the effort. “You are learning the difference between intense sensation and pain,” she said as we moved through a vinyasa, meeting again in child’s pose. “Your difference,” she concluded. The music turned over to the next song as we steadied our breath.

The yoga was physical preparation for a day of backcountry skiing, but also a mental orientation. As we moved through poses designed to complement the physical demands of skiing, we were repeatedly instructed to listen to our bodies, recognize our limitations and accept our individual needs — something we would continue to do so throughout the weekend, finding and pushing our own learning edges, together.

Lindsay closed the practice with a final breath, our exhalations again united.

Proper preparation Breakfast, like most of the retreat, was a communal affair, featuring delicious scrambled eggs that Lindsay’s mom had prepared during our yoga session. Betsy Donovan, proud and loving matriarch, owner of Mountain Center Physical Therapy, is the indispensable third Musketeer of Backcountry Bliss. She not only opens her home on Donovan’s Point to the retreat-goers each year, but also plays host to them, preparing meals and tending to their needs with warmth. Without her, Hilary and Lindsay told me, the retreat would not run.

We ate well and conversed comfortably, Hilary sharing what she had learned about nutrition as an elite female athlete. “Women are not little men,” she said, “we process sugars differently, recover differently. We need to refuel faster than men.” These were the kinds of things we needed to keep in mind before, during and after exercise if we wanted to perform well and feel good.

Listening, I thought guiltily back to pre-work laps on the Sherburne Ski Trail, gulping down an apple and a cup of coffee on the drive there and nothing on the way back. Success on the slopes, our instructors told us, started at home. No one was too shy to take seconds.

The same philosophy of success applied to packing for the day. Extra layers, plenty of water, and a variety of snacks were well worth the extra weight. In order to maintain our energy and help regulate temperature, we would pause regularly to drink and

snack. I recalled how my previous backcountry trips had felt like a race, with no stopping to eat or drink. Now, certain that we were well-fueled and well-equipped, we set off with confidence, mountain-bound.

Earn your turns From the era of snow trains to today, the White Mountains have always been on the frontier of skiing in America. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps cut “the greatest network of cleared down-mountain trails on the North American continent,” says Carl Shumway, whose long career of skiing first became legend when he and two other members of the Dartmouth Outing Club executed the first recorded ski ascent of Mount Washington. Cannon Mountain opened the country’s first aerial tramway shortly thereafter, and Wildcat opened the first gondola lift in the nation a couple decades later. North Conway is both the product and the custodian of this illustrious history.

The newest wave in skiing, which the Mount Washington Valley has been quick to ride, is backcountry, where skiers ascend and descend slopes under their own power, accessing terrain not serviced by lifts or monitored by ski patrol. Today in North Conway, the influence of backcountry has

infiltrated everything from retail to resorts to ski racing. Moreover, the newly formed Granite Backcountry Alliance has worked with land managers and local communities to cut glades all over New Hampshire, creating the backcountry equivalent of a “town hill” in many remote areas.

Even as they were discovering the joys of backcountry skiing, our hosts realized it’s not an easy transition from traditional

Above: Lindsay Mayock-Nutting leading the yoga class in the morning light Below: One of Betsy Donovan’s colorful and healthy breakfasts shared with good conversation around the table

alpine skiing. “Anyone can hike, but there’s something about backcountry where people want knowledge and guidance,” said Lindsay, while Hilary, a US Alpine Ski Team alum-

nus, admitted that even her first year in the backcountry was difficult. “I was so self-conscious, so concerned with my turns, I could feel my ego was taking over,” she says.

Both women found themselves looking to build a broader community, wanting to create a space for themselves and others that was inclusive, safe and fun. They wanted to celebrate the phenomenal skiing in the White Mountains and bring more women along the new wave of backcountry. They wanted to create Backcountry Bliss.

“Selfishly, we wanted to do it,” said Hilary.

“And it worked.”

Up and down the mountain At our destination, we spilled out of the cars in a tumult of shiny plastic and bright patterns. As soon as our gear was unloaded, the lessons began.

First came our skins, adhesive-backed strips of fabric that we attached to the underside of our skis. Modern in form and material, skins are historic in function and etymology, first made by indigenous Arctic tribes using real sealskins. Now, nylon or mohair fibers covering the skin point rearward (like a dog’s fur), allowing them to glide forward but not backward, and the skier to move upslope. Next came our boots, which hinge at the ankle when set in “walk

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Hilary McCloy and the group unloading skis and equipment at Pinkham Notch Visitors Center Below: Pre-ski stretching and yoga

mode.” Clicking into our technical bindings, two pins on the toe mount grabbed the front of our boots like a pincer, locking in our toes but keeping our heels free. We were ready to climb.

“You have to think your muscles on,” Lindsay told us. “Drive from your glutes and maintain a strong core.” We practiced gliding forward as if we were skiing classic cross-country. Our instructors took the time to observe our strides and offer corrections.

“Most of the time, we wait until we’re hurt to make small adjustments to our technique,”

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Hilary said. “You’ve got to pay attention to your body from the start, and we’re not usually good at that.” Fortunately, we had already started cultivating body awareness with yoga that morning.

“All right ladies, now it’s time for what I like to call the kitten heel,” Lindsay called as we approached a steeper section in the trail.

Because skins grip best with your weight centered above them, tech bindings feature risers under the heel to lift you as you encounter steeper terrain. Most bindings have several settings, in our case: flats,

kitten heels and stilettos. “You won’t have to use the stilettos unless you’re on really steep terrain,” said Lindsay. We laughed, and continued skinning. Time slipped by as we snacked on homemade almond butter energy balls and chatted amongst ourselves.

I bonded with Nikki Imbergama over our mutual love of travel and heard about her trips to Big Sky, and we reminisced about the wild beauty of Montana.

On trail, we were treated to a healthy serving of New Hampshire beauty. As we climbed above the bare branches of maple and beech, dense spruce and fir enclosed us on either side. Their branches were bowed under mounds of fresh snow, from which the sun cut glittering crystals. Overhead, a blue-bird sky won out against the moody blanket of loose cloud that threatened to sock us in. We couldn’t have asked for better weather.

Just as the mileage began to wear us down, we reached the top. Above us, above the treeline, lay the technically difficult and avalanche-prone Gulf of Slides. Its steep chutes and soaring headwalls looking huge and intimidating, making me glad to stick to the trail below. As we transitioned — removing our skins, locking our boots down and donning our helmets — a solo skier passed by, registering the makeup of our group with a mix of shock and admiration.

“Wait,” she exclaimed, “You’re all women!

That’s awesome. That never happens.” She

Sunshine pushes through snow squalls as the Backcountry Bliss women get closer and closer to the Gulf of Slides. Unfortunately, the new snow and windy conditions prevented them from skiing higher in the gullies, but the ski back to Pinkham Notch was well worth all the uphill effort.

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The real show-stopper: foot soaks. We plunged ski-boot-crumpled feet into steaming basins of peppermint-scented water. was right, I couldn’t remember the last all-female party I had seen skiing, much less one of our size. We turned downhill with a swell of solidarity.

“Remember, every turn isn’t going to feel amazing,” Hilary told us. “You have to trust yourself. Sometimes I envision myself eating it, and have to be like ‘stop that.’” She executed a handful of beautiful turns down the first section of trail and waited for us to follow. A pause — who was going to go first?

Bridget, all-around mountain adventurer from Colebrook, broke the tension and cut her way gracefully downslope after her. The others followed, their obvious skill belying their unfamiliarity with the backcountry. At

The reward of the long trek uphill is a powder-filled, uncrowded run back to the parking lot.

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last, only Cathy and I remained. Shyly, we each indicated that the other go first. It was Cathy’s first time ever skiing ungroomed terrain, and she was recovering from knee surgery, but I wouldn’t have guessed by the way she ripped turns down the slope in front of me.

Down the mountain we went, the snow light and fast, smiles breaking over our faces, the movement beginning to flow. We stopped when we needed to, snowplowed without shame, and cheered each other on. We practiced listening to our bodies, and found ourselves gradually pushing the edge of what we thought we were capable of. When we landed back at the parking

lot, legs burning, we collapsed happily into a stretching circle featuring ceramic mugs of hot apple cider. “Hands to heart cider!” we joked, and piled back in the cars for a welcome evening of rest and relaxation.

Luxury you can bring home As we ate bowls of soup with homemade rye croutons, I thought of Hilary’s earlier health advice that women have to refuel faster than men. Betsy Donovan had outdone herself — a simple soup felt like an indulgence.

The exertion from the day, still pleasantly aching in our legs, drew us one by one to warm showers and soft couches.

We murmured about the perfection of the conditions, and opened up to each other in the wake of our adventures. Abby Scott, whose style I had been admiring all day, showed us pictures of wares from her small woodworking business. Kat and I talked writing. Bridget Freudenberger revealed she was training for an Ironman Triathlon.

Then, Hilary and Lindsay pulled out the real show-stopper: foot soaks. Lined up on the couches, we plunged our ski-bootcrumpled feet into steaming basins of water, each one scented peppermint and made silky with a bath bomb. “How can it get any better?” Cathryn asked, leaning back into the couch and wriggling her toes. As if on cue, Betsy strode into the room, bearing uncorked bottles and glasses. “Red or spar-

Above: Hilary McCloy passing out some hot tea to Katherine Englishman and the other women after a quality day in the mountains. Below: Meg, the golden retriever, with a front row seat to some storytelling and warming up by after dinner fire

kling?” she asked, with a twinkle and a grin as we all groaned in appreciation.

It was a stunning combination: gentle yoga complemented by a long skin and steep ski, the effort of moving our bodies all day sustained by wholesome nutrition, the challenge of learning new skills supported by incredible women. And then unwinding from it all with a little in-home spa treatment. “It smells like Christmas,” Abby said. It felt like Christmas, almost too good to be true. And

yet it all seemed simple and natural.

“If you can’t do it for yourself, who are you going to do it for?” Lindsay asked, and it hit home. The retreat was about so much more than learning to ski, or even hitting pause on the stress of everyday life to escape to the woods. It was about recognizing and honoring the uniqueness of the individual. No one was pressured to do something they weren’t ready for, and everyone was given the support, prepara-

tion and tools they needed to safely explore their limits.

After the water in our foot basins had cooled, Betsy served yet another flavor-packed, lovingly prepared meal. A well-earned night of sleep brought on the next day, sunlight filling the house from its thick ceiling beams to its wide wooden floors. During yoga, in repose, we breathed space into our bodies, learning its stories from day before, and waking it up for the day to follow. At the table, lime-garnished flutes of cranberry juice sparkled in our hands as Betsy clucked around, gracefully refusing our offers to help with the dishes.

Driving to Black Mountain, we geared up quickly at the trailhead, passed the climb with conversation, and at the top, soaked in the views of Mt. Washington with a thermos of hot chocolate.

The affection with which we bantered, the familiarity with which we listened to our bodies, and the comfort with which we moved up and down the mountain could hardly be explained by a couple of days.

“Allow yourself to feel the feels,” Lindsay suggested. For me, the feels were a mix of inspiration and appreciation for the preparation and flexibility it provided in changing conditions, for mutual support and acceptance, for confidence with humility, and for challenge without suffering. They were backcountry bliss. NH

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TAMWORTH DISTILLED In full view of mythic Mt. Chocorua, a new legend is made and bottled

By Anders Morely Photos by Kendal J. Bush

Mt. Chocorua is a constant, dramatic presence for Tamworth villagers.

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It was zero degrees under bright blue skies when I drove into Tamworth one morning in January — the kind of day when you know it’s cold from the way dry snow sweeps across the road like dust.

Somewhere between the buzzing Winnipesaukee towns and here I had crossed an invisible divide. The world beyond my windshield now looked like some exclave of the North Country, where the winter wind bites into your skin and the great hustle is far away.

Inside Rosie’s Restaurant on Route 16 a man sat on a stool drinking coffee with The Conway Daily Sun spread out on the counter. He glanced between his paper and the door and stood up to shake my hand when I walked in. Jack Waldron is president of the Wonalancet Out Door Club, one of several such associations in the town of Tamworth, Tamworth Distilling & Mercantile was opened by Steven Grasse, the man behind behind Hendrick’s Gin and Sailor Jerry Rum.

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which consists of five distinct villages — Wonalancet in the northwest, South Tamworth in the southwest, Whittier in the southeast, Chocorua in the east and Tamworth proper right in the middle. Wonalancet is one of the best points of access to the Sandwich Range, the line of low mountains at the southern edge of the Whites. The Wonalancet Out Door Club was founded in the 1890s as a chamber of commerce for its namesake village, which had become a destination for city people looking to spend long holidays in its salubrious atmosphere. The club’s mission was to build trails for the visitors. Nowadays, members maintain trails inside the Sandwich Range Wilderness, where strict federal rules dictate how trail work can be done. There are no hotels in Wonalancet anymore.

But there are more hikers than ever. There are so many that they have become a public order problem. On weekends, the nearby Ferncroft parking lot can be three times past capacity. The overflow dribbles down both sides of an otherwise-quiet road, in spite of parking prohibitions. Since access to the Sandwich Range from Ferncroft relies on permission

to cross private land, this is a public relations problem as well. The granting of permission is a matter of custom, not law, and no one’s indulgence is limitless. Waldron knows that a solution is needed, but like leaders elsewhere in the Whites he has yet to find one. One thing he’s sure of, however, is that recreationalists themselves could be doing more. He recently watched a single party of 14 hikers show up at Ferncroft in nine separate cars.

My plan was to spend two days in Tamworth, and I had wanted to start by talking to Waldron because there was common ground between us. I hiked in the Sandwich Range as a kid and have written extensively about trails and ways of moving through the outdoors less intensively. But I also began with him because I knew that Wonalancet and its trails were a portal to the story of Tamworth’s Golden Age, when the town was a hub for an educated and well-to-do class of summer residents from Massachusetts and New York.

John Greenleaf Whittier spent summers in a house on the Bearcamp River (actually in West Ossipee, although he still got a piece of Tamworth named after him). President Grover Cleveland spent summers in Tamworth and so did his youngest son, Francis, who later founded the Barnstormers Theatre, the oldest

continuously operated summer theater in the United States and still the town’s most popular draw. William James, the great philosophical psychologist, died at his home in Chocorua.

And at the end of the era comes LeGrand Cannon Jr., whose 1942 novel of the frontier experience in Tamworth, “Look to the Mountain,” is familiar to collectors of New Hampshiriana.

Mount Chocorua, the mountain of Cannon’s title, was the obvious attraction for this leisure class. Its summit is uniquely jagged and prominent in the Whites and looks more like it belongs in the Adirondacks. Thrusting skyward above a small lake hemmed in by tall pines, Mount Chocorua presented a scene that came closer than anything else in New Hampshire to the sublime. And like their European counterparts, New England’s Romantics had a taste for half-invented legends bleeding with pathos that somehow underscored this sense of sublimity. The legend of Chocorua fit the bill. Its various versions told the story of an Abenaki chief who refused to fight white settlers, even as his own people were killed or driven off, only to be ultimately betrayed by the settlers and compelled to leap to his death from the precipice that now bears his name.

So, after meeting with Waldron, I drove north to bask for the few minutes I had to spare in the presence of Chocorua myself.

As a child I passed this spot frequently, but

decades had gone by since I’d last seen the mountain. Unlike most things I remember from when I was a kid, though, Chocorua had somehow gotten better.

Above and below: The Art in the Age Café has become a social hub and a source of comfort food and drink for locals and visitors.

I had my doubts about finding the same in the village of Tamworth. I hadn’t been there in a long time either. Fifteen years ago, a man from Philadelphia showed up in town with a bundle of money and bought an old farm to use as a

summer home. Later, he purchased two major chunks of commercial real estate on Main Street. Steven Grasse, who earned his money designing high-powered brands for the alcoholic-beverage industry, has since turned the old general store into a café and the once-popular Tamworth Inn into a distillery.

I had read an article that left me with the impression that Grasse had practically bought up all of Tamworth — as though it were one of those western ghost towns you occasionally read about someone carrying off for a few hundred thousand. I found it hard to believe, so I asked Jack Waldron about it at breakfast.

He scoffed. Then he seemed amused at the city journalist’s presumption that a town with a history as long and august as Tamworth’s would simply allow itself to be purchased by the highest bidder. Grasse is certainly a household name in town, he allowed, but he is seen in a generally positive light. “Some people were a little upset that there’s no place to eat dinner or get a drink anymore without driving down to 16, now that the Inn is gone,” he says. “But that’s about the extent of it. And if you ask me, it was the drink they cared about more than the dinner!”

The reason I was so curious was that it was Grasse’s businesses, although they’ve been around for a few years now, that got me sent to Tamworth on assignment. And his

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PR agency arranged for me to be wined and dined, and given a comfortable place to sleep, while I was in town. If nothing else then, he is invested in Tamworth. He knows that good publicity for the town is good publicity for him and vice versa.

