Offbeat Eats

A few years ago, we had a pair of favorite restauarants in Manchester, Republic Café and Campo Enoteca, that were a favorite light dinners when we were in the area, with Campo serving up French-inspired food, and the latter serving Italian food. But the pair didn’t survive the pandemic intact, at first, they combined operations as “Republic of Campo” (and you can still see the “Republic” on Campo’s sign today), but that didn’t last, and in 2022 Republic Café closed permanently (the name lives on in the only lightly-related Republic Brewing a mile away) and Campo Enoteca was sold to new owners. However, the new owners of Campo Enoteca have been successful at keeping the place operating, so I figured it was worth dropping in and doing one of our Offbeat Eats “Health Check” re-visits.

Back in December of 2023, Carol and I had a rather nice visit to Northampton, MA, including a fairly spontaneous visit to Homestead. (Review here), particularly enjoying the Focaccia and the house-made pasta. Our late October trip down to Connecticut to visit Hogpen Hill Farms Sculpture Garden had us returning home via Interstate 91, which ideally set us up for a stop in Northampton for some light shopping and dinner. Since it had been a while since our last visit we decided that a stop at Homestead. for an Offbeat Eats “Health Check” revisit was a great idea. (editorial note: “Homestead.” styles itself complete with the period at the end of its name, but it makes for some odd-looking sentences, so for the rest of this review I’ll simply call them “Homestead”).

Sometimes we get into comfortable patterns. Much earlier in my career, I had project assignments that had me visiting Edwards AFB frequently, and for a variety of logistical reasons it was far easier for me to fly into LAX than other area airports, and then drive up to Palmdale. Usually I’d take a late arriving flight (to avoid the worst of LA-area traffic), and on the way out of town, I’d stop off at Pink’s Hot Dogs for a late evening treat.

Back in early 2024, a business trip to various aerospace clients in the LA area had me spending several nights in and around El Segundo, where I ended up at Jame in search of lunch, and returning later for a cocktail. I had an outstanding experience each time, as you can read in my 2024 review. So when a planned trip to the Channel Islands had our group all rendezvousing in Hermosa Beach, we decided to arrive a day early and explore the area a bit more. I also decided this would be a good opportunity to do both an Offbeat Eats “Health Check” re-visit to Jame, as well as introduce Carol to the great food and drink options this little restaurant offers up.

(Closed) One of the places that I’ve always enjoyed in New Hampshire for a nice dinner outing is Greenleaf in Milford, NH, run by well-respected local chef Chris Viaud. We’ve been to Greenleaf a handful of times in the last few years, including our 2021 review. But every once in a while, I like to revisit a few old favorites for a new review, and see how they are doing. When we saw that Greenleaf was doing a Black History Month dinner in collaboration with area chef Antonio Wormley, we decided it was worth checking out, and headed out to Milford

After our day of exploration in Lisbon, our next stop was Porto, to rendezvous with my brother and sister-in-law to start our hike. Taking the very excellent Alfa Pendular high-speed train, after a comfortable journey we soon found ourselves arriving at Porto Campanha station. From there to our hotel down by the Douro Waterfront is a relatively short walk, so we decided to use this as an opportunity to do one of Offbeat Eats Health Check re-visits to a favorite spot from our 2018 trip, Casa Guedes.

Welcome to another of Offbeat Eats’ Health Check reviews, where we re-visit old favorites and check out how they are doing. Late this summer, a visit to Lincoln Peak Vineyard to pick up our quarterly wine order nicely aligned with some of our Vermont Tiki friends going out for a group dinner at A Single Pebble. I’ve long thought that A Single Pebble is the best Chinese restaurant in Vermont, and realized that while I’ve been there a good dozen times since my 2013 review, I hadn’t been there since the Pandemic, so it was a good opportunity to see how A Single Pebble is doing.

As I mentioned in my review of Jame, having aerospace clients generally means a lot of trips to El Segundo, CA, and nearby Manhattan Beach. While these trips come in waves (I’ll find myself going 4x a year some years, and not at all others), it’s still given me a chance to come up with a few favorites, like Uncle Bill’s Pancake House, which I originally reviewed way back in 2008. This trip I had a nice, free morning, so after a nice 6 miles hike down the coastline, I met up with my friend Tanya to revisit my favorite breakfast spot in the area.

Welcome to another of Offbeat Eats’ Health Check reviews, where we re-visit old favorites and check out how they are doing. In this case, a recent trip to visit the Wentworth Greenhouse Farmers Market, which actually had us passing through north Concord’s “Fisherville” neighborhood. This gave us a great opportunity to check up on an old favorite, The Post.

Oakes & Evelyn in Montpelier has been my favorite Vermont restaurant for the last few years. They were our first “real” post-pandemic fine dining experience back in May of 2021 shortly after they opened, and we had several visits there in 2022 and 2023. It had basically become our go-to for special occasions, well-worth the hour and change drive from our house in Grantham, and we really got to enjoy Chef Justin Dain’s crudos, tartares, and roasted meats.