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36
Cyan Magenta Yellow Black
Weekly Dish
Notes from the local food scene
By Amy Diaz
adiaz@hippopress.com
• Culinary good deed: Commercial Street
Fishery in Manchester is gone, but there is
still some life in their gift certificates. Those
holding CSF gift certificates can spend them
at Z food and drink, 860 Elm St. in Manchester,
629-9383, www.zfoodanddrink.com. The
restaurant will accept CSF gift certificates
Sunday through Thursday only. The customer
is responsible for the first $25 of the total
bill, after which the gift certificate value, up
to $50 per visit, will be applied to the outstanding
balance (with any remaining value
able to be redeemed during future visits),
according to an e-mail from the Fishery. The
offer is good through Sept. 30.
• Do you know your Washington State
Pinot from your Sonoma Cab? WineNot,
170 Main St. in Nashua, will hold a Wine
Tasting Competition at Mortgage Planners
Nashua, 221 Main St. in Nashua, on Thursday,
July 1, from 5 to 8 p.m. Sample wines
from around the world and compete for a
$100 price. RSVP to Jan at 821-5184 or
jan@mortgagplannersne.com.
• New burger: Route 28 Roadhouse, 4
Sanborn Road in Londonderry, 425-7553, has
a new burger on the menu: the Highwayman
Cheddaburger. It’s a half-pound fresh sirloin
burger breaded and deep fried, topped with
Monterey Jack, cheddar and bacon, and finished
with Route 28 steak sauce and served
with fries, according to an e-mail.
• More markets: The Penacook Village
farmers market has opened for the season at
the Rolfe Homestead, 11 Penacook St., on
Mondays from 4:30 to 7 p.m. See penacook.
org.
• Wine tasting: The Drinkery, 2 Young
Road in Londonderry, www.thedrinkeryshop.com,
will offer a tasting of four
wines on Thursday, July 1, from 6 to 8 p.m.
The wines are Sydney Ann Pinot Grigio, Jelu
Malbec Rose, Folk Machine Pinot Noir and
Jelu Syrah.
• lakeFest: The NH Lakes Association
will hold the third annual LakeFest on
Thursday, July 8, from 5 to 8 p.m., at Church
Landing Inn in Meredith. Tickets cost $50 per
person, $75 for a couple, and are available
at www.nhlakes.org/LakeFest2010.htm. The
event will include live music from the Spain
Brothers, an auction and a chance to try food
from a variety of area restaurants including
Curt’s Caterers, Hart’s Turkey Farm, T-Bones
and Cactus Jack’s, Cakes by the Lake, Jewell
& the Beanstalk, Cabot Cheese, Candia
Vineyards, Farnum Hill Ciders and Poverty
Lane Orchards, LaBelle Winery, Stone
Gate Vineyard, Long Tail Brewing, Magic
Hat Brewery, Smuttynose Brewery, Fabrizia
Limoncello, Haunting Whisper Vineyards,
Inn at Danbury & Alphorn Bistro, Kevin’s
Café and The Lakehouse Grille.
• Snack challenge: Pattie Shack, 1073
Elm St. in Manchester, 232-7201, www.pattieshackonline.com,
will hold a Snack Pattie
Challenge on Saturday, July 10, at noon. The
Continued on page 38
Hippo | July 1 - 7, 2010 | Page 36
By Madeleine Staub
food@hippopress.com
The Portland Pie Company takes pizza
very seriously.
The Maine-based company recently
opened a pizzeria in the former home of the
famed Merrimack Restaurant in downtown
Manchester.
“If there is any type of food that tastes
good… we can make it on a pizza,” said
Chief Operations Officer Joe O’Neil. The
Red Claws Pie, made with real lobster meat,
and the Bar Harbor, a pie made with scallops,
bacon and alfredo sauce, reflects the company’s
Portland roots. “A lot of people come
in and say they’ve never tried seafood on a
pizza but this is delicious,” O’Neil said. The
restaurant offers each of its pizzas on four
different kinds of dough: basil, beer, garlic
and wheat. The beer dough is made with
Maine microbrews and adds a dimension of
texture to the pizza. Pizzas are also offered
in a gluten-free option, which includes vegan
cheeses.
Their four doughs are sold at Hannaford
grocery stores and can also be purchased at
the restaurant. The restaurant will also prepare
“take and bake” pizzas for customers
that are par baked and topped so customers
can bake them at home.
The restaurant offers a variety of salads,
sandwiches and freshly prepared soups. The
Eagle Ridge, a sandwich with Montreal seasoned
steak, mushrooms, peppers, onions
and American cheese, is one of the most
popular menu items.
There are more than 70 menu items available.