The Art in the Age Café, which belongs to Grasse, has become a village hub. My lunch there comprised the kind of wholesome food you would never have found here 20 years ago. After a dish of cheesy polenta and sautéed onions garnished with spent distillery grain and fresh herbs, I had a bowl of squash soup with similarly elaborate visual appeal.

While I nursed a lingering head cold with a steaming cup of turmeric ginger kapha, Chef Christopher Sharp shot out of the kitchen and plopped down a homemade biscuit he had sliced in half, pan-fried, and plated with a spoonful of the best apple butter I have ever tasted. We talked briefly, then he walked off to chat with two women discussing needlework. “My wife taught me to knit,” I heard Sharp tell them, “but I just kept dropping stitches and finally gave up. I found crocheting went a lot better for me.”

The café has recently undergone rebranding — not a term one wants to hear in a village often sought out precisely for its noncommercial obscurity. Until last year it was called the Tamworth Lyceum, and the name is still

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Tamworth Distillery founder Steven Grasse Below: The tasting room at the distillery is full of tableaus like this one for their Eau de Musc castoreum-flavored whiskey.

Right: The entrance to the Art in the Age Café prepares visitors for what to expect.

hand-painted in old-fashioned shadowed script across the front gable of the building.

The Lyceum sold artisan gifts and local food products. Now the Art in the Age Café serves breakfast and lunch, coffee and tea and spe-

cialty soft drinks, and functions as a gathering place where locals can sit and visit or read a book from a neatly curated library of classics by the kinds of authors who would have spent their summers around Tamworth in the old days — from the Transcendentalists and Fireside Poets to modern nature writers.

The lyceum circuit was a 19th-century New England phenomenon, an institution that gave adults an opportunity to continue their education beyond their school years.

Esteemed speakers like Emerson and Margaret Fuller would travel from town to town lecturing to a citizenry that was hungry for learning and the perennial refinement of its cultural sensibilities. The curious thing about the Tamworth Lyceum, though, is it was never actually a lyceum in this sense. The name was chosen, and its little library gathered together, to evoke a mystique. It’s a game Steven Grasse plays skillfully.

The name Art in the Age Café is crucial to understanding how it works. The name alludes to an influential 1935 essay by Marxist philosopher Walter Benjamin entitled “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”

In among a sometimes-abstruse tangle of observation and analysis is Benjamin’s bestknown notion, that the authenticity of a work of art derives from a special quality he calls its “aura.” And an artwork’s aura, Benjamin ar-

gues, is a function of its having been uniquely created in a particular time and place. If a work of art is separated from the context of its creation, either by removal or by reproduction, its aura is diminished — and at some point it ceases to be art. For Benjamin, the ability to reproduce an art object mechanically had caused a crisis in aesthetics.

But for Grasse, it’s not a crisis. Or if it is, it’s also an opportunity. His choice of a socialist, modernist thinker as an emblem for his thoroughly capitalist and postmodern project can only be seen as ironic, in the David Foster Wallace sense of that word. Grasse is too old to be a hipster, but he’s all about self-consciousness, complex referentiality, and — I almost hate to say it — pretty good taste.

If you try to find something out about the man who is giving Tamworth’s Main Street a makeover by going to the internet, you’ll quickly become lost in a vortex that conflates advertising and art, quality and kitsch, a whirlwind of parody, philosophy and pretension, of allusion and illusion — all of which sums up to an exasperating elusiveness.

This may be just what he wants. Grasse sees himself not only as a marketing man but also a conceptual artist — and both things at the same time. The insight I take away from his stylish tricksterism, considered in the light of Tamworth, is that a façade can actually be

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an effective instrument for preserving, transmitting, and perhaps even reviving traditions that have been all but lost. But it’s not enough to slap a picture of a guy in a waistcoat toasting a pewter mug on a bottle, say he’s Samuel Adams, and expect us to believe the beer inside comes from a Colonial recipe. Grasse and his team work with particular attention, specificity and style. With a sensibility that is less Benjamin than Baudrillard — the French the-

Above and below: The Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm is the only country doctor museum in New England and one of three in the entire country.

orist who argued that our simulation of reality has in effect eclipsed reality itself — he tries to conjure up an aura first and then works backward from that aura, as if he could somehow extract the thing itself, hoping all the while that it will resemble a work of art.

I’d be seeing more of Grasse’s Tamworth later, but for now I needed to come back down to Earth and find a corner for myself. After lunch I drove up to Ferncroft. The sun was halfway down the western sky and the fields of snow against the foot of the mountains glistened in a soft honey atmosphere. I put on my ski-touring boots, clipped into my bindings, and started shuffling up the Old Mast Road, a trail that climbs gently for about two miles to Paugus Pass, a saddle between Mt. Passaconaway and Mt. Paugus. I sweated my way up in under an hour, then turned around and sailed back down in a 10-minute dream of fluff and spruce trees.

Back in Tamworth, I paid a visit to the Remick Museum, a working farm and education center left to posterity by Dr. Edwin Remick Jr. The farm was home to multiple generations of Remicks, a prominent local family. The last two generations to live there were father and son Edwin and Edwin Crafts, who together provided Tamworthers with basic medical care, including rural house calls, for 99 years. The son continued seeing patients until his death in 1993, and townspeople still tell stories about him. The upstairs rooms of the main house, where Edwin Jr. and his wife lived, are snapshots of mid-20th-century life in rural New Hampshire, and as I walked through the rooms I thought again

about the hazy line between authenticity and imitation. Did everything here suddenly become a simulation — like an aura floating free of an actual object — the moment the Remicks died? It’s a hard case to make when there are cows lolling outside the kitchen window and the smell of biscuits baking in the fireplace wafts up through the ceiling.

The thought followed me across the street to the distillery where tasting room manager Abbey Fife explained her way down a long row of bottles whose shapes and labels, perhaps even more than their contents, embody the effort to create, salvage and sell in a single eloquent act that I understand as central to Steven Grasse’s Tamworth project. I may as well disclose here that I don’t like fakes.

When I first read Benjamin’s essay on the reproduction of art at college, I read it earnestly and became consciously suspicious of the authenticity of almost every made object my eyes fell on. Were shutters real if they had never been shut? Why did people put up plastic fences made to look wooden when their houses were surrounded by trees?

The bottles running along the bar in Tamworth Distillery were all in some sense products of the imagination, but they had taken on an air of authenticity by reaching back to some earlier New Hampshire age, when our sense of beauty was still intact. The Chocorua

The insight I take away from Grasse’s tricksterism is that a façade can actually be an effective instrument for preserving, transmitting, and perhaps even reviving traditions that have been all but lost.

Rye label is printed on uncoated brown stock and includes the legend of Chocorua, told in an 1838 version by R.S.S. Andros, in whole paragraphs of dense old-fashioned lettering.

The clean woodcut image on the Skiklubben Aquavit bottle looks like something you’d have found in the bar of the Eastern Slope Inn in the 1930s and is a nod to the historic Nansen Ski Club in Berlin, New Hampshire. Every one of these products plays around inside its

own little world of allusions, and each allusion is a foggy mirror image of a past reality that has been carefully combed through to pluck out what’s most compelling — and marketable — in it. Yet not one of these products is more than a few years old. So is this real tradition?

Not strictly speaking, but I’m almost ready to say it’s better than a lot of genuine stuff we’ve passed down through time without considering whether it’s worth the trouble.

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A 250-gallon copper still at Tamworth Distilling

We eventually got to the contents of these exquisite little vessels, and they were nice too. The Eau de Musc, made in small runs, is a bourbon infused with fir needles, raspberries and birch-tar oil and then blended with a distillation of castoreum oil, rendered from the scent gland of an unlucky New Hampshire beaver. Each sip starts with a wild tang that then resolves into the familiar sweet smoothness of bourbon. The Chocorua Rye, distilled from Maine rye, has a sharpness to it that somehow calls to mind the angular summit of the mountain itself. At 100-proof, the Old Man of the Mountain Bourbon is double-pot distilled, which is apparently what gives it a ragged moonshine quality that’s miles away from the elegant finish of the Eau de Musc. But my favorite was the Old Hampshire Applejack, made from three New Hampshire apple varieties and barrel-aged for four years. I love the sublimated notes of tart apple flesh that rise to the back of the nose.

After the tasting, photographer Kendal Bush and I went off to dinner at the Corner House Inn in Center Sandwich, where we found a seat in the cozy upstairs pub with live music and let the affable and expository waiter choose what to bring us. For appetizers he brought pork cracklin’ with a citrus ranch dipping sauce and grilled ahi tuna with an array of Japanese-inspired condiments. For the main

The Chocorua Rye, distilled from Maine rye, has a sharpness to it that somehow calls to mind the angular summit of the mountain itself.

I had a rare prime rib with mashed potatoes, while Kendal had a salmon steak that she told me was delicious. Long a Lakes Region favorite, the Corner House was purchased last year by Lexi Townsend, a young entrepreneur dedicated to carrying forward the tradition of providing fine dining that’s accessible to ordinary people. She’s also interested in building community and supporting the local economy, and as part of her refurbishment of the downstairs dining rooms she placed a large order of Tappan chairs, which are hand-built just down the street.

In the morning, I was in Tamworth again, where the winter farmers market bustled inside the Town House. A man with a long white beard, rosy cheeks and a Bernie-forPresident pin preached on the virtues of local

honey. Baker Peg Loughran, a lifelong summer resident who has lived in Tamworth yearround since 1993, told me she learned the basics of her trade during a short apprenticeship at the famous Berkshire Mountain Bakery and has since advanced by trial and error. She launched the market in 2007 with farmer and sometime writer Bob Streeter, whose yogurt is much in demand. He was so busy doling it out to customers that I didn’t have a chance to talk to him. But I did talk to Helen Steele, a retired chemistry teacher who raises sheep and vegetables in Wonalancet. At the winter market she also sells homemade value-added foods, like moussaka, macarons and lamb jerky. “My Hungarian paprika is somewhat famous,” she told me.

Upstairs was a large ballroom-like space

The pub at the Corner House Inn in nearby Center Sandwhich offers Tamworth Distilling spirits, such as the Chocorua straight rye whiskey pictured here.

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with a coved pressed-tin ceiling. A circle of musicians aged between 50 and 75 sat in a corner and took turns leading the group in songs. Taylor Whiteside, a renowned New Hampshire folk singer, sat in the circle with his guitar and fiddle and gave musical advice to anyone who wanted it. Others played guitars, a mandolin, an autoharp, a squeeze box and a bodhran. I sat and listened to a couple of Utah Phillips songs and then went off to find Kendal.

From the Great Hill Fire Tower, you see Tamworth Village the way a bird does. The 360-degree-view takes in the Maine hills to the east, the Ossipee Mountains to the south, and in the north and west the long wave of the Sandwich Range appears to wash south and flatten out below Mount Israel, near Center Sandwich.

It was almost dusk by the time we had our fill of the view and walked back down the trail to drive to our final Tamworth appointment.

Hank Letarte operates White Gates Farm with his wife Heather and says he makes the best pizza in New Hampshire. He hands me a slice he’s just pulled from the wood-fired brick oven he built inside an old horse trailer.

The Letartes host pizza nights once a week in

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Above and below: The monthly pizza night hosted by Hank and Heather Letarte

the summer and once a month in the winter, open to all. In the summer, they’re outside in the fields with a view of the surrounding hills and the sunset. In the winter, Hank backs his oven up to an opening in the greenhouse, and everyone piles in from the cold. There’s always

live music, and tonight we’re entertained by a bluegrass quintet made of Tamworth locals who play beautifully together. People come in dressed for the cold with wine or beer brought from home, place their pizza orders with Heather, then choose a table and mingle with

“This is real N’Hampsha,” Letarte says, surveying the scene. Of course, I like to think he’s right.

But what does real New Hampshire mean? And real Tamworth?

I wasn’t sure I knew anymore.

One of the million ideas that constitute the “reality” of Tamworth Distilling is the recently launched White Mountain Cocktail Club — a kind of roving lyceum with no firm rules just yet, but that will encourage members to get together for talks and adventures.

their neighbors while they wait for their food.

“This is real N’Hampsha,” Letarte says, surveying the scene. “You just wouldn’t get this in Massachusetts.”

Of course, I like to think he’s right. But what does real New Hampshire mean? And real Tamworth? I wasn’t sure I knew anymore.

Outside, the snow had been coming down

for about an hour. Kendal headed home in hopes of beating the brunt of it, and I got in my car to drive through the dark woods to the house I’d been given to stay in nearby. The house was stashed among hemlocks at a bend in a black brook that came racing down the rocks between pillows of snow. In the morning sun, I had wanted to sit on the porch and write haikus, but now, in the pitch dark where I could hear the brook and feel snowflakes tickling my cheeks but see almost nothing, it occurred to me that I should go inside and read Whittier’s “Snowbound.” How would

that be for atmosphere! But when I realized how long it was, I doubted I would reach the end before drifting off. So instead I remembered the words of a Kate Wolf song the singer at the Corner House Inn had closed with the night before, when everyone had gone home.

It seemed a fitting way to end.

I’ve been sifting through the layers Of dusty books and faded papers.

They tell a story that I used to know, But it was one that happened long ago.

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Ten Takeaways From Music Hall History In a new book on Portsmouth’s landmark theater, the author learns a thing or two (or 10) about the history-rich city he calls home

By J. Dennis Robinson Left: The play “Caste” by T. W. Robertson, as performed at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland, was the premier event at the opening of the Music Hall in 1878.

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courtesy of the national library of scotland

George Orwell, my literary hero, got it half-right. “Writing a book,” he said, “is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.”

Tell me about it. But a dozen history books later, I’m still standing. My latest took almost three years and 3,000 hours of research and writing, plus selecting and captioning 288 illustrations. What Orwell forgot to mention are the sporadic flashes of joy that come from connecting the dots as the full story takes shape.

When director Patricia Lynch asked me to write about The Music Hall, I knew the basics. Portsmouth’s landmark theater opened in 1878. I remember when it was the Civic, a dilapidated B-run cinema that we called “Old Stickyfoot.” I knew it was nearly converted to condominiums in the mid-1980s, then saved,

failed, auctioned off again and resold. Today the often-endangered Music Hall is artfully restored and more vibrant than ever.

What I didn’t know when I started this project would fill a book — and now it does. With a nod to Mr. Orwell, here are a few of the discoveries that made this “horrible, exhausting struggle” wonderfully worthwhile.

1. Portsmouth was born to party.

It’s true that a tiny band of English fishermen landed at what is now Rye, New Hampshire, in 1623, but they didn’t last long. The first significant settlers at Portsmouth, formerly called Strawberry Bank, began arriving in 1630 aboard the sailing ships Warwick and the Pied Cow. They were seeking land and wealth, not religious freedom. They brought along a few cannon, lots of ammo, one Bible and a how-to book about mining for gold and silver. Things didn’t go well. The ragtag group of artisans, adventurers, soldiers and indentured men and women also made music. Records show they brought along 15 “hautboys” (medieval oboes pronounced “o-boy”), wooden recorders and a bunch of drums. The city’s reputation as a

mecca for performing arts was born that day.

According to an early historian, New Hampshire’s only seaport was a sort of anti-Massachusetts. There was a lot more feasting than fasting here. Early Puritans who, at first, controlled all of New England, viewed the Portsmouth region as a rowdy place that welcomed outlaws, undesirables and godless drunken fishermen. By the mid-1700s, Portsmouth was a key destination for traveling entertainers whose “lewd amusements” drew paying crowds.

Two Portsmouth taverns, both still standing at Strawbery Banke Museum, were the focus of many traveling acts. For a small fee, curious patrons could view a docile moose, a performing elephant, a caged African lion or human dwarves and albinos on display. The city’s grand Assembly House, the site of fancy dress balls and concerts, also hosted slackwire walkers, jugglers, wax figures, automatons and an “invisible lady” who predicted the future. A “learned pig” could calculate sums by flipping over numbered cards. Richard Potter, who frequently performed in Portsmouth, became a renowned American magician and ventriloquist. Potter has been called “America’s first black celebrity.”

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This rare picture of the British farce “Miss in Her Teens” shows early theatre style, where men played all the roles. It was performed at the short-lived Bow Street Theater, the first theater in Portsmouth, which opened in 1791.

commons; courtesy of the j. dennis robinson collection

First performed in London in 1764, “Lecture on Heads” satirized popular fashion and personalities. After finding success in Great Britain, playwright-actor-songwriter George Alexander Stevens brought the theatrical comedy to America. It was performed at a Portsmouth tavern then called The Earl of Halifax, which was located on present-day Court Street.

“miss

Actors have long been branded as loose and immoral. They earned little respect in puritanical New England. It was John Hancock, the man with the boldest signature on the Declaration of Independence, who helped instigate a Boston ban on theaters in 1750.

