Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Top 10 things to do in Manchester, NH
1. C.R. Sparks Restaurant & Bar
Restaurants
2. Amoskeag Fishways Learning and Visitors Center
Sights & Activities
3. Thousand Crane
Restaurants
4. FedEx Kinko's Office and Print Center
Shopping
5. Julien's Corner Kitchen
Restaurants
6. Chen Yang Li
Restaurants
7. Massabesic Audubon Center
Sights & Activities
8. Aloha Restaurant
Restaurants
9. Jillian's
Nightlife
10. Staples
Shopping
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21 comments:
Kinkos is in the top 10? Must be a pretty exciting place...
Hey, I enjoy Kinkos...and all the things you can copy plus they have office supplies, which I really love!
Yo Sam, acute observation!
I've heard of a place out near (?) Mancehster called the "Castle in the Clouds" overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee. A friend is making a documentary about highly skilled Italian stone carvers imported to the U.S. by wealthy manufacturing industrialists and one of the remarkable private residences was shoe maker Thomas Gustave who in 1911 employed 1,000 Italian stone carvers and masons for 3 years and spent 7 million dollars (which would be like a billion today) to make his house.
The house that has been named the Lucknow Mansion uses and eclectic range of styles from English, Norwegian, Spanish Swiss Chalet, and Japanese design. In the kitchen the tile floor is actually cut from pieces to resemble a jig-saw puzzle and fits together so perfectly that it does not need glue or grout. The hosue sits on 5,000 acres and also includes the Castle Springs Water Bottling Plant.
I've also heard of the Currier Gallery of Art in Manchester which is suppose to be one of the best small art museums in the country. The Currier has works in its collection, perhaps of interest due to the MIA show right now, by Georgia O'Keefe as well as Claude Money, and Pablo Picasso among others.
This region of New Hampshire is know for a large number of covered bridges. Did you all happen to get a chance see any of these constructions around Manchester?
I also here that Manchester has an old milling red brick warehouse section of dowtown along the Merrimack River that has experienced a revival in arts & crafts, restaurants as well as becoming something of a office center for a tech revival in the former heavily industrial center.
And I hear Adam Sandler has a connection and is a local expert on Manchester NH! Is it true???
Now, I also have to take this opportunity to promote the cruisine of my new in-laws family.
A promotional word from our sponsor!...
In Brazil there is a style of restaurant called churrascaria where you go and there are no menus only Gouchos who wonder from one table to the next with grilled meat on a sword. Usually churrasco restaurants are prix fixe meaning you pay one price for all the courses and items you eat regardless of variety or quanitity.
One of the largest chains of churrascaria restaruants is Fogo de Chao which just recently opened in downtown Minneapolis in the City Center. However, Brazilian restaurants are more common in cities with populations of Brazilian immigrants like you will find in New England and particualrly near Boston.
In Manchester New Hamsphire there is a churrascaria Brazilian restaurant:
Gauchos Churrascaria
62 Lowell Street
Manchester, NH 03101
Ph: 603/669-9460
At most churrascaria restaurants, for instance Fogo de Chao in Minneapolis, you'll find their fixed price to be $40 per person, however, I understand that in Manchester's Gauchos Churrascaria the price is $22.50. Not bad really for a banquet of food fit for a king. And be sure to try the unbelievable pao de queijo (pronounced pon - ju - kay -ju) served in baskets before the main course. These are usually round balls of cheese filled bread that will drive you wild but be careful you want to save room for what comes next -- MEAT!
First you will be invited to a salad bar that usually includes prepared salads, mozzarella and tomatos, hard cheeses and a tropical salad, as well as a variety of options for creating our own salads. Even a vegetarian can survive the onslaught of meats and they usually also serve Salmon as a first-course option.
But people usually eat churrasco for their grilled meats. And the gouchos will just keep coming with more until you announce your surrender by turning over your plate-side chit to red. If you get a chance to visit this Manchester Brazilian restaurant, let Patricia and I know because we like to keep tabs on the places of Brazil in the U.S.
Tchau,
Robb
Many of the top things to do in Manchester, New Hamsphire are seasonal. And what season are we in right now for the next six months?
PRESIDENTAL POLITICS!
If you plan to be in New Hamsphire in November 2007 the number one game you can play is:
Shake hands with as many Presidential Candidates as possible.
