Offbeat Eats

One of the things I like to follow in the world of Restaurants is the annual James Beard Awards, seeing which chefs and restaurants, especially in New England, are getting recognized. I’ll be honest, New Hampshire usually doesn’t get a lot of nominations (Vermont and Maine definitely do better in this respect), so when a NH place gets to the semi-finalist or finalist list multiple years in a row, I know that place is worth checking out. In this case, it was in the “Outstanding Bakery” category, and unlike the usual pastry shops and bread bakeries, this one was an ice cream place: Bethlehem’s Super Secret Ice Cream, who was a semi-finalist in 2024, and a finalist in 2025.

Ever since I moved to the Upper Valley, I’ve had a handful of favorite diners in the area. For years, one of my favorites was The Fairlee Diner in Fairlee, VT, for some good pancakes, good Benedicts, and some well-above-average home fries. Really, it was a great spot. And it closed in April, 2022, a few months after my last review. But a few months later, with some minor renovation, the place reopened as “Jan’s Fairlee Diner”, and I finally had a chance earlier this summer to drop and and give the place a try.

When I moved to Minneapolis, a block away was a fairly derelict building that used to contain Blue Ribbon Foods, a frozen food distributor that had fairly recently stopped operations. After a few years sitting neglected, the building was purchased and refurbished. One side became a location for Dunn Bros’ Coffee, which was basically my home-away-from-home for my PhD studies. The other side became Alma, which quickly became one of Minneapolis’ top-rated restaurants. I was one of their very first customers, having more or less accidentally stumbled on a soft opening while getting coffee next door, and able to enjoy a few nice dinners there before moving away in 2001.

When I lived in the Twin Cities, an occasional outing for me was Tavern on Grand, a somewhat divey tavern on St Paul’s Grand Avenue that was well known for the giant “Famous for Walleye” sign and a big neon walleye outline. I didn’t go there often (I’ve got a mild seafood allergy, although I’m quite tolerant to walleye), but it was always enjoyable, and the walleye was indeed quite good (they sold enough of it that they were probably one of the larger sellers of it). But after a run of almost 35 years, Tavern on Grand closed in the spring of 2024. After some renovation, the location re-opened as Russell’s, named after the building owner, Todd Russell

The Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire doesn’t get a lot of turnover in restaurants, and when it does, there’s often a lot of local buzz, even if it’s something as relatively pedestrian as a Jersey Mike’s. That’s definitely the case for Happy Dumpling, which opening in West Lebanon’s Powerhouse Plaza, in one of the storefronts freed up when the NH Liquor store moved to their new building on Route 12A. They announced the restaurant in May, with an opening later in the year, and we got several months of eager anticipation on various local discussions groups to follow. So yeah, there’s some pent up demand for something new.

Prior to the pandemic, I had a pair of sister restaurants in downtown Manchester, Republic Café and Campo Enoteca, that I enjoyed for light dinners when around Manchester. The former served up “European” food, mostly with a French influence, and the latter served up Italian food. Unfortunately, the pandemic severely stressed both restaurants economically; for a while they were operating in a combined manner as “Republic of Campo”, but in 2022 the operation drew to a close. Republic Café closed permanently, and Campo Enoteca sold to new owners (who continue to operate it today, as of 2025). But this wasn’t the complete end for “Republic”. In 2024, two locals, Pete Maconehas and Mike Brown, decided to open a new brewery on Old Granite Street next to Hometown Coffee Roasters, where Mike is an owner. Pete was formerly with both Republic Cafe and Campo Enoteca Restaurants, so they decided (with the blessing and support of the former owners) to reinvigorate the old Republic name, christening the new brewery Republic Brewing Company.

As I mentioned in our review of Sally’s Apizza Woburn, our travels recently have resulted in our having several visits to Woburn, MA, usually trying to get a meal before we head home. There’s an extremely high restaurant density in that part of Woburn, but on our various drive-bys, I had noticed one relative newcomer that looked worth checking out: Saigon Eatery.

When Carol and I moved to the Upper Valley way back in 2001, the fine dining scene was substantially different; there were fewer options for fine dining, and most of the stalwarts from that era, such as Hanover’s Cafe Bon Gustaio, have long since departed the landscape. And most of the remaining places that aren’t associated with hotels have moved on as well. But one particular fine dining restaurant has managed to stay in pretty much continual operation for over fifty years, and that’s Woodstock, VT’s The Prince and the Pauper.

One of our goals at Offbeat Eats for the last few years has been to try and visit a bunch of those places that we’ve driven by several times and always thought to ourselves, “We should stop there.” Well, we’ve tried to be better about actually stopping at those places. In this case, our drives to the east often take us through the nice old mill town of Franklin, NH. If it’s around lunch or dinner, we’ve already reviewed two great places in Franklin, Broken Spoon and Vulgar Brewing Company, that we really enjoy, but we still hadn’t really done breakfast in Franklin. A recent trip through there at 8am, however, gave me good reason to stop by Wyatt’s Family Restaurant, on the west bank of the Pemigewasset River right before it merges with the Winnipesaukee River to form the Merrimack River.

Right before heading out of town for a week, we met up with our friends Liz and Wesley and headed over to Oakes & Evelyn for dinner. You might be thinking, “didn’t Rich write up Oakes & Evelyn fairly recently (I did, in 2023)?”, as it’s a semi-regular fine dining destination of ours. But in this case, we weren’t doing the hour and a quarter drive up to Montpelier, but instead, driving to Woodstock. A few months ago, Oakes & Evelyn announced that they were opening a second location, taking over the restaurant operations in Woodstock’s The Jackson inn. After several months of renovation and preparation, Oakes & Eveyln finally had their opening night at their new location, and we decided to give it a try.