Most cities followed suit. But prior to the American Revolution, three wealthy New Hampshire governors — all from Portsmouth and all named Wentworth — loved dancing, music and theatre.

It was into this entertainment-loving society that the city’s first theater opened in the final weeks of 1791. After renovating a warehouse on Bow Street, a band of young gentlemen sold subscriptions for eight “moral”

in her teens” courtesy of the british museum collection/ wikipedia, wikimedia

2. The curtain fell on NH’s first theater.

courtesy of the j. dennis robinson collection

performances, including “Miss in Her Teens” and “The Absent Wife.” As was the practice in Shakespeare’s day, the most delicate of men played the female roles.

Reviews of the Bow Street Theater were mixed. Unruly patrons without tickets snuck in from behind the scenery. Others tossed chestnuts and apples onto the stage. The actors, according to a letter in the newspaper, “drink spirituous liquors in order to keep up their strength.” Not even the elaborate painted scenery of a ship leaving the harbor or the attack of a sea monster could save the show.

The “pious zealots” of the town won out and the theater quickly returned to a warehouse stacked with crates and barrels.

3. Churches make good stages.

photo by david j murray, cleareyephoto.com

Portsmouth peaked as a maritime trading center by 1800. A killer shipping embargo, three devastating downtown fires and the War of 1812 crushed the local economy and depressed residents. Then came what historians call “The Era of Good Feelings,” a healing postwar period marked by optimism. Americans became interested in gaining useful

By the mid-1700s, before The Music Hall existed (pictured below during a k.d. lang concert), Portsmouth was already an entertainment destination. Two taverns — which still stand at the Strawbery Banke Museum — hosted many traveling acts that, among other curiosities, displayed animals, including a caged African lion and “learned” pig, both depicted in these engravings from the era.

knowledge, in self-improvement and in discovering what united rather than divided them. By the 1830s, a system of public lectures for men and women known as the “Lyceum Movement” flourished in hundreds of New England towns.

The top lyceum venue in Portsmouth was a converted Baptist church on Chestnut Street dubbed the “Temple.” Famous speakers, including utopian writer Ralph Waldo Emerson and black abolitionist Frederick Douglass, took the stage. That wooden structure burned suddenly on Christmas Eve in 1876. The city’s now-thriving Music Hall was built on the same spot the following year.

Deep research proves, however, that the Portsmouth Lyceum did not begin at the Temple. It began in 1833 at another converted church a block away. Giving things fancy Greek names was all the rage back then, and the little theater was dubbed the “Cameneum.” It was a terrible made-up name, but a lovely venue with the night sky painted on the ceiling. An enclosed art gallery featured scenes of Switzerland, Paris and Italy. An organ, built locally, reportedly contained 600 pipes ranging from 2 inches to 17 feet tall. The Cameneum was later converted to a garage for carriages. It burned and is currently a downtown parking lot.

4. Frank Jones supersized The Music Hall.

We know little about the wealthy Peirce family of Portsmouth who bankrolled The Music Hall. It premiered to a full house on January 29, 1878. “A community is known,” the opening night speaker said as if clairvoyant, “by the character and place of its amusements.” It was a fine brick building with colorfully painted frescoes, spacious galleries, a balcony and an enormous gas-powered chandelier that could illuminate the entire auditorium. A crimson velvet curtain bore the image of the New Hampshire state seal.

Music Hall production manager and historian Zhana Morris has uncovered over 750 performances in the theater’s first two decades. The “Buffalo Bill Combination,” featuring the legendary “Wild Bill” Hickok, thrilled the public. The raucous, smoke-filled cowboy shows featured live horses onstage with sharpshooting, romance, outlaws, trick roping, sham battles and an authentic Native American “princess.” In 1883, The Music Hall

Right: Born enslaved, Frederick Douglass became an abolitionist, author and adviser to Abraham Lincoln. In 1862 Douglass spoke at Portsmouth’s top lyceum, dubbed the Temple. The Music Hall was later built on that spot. Above is a clipping from the local newspaper about Douglass’ appearance.

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The two church pulpits became podiums, then stages. People wanted to be entertained as well as enlightened. They wanted a theater.

photo of douglass courtesy of the massachusetts historical society; courtesy of the j. dennis robinson collection

No image of either building survives. But we can visualize, through newspaper accounts, how their architecture evolved to suit the changing desires of the public. The two church pulpits became podiums, then stages.

Their boxy pews were replaced by curved amphitheater seating. Instead of sermons, audiences came to see lively speakers, musicians, acrobats, dancers, magicians and comedians.

People wanted to be entertained as well as enlightened. They wanted a theater.

courtesy of wikipedia

welcomed Charles Sherwood Stratton, better known as General Tom Thumb, and his wife Lavinia. Discovered, exploited and enriched by showman P.T. Barnum, the 3-foot tall entertainer had delighted millions, from Queen Victoria to Abraham Lincoln. But poor Tom was not well. He died of a stroke four months after his Portsmouth show.

The Music Hall is really two buildings.

When the Peirce family cashed out in 1899, Portsmouth’s richest resident picked up the deed. Best known for his enormous brewery in the city’s West End, Frank Jones also owned hotels, banks, phone and electric utilities, railroads, insurance companies, a Portsmouth mansion on 1,000 acres, a racing stable and more.

Jones bought a small slice of land directly behind the theater on what had been a prison, almshouse and stable. It was an inspired move. Jones was able to deepen The Music Hall stage area by almost 40 feet. The towering 75-foot brick addition was so tall it could be seen from the other side of town, and from its roof, on a clear day, one can still view the Isles of Shoals 10 miles away. The enormous new stage doors were wide enough to accommodate a team of elephants.

Reopened in 1901, the interior featured an

fly rail“ system more than 65 feet above the ground. This allowed scenery and curtains to be stored, hovering above the stage, then dropped quickly for even the most sophisticated productions.

A hand-cranked elevator delivered actors to tiny dressing rooms stacked four levels high at stage left. The fully professionalized backstage rivaled any New England theater outside of Boston. The Music Hall was suddenly attractive to top acts at the height of the vaudeville craze. And it elevated Portsmouth as a destination for tourists, business owners and new residents. The following year, having completed his final act, Jones died. He is buried beneath the city’s tallest tombstone in South Cemetery.

Influential businessman Frank Jones, best known for his huge brewery, dramatically increased the size of The Music Hall.

5. Minstrelsy was racist family fare.

ornate new proscenium archway, glittering with gold leaf, that frames the stage to this day. Painted cherubs fluttered toward the decorative ceiling. But what happened behind the curtain has made all the difference.

Jones’ addition not only extended the depth of the stage, but created an upper “grid and

We tend to picture the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the delightful days of vaudeville, known as “music hall” in England. For a small fee, audiences could enjoy a showcase of short acts. Slapstick comics, musicians, hypnotists, acrobats, animal acts, freak shows, dancers, speakers and celebrities populated the stage.

Like the “lewd amusements” of the 1790s and

photo by david j murray, cleareyephoto.com

Today The Music Hall offers an impressive array of performances, from plays and comedy shows to live author events and concerts. Pictured here is Tony Bennett performing at the Music Hall.

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courtesy photo

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courtesy of wikipedia, wikimedia commons

the speakers at the lyceum, vaudeville acts traveled a circuit from town to town.

But there’s no running from the truth. The most popular form of mass entertainment in America was blackface minstrelsy. White actors and musicians, their faces blackened with burnt cork or greasepaint, were as familiar to audiences as television sitcoms or rock and roll today. During the two decades that the Peirce family owned The Music Hall, at least 30 different minstrel groups were hired.

Troupes described themselves as mammoth, mastodon, monster, magatherian or gigantean, and could include up to 100 cast members.

Portsmouth, like all maritime cities north or south, had included black residents from its founding days. At one level, music historians note, minstrelsy was an homage to African music and dancing. It was more rhythmic, more lively, more original, more heartfelt, more tuneful, and therefore more entertaining than what white audiences were used to.

But it came freighted with mocking and hurtful stereotypes. After the Civil War, blackface minstrelsy spread into newly built theaters like The Music Hall where, accepted as wholesome family entertainment, its racist stereotypes became embedded in popular culture.

Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain expressed a fondness for the genre, while former slave Frederick Douglass pulled no punches.

He called blackface minstrels “the filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied them by nature ... to make money and pander to the corrupt taste of their white fellow citizens.”

For the record, troupes of black minstrels, usually with white managers, also performed at The Music Hall. These black groups were often billed as “true Ethiopian” or “all-colored” or “jubilee” acts. The Original Georgia Minstrels, popular in Portsmouth, were unique in that their founder and manager, Charles B. Hicks, was a light-skinned black.

Hicks’ players, however, were sometimes branded as “race traitors” by their peers for pandering to white audiences. The Original Georgia Minstrels were welcomed onto the Portsmouth stage, but still banned from patronizing local hotels and restaurants even into the 20th century.

6. Vaudeville shared a stage with silent films.

In the shorthand of history, a meteor killed the dinosaurs and movies murdered vaudeville. In fact, the two forms of entertainment coexisted for decades. Portsmouth first experienced the modern miracle of moving pic-

tures at The Music Hall early in 1898. Short silent films were still a novelty in 1903 when F.W. Hartford bought the theater from the estate of the late Frank Jones. Hartford would eventually buy up half a dozen local newspapers and condense them into the daily Portsmouth Herald. He was also elected city mayor seven times.

In 1917, the gorgeous Olympia Theatre opened just a block from The Music Hall, followed by the expansive new Colonial

patrons could choose from as many as 100 short performances each week.

But in a tiny city like Portsmouth, it couldn’t last. The competition was downright “suicidal,” according to John Henry Bartlett, a local lawyer who owned the new Olympia Theatre. With cutthroat ticket prices slashed as low as a nickel, Bartlett suggested a compromise. Why not lump all four downtown theaters under a single management company? Bartlett, who soon became governor of New Hampshire, took charge. His Allied Theatres Company leased the aging Music Hall for the next 20 years.

7. The show went dark in WWII. As World War II loomed, F.W. Harford died.

His son Justin Hartford reluctantly took over the family newspaper and the dilapidated Music Hall. Rejected by Warner Bros. and other cinema chains, the empty hall attracted two types of renters. Justin refused all offers to convert the building into a nightclub or bowling alley. But as the war raged and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard launched record numbers of submarines, he leased the theater to three wide-eyed acting troupes. All three vendors sank within months.

Among the failed entrepreneurs, ironically, was Maude Hartwig, founder of the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine. Haunted by the decaying beauty of Portsmouth’s Victorian theater, Maude leased the building in 1942. Her troupe quickly abandoned all hope, leaving a spray of unpaid bills in their wake. Many decades and many owners later, however, The Music Hall launched a collaboration with the now-legendary Ogunquit Playhouse. Holiday productions of “Mary Poppins,” “Elf the Musical,” “Annie” and “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” have now become the most popular and financially successful productions in Music Hall history.

Charles Sherwood Stratton, better known as General Tom Thumb (top), and William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody (above), were two of The Music Hall’s most famous performers in the late 19th century. Left: Before expanding to huge outdoor arenas, a smaller version of “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show” was performed at the Temple and The Music Hall.

Theatre and the small Scenic Temple in nearby Market Square. Although designed to screen silent films, the three competitors also staged live shows. With each theater offering four or five new vaudeville acts and as many films every few days, Portsmouth

8. A white elephant sells for 10 grand.

Enough was enough. The Music Hall was draining the Hartford family finances. It had to go. On May 3, 1945, as WWII drew to a close, Portsmouth’s once grand theater went on the auction block. Twenty minutes later, after only two bids, it was sold for $10,000.

The following day Germany surrendered. The new owner, a man named Guy Tott from Kittery, Maine, quickly renamed his property the “Civic.” Over the summer, as work on the former Music Hall continued, the United States nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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“a purchase of the heart,” culture lovers sighed with relief. But by 1988, he too had thrown in the towel and the condo plan was back.

dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In September 1945, Japan surrendered. Days later, the Civic opened.

Although Mr. Tott’s efforts to bring back vaudeville flopped, the remodeled movie house with its shiny concession stand and state-of-the-art carbon arc film projectors was a hit. Young usherettes in blue uniforms waving flashlights guided patrons to their comfortable new seats. Following the sudden demise of Guy Tott, the Civic survived almost 40 years under the management of movie theater mogul Elias M. Lowe. The Civic outlived all of its competing downtown cinemas. But by 1985, with paint peeling, the ceiling leaking, and mice gnawing at the hemp staging ropes, the crumbling playhouse was up for sale again.

ing board rejected a proposal to convert The Music Hall into 21 luxury condominiums. In return, the owners threatened to sue the city.

“This building is really no longer a theater,” a Portsmouth attorney proclaimed during a lively public hearing. “It’s had its chance, and it just didn’t work.” Even the Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce agreed that going condo was a “reasonable” solution. When a Nashua businessman bought the theater in what he called

A candid photo on Chestnut Street of the premiere of “The Love Bug” at the Civic in 1968

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After the sudden death of Civic owner Guy Tott, the cinema survived for almost 40 years under the management of theater mogul Elias M. Lowe (above).

courtesy of the harvard theatre collection elias m. loew photo courtesy of j. dennis robinson collection

“Our original idea was to turn the thing into condominiums,” the new owners of The Music Hall told a reporter in 1986, “but we just couldn’t do it. We fell in love with this place.”

But love fades. After a herculean effort to bring The Music Hall back to life as a profitable theater, the new owners were almost a million dollars in debt. “We made a Frankenstein for ourselves,” one of the nearly bankrupt owners told a newspaper. “It took over, and it’s been a nightmare.”

So it was back to Plan A. But the city zon-

White minstrels and comedians who performed in blackface, like George H. Primrose (1852-1919), were among the most frequent acts at The Music Hall.

At first, the grassroots protest group called themselves “Don’t Let the Hall Fall.” But they quickly rebranded as Friends of The Music Hall. The last best hope to save the theater, they claimed, was to run it as a nonprofit agency. On September 19, 1988, after tricky negotiations, the Friends announced plans to buy the endangered hall for $650,000. It would take many millions more, they knew, to restore the crumbling brick walls, patch the slate roof, install heating and cooling systems, and keep selling tickets for top-notch events.

Then Fate smiled. A small group of business-savvy individuals grabbed the reins.

Major seacoast corporations, attracted to the “renaissance” of Portsmouth arts and culture, began making tax-free contributions.

Memberships flooded in. When the bank that held the theater mortgage suddenly failed, the Friends had a rare chance to pay off the building at a fraction of its cost. Jay Smith, the mild-mannered owner of a Portsmouth pub called The Press Room, anonymously loaned the group the money they needed.

It was one thing to pull off a miracle, quite another to sustain it. By the mid-1990s, costs were up and funds were low. “Nonprofits do the Lord’s work,” an early theater director told the media. “They take on tasks that no one else wants to do because they are too hard, too unglamorous or too unprofitable. ... Nonprofits don’t make money, they bleed it.”

civic photo courtesy of the walter brooks family

9. We really almost wrecked it.

10. The impossible is possible.

photo by david j murray, cleareyephoto.com courtesy of the music hall collection/blind dog photo

But the organization that The Boston Globe called “the beating cultural heart of the New Hampshire seacoast” kept on beating. An intimate and immersive fall film festival, “Telluride by the Sea,” put The Music Hall back on the map. The planet’s top authors continue to pack the 900-seat theater for “Writers on a New England Stage.”

In recent years, the vast auditorium has been restored to the gold-leafed splendor that Frank Jones created. Over 700 cubic feet of rock ledge were removed to create a mind-bending “beaux arts” lobby. A 10,000-pound metal arch now looms 37 feet above a pedestrian-friendly streetscape lit by a massive new neon marquee. And just a block down the city’s main drag, a 120-seat hightech sister theater, The Loft, is open for business. The two Music Hall stages now deliver over 600 plays, concerts, comedians, lecturers, films and special events every year.

“The truth is,” a longtime supporter of New Hampshire’s historic theater says, “‘The Music Hall wasn’t saved once. It was saved many, many times.” NH

But wait: There’s more Parts of this story were adapted from J. Dennis Robinson’s latest book “Music Hall: How a City Built a Theater and a Theater Shaped a City” by Great Life Press (Copyright J. Dennis Robinson, all rights reserved). A popular lecturer, Robinson is the author of over 2,000 articles on New Hampshire history. His hardcover books cover topics such as the history of the Strawbery Banke Museum, the Wentworth by the Sea Hotel, outlaw Jesse James, the Privateer Lynx and the 1873 Smuttynose Island ax murders. For “Music Hall,” his co-designer and publisher is Grace Peirce of Great Life Press in Rye. Robinson’s work can be seen at jdennisrobinson.com. Ask for “Music Hall” at your local bookstore or visit amazon.com. Dealers and individual buyers can also contact pathwaybook. com or visit themusichall.org online. nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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603 Living “People who love to eat are always the best people.” — Julia Child

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Photos by Mariela Marrero

Local Dish 72 Health 82 Events Listing 86 Dine Out 91 Ayuh 96

Learn to Go Meatless

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring or expensive

BY MARIELA MARRERO Since I was a young girl, I’ve always had a passion for cooking. I grew up in a family where cooking and baking were always going on. My name is Mariela Marrero, and I’m the writer, photographer and recipe developer behind The Hungry Dragonfly.