A seasonal menu is offered with new
items, and the most successful of these are
transitioned onto the regular menu. When
the company adds items to the menu, less
popular ones are edited out — “We have to
decide what’s really not holding its own,”
O’Neil said. When a pie is retired, it goes to
the “Pie Graveyard,” but even some of these
36
It’s pizza from portland
Former Merrimack Restaurant spot gets new life
Winging it
Bridge Street corner gets a new eatery
By Madeleine Staub
food@hippopress.com
Wings Your Way, a New Hampshire seacoast
favorite, opened in Manchester on
Tuesday, June 1. The local chain, with restaurants
in North Hampton and Durham, is
now open at the corner of Elm and Bridge
streets. The restaurant offers a casual dining
option and boasts 20 televisions so that
customers can watch their favorite athletic
events while they eat and drink.
Wings can truly be made “your way,” with
20 different sauces and rubs that range from
mild to special reserve. There are also some
exotic flavors, like Thai peanut and mango
habañero. There is a range of bone-in and
boneless sizes, from six pieces to “The Anna
Nicole (Pre-TRIMSPA),” which includes 50
wings.
pies rise from the dead on occasion due to
what O’Neil calls a “cult following.” Cooks
are trained to make items that aren’t on the
menu anymore if people are still asking for
them.
Of the 10 beers available, six are from
Maine microbreweries, including four Shipyard
beers and Geary’s HSA. The restaurant
also features a variety of wines, which the
company tries to keep affordable. They use
a nitrogen gas wine cooler designed to preserve
wines after they have been opened,
which allows the restaurant to offer wine by
the glass inexpensively. The company offers
beer or wine flights, each comprising four
small glasses of different varieties of beer or
wine. Currently on offer is a pinot noir flight,
and the flights will be rotating through white
wines as the summer progresses. They owners
are working on getting the necessary
licenses to serve mead from a Maine company
that uses local ingredients.
The Portland Pie Company will deliver
west to Saint Anselm College, east to the border
of Auburn, south to the airport and north
to Southern New Hampshire University.
Owners Nat Getchell and Steve Freese
grew up in Maine and were college roommates
at Thomas College in Waterville. They
both went on to work for Shipyard Beer, but
were interested in trying something new.
“They wanted to try something and start
something of their own,” O’Neil said. Thirteen
years ago they started the first Portland
Pie Company in Portland, Maine, because
they thought the area was lacking good pizza
options. The original Portland location was a
pickup and delivery service, which received
a positive reception from Portland residents.
After about eight years, they decided to
begin opening full-service locations in Portland,
Scarborough and Westbrook.
“We wanted an opportunity to brand the
product face to face,” O’Neil said.
The company’s strategy in Portland was to
become popular in the city and then fan out
The menu isn’t limited to wings; it includes
a variety of wraps, sandwiches, appetizers
and salads. Some of the more famous dishes
include “The Monica Lewinsky,” a buffalo
bleu cheese wrap, and “The Eminem ‘Rap,’”
a wrap filled with honey barbecue chicken
tenders and ranch dressing. The menu is full
of pop culture references and double entendres.
A pulled pork chipotle burrito, called
“The Britney,” is described as, “Hot and
sloppy — just like Ms. Spears!”
Kirby and Cory Nadilo, siblings and business
partners from Connecticut, started their
first Wings Your Way in Durham five years
ago.
“I always wanted to go into the restaurant
business, and Cory we always knew was
going to be an entrepreneur,” Kirby said. During
Cory’s senior year of college, he drafted
the business plan for an unnamed wings res-
FooD
Joe O’Neil (left) and John Flebotte (right).
Photo by Madeleine Staub
to surrounding towns. They wanted to enter a
second market, and “Manchester just seemed
to be the best fit,” O’Neil said. If the downtown
location is successful, the owners hope
to expand to towns around Manchester.
The availability of this particular location
also played a key role in their decision
to move to Manchester. They were drawn
to the Merrimack Restaurant’s history as a
community meeting place and a magnet for
political figures and reporters during primary
season. The Portland Pie Company has
already hosted Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas
and former New York City mayor Rudy
Giuliani, and O’Neil said, “We intend to carry
on the tradition as much as the city allows.
We’re looking forward to going into the primary
season and off-year elections.”
They’ve brought in a few managers and
staff members from the Maine locations for
the first few months and have hired 50 local
residents — “All 50 individuals are absolutely
fantastic people,” O’Neil said. General
Manager John Flebotte lived and worked in
Maine for a few months before the opening
so that he could better understand the inner
workings and day-to-day operations of a
Portland Pie Company location.
portland pie Company
786 Elm St., Manchester, 622-7437, www.
portlandpie.com
Hours: Sunday through Wednesday, 11 a.m.
to 10 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday
and Saturday, 11 a.m. to midnight
Bar area at Wings Your Way. Photo by Madeleine Staub
taurant in a college town. Three months after
he graduated, he and Kirby opened Wings
Your Way in Durham. The original Wings
Your Way was a quick-service facility, and
the two had always wanted to open a fullservice
restaurant. A few years after opening
Wings Your Way in Durham, they were
faced with a tough decision to make: sell the
Durham Wings Your Way in order to open a