Offbeat Eats

After a week spent on Santa Cruz Island (part of Channel Islands National Park, we arrived back in Ventura, CA, looking for a nice dinner to celebrate our trip before wading back into LA-area traffic getting back to Hermosa Beach. Ventura has quite a vibrant dining scene, but since we were fairly scruffy (and somewhat smelly) folks literally fresh off the boat, I was hoping for a spot with good outdoor seating, and that led us to Bright Spark Brewing.

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.

One of the things I love about Northern New England in the summer is that many of the small towns have all sorts of seasonal “snack bars” along the side of the road that serve up a variety of burgers, hot dogs, fries, and ice cream. And sometimes even the occasional lobster roll as well. On my very first road trip (to Long Trail Brewing in Bridgewater, VT), I stopped at one such snack bar that remains a favorite of mine, the White Cottage Snack Bar in Woodstock, VT.

With many frequent trips to SE NH or Boston, we often find ourselves looking for dinner options around the greater Manchester, NH area. Manchester has a lot of great options, but a recent favorite of ours is actually brewery that’s been around a while, but only recently known as Candia Road Brewing Company.

Before the Covid pandemic hit, we had a handful of favorite restaurants around the small Town of Warner, NH. Halfway between the Upper Valley and the Concord area, this made it a nice place to either take a break from the drive, or for meeting up if Carol and I were on separate itineraries. Two of our favorites were The Foothills and

My second night staying in El Segundo, I took the short drive down to Manhattan Beach for dinner. The next town south from El Segundo, it’s got a decent downtown, a nice beach and wharf, and a good cross-section of restaurants from fine dining all the way down to dive bar. In fact, that’s what brought me to Manhattan Beach, I wanted to revisit an old favorite from previous visits: Ercole’s.

Several times a year, we end up traveling just north of Middlebury, VT to pick up wine from Lincoln Peak Vineyard. As I mentioned a while back in our review of The Cluckin’ Cafe, that gives us a nice excuse to check out a few of the sights and restaurants in Western VT. In this case, we had seen a lot of good online reviews for a bakery in downtown Middlebury next to the river: The Haymaker Bun Co.

(Closed) As mentioned in the previous post, a few weekends ago I was hiking with my friend Alex on Wantastiquet Mountain, located in Hinsdale across the river from Brattleboro. After a pleasant hike, we went back across the river to revisit a SE Vermont favorite of mine, Whetstone Station.

In an an interesting parallel to our visit to Colton’s Social House in August after hiking in Yosemite, late September and early October found us backpacking again, this time much closer to home in the Pemigewasset Wilderness area in the White Mountain National Forest. After a week of hiking, we emerged back at the Lincoln Woods trailhead and, after stopping off at the most excellent Notch Hostel for a shower, we headed off for some much-needed sustenance at Black Mountain Burger Co.

At the beginning of August, we went on a one-week backpacking trip in Yosemite National Park. After a week of carrying backpacks in elevations above 8000 feet, when we returned to Fresno, it was time for a celebratory dinner. We were staying in a hotel adjacent to the Fresno Airport, which, while very convenient for travel, isn’t exactly a food mecca. But a quick check of the map showed that nearby Clovis, CA had a lot of good looking options, especially for the combination of “beer” and “burgers” which always seems to be one of my top post-backpacking cravings. So we ended up taking a short drive to check out Colton’s Social House.