I’m also an educator, professional baker and animal rescuer.

I’m from the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, mother of two young adults and wife to an Army veteran. I moved to Kentucky in 2012 when my husband joined the Army. I opened a home-based bakery and was very successful. Then, when my husband Left: Mariela Marrero’s The Hungry Dragonfly is filled with her recipes for Latin- and Puerto Rican-inspired vegan and vegetarian recipes, from savory to sweet, like the vegan piña colada ice cream boat pictured here. nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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603 LIVING

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LOCAL DISH

LOCAL DISH

603 LIVING

Vegan

Black Bean Empanadas Empanadas are usually filled with ground beef or other different fillings. These empanadas are my vegan version. You can enjoy them as an appetizer or as the main course. They go well with my easy guacamole (recipe below).

Yield: 24 empanadas Time: 1 hour Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil ½ teaspoon minced garlic ¼ cup green pepper, chopped ¼ cup yellow onion, chopped 1 bag vegan beefy crumbles 1 cup marinara sauce 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast or adobo 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 sweet plantain, chopped 1 can black beans 1 small can whole kernel corn Salt and pepper to taste Cayenne pepper to taste, if desired 1 cup vegan shredded cheese or regular for vegetarian 1 package Goya dough turnover pastries *See Notes Instructions: 1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

2. Sauté garlic, green peppers and onions for 2 minutes.

3. Add beefy crumbles and cook for about 4 minutes. Stir in marinara sauce, nutritional yeast and garlic powder. Cook for about 3 minutes.

4. Lower heat to medium-low, add sweet plantains and fold until they’re well incorporated.

5. Add black beans, corn, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper (if using), and cook for another 3 minutes.

6. Fold in cheese, turn stove off and set aside.

7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

8. On a lightly floured work surface, using a rolling pin, roll out dough discs until they’re a half-inch larger in diameter. Spoon about 1 tbsp. mixture into middle, fold in half to form a half moon; seal with a fork.

9. You can deep-fry the empanadas, but I prefer to bake them for about 15 minutes, then flip them over and bake for another 10 minutes, or until they have a light golden color.

10. Let cool for about 10 minutes, serve with salsa or guacamole.

Easy Guacamole Ingredients: 2-3 Hass avocados ¼ cup red onion, chopped Salt and pepper to taste ½ of a lime, freshly squeezed

Instructions: Mix all ingredients and stir together until well incorporated. *Notes: You can find the empanada dough at your local supermarket in the Hispanic or international food aisle. I also use sofrito as a seasoning — you can find the recipe at thehungrydragonfly.com.

Mariela Marrero is the writer, photographer and recipe developer behind The Hungry Dragonfly.

retired, we moved to Florida and I started my blogging journey, sharing smoothie recipes with the goal of inspiring my friends to eat healthier. That hobby became a passion that took me from smoothies to a wide variety of recipes.

After four years of living in Florida, we decided to buy a house here in New Hampshire. We fell in love with New England instantly, and we knew it was meant to be. We enjoy living in the country with our 13 rescued pets.

The Hungry Dragonfly reflects my beliefs on eating and living a healthy lifestyle that includes delicious and easyto-make vegan and vegetarian recipes. My creations are connected with my culture. On my blog and Instagram, I share Puerto Rican- and Latin-inspired healthy recipes, plus a few indulgent treats.

Sometimes people ask me how much money and time I spend on my recipes because they think cooking with vegan and vegetarian ingredients is expensive and complicated. I love to visit local farmers markets and support local business, but I also buy in bulk and go to different stores and supermarkets that offer organic products for less money. Also, planning meals ahead of time helps me cook more at home as opposed to dining out, saving us money. During the weekend, we love to go on road trips and visit local restaurants.

My goal is to show people that you don’t have to spend a lot of money and time to create something healthy and delicious. Life can be busy, so my recipes are simple to follow and require simple ingredients that are easy to find.

You can find my recipes and tutorials on my blog thehungrydragonfly.com. NH nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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New Hampshire Magazine’s Guide to Wills and Estate Planning

WE ASKED EXPERTS TO IDENTIFY SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF WILLS AND ESTATE PLANNING. THE TAKEAWAY: DON’T DELAY, ACT NOW.

Ask the

EXPERTS Planning for what happens to your assets following your death may not be the most pleasant of tasks, but according to experts, it’s important. A delay in drafting a will or making estate plans can take the decision making away from you or your loved ones and put it in the hands of the court.

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OUR EXPERTS: Stephanie K. Burnham, Attorney Hage Hodes, Professional Association hagehodes.com Thanda Fields Brassard, Esq., General Counsel Fiduciary Trust of New England fiduciarytrust.com Elizabeth Brown, Senior Counsel Primmer, Piper, Eggleston & Cramer PC primmer.com Attorney Sarah Ambrogi, Founder and owner Ambrogi Law Office PLLC ambrogilawoffice.com Whitney A. Gagnon, Associate,Trusts & Estates Department McLane Middleton, Professional Association mclane.com

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GETTING STARTED Who should have a will or an estate plan, and when should he/she begin?

Burnham: If someone is asking whether or not they should have an estate plan, the answer is “yes,” and they should begin immediately. Many people wait until they have a child or until they are older, but accidents can happen at any time, and not having a designated person who you would like to assist you after an accident can leave you at the mercy of someone you may not have chosen for yourself. At a minimum, everyone over the age of 18 years old should have a power of attorney for finances and a power of attorney for health care to ensure a person of their choosing will be able to authorize medical procedures or access their bank accounts in the event of a car accident or other unexpected situation. An estate planning attorney can assist you in determining what other documents are worth considering based on your specific situation.

Brown: Every person over the age of 18 ought to have a simple estate plan that includes, at a minimum, a power of attorney and a health care power of attorney. A parent’s ability to make financial and health care decisions end when their children turn 18. If a child becomes incapacitated (due to a car accident or other accident or injury), parents do not have the authority to make health care decisions or manage money for their child without an advanced directive. In some cases, you may need court approval to act on his or her behalf.

If you are over the age of 18, now is the time to contact an experienced estate planning attorney to schedule an initial consultation. The primary goal of the initial consultation is to allow the attorney to learn about you and your family. In addition, it is an opportunity for you to speak with a professional about your hopes, fears, dreams and aspirations for your family. There is no need to bring every account statement and information regarding all of your assets to the initial consultation. General information regarding

your assets and how they are titled is all that is necessary.

Ambrogi: Really, anyone over the age of 18 can have a will, and anyone who owns any type of asset (car, bank account, etc.) should think about doing one. In addition to a will, there are more considerations in estate planning other than a will, most importantly health care and financial powers of attorney. These documents can also be done for anyone over the age of 18. We prepare many of these power of attorney documents for young adult children who are heading off to college, because once someone is over the age of 18, parents cannot automatically speak to health care providers in the event of an emergency.

Gagnon: Any person age 18 or older should engage in estate planning. It’s never too early to plan for and take control of your future. The first step in the process is to meet with an estate planning attorney to discuss your personal circumstances. Based on your wishes and your family and financial information, the attorney will be able to provide you with options and guidance to achieve your goals.

The essential components of a modern New Hampshire estate plan include health care advance directives, durable powers of attorney, pour-over wills and revocable trusts. These documents are all revocable, meaning that you may change them in any way, or revoke them in their entirety, so long as you have the requisite capacity.”

What life events would prompt me to update my estate plan more frequently?

Burnham: The birth of a child, passing of a loved one, divorce and peoples’ behavior are the most frequent reasons to update an estate plan. Sometimes, seeing how a family member or friend handles a situation may cause you to re-evaluate whether or not you would like that person to handle a similar situation on your behalf.

For example, you may have a friend whom you wanted to be the guardian of your children, until you see him with his own.

You may have a family member who made

“ Any person age 18 or older should engage in estate planning.

It’s never too early to plan for and take control of your future.”

— Whitney A. Gagnon, Associate,Trusts & Estates Department, McLane Middleton, Professional Association decisions, which you would not have made, for a relative as the power of attorney for health care, and you do not want them to make similar decisions for you. You may have a beneficiary pass away and need to rethink who will receive an asset after you are gone. You may have recently divorced and should look at your beneficiary designations to ensure that your former spouse is no longer the primary beneficiary of your retirement and life insurance. If you are not sure whether or not you need to update or amend your estate plan, checking in with your estate planning attorney periodically may allow you to discuss how your circumstances may have changed.

I send out reminder letters to my clients every seven years to see if they would like to discuss how their children have changed, and review to make sure their goals will still be met by their estate planning documents.

Brown: I recommend that clients review their estate plans at least every five years to make sure that beneficiary designations and appointments of successor trustees or executors are up-to-date and consistent with the client’s current wishes. I also recommend that clients review their estate plans if there has been a significant change in wealth, a divorce, the birth of children or grandchildren, or a change in relationship with a beneficiary, trustee or executor.

If your assets include significant retirement accounts, I recommend that you review your estate plan with your estate planning attorney and your financial

>> nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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Guide to Wills and Estate Planning

“ The most important questions are those that help you understand what strategy the attorney is suggesting, and those that help you establish a working relationship with the attorney.”

— Attorney Sarah Ambrogi, Founder and owner, Ambrogi Law Office PLLC

advisor — now. At the end of December 2019, Congress passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019, called the SECURE Act. The SECURE Act makes significant changes to how IRAs and certain retirement benefits must be treated postdeath. Most importantly, the SECURE Act marks the death of the inherited “stretchIRA” to all but a small subset of beneficiaries.

These changes in the law are so significant every retirement plan holder should review their estate plan to see how the change in law impacts their estate plan. Individuals may need to change beneficiary forms or modify entire estate plans in response to the new rule.

STRATEGIES What are some of the most important strategies to consider when creating an estate plan?

Brassard: When creating an estate plan for a client, first and foremost it is important to ensure that the plan will carry out the

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donor’s wishes. Sometimes these wishes are tax-driven, but often they are not and have more to do with the donor’s personal feelings regarding non-tax issues, such as whether assets should be held in trust or given outright, what are appropriate ages for beneficiaries to receive assets outright, and what kinds of powers the beneficiaries should have (such as a power to remove the trustee). The federal tax law regime is pretty complicated, so it is of course important to counsel clients regarding the estate, gift and income tax consequences of their plan on the beneficiaries. It is also important to build in flexibility to plans to the extent desired by the donor and when appropriate — for example, giving beneficiaries powers of appointment to account for changes in circumstances of the beneficiaries, and giving the trustee flexibility to make administrative amendments to trusts or to change the trust situs under certain circumstances.

Ambrogi: What is most important is to match the estate planning strategy to your individual goals. Probably the most basic

distinction is choosing between planning with a will or with a revocable trust. A will can accomplish the goal of making sure your chosen beneficiaries receive your assets, but it will require a probate (court) process. A revocable trust is similar in some ways to a will, but it allows assets to pass to beneficiaries without a probate process, and can be very useful in the event of providing assets for minor children over a period of time, and other particular needs a family may have.

What are some of the benefits of distributing assets now?

Brown: Most individuals want to see their family wealth passed on to their children when they die. However, if you have sufficient assets to self-fund your long-term care, you do not have to wait to transfer assets to your children and grandchildren. One of the main reasons to gift assets during your lifetime is that you get to watch your beneficiaries enjoy or benefit from the assets. One way grandparents may be able to help both their adult

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Protecting Your Assets

children and grandchildren is by paying college tuition. Under federal law, tuition payments made directly to a college aren’t considered taxable gifts, no matter how large the payment. So, grandparents don’t have to worry about the annual federal gift tax exclusion. Payments can only be made for tuition; room and board, books, fees, equipment and other similar expenses don’t qualify. Likewise, a similar exclusion for medical payments allows individuals to pay children or grandchildren’s medical expenses. So long as those payments are made directly to the medical provider, they are not considered taxable gifts, no matter how large the amount.

Before an individual decides to make lifetime gifts, he or she should consult with a financial advisor and make sure that they have sufficient assets to pay for their own long-term care. Lifetime gifts of assets run the risk of disqualifying an individual for Medicaid. Likewise, individuals should consider the income tax ramifications of lifetime gifts of certain “low-basis” property.

If an individual gives assets away during their life, the recipient receives the donor’s basis in the property. If an heir inherits the same property at the death of the owner, the heir receives a “stepped up” basis in the property. This step up in basis may result in significantly less capital gains when the heir sells the real estate than what would be owed if the heir received the asset as a gift.

McLane Middleton is one of New England’s premier law firms for representing individuals and families in protecting and preserving wealth. Our experienced trusts and estates attorneys will work with you to formulate and implement long-term strategies for wealth preservation.

New Hampshire: Manchester | Concord | Portsmouth McLane.com

Massachusetts: Woburn | Boston

YOUR BEST INTEREST IS OUR FOCUS.

What is the difference between a will and a trust and when I should choose one over the other?

We’ve built our firm around what’s most important to our clients. We take a personal approach based on deep expertise and a disciplined investment process that helps you realize your goals.

Burnham: The easiest way to compare a will to a trust is to consider what they are and what they do. A last will and testament is like a letter to a probate court judge asking the judge to appoint the person named (executor) to act on behalf of the person who passed away, and telling the judge whom should receive any assets left after all bills are paid. The will is only valid after a probate court judge officially declares it to be so, and it is administered through the probate court. A trust is a separate legal entity, similar to a small business, that has the right to own assets. The trust names people (trustees), who are tasked with handling the administration and, because a trust does not pass away, it does not have

Wealth Planning | Investment Management Trusts & Estates | Philanthropy | Tax FTNewEngland.com Contact Michael Costa at 603-695-4321 or mcosta@fiduciary-trust.com

e

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Guide to Wills and Estate Planning revocable trust will avoid probate at the donor’s death). Most people have at least a will to ensure that any assets they have that are subject to probate are disposed of as they wish. Many more have a revocable trust which disposes of their remaining assets at death.

What are the benefits of establishing a trust in New Hampshire?

“ Trusts are especially useful for leaving assets to small children and allowing a trusted family member or friend to administer and supervise how the funds are used for that child without constant court supervision.”

— Stephanie K. Burnham, Attorney Hage Hodes to go through probate court and instead can hold and manage assets privately for long periods of time.

Wills are useful to name guardians for minor children, and if the heirs need the court to supervise the administration of

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the estate — preferably for short periods of time. Trusts are ideal for anyone looking for a quicker and easier way to transfer their assets to their loved ones upon passing.

Trusts are especially useful for leaving assets to small children and allowing a trusted family member or friend to administer and supervise how the funds are used for that child without constant court supervision. An estate planning attorney can assist you in evaluating your options.

Brassard: A will is a document that takes effect at death and disposes of one’s probate property (property that does not automatically get distributed by contract or by operation of law). It is also a document which, when filed with the probate court, becomes public. Importantly, a will also names a personal representative (also known as an executor) to carry out the donor’s wishes in his or her will. A trust is usually created during the donor’s lifetime, and usually is revocable, so can be amended or completely revoked up until the donor’s death. Revocable trusts are usually not filed in a probate court but contain provisions which dispose of the assets held under the trust’s terms.

Often, revocable trusts are funded during the donor’s lifetime (and assets held in a

Gagnon: New Hampshire is a leading jurisdiction for establishing trusts because the New Hampshire legislature has continually modernized its trust laws to make administration significantly more efficient, to provide flexibility in modifying a trusts’ provisions, and to improve the creditor protection afforded by trusts.

New Hampshire law allows for trusts to be updated or “fixed” as necessary or desirable based on changing laws and family and financial circumstances without the need for court approval through the use of non-judicial settlement agreements, trustee decantings and trustee modifications.

Only some states permit so-called asset protection trusts wherein the trust creator can retain a beneficial interest in the trust assets while also protecting the assets from his or her creditors, and New Hampshire recently strengthened the creditor protection provided by irrevocable trusts of this nature.

New Hampshire repealed its rule against perpetuities, and thus under New Hampshire law the grantor of a trust may create a tax advantaged “perpetual trust” or “dynasty trust” to benefit multiple future generations. These are only some of the benefits of establishing and administering a trust in New Hampshire.

What are some of the most important elements when choosing an executor or health care proxy?

Brassard: When choosing an executor, one should choose someone with experience dealing with legal and financial matters, and who can be trusted to carry out the donor’s wishes as stated in his or her will or elsewhere. When choosing a health care proxy, it is important to choose someone who can be trusted to carry out one’s personal wishes regarding his or her

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health and end-of-life wishes. A health care proxy should also be willing to make more difficult decisions about health care and end-of-life should that be necessary. It is also important to communicate to one’s health care proxy what his or her wishes are, in addition to what is stated in the actual health care proxy document.”