Republicans and Democrats will be here for the "First in the Nation" Primary this fall stumping for votes. Kissing babies. Shaking hands. Making empty promises... oops, well most of them at least. And you can collect all 8 Republicans and 10 Democrats (or have I lost count?) on your palm video camera and post them to your Blogger site.
Be sure to ask them embarassing questions.
Like, for instance, a question for Rudy Giuliani:
"How did you inform your second wife you were keeping a mistress? Is that pro-family?"
Look for the political peacocks in places like Chez Vachon on Amory Street, the Merrimack Restaurant on Elm Street in (both in Manchester), or venture a bit further to the famous Robie's Country Store in Hooksett, where you'll see photos of the previous owners with many candidates from the past.
Be proud Americans -- QUESTION AUTHORITY!
Robb
Here are a few other things you might want to consider for the top ten things to do in Manchester, NH:
FRESH SEAFOOD -- if you are from the Midwest you MUST eat seafood while in New England. If you want great Hmong, Vietnamese, or Thai you can get it all right here in Minnesota but if you want great seafood, you're better off near the coasts.
Tinkers in Manchester has the best seafood in town, possibly in the state. Tinkers is a cafeteria style eatery with outstanding seafood and reasonable prices. Go to the Tinker listing on www.restaurants.com and sign on to get a $25 gift certificate for 1/2 price (you must spend more than $35 to use it but if you go with family it works).
Tinker's is the real deal and the catch tastes like it just came from the dock. You'll find an extremely nice and educated young wait staff, and prices you only find in the off season else where. If you don't know what to order try the fresh fried whole clam dinner, or my "Steve's Killer Clam Chowda"
Tinkers
(603) 622-4272
545 Hooksett Rd
Manchester, NH 03104
TRADITIONAL NEW HAMSPHIRE COMFORT FOOD
The Puritan Backroom, has been selling ice cream cones since 1917 and their famous mudslide for years. Manchester native son Adam Sandler never misses a trip to this old fashioned New England comfort food joint. This family restaurant harkens back to the 50s and 60s era Howard Johnson's and Bridgeman's old seafood and ice cream stores before they became monolithic national chains and lost their luster and quality.
Onion rings, chicken fingers, batter fried shrimp, fried scallops, fried clams, steak sandwich and meatloaf are all cooked the home-style Greek way (every dish comes with a starter Greek salad due to the owners being the Pappas and Canotas families). You'll even find hummus on the menu.
This is a potential locale to catch politicians like Christopher Dodd or John McCain humping for the White House. A good place for kids, families, and groups with valued packed menu. The backroom is less formal than the main dining rooms.
The Puritan Backroom
245 Hooksett Road
Manchester, NH 03104-2641
603-669-6890
http://www.puritanbackroom.com
MORE ART LOCALES IN MANCHESTER
New Hampshire Institute of Art
http://www.nhia.edu
French and Amherst Street Buildings
148 Concord Street
Manchester, NH
603-836-2573
Not unlike the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, NHIA is primary an educational institute offering degrees in studio arts but also has an exhibition program. From November 15th through December 14th, in their French and Amherst Street Galleries, NHIA is featuring the 2007 New England Biennial Exhibition in painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and photography. A good way to compare local artists, faculty, students competing for a $2G top prize and recognition.
Haha, wow. Those were some pretty involved comments. You make Manchester sound so much more impressive.
I guess you can tell I paid my way through graduate school at NYU by doing street tours of Greenwich Village and SoHo on Saturday mornings by collecting $10 from anyone who'd show up at Broadway and Waverly Place.
If I didn't wow them with my stories, being New York, they'd want their money back.
Robb
Another possibility for the list of 10 Things to do in Manchster:
The LEGO Amoskeag Millyard Project is the largest permanent minifigure scale model in the world. Here are the facts, madame: the project was built with approximately three million LEGO bricks (the original Jefferson millyard was build with 5 million bricks) at a scale of 55:1; it has approximately 8,000 human minifigures (the scale of the buildings corresponds proportionally to the human figures); built in phases between October 2004 and November 2006, it took more than 10,000 ‘person’ hours to complete the LEGO project; if all the LEGOs used in this project were lined up end to end, they would reach from the SEE Science Center to the Museum of Science in Boston and back; the model is complete with moving trains, one of which has a wireless camera on it so you can watch it's progress through the millyard on TV monitors as if you were a passenger on the train.
