By: Jason Schreiber, Union Leader

A local landmark that was once home to the Loaf and Ladle restaurant will open its doors Friday as Sea Dog Brewing Company’s newest location.

The opening of the newly renovated downtown restaurant and brewpub at the corner of High and Water streets comes nearly 10 months after it was originally scheduled to open.

The 220-seat restaurant with 40 seats on a deck overlooking the picturesque Exeter River held a soft opening Wednesday with a full opening planned for Friday at 11 a.m.

Maine-based Sea Dog also has a restaurant in North Conway along with four locations in Maine and three in Florida.

The company began considering plans for an Exeter location in the spring of 2016 after the popular Loaf and Ladle soup and sandwich shop closed its downtown location in 2013 amid financial troubles.

The Exeter restaurant, which will do some brewing on site, features three functional floors and will offer its craft-brewed lineup of beers, full-service dining, bar and event space with lunch, dinner and eventually brunch.

By: Robert Garrova, NHPR

A new lodging option opens next week in North Conway. But instead of booking summer vacationers, owner George Wu says he’s marketing to a different group: International Student Workers.

Wu graduated from UNH with a hospitality degree in 2006. Now he owns vacation rentals in Carroll County. But during the busy seasons, he found he was often turning away international students who come to the U.S. to work and travel on what are called J-1 visas.

“The lightbulb went off and I was actually like ‘Oh, I should start converting some of my units into student housing,’” says Wu.   

So, Wu turned a bright-yellow strip of rooms that used to be the Maple Leaf Motel right off White Mountain Highway into the Work and Travel Lodge. Here Wu hopes he can attract students from Europe, South America and all around the world. When students aren’t working at local restaurants, hotels and retail shops, Wu says he’ll offer hiking, tubing and kayak trips. But is the international student market big enough?

“We’ll have to find out,” Wu says. “It’s a very limited clientele.”

According to the State Department, last summer saw a peak of about 250 work travel participants in North Conway.

Read this article on NHPR.com.

By: Kevin Landrigan, Union Leader

Here’s the good holiday weekend news: Experts expect the biggest crowds in more than a decade to hit the road, even though people have to pay more to fill up their tanks.

“The highest gas prices since 2014 won’t keep travelers home this Memorial Day weekend,” said Pat Moody, director of public affairs for AAA Northern New England. “A strong economy and growing consumer confidence are giving Americans all the motivation they need to kick off what we expect to be a busy summer travel season with a Memorial Day getaway.”

Here’s the bad news: The traffic tie-ups will be at their worst starting today, and delays could be three times greater than normal, according to INRIX, a global transportation analytics company.

More New Englanders will be driving to their holiday destinations than in any year since 2005, officials said. AAA said 1.7 million people are expected to travel in New England, 90 percent of them by car. Another 150,000 people will be flying, according to the travel forecast.

By: The Common Man Family

The Common Man family in New Hampshire is hosting its 13th annual charitable Winnipesaukee Wine Festival featuring samples of more than 100 wines, beers and spirits from around the world to benefit Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains’ leadership development programs for girls.

A partnership between The Common Man Family of Restaurants and Martignetti Companies of Northern New England, the festival takes place on Thursday, June 28 from 5:30 – 8:00 p.m. in the Winnipesaukee Ballroom at Church Landing on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in Meredith. The event is sponsored by Meredith Village Savings Bank, with promotional support from Minuteman Press in Plymouth.

Featuring wine, craft beer and spirits from local, national and international producers, the event includes a VIP room in the Carriage House at Church Landing, offering exclusive wines and a commemorative glass. Tickets to the VIP room are $125, which also includes access to the Grand Tasting.  Tickets to the Grand Tasting are $75 in advance and $85 at the door, while supplies last. Purchase tickets online at http://bit.ly/winniwinetix2018, at Lakehouse Restaurant in Meredith, or by calling (888) 474-9686.  Space is limited and advanced tickets are suggested.

By: Amie Pariseau, NHLRA

In collaboration with the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association, Laconia High School hosted a Hospitality & Tourism Industry Panel last December. In attendance were 55 students from grades 9-12 to hear about industry opportunities available in the local area.

The panel featured Gail Batstone, general manager of Mill Falls at the Lake; Jay Bolduc, managing operator of T-Bones & Cactus Jack’s of Laconia; Greg Goddard, general manager, Gunstock Mountain Resort; Cynthia Makris, third generation owner/president and general manager, The NASWA Resort; Jeff Miller, director of operations, Magic Foods Restaurant Group.

From bed and breakfasts to luxury hotels, food trucks to fine dining, campgrounds to ski resorts, the hospitality industry has unique career opportunities that offer benefits and advancements for everyone. The panel was created to inform high school students that industry pathways extend beyond traditional positions such as kitchen staff, hostesses, and front desk hotel clerks.

By: Elizabeth Dinan, Seacoast Online

Invasive, destructive and with scant meat under their hard shells, green crabs are being studied by global scientists who hope eating the crabs will cull their numbers.

The challenges of using green crabs as food are many, but Moxy chef Matt Louis has teamed with University of New Hampshire scientist Gabby Bradt to overcome them. On Moxy’s menu Tuesday was a green crab stew with chicken sausage and chili oil.

Louis explained that because the small crabs’ shells are usually very hard, “it’s not feasible to go after the meat.” So he extracts the flavor by cooking them whole and using the stock for soups and stews, or in risotto and paella. Expanding the use of green crabs for food, said the award-winning chef, is dependent upon being able to predict when they’ll molt and harvesting them at the right time, when their shells are soft.

Bradt, a mother of three with a PhD in zoology, is a fisheries specialist with UNH and Sea Grant New Hampshire, who has been recruiting citizen scientists to help her study the crabs’ molting habits. She said green crabs “decimate everything,” eating as many as 40 mussels or soft shell clams a day and they reproduce veraciously. One female will lay one or two clutches of eggs a year and there are about 180,000 eggs in a clutch, she said.
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By: Adam Drapcho, The Laconia Daily Sun

It was 14 years ago that Scott Ouellette opened his Canoe, overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee. He now operates restaurants in Laconia, Wolfeboro, Concord, Bedford and Sunapee, as well as a catering company. This spring, he turned his attention back to his first store, giving it a floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall renovation, returning the shine to his first venture.

Thinking back on the day when he opened the doors for the first time, Ouellette said that he wasn’t sure how well his new take on American cuisine would be received by local diners.

“It was a little nerve-wracking at first, we went with a menu that was not very typical to what the Lakes Region was doing,” he said. His menu boasted Ahi tuna, Kobe burgers, and macaroni and cheese boasting chunks of lobster meat. In 2004, those dishes weren’t served in small towns like Center Harbor. He knew it was a gamble, and he said he even prepared a backup plan should the menu to fall flat on its face.

“It was definitely a roll of the dice. It was a different menu from what the area had seen before. It was either going to take off, or we were going to have to change the menu real quick,” he said.