What is the difference between an executor, a trustee, a health care agent and an attorney-in-fact?

Gagnon: Choosing an executor, a trustee, a health care agent and an attorneyin-fact are important considerations in creating an estate plan. An executor is the individual or entity appointed in your will to manage and administer your probate assets (assets held in your individual name) after your lifetime. The executor is also responsible for filing any final income tax returns or necessary estate tax returns.

Oftentimes, a will is structured as a pourover will, in which case the executor would transfer your probate assets to the trustee of your trust to be administered pursuant

to the provisions of your trust. A trustee is a trusted individual or entity appointed in your trust to administer and distribute your trust assets consistent with your objectives.

A health care agent is the individual appointed in your advance directive (for health care) to make health care decisions for you in the event you are unable to make or communicate such decisions yourself. An attorney-in-fact is the individual appointed in your durable general power of attorney (for finance) to make financial decisions for you in the event you are unable to make or communicate such decisions yourself.

Advance directives (for health care) and durable general powers of attorney (for finance), otherwise known as disability documents, have two primary purposes — to allow you to direct your health care and financial management in the event you are unable to make or communicate such decisions in the future, and to provide your loved ones with the tools necessary to take care of you with some guidance and ease during a difficult time. Health care advance directives should include specific

N E W HA M PS H I R E | R H O D E I SL AN D M A SSACH US E T T S | M AI N E | V E R M O NT

— Thanda Fields Brassard, Esq., General Counsel, Fiduciary Trust of New England information regarding your health care preferences so that your agent is not making tough decisions on your behalf, but rather is acting as your voice and carrying out

Hage Hodes provides clients with a customized blend of practical advice, tax strategies, trust vehicles, and other estate planning tactics and techniques to preserve and protect personal and business interests. Our lawyers are a compassionate and dedicated team, providing responsive and effective representation.

Contact the professionals at Hage Hodes.

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“ When choosing an executor, one should choose someone with experience dealing with legal and financial matters, and who can be trusted to carry out the donor’s wishes as stated in his or her will or elsewhere.”

• • • • •

Business & Corporate Law Litigation Estate Planning Real Estate Law Personal Injury

• • • • •

Employment Law Wills, Trusts & Estates Intellectual Property Insurance Law Bankruptcy

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Guide to Wills and Estate Planning

your documented wishes. Without disability documents, your loved ones may need to pursue a guardianship appointment through the probate court in order to take care of you, and this process is time-consuming, invasive of your privacy and costly.”

THE NEXT STEPS How can I best prepare to meet with an attorney to create my estate plan?

Brassard: An initial meeting with an estate planning attorney will be most productive if some thought has been given by the client to the following issues: who the beneficiaries of the plan are, how they should receive assets (in trust or outright, and if in trust, for how long, under what circumstances should they receive distributions, etc.), and who should be the fiduciaries (executor, trustee, health care agent, etc.) that will carry out the estate plan. Knowledge of what one has for assets is also important information the

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attorney will want to know about, in order to ensure the assets are distributed as the donor wishes.

Ambrogi: I always tell my clients that the most important things to determine can be summed up as who, what and when. Who — who are your chosen beneficiaries, who would you like to have in charge of making decisions for you if you become incapacitated, and who should be in charge of your affairs once you pass away. What — which estate planning strategy works for you: A will? A trust? When — should your beneficiaries receive their inheritance outright, or would you like to customize the time frame when they will receive their assets?

What questions should I ask my estate planning attorney before retaining them?

Brown: The most important question to ask an attorney before retaining them for estate planning is: “Is estate planning your primary practice area?” Only proceed if they

answer “yes” to this question. An estate specialist will be current with all changes to legal statutes and have the know-how to carefully construct your estate plan in the most effective way possible. Estate plans are more than the written documents themselves. Carefully crafted plans evaluate goals, family dynamics, and the type of assets that individuals own to craft a fully customized plan for each individual. An attorney who specializes in the area of estate planning can more likely tailor an estate plan that will effectuate your estate planning goals and minimize the risk of litigation or adverse tax consequences to your estate.

Ambrogi: The most important questions are those that help you understand what strategy the attorney is suggesting, and those that help you establish a working relationship with the attorney. So, listen to the suggestions, ask any questions you need to in order to be sure you understand, and then make sure you have enough of a conversation with the

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

“ Online estate planning seems like an enticing bargain at the outset. But often it is penny wise and pound foolish.”

— Elizabeth Brown, Senior Counsel Primmer, Piper, Eggleston & Cramer PC

attorney to know whether or not it is someone you will enjoy working with.

Considering an Estate Plan? let’s work through it

Elizabeth Brown Manchester, NH (603) 626-3338 ebrown@primmer.com

What are some of the pitfalls of “doit-yourself” estate planning services?

Brown: In the age of Google, LegalZoom, Rocketlawyer and the like, many individuals try to draft their estate plans rather than picking up the phone and contacting a local attorney.

Online estate planning seems like an enticing bargain at the outset. But often it is penny wise and pound foolish. Online legal form databases cannot modify and tailor your estate plan to address your family’s unique issues and concerns. If you do not truly understand the decisions going into the legal instrument, you may later be unable to avoid major pitfalls and errors. Likewise, many individuals don’t understand the boilerplate legalese of the online forms and end up executing estate planning documents that do not distribute assets in the way that they intended. Or, sometimes folks draft their wills but fail to have them properly executed — rendering them unenforceable or costly to probate.

Unfortunately, mistakes in estate planning documents are generally not realized until after incapacity strikes or after the death of the individual drafting the documents — when it is too late to fix the mistakes.

Ambrogi: The two problems I have seen with do-it-yourself or online documents is that 1) they do not always follow the appropriate state law, and thus may turn out to be invalid to use in your particular state and 2) people who prepare them for themselves or download them may not really understand what the documents mean, and there can be some unwelcome surprises later on.

· Manchester, NH · Portsmouth, NH

We work with clients of all levels of wealth to understand the dynamics of their families and to identify their particular objectives. Our experience allows us to recommend individually tailored, comprehensively considered estate plans. We work collaboratively with other professionals, including financial advisers, insurance professionals, and accountants in order to provide an integrated and efficient approach to estate planning.

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603.626.3300 | primmer.com

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The CBD Hype Separating fact from fiction

by Karen A. Jamrog

I

t seems as though someone’s peddling CBD on every street corner these days.

You can buy CBD lotion that promises to reduce inflammation, book a CBD pedicure or massage that will supposedly enable you to achieve new levels of deep relaxation, and bring home CBD doggie biscuits that will purportedly relieve your elderly canine’s aches and pains.

Are these products legitimate treatments or shams? The cynical among us can’t help but raise an eyebrow when celebrities such as retired Patriots player Rob Gronkowski appear to cash in on the craze as they extol the virtues of CBD. (The former tight end

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claims that CBD has lessened the pain he’s endured from years of being pummeled on the football field.)

Like marijuana, CBD has gone mainstream, but scientifically CBD remains largely unproven. Not only are claims of CBD’s ability to relieve everything from anxiety, insomnia, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and more largely unsubstantiated, CBD products can be unsafe for consumers.

CBD stands for cannabidiol, a nonintoxicating compound that is extracted from the cannabis plant. The legal particulars of CBD products vary from state to state, but CBD derived from hemp is legal under

US federal law, and prescription CBD has been approved by the FDA as treatment for pediatric epilepsy. Otherwise, CBD is considered a supplement, which means it is essentially unregulated; unlike prescription drug manufacturers, supplement makers are not obligated to test or prove the effectiveness and safety of their products.

“We’re just beginning to get data on what [CBD] works for and what it doesn’t work for,” says Jerry Knirk, MD, a retired surgeon who is state representative for District 3; chair of the Therapeutic Cannabis Medical Oversight Board, and sponsor of a bill related to CBD regulation. “There is some evidence that it does help some things,” he says, “[but] some of the evidence is relatively weak. The evidence is nowhere near as strong as the claims that are made.”

Indeed, aside from data on using CBD to treat seizure disorders, “there is not a lot of medical research about what CBD can do,” says Nancy E. Johnson, MD, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at Cheshire Medical Center Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene. “There certainly are a lot of case reports, or people’s own testimonial type of evidence, but there’s very little quality research. ... There are some studies in animals that suggest that there’s potential use for anxiety, inflammatory disorders and chronic pain,” Johnson says, “but no good human research at this point.”

However, the medical community does see potential in CBD. A number of effective medications come from botanicals, Knirk notes, including the widely prescribed heart medication digitalis, which is derived from foxglove. “Botanicals can really do something,” he says. “There’s no question about that.”

If people feel better after taking CBD or some other drug or supplement, it can be difficult to know if they feel better because of the passage of time, the placebo effect or some other factor. “That’s why we need well-designed drug trials,” Knirk says, “to find out what [CBD] really does do.”

Just as we don’t know with any certainty what good CBD might be capable of (aside from its effectiveness in treating pediatric epilepsy), not much is known about its risks and side effects. Some seizure patients treated with high doses of CBD have experienced diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and drowsiness. Currently, there are no set recommendations for dosages in other patient populations, Johnson says.

illustration by victoria marcelino

HEALTH

HEALTH

Additionally, there is concern that CBD might interact with prescription medications including statins, commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol. Prescription drug users, in particular, should check with their physician before using CBD. Whether CBD is safe for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding is also a big unknown. And all consumers should be aware that they “have no idea of truly knowing what’s in [CBD products],” Johnson says.

When tested, over-the-counter CBD products have varied greatly in terms of their ingredients and concentration of CBD, with some products containing more or less CBD than advertised, and some containing none at all. “You might pay $25 [for a CBD product] when it actually contains zero CBD,” Knirk says. Also, some tested items contained significant amounts of THC, the main intoxicating compound in marijuana.

In an effort, he says, to protect consumers and rein in the currently uncontrolled CBD market, Knirk is sponsoring a bill that would regulate the quality and content of CBD sold in the Granite State. More specifically, the bill demands that CBD products for sale be tested by a third-party

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“There is some evidence that [CBD] does help some things, [but] some of the evidence is relatively weak. The evidence is nowhere near as strong as the claims that are made.”

— Jerry Knirk, MD lab to certify each product’s CBD content as well as its THC content and inclusion of other ingredients that consumers might not expect nor want with their CBD, such as pesticides, heavy metals and mold. The bill would prevent CBD manufacturers from making unsubstantiated health claims and would require warning labels on products to alert consumers who are pregnant, breastfeeding or taking prescription medication of the risks associated with using CBD. Knirk also wants CBD products to come

with a warning that they are derived from hemp and might contain THC, which could be especially important to people whose jobs require random drug testing. “[If] they’re using CBD, they need to be aware that there may be some THC that [could] make them flunk their drug test.”

The bill, Knirk says, “takes us out of this morass of no regulation, where we don’t know what we’re getting, [so that we instead] have some truth in labeling and appropriate warnings on labels.” NH

nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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HEALTH

Thinking of Vaping CBD? You’ve probably read headlines in recent months regarding the growing number of people who have been sickened or killed by vaping. Currently, it is believed that at least one likely culprit behind the vaping lung injuries is vitamin E acetate, an oil used in the production of some vaping products that becomes dangerous if inhaled. To put it simply, “our lungs aren’t made to be coated with oil on the inside,” says Jerry Knirk, MD,

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HEALTH

a retired surgeon who is state representative for District 3, chair of the Therapeutic Cannabis Medical Oversight Board and sponsor of a bill related to CBD regulation.

CBD products are for the most part unregulated, which means consumers have no idea what they are buying — and inhaling, if they choose to vape — when they purchase CBD. James Neal-Kababick, director of Flora Research Laboratories, which was commissioned by the Associated Press to test a variety of CBD vape products, has compared vaping CBD to playing Russian roulette.

CBD comes in an array of forms, including food products, pills, salves and tinctures that dissolve under the tongue. “But if you look at the rate of absorption or the efficiency of absorption, probably most efficient is inhalation,” Knirk

says. “The mucous membranes of the lungs [provide] a huge surface area for absorption,” he explains, “[but] it would be very rare that you would need an immediate hit [of CBD].” So why risk it?

Given the many unknowns of CBD and the dire health consequences that can result from vaping, “for now, people should not be vaping this,” Knirk says.

“There’s no need to vape it,” he says. “Particularly when we don’t have a system [to ensure products are safe], and when you think of the problem we have with the THC vaping and the nicotine vaping, and these fly-by-night, black-market vapes,” the smart and obvious choice is not to vape.

Nancy E. Johnson, MD, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at Cheshire Medical Center Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene, agrees:

Awards Reception Tuesday, May 19, 2020 5:30-7:30 p.m.

DoubleTree by Hilton, Manchester, NH Heavy hors-d’oeuvres • Cocktails • Networking To order tickets, visit:

nhmagazine.com/excellence-in-nursing/ Recipients will be featured in the June 2020 issue of New Hampshire Magazine.

Presenting Sponsor:

“I think at this point, the medical community is against vaping, period. I don’t recommend vaping or smoking any kind of product unless you’re at the end of life.” NH

For more information, see what the FDA has to say about CBD: fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/ what-you-need-know-and-what-wereworking-find-out-about-products-containing-cannabis-or-cannabis

Please Join Us.

New Hampshire Magazine, in partnership with the New Hampshire Nurses Association, will celebrate the unsung heroes of the state’s medical community.

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Calendar OUR FAVORITE EVENTS FOR MARCH 2020

3/6-4/4

“A Chorus Line” This stunning and acclaimed concept musical, which captures the spirit and tension of a Broadway chorus audition, is returning to Seacoast Rep with bold choreography and beautiful music. Catch it before the Netflix series launches. $18-$45. Times vary, Seacoast Repertory Theatre, 125 Bow St., Portsmouth. seacoastrep.org

3/7-8

Ed ito r’ s

Ch oi ce

Kalia Conducts Mendelssohn and Dvořák This event boasts a repertoire of beautiful music such as Ligeti’s “Concert Romanesc,” Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto, E Minor” and Dvořák’s “Symphony #8, G Major.” $10-$52. March 7 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Keefe Center for the Arts, 117 Elm St., Nashua; March 8 at 3 and 5 p.m., Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St., Concord. (603) 5959156; symphonynh.org Sponsored event

3/8

The High Kings The High Kings play 13 instruments between them, creating the unique sound and atmosphere they’re known for today.

They specialize in traditional Irish music and have performed all over the world to an army of fans that spans generations. Tickets start at $39. 6:30 p.m., Flying Monkey Movie House & Performance Center, 39 S. Main St., Plymouth.

(603) 536-2551; flyingmonkeynh.com Saint Paddy’s Day Comedy Spectacular The Boston Comedy Festival presents this special show featuring comedians Jim McCue, Joey Carroll, Erin Maguire, plus dancing by The Murray Academy, northern New England’s premier school for Irish dance. $32 and $37. 8 p.m. The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth. (603) 436-2400l; themusichall.org

3/15

Dave Mason Feelin’ Alright Tour Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Dave Mason plays all the classic songs fans love, such as “Only You Know and I Know,” “We Just Disagree” and more. He has collaborated with numerous members of the music elite, including Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Eric Clapton among many others. $60-$75.

7 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry.

(603) 437-5100; tupelomusichall.com

3/20-22

3/27 An Evening With Chevy Chase Take a road trip with the legendary Chevy Chase as he presents a screening of “National Lampoon’s Vacation” along with a moderated conversation and audience Q&A. Chase will share stories about the making of the movie and tales from throughout his storied career. VIP tickets include the best seats in the house and a post-show photo op. $59-$175. 7 p.m. Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord. (603) 225-1111; ccanh.com

Performing Arts 2/28-3/29

“Mamma Mia!” On the eve of her wedding, Sophie sets out to discover the identity of her father, bringing three men from her mother’s past back to the island they last visited 20 years ago. The storytelling magic of ABBA’s

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timeless songs such as “Dancing Queen,” “Take a Chance on Me” and, of course, “Mamma Mia!” propel this enchanting tale of love, laughter and friendship with explosive dancing and nonstop laughter. Don’t miss this ultimate feel-good show. $25-$46. Times vary, The Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester. (603) 668-5588; palacetheatre.org

“The Little Mermaid Jr.” Journey “under the sea” with Ariel and her aquatic friends in this play adapted from Disney’s Broadway production and the motion picture. Based on one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most beloved stories, “Disney’s The Little Mermaid Jr.” is an enchanting look at the sacrifices we all make for love and acceptance. $12-$15. Times vary, The Majestic Theatre, 880 Page St., Manchester. (603) 6697469; majestictheatre.net

3/21

Bob Marley Bob loves being a comedian and he’s “wicked good at it.” He’s featured regularly on Sirius XM radio, he put out over 20 comedy CDs, and he was inducted into The Guinness Book of World Records for “the longest standup comedy show by an individual” at 40 hours of straight comedy. He’s been on over 100 TV shows including “Letterman,” “Jimmy Fallon” and more, and you won’t want to miss him brighten up your winter days at this hysterical night out. $34.50. 8:30 p.m., The Colonial Performing Arts Center, 95 Main St., Keene. (603) 352-2033; thecolonial.org

courtesy photo

3/14

3/26-4/11

“Matilda the Musical” Inspired by the twisted genius of Roald Dahl, the Tony Award-winning “Matilda the Musical” revels in the anarchy of childhood, the power of imagination and the inspiring story of a girl who dreams of a better life. $25-$30. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, plus 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays. M&D at the Eastern Slope Inn Playhouse, 2760 White Mountain Hwy., North Conway. (603) 733-5275; mdplayhouse.com

3/28

Cat Tail Cabaret Cat Tail Cabaret features Dj Esthera and a variety of performances by award-winning NYC choreographer Jenny Rocha’s “The Painted Ladies.” The Bank of New Hampshire Stage will be transformed into a swanky jazz and cabaret nightclub, complete with live music in the lounge, a DJ and dancing, and numerous acts throughout the evening on both floors, including the Cantin Room bar and lounge. $34-$65. VIP tickets include two drink tickets and exclusive balcony access. 8 p.m. The Bank of New Hampshire Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord. (603) 225-1111; banknhstage.com

Benefits 3/13

CHaD Battle of the Badges Hockey Championship Pick a team to root for — police or firefighters — and watch the competitors tear up the ice for a good cause. Feeling especially generous?