The Millward was comprised of a couple of dozen structures and the detail used to depict it is quite amazing. The projet also includes a scale model of Manchester's Pine Island amusement park
SEE Science Center
200 Bedford Street
Mancehster, NH 03101
(603) 669-0400
http://www.see-sciencecenter.org/millyard
Monday - Friday: 10:00am - 4:00pm
Saturday & Sunday: 10:00am - 5:00pm
Admission $5.00 (persons 1 year old and up)
Ok, are you a stringer? How do you have SO much knowledge of Manchester?
And are P's relatives really involved in the new Brazilian meat fest downtown Minneapolis??
Tell, tell.
A.
Ann:
I was in Manchester, New Hampshire for about five days back in 1984 when Walter Mondale was running for President in the primaries. Remember Mondale saying to Gary Hart, "I listen to your ideas and I think 'Where's the beef?'"
I was asked by a friend of mine from high school, Mo Plunkett to come up to New Hamsphire to help the Mondale campaign if I had a few days off from graduate school at NYU.
I'm sure a lot has changed in Manchester since 1984 but there are many traditions that die hard, for instance, the Presidential primaries and the role New Hamsphire plays in them. Part of the mindset I get into writing and working at a monthly city/regional magazine is to keep up on the features of the unique life of a place and how to seek out interesting aspects of those places if planning to travel there. And its a love for the adventure of travel and how to research a trip in advance of making it.
There are no ties between Fogo de Chao and Patricia's family other than the Brazilian culture. And there are many different types and style of cuisine in Brazil -- the beef/meat centered churrasco comes from the southern regions around Sao Paulo, where cattle ranches and gouchos are more common. In the Norhern regions and states nearer to the coasts, in San Louis, Rio and the state of Bahia, the cruisine is vastly different and in Bosston you'll find seafood restaurants that use the coastal seafood cruisine of Bahia.
I love travel and could easily sit down and read travel guides all day long if I didn't have to work for a living.
Tchau,
Robb
Robb:
Quite enjoyable commentary. Interestingly enough, I was going to college in Keene, New Hampshire in 1984 and had the chance to hear ALL of the candidates and shake their hands! Of course, they all wanted to greet the students and we have auditoriums for them to launch their national messages. Was a great and fun time.
I think you SHOULD write travel books!
Cheers!
Ann
Here is a story in the New York Times today about the primary in New Hamsphire and Campus Voices:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/campus-voices-new-hampshire/
You can also go to the Campus Voices web site:
http://www.campusvoices.org/
If you had to ask me today what the big surprise will be in New Hamsphire, I'd say Ron Paul.
the best place to visit will be the Renns house
689 hall street Manchester NH
03104
Thanks Giving Menu
toasty golden butter buns
lefse
parmiaggiano garlic broccoli
aged gouda and vermont cheddar mac and cheese
brussel sprouts with maple bacon
cranberry pumkin sauce with spiced pumkin seeds
pierogies
wild rice salad
green bean casserole
curry roasted cauliflower
yukon gold saffron mashed potatoes
brined turkey with real gravy
cornbread stuffin with carmalized onions
pumkin cranberry pie
caramel apple crisp
pumkin cookies
Hey its good to hear from
Rob
long time no see
hope things are good
that shoe house is supposed to be very cool
Also Adam Sandler is big around here
the river front is beautiful
I have yet to see a covered bridge
My suspicion is that they are north and west from here and I have been mosly traveling the other direction towards the beach
When ski season starts I hope to take many trips north to the mountains to ski
I will be lookin out fur the covered bridges
We are for sure going to go to that Brazilian restaurant and I will for sure let you know
I think I still have your number
also my email
elijahrenn@comcast.net
giv a ni a ring
Eli:
You are for sure correct -- the best place in the world to be will be with you guys -- just hanging and making sure we've got the top button on our pants undone so that we don't explode after eating that extravagant Thanksgiving meal.
And don't forget to sign up for the new, updated blog. Did you get the email invite?
If not, I'll resend.
Check out benrudfamily.blogspot.com
Eli:
Are you over there by that Deerefield Park area, east of the river?
How do you like living in Manchester, NH? Everything going pretty good?
Robb
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