Event organizers are in need of volunteers for the day too. $10. 7 p.m., SNHU Hockey Arena, 555 Elm St., Manchester. chadhockey.org

96th Season SPRING CONCERTS

ONE INCREDIBLE SEASON Mar 7 I Nashua* Mar 8 I Concord• Kalia Conducts Mendelssohn & Dvořák Rubén Rengel, violin I Roger Kalia, conductor

Apr 4 I Nashua * Enigma Variations

Jeffrey Zeigler, cello I Shen Yiwen, conductor

Apr 25 I Nashua * Family Concert

*Keefe Center for the Arts, Nashua, NH

May 16 I Nashua* Night of Symphonic Rock

•Concord City Auditorium, Concord, NH

Paul Dooley, narrator I Roger Kalia, conductor

Guests TBA I Roger Kalia, conductor

TICKETS: 603-595-9156 OR SYMPHONYNH.ORG

3/21

On Tap for CASA At this fundraiser for CASA of New Hampshire, participants are tasked with keeping their teams’ barstools occupied for 12 hours without abandoning the post. Spots are most likely filled at this point, but, if you’d like to get involved, you can still donate or stop by to enjoy the music, raffles and libations offered throughout the 12-hour event. 12 p.m. to 12 a.m., New England’s Tap House Grille, 1292 Hooksett Rd., Hooksett. casanh.org/ontap

3/21

BodeFest 2020 At this annual festival, visitors can enjoy a day of on- and off-slope activities with one of New Hampshire’s biggest sporting names. Festivities include a fun race, kids’ ski with Bode Miller, silent and live auctions and an autograph session with the man of the hour.

Best of all, it’s for a good cause — proceeds benefit Miller’s Turtle Ridge Foundation for adaptive and youth sports. $49. 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Cannon Mountain Ski Area, 260 Tramway Dr., Franconia. (603) 823-8800; cannonmt.com

Irish Heritage 3/4

Songs of Emigration: Storytelling Through Traditional Irish Music Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki relays some of the adventures, misadventures and emotions experienced by Irish emigrants. The focus is on songs about leaving Ireland, some are about the reasons for leaving (a man who is driven from his land by English persecution), sometimes they reveal what happened upon arrival (an immigrant drafted into the Union army during the Civil War) and sometimes they explore the universal feeling of homesickness of a stranger in a strange land (a factory worker in London nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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3/12

St. Paddy’s Day Rumble This event will feature multiple boxing bouts by Nashua and Manchester Police and Fire departments. All proceeds will benefit the 3,000 young kids that are served by the MPAL and Nashua PAL through sports, after-school programming and positive interaction with Nashua and Manchester officers. $25-$65. 6:45 to 9:30 p.m., Nashua Community College Gym, 505 Amherst St., Nashua. manchesterpoliceathleticleague.org

3/13

The 29th Annual Wild Irish Breakfast This Nashua tradition has counted vice presidents, senators and presidential candidates among its attendees as well as every Nashua mayor since 1991. Breakfastgoers can network and enter a raffle featuring such prizes as a trip for two to Ireland. Proceeds benefit the PLUS Company, a nonprofit working for individuals with disabilities. $85-$850. 7 a.m., DoubleTree by Hilton, 2 Somerset Pkwy, Nashua. pluscompany.org/events

3/20

A Night of Irish Music Enjoy an evening of traditional and original Irish folk music with two of the most sought-after acts touring the country today, the Spain Brothers and Seamus Kennedy.

Also featuring Green Heron and Brian Richards.

$25. 7:30 p.m. The Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester. (603) 668-5588; palacetheatre.org

3/24

Celtic Woman Both an accomplished recording ensemble and a world-class performing collective, Celtic Woman celebrates Ireland’s rich musical and cultural heritage, while continuing its remarkable legacy of introducing some of Ireland’s most talented singers and musicians onto the world stage. $39-$89. 7 p.m., Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 South Main St., Concord.

(603) 225-1111; ccanh.com

3/29

St. Patrick’s Parade This longstanding Manchester tradition may be the granddaddy of all St. Patrick’s Day events in the Granite State.

Organizations from around the state hoist the tricolor, don their green and march down Elm Street for the parade (which is held on a lateMarch Sunday every year to avoid competition).

Park your lawn chair along the route, wave to Grand Marshal Sheila Smith and scout out more guys in kilts than you’ll see all year. Manchester. saintpatsnh.com

Maple 3/7-28

Maple Sugaring Season From tapping a tree to tasting delicious maple syrup, you will participate in every step of the syrup-making process.

You will build tree identification skills, learn the parts of a tree and their functions, use measuring tools to find an appropriate tree to tap, use historical and modern tree-tapping tools, learn

the history of maple sugaring and so much more. $10. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center, 928 White Oak Rd., Laconia. (603) 366-5695; prescottfarm.org

3/14-29

Maple Express Charmingfare Farm is celebrating Maple Month with events such as maple tree-tapping, taste-testing, authentic sugar shack tour, a horse-drawn sleigh ride and a Maple Express Dinner amongst other entertainment on Saturday evenings. There will even be maple candies, sugar, coffee, cotton candy and many other maple-themed items for sale in their gift shop. $12-$22. Times vary, Saturdays and Sundays, Charmingfare Farm, 774 High St., Candia. (603) 483-5623; visitthefarm.com

3/8

Maple Madness Dinner Who says maple syrup is reserved for breakfast food items? We say it’s high time to bring maple syrup to the dinner table. This one-night, all-ages dinner includes hors d’oeuvres, live fiddle music, appetizers, an entrée and dessert. Enjoy fritters with maple syrup, maple walnut chicken, or bread pudding topped with maple syrup. There will also be a silent auction to benefit Monadnock Travel Council. Call to reserve a table, and eat up! $14.50-$27.95. 5 p.m., The Inn at East Hill Farm, 460 Monadnock St., Troy. (800) 242-6495; east-hill-farm.com

3/14-28

New Hampshire Maple Experience Throughout March, guided tours of the Rocks Estate will be offered to share the sugaring operation and other mouthwatering activities. To sweeten the deal, there will even be local chefs hosting live

FREE ADMISSION! Saturday, March 14 10 a.m.-1p.m.

EXPLORE YOUR CHILD’S OPTIONS FOR SUMMER FUN! Meet with representatives from area summer camps and programs.

NEW LOCATION

The Falls Event Center 21 Front Street

Manchester

Saturday, March 21 10 a.m.-1p.m.

Courtyard by Marriot 2200 Southwood Drive

Nashua

After the Expos

Go to parentingnh.com for a list of summer camps and programs.

View photos, videos and more!

It’s come to our attention that there are several companies misrepresenting themselves as affiliated with (or on behalf of) New Hampshire Magazine that are soliciting for the sale of commemorative plaques.

These are unauthorized, are often misleading and can contain false information.

Please call (603) 624-1442 for additional information or to verify a solicitation. Thanks!

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Please use this one if using the logo smaller than 3 inches

courtesy photo

missing his home in County Clare). The presenter discusses the historical context of these songs, interspersing their stories with tunes from Ireland that made their way into New England’s musical repertoire, played on his fiddle or guitar. Free.

3 p.m., Rye Public Library, 581 Washington Rd., Rye. (603) 964-8401; nhhumanities.org

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CALENDAR cooking-with-maple demonstrations each day at noon. Experience the full NH maple process and learn some history about mapling too. Times and dates vary, The Rocks Estate, 4 Christmas Ln., Bethlehem. (603) 444-6228; nhmapleexperience.com

3/21-22

Canterbury Maple Festival Tour sugarhouses and artisans shops, and visit the Canterbury Shaker Village for a weekend of historic and modern activities. You also have the option to stay the night and enjoy warm hospitality. Participants will include North Family Farm, Lamb’s Maple Syrup, Canterbury AleWords, Fox Country Smoke House LLC, Brookford Farm and many more. Free. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Canterbury. (603) 783-9334; shakers. org/canterbury-maple-festival

Sports and Recreation 3/8

Hampton Half and 5K The 13th Annual Hampton Half Marathon also has a 5K for those not up to the whole marathon distance. The race is one of the flattest and fastest half marathons in New England, and the scenic views will be sure to keep you motivated down to the last stretch.

Don’t forget to stop by the after-party at Ashworth By The Sea for beer, hot soup, Stonyfield yogurt and Lindt chocolates. $39-$79. 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Ashworth by the Sea, 295 Ocean Blvd., Hampton. hamptonhalf.com

3/13-15

2020 World Pro Ski Tour This event will be one of the only opportunities to witness a field

of Olympians, national champions and NCAA champions in the US as they face off side-byside in dual slalom action. Events start at 9 a.m., Waterville Valley Resort, 1 Ski Area Rd., Waterville Valley. (603) 236-8311; waterville.com

3/14-22

Winter Wild This all-comers uphilling series has been going strong all winter, but, if you haven’t made it to the races yet, this month gives you two last chances. Competitors from kids to seniors compete to climb up the mountain on snowshoes, sneakers, skis or other gear and get back down by the power of whatever carried them up. Saturday morning races at Whaleback Mountain and Sunday at Waterville Valley conclude the season. $10-$30. Times and locations vary. winterwild.com

3/21

Pond Skim at Pats Peak Ski Area Dust off that old ’80s outfit, throw on a pair of skis or a snowboard, and ski or board across a man-made pond. If you don’t make it all the way across, you might fall into the icy water! Join the fun as a spectator or participant as we start to celebrate the closing of the winter sport season. There will be prizes for best costume, best splash, best skim and costumes are indeed required. 1 p.m., Pats Peak, 686 Flanders Rd., Henniker. (888) 728-7732; patspeak.com

3/21

Harlem Globetrotters March sports don’t have to involve a ski slope or willful ignorance of the frigid temps on your “springtime” run. Catch some remarkable athletics from the comfort of the great indoors when this legendary team comes

to the Queen City. $19-$130. 2 and 7 p.m., SNHU Arena, 555 Elm St., Manchester. (603) 644-5000; snhuarena.com

3/28-29

Shamrock Half Marathon & Shamrock Shuffle Do you have any green running shoes lying around?

Millennium Running’s annual 2-mile Sunday St. Patrick’s Day race is joined this year by a Saturday half marathon and relay. Let the luck of the Irish propel you to the finish line of your chosen race (or do both and earn the Golden Shamrock Medal). Make sure to have some fun — themed outfits are strongly encouraged. $10-$120. 9 a.m., Veteran’s Park, 889 Elm St., Manchester. millenniumrunning.com

3/30

20th Annual Last Call Now in its 20th year, Last Call has grown into the biggest snowboarding event on the East Coast. Snowboarders from around the globe flock to Loon Mountain to vie for a cash purse and cut their teeth on the next-level park features created specifically for this event. Professional and amateur statuses aside, Last Call is open to snowboarders of expert ability. 8:30 a.m., Loon Mountain, 60 Loon Mountain Rd., Lincoln. (603) 745-8214; loonmtn.com

Miscellaneous 3/2

“Semicolon” Gibson’s Book Club will be reading “Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark” by Cecelia Watson for the month of March. The book club is open to all, and it will be democratically run by the participants.

March 28 & 29,

2020

Whittemore Center Arena, UNH, Durham, NH

SATURDAY 10-5

SUNDAY 10-4

Adults $8 l Seniors (65+) $6 l Youths 6-16 yrs. $5 l Under 6 Free

• Over 150 Exhibitors- Discover the latest products and services for your home • Seminars and Clinics- Get expert advice and helpful tips on a variety of home improvement topics • Meet the Chefs Cooking Series- Taste the culinary creations from the best Seacoast area chefs • Artisan Marketplace- Shop unique products from local artisans

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Join the club for every meeting, or deal yourself in as the spirit moves you. Free. 5:30 to 7 p.m., Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 South Main st., concord.

(603) 224-0562; gibsonsbookstore.com

3/6-8

53rd Annual New Hampshire State Home Show During the three-day expo, visitors can attend seminars on topics like remodeling and energy efficiency, browse a show floor full of displays from home pros and more. $10-$15. Fri 1 to 8 p.m., Sat 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sun 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., DoubleTree by Hilton, 700 Elm St., Manchester. (603) 226-6538; nhstatehomeshow.net Sponsored event

3/16

Something for everyone The news you trust, the programs you love

The Making of Strawbery Banke Local legend says Strawbery Banke Museum began when a Portsmouth librarian gave a rousing speech in 1957. The backstory, however, is more complex.

This is a dramatic tale of economics, urban renewal, immigration and historic architecture in New Hampshire’s only seaport. J. Dennis Robinson, author of an award-winning “biography” of the 10-acre Strawbery Banke campus, shares the history of “America’s oldest neighborhood.” Free.

1 p.m., Bow Mills Church Hall, 505 South State St., Bow. (603) 938-5582; nhhumanities.org

3/19

Container Gardening Container gardens are flexible way to add interest and intimacy to your outside space. Come hear expert gardener Kelly Orzel explain how to use containers for fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers. This is a joint meeting with the Exeter Garden Club. $5. 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Stratham Municipal Building, 10 Bunker Hill Rd., Stratham. ryenhgardenclub.org

3/20-22

Great Northeast Boat Show Prepare for summer by hitting this showcase and browsing the latest from 25 different boat dealers. The expo has everything from pontoons and jet skis to kayaks and inflatables. $10. Fri 12 to 8 p.m., Sat 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sun 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., NH Sportsplex, 68 Technology Dr., Bedford. greatnortheastboatshow.com

3/28-29

89.1 Concord/Manchester | nhpr.org

TAPROOM HOURS:

BREWERY & TAPROOM 126B HALL ST., CONCORD, NH

WED-FRI 4-8 P.M. SAT 12-8 P.M. SUN 12-4 P.M. Also available for functions lithermans.beer (603) 219-0784

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Seacoast Home Show More than 200 exhibitors and artisans gather to display services that range from building and remodeling to outdoor and green living. Plus, enjoy the “Meet the Chefs” series for cooking tips from the area’s top chefs. $5-$8. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on March 28 and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on March 29. Whittemore Center Arena, UNH, Durham. seacoast.newenglandexpos.com Sponsored event

3/28

33rd Annual Bretton Woods Beach Party As ski and snowboard season comes to a close, get in the last runs of the year while soaking up the springtime rays. Spring skiing, live music, good food and great friends will complete the event.

Prices vary. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Omni Mount Washington Resort, 310 Mount Washington Hotel Rd., Bretton Woods. brettonwoods.com/beach_party

Find additional events at nhmagazine.com/ calendar. Submit events eight weeks in advance to Emily Heidt at eheidt@nhmagazine.com or enter your own at nhmagazine. com/calendar. Not all events are guaranteed to be published either online or in the print calendar. Event submissions will be reviewed and, if deemed appropriate, approved by a New Hampshire Magazine editor.

603 LIVING

DINE OUT

Good Eats OUR GUIDE TO FINE DINING IN EVERY REGION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Lemongrass

courtesy photo

64 Whittier Hwy. Moultonborough (603) 253-8100 lemongrassnh.net

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603 LIVING

DINE OUT

Our restaurant listings include Best of NH winners and advertisers along with others compiled by the New Hampshire Magazine editorial department. Listings are subject to change from month to month based on space availability. Expanded and highlighted listings denote advertisers. For additional and more detailed listings, visit nhmagazine.com.

H Best of NH

2019 Editor’s Picks

H Best of NH

2019 Reader’s Poll

$$$$ Entrées cost more than $25

B Breakfast L Lunch D Dinner b Brunch ( Reservations

$$$ Entrées cost between recommended

$18 and $25

$$ Entrées cost between

New – Open for one year or less

$12 and $18

$ Entrées cost less than $12

MERRIMACK VALLEY 900 Degrees H

PIZZERIA 50 Dow St., Mancheste; 900degrees.com; $–$$$ L D

1750 Taphouse

AMERICAN TAVERN/PIZZERIA 170 Rte. 101, Bedford; (603) 488-2573; Facebook; $-$$ B L D

Angelina’s Ristorante Italiano

ITALIAN 11 Depot St., Concord; (603) 228-3313; angelinasrestaurant. com; $$–$$$ L D (

The Bedford Village Inn H

AMERICAN/TAVERN 2 Olde Bedford Way, Bedford; (603) 472-2001; bedfordvillageinn.com; $$–$$$$ L D (

The Birch on Elm H

Cucina Toscana

AMERICAN/TAVERN 58 Rte. 27, Raymond; (603) 244-2431; thetuckaway.com; $–$$ L D

The Foundry

Tuscan Kitchen

AMERICAN/FARM-TO-TABLE 50 Commercial St., Manchester; (603) 8361925; foundrynh.com; $$-$$$ D b

Giorgio’s Ristorante

MEDITERRANEAN 707 Milford Rd., Merrimack; (603) 883-7333; 524 Nashua St., Milford; (603) 673-3939; 270 Granite St., Manchester; (603) 232-3323; giorgios.com; $$–$$$ L D (

Granite Restaurant and Bar

NEW AMERICAN 96 Pleasant St., Concord; (603) 227-9000; graniterestaurant.com; $$–$$$$ B L D b (

Grazing Room

FARM-TO-TABLE/NEW AMERICAN 33 The Oaks, Henniker; (603) 428-3281 colbyhillinn.com; $$–$$$$ D (

Halligan Tavern

AMERICAN 32 West Broadway, Derry; (603) 965-3490; halligantavern.com; $–$$ L D

Hanover St. Chophouse H

STEAKHOUSE 149 Hanover Street, Manchester; (603) 644-2467; hanoverstreetchophouse.com; $$$–$$$$ L D (

Mangia

ITALIAN 33 Elm St., Manchester; (603) 647-0788; gomangia.com; $–$$ D (

Mint Bistro

FUSION/JAPANESE 1105 Elm St., Manchester; (603) 625-6468; mintbistronh.com; $$–$$$ L D b (

MT’s Local Kitchen & Wine Bar

NEW AMERICAN/TAPAS 931 Elm St., Manchester; (603) 782-5365; Facebook; $–$$ L D

AMERICAN 212 Main St., Nashua; (603) 595-9334; mtslocal.com; $–$$$ L D

Buba Noodle Bar

New England’s Tap House Grille H

VIETNAMESE 36 Lowell St., Manchester; (603) 232-7059; Facebook; $-$$ L D

Buckley’s Great Steaks H

STEAKHOUSE 438 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack; (603) 424-0995; buckleysgreatsteaks.com; $$–$$$$ D

Campo Enoteca

ITALIAN/MEDITERRANEAN 969 Elm St., Manchester; (603) 625-0256; campoenoteca.com; $$–$$$ L D

Canoe Restaurant and Tavern

AMERICAN 216 S. River Rd., Bedford; 935-8070; 232 Whittier Hwy., Center Harbor; (603) 253-4762; magicfoodsrestaurantgroup.com/canoe-restaurant-and-tavern $$-$$$ L D (

Consuelo’s Taqueria

MEXICAN 36 Amherst St., Manchester; (603) 622-1134; consuelostaqueria.com; $ L D

The Copper Door H

TAVERN 1292 Hooksett Rd., Hooksett; (603) 782-5137; taphousenh.com; $–$$ L D b

Noodz H

RAMEN/ASIAN 968 Elm St., Manchester; (603) 836-5878; Facebook; $-$$ L D

O Steaks & Seafood

STEAKHOUSE/SEAFOOD 11 South Main St., Concord; (603) 856-7925; 62 Doris Ray Court, Lakeport; (603) 5249373; magicfoodsrestaurantgroup. com; $$–$$$ L D

Republic H

MEDITERRANEAN 1069 Elm St., Manchester; (603) 666-3723; republiccafe.com; $–$$$ L D

Revival Kitchen and Bar

AMERICAN 11 Depot St., Concord; (603) 715-5723; revivalkitchennh.com; $$–$$$ D (

Stella Blu

AMERICAN 15 Leavy Dr., Bedford; (603) 488-2677; 41 S Broadway, Salem; (603) 458-2033; copperdoorrestaurant.com; $$–$$$ L D (

TAPAS 70 East Pearl St., Nashua; (603) 578-5557; stellablu-nh.com; $$–$$$ D

Cotton H

Surf Restaurant H

AMERICAN 75 Arms St., Manchester; (603) 622-5488; cottonfood.com; $$–$$$$ L D (

The Crown Tavern H

GASTROPUB 99 Hanover St., Manchester; (603) 218-3132; thecrownonhanover.com; $$ L D b

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Tuckaway Tavern H

ITALIAN 427 Amherst St., Nashua; (603) 821-7356; cucinatoscananashua. com; $ L D (

SEAFOOD 207 Main St., Nashua; (603) 595-9293; 99 Bow St., Portsmouth; (603) 334-9855; surfseafood.com; $$–$$$$ D b

Trattoria Amalfi

ITALIAN 385 S Broadway, Salem; (603) 893-5773; tamalfi.com; $–$$ D (

ITALIAN 67 Main St., Salem; (603) 952-4875; 581 Lafayette Rd., Portsmouth; (603) 570-3600; tuscan-kitchen.com; $$–$$$ L D b

Villaggio Ristorante

ITALIAN 677 Hooksett Rd., Manchester; (603) 627-2424; villaggionh.com; $–$$ L D (

SEACOAST Atlantic Grill

Newmarket; (603) 292-0110; joineryrestaurant.com; $$$–$$$$ D (

Library Restaurant

STEAKHOUSE 401 State St., Portsmouth; (603) 431-5202; libraryrestaurant.com $$$–$$$$ D b (

Lure Bar and Kitchen

TAPAS/SEAFOOD 100 Market St., Portsmouth; (603) 373-0535; lureportsmouth.com; $$–$$$ D

Martingale Wharf

AMERICAN/SEAFOOD 99 Bow St., Portsmouth; (603) 431-0901; martingalewharf.com; $$–$$$ L D

Mombo

SEAFOOD 5 Pioneer Rd., Rye; (603) 433-3000; theatlanticgrill.com; $$-$$$ L D

INTERNATIONAL 66 Marcy St., Portsmouth; (603) 433-2340; momborestaurant.com; $$–$$$ L D (

Black Trumpet Bistro

Moxy

FRENCH 29 Ceres St., Portsmouth; (603) 431-0887; blacktrumpetbistro. com; $$–$$$$ D (

Botanica Restaurant & Gin Bar

NEW AMERICAN 110 Brewery Ln., Ste. 5, Portsmouth; (603) 373-0979; Facebook; $$-$$$$ D

CAVA

TAPAS 10 Commercial Alley, Portsmouth; (603) 319-1575; cavatapasandwinebar.com; $–$$$ L D

Chapel+Main

NEW AMERICAN 83 Main St., Dover; (603) 842-5170; chapelandmain. com; $$–$$$ D (

Cornerstone Artisanal Pizza & Craft Beer

PIZZERIA 110 Brewery Ln., Portsmouth; (603) 294-0965; cornerstonepizzaandbeer.com; $–$$ L D

CR’s the Restaurant

NEW AMERICAN 287 Exeter Rd., Hampton; (603) 929-7972; crstherestaurant.com;. $$-$$$ L D b (

Cure

NEW AMERICAN 189 State St., Portsmouth; (603) 427-8258; curerestaurantportsmouth.com; $$-$$$ L D (

Durbar Square

NEPALESE/HIMALAYAN 10 Market St., Portsmouth; (603) 294-0107; durbarsquarerestaurant.com $-$$ L D (

Ember Wood Fired Grill

AMERICAN 1 Orchard St., Dover; (603) 343-1830; emberwfg.com; $$-$$$ D b (

Franklin Oyster House

SEAFOOD 148 Fleet St., Portsmouth; (603) 373-8500; franklinoysterhouse. com; $-$$$ D

Green Elephant H

VEGETARIAN 35 Portwalk Place, Portsmouth; (603) 427-8344; greenelephantnh.com; $–$$ L D

Holy Grail Restaurant & Pub

IRISH PUB 64 Main St., Epping; (603) 679-9559; holygrailrestaurantandpub.com; $–$$ L D

Hop + grind H

BURGERS 17 Madbury Rd., Durham; (603) 244-2431; hopandgrind.com; $–$$ L D

Joinery

NEW AMERICAN 55 Main St.,

TAPAS 106 Penhallow St., Portsmouth; (603) 319-8178; moxyrestaurant.com; $$–$$$ D (

Mr. Kim's

KOREAN 107 State St., Portsmouth; (603) 373-6000; mrkimsrestaurant. com; $$–$$$ L D

Oak House

AMERICAN 110 Main St., Newmarket; (603) 292-5893; oakhousenewmarket.com; $–$$ L D b

OBA Noodle Bar

ASIAN 69 Water St., Exeter; (603) 693-6264; obanoodlebar.com; $–$$ LD

Ohana Kitchen

HAWAIIAN 800 Islington St., Portsmouth; (603) 319-8234; 75 Portsmouth Ave., Exeter; (603) 580-2485; ohana.kitchen; $–$$ L D

Otis

NEW AMERICAN 4 Front St., Exeter; (603) 580-1705; otisrestaurant.com; $$–$$$ D (

Paty B's H

ITALIAN 34 Dover Point Rd., Dover; (603) 749-4181; pattybs.com; $–$$$ L D

Raleigh Wine Bar + Eatery H

NEW AMERICAN 67 State St.,Portsmouth; (603) 427-8459; raleighwinebar.com; $$–$$$ D b (

Ristorante Massimo

ITALIAN 59 Penhallow St., Portsmouth; (603) 436-4000; ristorantemassimo. com; $$-$$$ D (

Roost

NEW AMERICAN 50 Pointe Place, Dover; (603) roostdover.com; roostdover.com; $$-$$$ L D b (

Row 34

SEAFOOD 5 Portwalk Place, Portsmouth; (603) 319-5011; row34nh. com; $-$$$ L D b (

Sonny’s Tavern

NEW AMERICAN 328 Central Ave., Dover; (603) 343-4332; sonnystaverndover.com; $–$$ D b

Sue's Korean Kitchen

KOREAN 74 Portsmouth Ave., Somersworth; (603) 777-7604; sueskoreankitchen.com; $–$$ L D

Surf Seafood H

SEAFOOD 99 Bow St., Portsmouth; (603) 334-9855; surfseafood.com; $$–$$$$ D

603 LIVING

DINE OUT Tasya’s Kitchen

INDONESIAN 230 High St., Somersworth; (603) 841-7182; Facebook; $-$$ L D

Three Chimneys Inn

AMERICAN 17 Newmarket Rd., Durham; (603) 868-7800; threechimneysinn.com; $$–$$$ L D b (

Tinos Greek Kitchen

GREEK 325 Lafayette Rd., Hampton; (603) 926-5489; galleyhatch.com; $$–$$$ L D

Tuscan Kitchen

ITALIAN 67 Main St., Salem; (603) 952-4875; 581 Lafayette Rd., Portsmouth; (603) 570-3600; tuscan-kitchen.com; $$–$$$ L D b

Vida Cantina

MEXICAN 2456 Lafayette Rd., Portsmouth; (603) 501-0648; vidacantinanh.com; $–$$ L D

Vino e Vino

ITALIAN 163 Water St., Exeter; (603) 580-4268; vinoevivo.com; $$–$$$ D(

LAKES Burnt Timber Tavern

BREWPUB/TAVERN 96 Lehner St., Wolfeboro; (603) 630-4186; burnttimbertavern.com; $–$$ L D

Canoe Restaurant and Tavern

AMERICAN 232 Whittier Hwy., Center Harbor; (603) 253-4762; 216 S. River Rd., Bedford; 935-8070; magicfoods-

restaurantgroup.com/canoe-restaurant-and-tavern; $$-$$$ L D (

Shepard Hill Rd., Holderness; (603) 968-4417; innkitchen.com; $–$$$ D (

Casamigos

Kathleen's Irish Pub

MEXICAN 276 Main St., Tilton; (603) 729-0062; Facebook; $–$$ L D

Cielito

MEXICAN 50 S. Main St., Bristol; (603) 744-2044; cielitomexicanrestaurant.com; $–$$ L D

Corner House Inn

AMERICAN 22 Main St., Center Sandwich; (603) 284-6219; cornerhouseinn.com; $$ L D b (

Crystal Quail

IRISH PUB 90 Lake St., Bristol; (603) 744-6336; kathleensirishpub.com; $–$$ L D

Osteria Poggio

ITALIAN 18 Main St., Center Harbor; (603) 250-8007; osteriapoggio.com; $$–$$$ D (

Pasquaney Restaurant at the Inn on New Found Lake

Kettlehead Brewing H

BREWPUB 407 West Main St., Tilton; (603) 286-8100; kettleheadbrewing. com; $–$$ L D

AMERICAN Inn on New Found Lake, 1030 Mayhew Turnpike, Bridgewater; (603) 744-9111; newfoundlake.com/ restaurant-tavern; $$–$$$ D (

Lemongrass

Rubbin’ Butts BBQ

ASIAN 64 Whittier Hwy., Moultonborough; (603) 253-8100; lemongrassnh.net; $–$$ L D

BBQ 313 Whittier Hwy., Center Harbor; (603) 253-4953; rubbinbuttsbbqnh.com; $–$$ L D

Local Eatery

Tavern 27

AMERICAN 202 Pitman Rd., Center Barnstead; (603) 269-4151; crystalquail.com; $$$–$$$$ D (

FARM-TO-TABLE 17 Veterans Square, Laconia; (603) 527-8007; laconialocaleatery.com; $$–$$$ D (

TAPAS/PIZZA 2075 Parade Rd., Laconia; (603) 528-3057; tavern27. com; $–$$ L D (

Garwood’s

Mise en Place

Wolfe’s Tavern

AMERICAN 6 North Main St., Wolfeboro; (603) 569-7788; garwoodsrestaurant.com; $–$$ L D (

ITALIAN/AMERICAN 96 Lehner St., Wolfeboro; (603) 569-5788; miseenplacenh.com; $$-$$$$ L D (

NEW ENGLAND TAVERN 90 N. Main St., Wolfeboro; (603) 569-3016; wolfestavern.com; $$–$$$ B L D b (

Hart’s Turkey Farm

The New Woodshed

MONADNOCK

AMERICAN 233 Daniel Webster Hwy., Meredith; (603) 279-6212; hartsturkeyfarm.com $–$$ L D

AMERICAN 128 Lee Rd., Moultonborough; (603) 476-2700; newwoodshed.com; $–$$$ D

Hermit Woods Winery

O Bistro at the Inn on Main

DELI 72 Main St., Meredith; (603) 253-7968; hermitwoods.com; $–$$ L

Hobbs Tavern & Brewing Co.

BREWPUB 2415 White Mountain Hwy., West Ossipee; (603) 5392000; hobbstavern.com; $–$$ L D

Inn Kitchen + Bar

AMERICAN/FARM-TO-TABLE 28

AMERICAN 200 North Main St., Wolfeboro; (603) 515-1003; innnewhampshire.com/our-bistro; $$–$$$ D

O Steaks & Seafood

STEAKHOUSE/SEAFOOD 11 South Main St., Concord; (603) 856-7925; 62 Doris Ray Court, Lakeport; (603) 524-9373; magicfoodsrestaurantgroup.com; $$–$$$ L D

Alberto’s Restaurant

ITALIAN 79 Antrim Rd., Bennington; (603) 588-6512; albertosnh.com; $–$$ D (

Bantam Grill

ITALIAN 1 Jaffrey Rd., Peterborough; (603) 924-6633; bantam-peterborough.com; $$–$$$ D (

Bellows Walpole Inn Pub

NEW AMERICAN 297 Main St., Walpole; (603) 756-3320; bellowswalpoleinn.com; $$ L D (

Pickity Place

M aso n , N H • ( 6 03 ) 8 7 8-115 1 • p i c ki t y p l a c e . c o m

As the days get longer

winter starts to lose its grip.

Gardeners and foodies alike anticipate the plants and herbs that will soon emerge. And at Pickity Place, we plan our menu for March, reflecting the changing season.

Our unique menu changes each month and we serve at three private seatings each day: 11:30, 12:45 and 2:00.

Reservations by phone. Have a Pickity Day! nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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1 AM

Page 1 DINE OUT Chesterfield Inn

FRENCH 47 Main Street, Walpole; (603) 756-9058; burdickchocolate.com; $–$$$ L D b (

Cooper’s Hill Public House

The Stage H

PUB 6 School St., Peterborough; (603) 371-9036; coopershillpublichouse.com; $-$$$ L D

AMERICAN 30 Central Sq., Keene; (603) 357-8389; thestagerestaurant.com; $-$$ L D

Del Rossi’s Trattoria

Thorndike’s & Parson’s Pub

ITALIAN Rte. 137, Dublin; (603) 5637195; delrossis.com $$–$$$ D (

Fireworks

PIZZA 22 Main St., Keene; (603) 903-1410; fireworksrestaurant.net; $–$$ D (

Fritz the Place To Eat

AMERICAN 45 Main St., Keene; (603) 357-6393; fritztheplacetoeat.com; $–$$ L D

The Grove

AMERICAN 247 Woodbound Rd., Rindge; (603) 532-4949; woodbound.com; $$–$$$ B L D b (

The Hancock Inn

AMERICAN 33 Main St., Hancock; (603) 525-3318; hancockinn.com; Prix fixe, $48.; $$–$$$$ D (

Take Pride in N.H. Visit www.nhmade.com for a list of the state’s finest specialty foods

The Hungry Diner

FARM-TO-TABLE 9 Edwards Ln., Walpole; (603) 756-3444; hungrydinerwalpole.com; $–$$ B L D

Kristin’s Bistro & Bakery H

CAFÉ 28 Washington St., Keene; (603) 352-5700; kristinsbistroandbakery.com; $–$$ B L

Lee & Mt. Fuji

It’s Your Day to Shine.

ASIAN 50 Jaffrey Rd., Peterborough; (603) 626-7773; leeandmtfujiatboilerhouse.com; 314 Main St., Marlborough; (603) 876-3388; leeandmtfuji.com; $–$$ LD(

Luca’s Mediterranean Café

MEDITERRANEAN 10 Central Sq., Keene; (603) 358-3335; lucascafe.com; $$–$$$ L D (

Nicola’s Trattoria H

ITALIAN 51 Railroad St., Keene; (603) 355-5242; Facebook; $$$–$$$$ D

The Old Courthouse

NEW AMERICAN 30 Main St., Newport; (603) 863-8360; eatatthecourthouse.com; $$–$$$ L D b (

Papagallos Restaurant

ITALIAN/MEDITERRANEAN 9 Monadnock Hwy., Keene; (603) 352-9400; papagallos.com; $–$$ L D (

Pearl Restaurant & Oyster Bar

The Fall/Winter issue of New Hampshire Magazine’s BRIDE is now on newsstands. Inside you’ll find real weddings, inspiration, New Hampshire venues, the latest gown styles and much more.

All for the New Hampshire bride

Visit us at bridenh.com.

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Restaurant at Burdick’s

AMERICAN 20 Cross Rd., West Chesterfield; (603) 256-3211; chesterfieldinn.com; $$-$$$ D (

ASIAN 1 Jaffrey Rd., Peterbrough; (603) 924-5225; pearl-peterborough.com $$–$$$ D (

Pickity Place

FARM-TO-TABLE 248 Nutting Hill Rd., Mason; (603) 878-1151; pickityplace.com — A historic place to lunch in a 1786 red cottage used as inspiration for "Little Red Riding Hood" illustrations. Fresh, local ingredients are used, including herbs grown onsite. $$ L (

Piedra Fina

LATIN 288 Main St., Marlborough; (603) 876-5012; piedrafina.com; $–$$ L D (

AMERICAN 379 Main St., Jaffrey; (603) 532-7800; monadnockinn. com; $–$$$ D (

Waterhouse

AMERICAN 18 Water St., Peterborough; (603) 924-4001; waterhousenh.com; $-$$$ L D b (

DARTMOUTH/ LAKE SUNAPEE

Appleseed Restaurant

AMERICAN 63 High St., Bradford; (603) 938-2100; appleseedrestaurant.com $-$$ D

Base Camp Café

NEPALESE 3 Lebanon St., Hanover; (603) 643-2007; basecampcafenh.com; $-$$ L D

Bistro Nouveau

AMERICAN 6 Clubhouse Ln., Grantham; (603) 863-8000; bistronouveau.com; $–$$$$ L D (

pleasantlake.com; D (

The Old Courthouse

AMERICAN 30 Main St., Newport; (603) 863-8360; eatatthecourthouse.com; $-$$$ L D b (

Peter Christian's Tavern

AMERICAN/TAVERN 195 Main St., New London; (603) 526-2964; peterchristiansnh.com; $-$$ L D

PINE at the Hanover Inn

AMERICAN 2 South Main St., Hanover; (603) 643-4300; hanoverinn.com/dining.aspx; $$$–$$$$ B L D b (

The Refinery

NEW AMERICAN 4 Mill Rd., Andover; refinerynh.com; 977-0194; $–$$$ L

Revolution Cantina

CUBAN AND MEXICAN 38 Opera House Square, Claremont; (603) 504-6310; Facebook; $-$$ L D b

Suna

AMERICAN 6 Brook Rd., Sunapee; (603) 843-8998; magicfoodsrestaurantgroup.com; $$–$$$ D (

Taverne on the Square

AMERICAN 2 Pleasant St., Claremont; (603) 287-4416; claremonttaverne.com; $–$$$ L D

Candela Tapas Lounge

NORTH COUNTRY

Canoe Club Bistro

CAFÉ 27 Seavey St., North Conway; (603) 730-5318; 27northnh. com; $-$$ B L b

TAPAS 15 Lebanon St., Hanover; (603) 277-9094; candelatapas. com; $$-$$$ D ( AMERICAN 27 South Main St., Hanover; (603) 643-9660; canoeclub.us; $–$$ L D (

Coach House

AMERICAN 353 Main St., New London; (603) 526-2791; thenewlondoninn.com/the-coachhouse-restaurant;$ $–$$$$ D (

Farmer’s Table Café

FARM-TO-TABLE 249 Rte. 10, Grantham; (603) 863-9355; farmerstablecafe.com; $–$$ L D

Flying Goose Brew Pub H

BREW PUB 40 Andover Rd., New London; (603) 526-6899; flyinggoose.com — Choose from the many creative beer options made onsite to pair with items from the varied pub menu that offers something for every taste. $–$$ L D

Latham House Tavern

TAVERN 9 Main St., Lyme; (603) 795-9995; lathamhousetavern. com; $–$$ L D

Little Brother Burger Co.

BURGERS 420 Main St., New London; (603) 877-0196; Facebook; $–$$ L D

Market Table

FARM-TO-TABLE 44 Main St., Hanover; (603) 676-7996; markettablenh.com; $–$$ B L D b

Millstone at 74 Main

AMERICAN 74 Newport Rd., New London; (603) 526-4201; 74mainrestaurant.com; $–$$ L D b

Oak & Grain H

PRIX FIXE, 853 Pleasant St., New London; (603) 526-6271; innat-

27 North

Bailiwicks

AMERICAN 106 Main St., Littleton; (603) 444-7717; bailiwicksfinerestaurant.com; $-$$$ L D (

Barley & Salt Tap House

GASTROPUB/INTERNATIONAL 1699 White Mountain Hwy., North Conway; (603) 307-1037; barleyandsalt.com; $-$$$ L D

The Beal House Inn

PUB 2 W. Main St., Littleton; (603) 444-2661; thebealhouseinn.com; $$-$$$ D

Biederman’s Deli & Pub

PUB 83 Main St., Littleton; (603) 536-3354; biedermansdeli.com; $-$$ L D

Black Cap Grill

PUB 1498 White Mountain Hwy., North Conway; (603) 356-2225; blackcapgrille.com; $-$$ L D

The Burg H

PIZZA 8 Back Lake Rd,. Pittsburg; (603) 538-7400; Facebook; $-$$ D

Cabin Fever Restaurant

AMERICAN 1395 Route 302, Bartlett; (603) 374-9104; cabinfeverrestaurant.com; $-$$ L D

Chang Thai Café

THAI 77 Main St., Littleton; (603) 444-8810; changthaicafe.com; $-$$ L D

Chef’s Bistro

NEW AMERICAN 2724 White Mountain Hwy., North Conway; (603) 356-4747; chefsbistronh. com; $-$$ L D

603 LIVING

DINE OUT Contoocook Covered Bridge Restaurant

NEW AMERICAN 16 Cedar St., Contoocook; (603) 746-5191; coveredbridgerestaurant.com; $-$$ L D

Deacon Street Martini & Whiskey Bar

AMERICAN 32 Seavey St., Conway; (603) 356-9231; deaconst.com; $$–$$$ D

Delaney’s Hole in the Wall

AMERICAN/ASIAN 2966 White Mountain Hwy., North Conway; (603) 356-7776; delaneys.com; $–$$ L D

Gypsy Café

INTERNATIONAL 111 Main St., Lincoln; (603) 745-4395; gypsycaferestaurant.com; $–$$ L D

Horsefeathers

AMERICAN 2679 White Mountain Hwy., North Conway; (603) 3562687; horsefeathers.com; $–$$ L D

Jonathon’s Seafood

SEAFOOD/AMERICAN 280 East Side Rd., North Conway; (603) 447-3838; jonathonsseafood.com; $–$$$ L D (

Libby’s Bistro & SAaLT Pub

NEW AMERICAN 115 Main Street on Rte. 2, Gorham; (603) 466-5330; libbysbistro.org; $$–$$$ L D (

Littleton Freehouse Taproom & Eatery

NEW AMERICAN 28 Cottage St., Littleton; (603) 575-5410; littletonfreehouse.com; $-$$$ L D

Luchador Tacos

Rek'•lis Brewing

MEXICAN 1833 White Mountain Hwy., North Conway; (603) 7305429; Facebook; $ L D

BREWPUB 2085 Main St., Bethlehem; (603) 869-9696; redparkapub. com; $–$$ L D

Margarita Grill

Rustic River

MEXICAN Rte. 302, Glen; (603) 3836556; margaritagrillnh.com; $–$$ L D

May Kelly’s Cottage

IRISH PUB 3002 White Mountain Hwy., North Conway; (603) 3567005; Julykellys.com; $–$$ L D (

Moat Mountain Smokehouse H

BREW PUB 3378 White Mountain Hwy., North Conway; (603) 356-6381; moatmountain.com; $–$$ L D (

Ore Mill Bar & Grille

AMERICAN 17 Lake Tarleton Rd., Warren; (603) 764-6069; oremill17. com; $–$$ D

Rainbow Grille & Tavern H

AMERICAN/TAVERN 609 Beach Rd., Pittsburg; (603) 538-9556; rainbowgrille.com — Offering a variety of comfort food from seafood to ribs. The tavern serves appetizers, hearth-baked pizzas and more. A famil-friendly restaurant. $–$$ D (

Red Fox Bar & Grille

PUB 49 Route 16, Jackson; (603) 383-4949; redfoxbarandgrille.com; $–$$ D

Red Parka Steakhouse

STEAKHOUSE 3 Station St., Glen; (603) 383-4344; redparkapub.com; $–$$ L D

AMERICAN 5 Main St., North Woodstock; (603) 745-2110; rusticriverrestaurant.com; $-$$ L D

Schilling Beer Co.

BREW PUB/PIZZERIA 18 Mill St., Littleton; (603) 444-4800; (603) 4444800; schillingbeer.com; $-$$ L D

Hill; (603) 823-7244; thesunsethillhouse.com; $$–$$$ D (

Thompson House Eatery

FARM-TO-TABLE 139 Main St., Jackson; (603) 383-9341; thompsonhouseatery.com; $$-$$$ L D (

Tony’s Italian Grille

ITALIAN 3674 Rte. 3, Thornton; (603) 745-3133; $$ L D (

Tuckerman's Restaurant & Tavern

Shannon Door Pub

PUB Rte. 16 and 16A, Jackson; (603) 383-4211; shannondoor.com; $-$$ L D

TAVERN 336 Route 16A, Intervale; (603) 356-5541; tuckermansrestaurant.com; $-$$ D

Shovel Handle Pub

Vito Marcello’s Italian Bistro

PUB 357 Black Mountain Rd., Jackson; (603) 383-8916; shovelhandlepub.com; $-$$ L D

Six Burner Bistro

AMERICAN 13 South Main St., Plymouth; (603) 536-9099; sixburnerbistro.com; $-$$ L D

Table + Tonic

NEW AMERICAN/FARM-TO-TALBE 3358 White Mountain Hwy., North Conway; (603) 356-6068; tableandtonic.com; $-$$$ B L D (

The Tap House

AMERICAN In the Grand Summit Hotel, 104 Grand Summit Rd., Bartlett; (603) 374-6700; grandsummitattitash.com; $-$$ B L D (

Tavern at the Sunset Hill House

TAVERN 231 Sunset Hill Rd., Sugar

ITALIAN 45 Seavey St., North Conway; (603) 356-7000; vitomarcellositalianbistro.com; $$-$$$ D

The Wayside Inn

EUROPEAN 3738 Main St., Bethlehem; (603) 869-3364; thewaysideinn.com; $$–$$$ D (

White Mountain Cider Co.

AMERICAN 207 Route 302, Glen; (603) 383-9061; ciderconh.com; $-$$ D (

Woodstock Brewery H

BREW PUB Rte. 3, North Woodstock; (603) 745-3951; woodstockinnnh. com; $–$$ L

Visit nhmagazine.com/food for listings, food and drink features or to sign up for the Cuisine E-Buzz.

Family friendly dining with award winning brews

• Perfect spot for apres ski from Mt. Sunapee or Ragged Mountain • 20 handcrafted brews on tap • Farm-fresh ingredients and locally sourced menu • NH's first solar powered brewery • Panoramic views of Mt. Kearsarge • Family-run restaurant since 1993

Serving Lunch and Dinner Daily | 40 Andover Road, New London | 603-526-6899 | flyinggoose.com nhmagazine.com | March 2020

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603 LIVING

New Exit Strategy

Directions the Yankee way — with landmarks

96

nhmagazine.com | March 2020

exit numbering could be replaced by a mile marker-based system. If the idea passes, exit 4 would instead be known as exit 12 based on its mileage from the Massachusetts/New Hampshire state line in Salem.

The announcement was brought up in November, and judging by initial response, you’d think that the state was closing our revered New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlets on Sundays.

One of the most charming things about our state is that when you ask for directions, a helpful stranger will point you to the town’s pizza shop by saying, “Go about a mile, just past the house with the John Deere tractor mailbox. Then take a sharp left until you see a white church. Then, reverse direction and you’ll find Brothers Pizza opposite Bucky’s Collision shop.” Ayuh.

If the proposal passes, and you want to get to North Woodstock from the interstate system, you’ll be directed to get off I-93 exit mile marker 97, currently known as exit 31.

Live free and sigh. Or swear.

Here’s my suggestion. Forget mile-based exit numbering. Nobody wants that. Can’t

we return to landmark-based orientation?

So, if North Woodstock is your destination, the new exit sign might read, “Rocky’s Dairy Products Depot, formerly exit 31.” Everybody knows Rocky’s.

Even tollbooth identification can benefit.

Out-of-towners will be pleased to learn that the Hooksett tolls will be identified as the “Former receptacle of Fun Spot tokens.” And now that Merrimack residents are no longer held hostage by paying a cover charge just to enter and leave their town, the remaining obsolete booths will be painted with Disney characters since Merrimack is finally the new happiest place on earth.

The opportunities to showcase nearby tourist attractions will add dollars to local economies. Impress your out-of-town guests with a visit to Portsmouth from I-95 via the “Mount Market Street salt pile” exit. If the state declines to implement the plan, the loss of federal highway funding could mean more unfilled potholes. But let’s look at the glass half-full. With bumpier roads come increased auto sales in New Hampshire.

Now that’s an exit strategy. NH

illustration by brad fitzpatrick

G

rowing up in Michigan meant never having to say you’re sorry for being late because nobody ever is.

Since the mitten became a state in 1837, not one person has ever gotten lost. Roads in the Wolverine state follow the four cardinal directions and intersect at 90-degree angles.

Detroit’s major east-west roads are numerically named: 8 mile road, 9 mile road and so on. Boring? Yes. Easy to navigate? Uh, yeah.

Then I moved to New England in 1984 and without the benefit of digital direction devices (no one in Michigan even owns a GPS), I was on my own. Oh, and many street signs here had either been stolen or were so weathered I never knew if I was in Bedford or Exeter while driving Route 101.

Ten years ago, a new Pennsylvania-transplant friend mistakenly ended up in the North Country on what he thought was the Terry Francona Notch Highway.

We all know, for example, that exit 4 off I-93 is the ramp that will get you to the Londonderry Market Basket. That could change. New Hampshire Department of Transportation says the state’s sequential

BY MIKE MORIN

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