Search results matching tag 'restaurant'

Michael's in the Weirs

maxxamillion — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:20:55 GMT

The food is excellent,the baked stuffed haddock is the best I've ever had.Wide assortment of food choices reasonable prices, good wine list . Sunday brunch is very good 30-40 items only $14 kids $7, all you can eat! A great place to take your family, hang out with friends, or for a romantic dinner.It is very flexible due to different rooms, the dining room is all hand painted murals and very cozy, upstairs the lounge has views of Weirs Beach and tv's to watch games and events, they also have a billiard and game room with big screens and big leather chairs ! www.michaelsrestaurantnh.com check it out you wont be dissappointed!

Restaurant owner cooked for presidents, other dignitaries in D.C.

Goffstown Editor — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:01:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

During the week leading up to Bill Clinton’s 1993 presidential inauguration, Damian Martineau and several other chefs teamed up to make special treats for the inaugural balls – 25,000 saxophone-shaped shortbread cookies.

It’s one of the memorable highlights of the nearly 24 years Martineau spent in the nation’s capital, where at times he cooked for some of the highest dignitaries in government, including presidents, ambassadors, cabinet members and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“I don’t believe that I would have met the people that I met, cooked for the people I cooked (for), rubbed elbows with the people I rubbed elbows with, in my entire life had I not taken this career path,” said Martineau, 45, a professional chef.

Martineau, who now lives in Bedford, took an interest in cooking as a teenager working in a Pelham restaurant. At The 76 Restaurant and Pub, Martineau rose from dishwasher to line cook.

“It was a good introduction to food,” recalled Martineau. “They say when you enter the food industry, you get bit by the bug and you can’t get it out of your system. That’s what happened to me. I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

After graduating in 1980 from Pelham High School, where he baked and cooked during home economics classes, Martineau refined his professional trade at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

Following cooking stints in Nashua, Montreal and Connecticut, Martineau began a 24-year stretch working in the Washington, D.C., area.

Seventeen of those years were spent working as a corporate chef for Guest Services Inc., a company with contracts to cook meals for employees at many federal agencies, including the Pentagon, the State Department, the Department of Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency. The work required Martineau to obtain government security clearance.

“We cooked for all the brass for the Pentagon,” he said.

Martineau has cooked for Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, secretaries of state; and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, twice met George H.W. Bush, and won Hillary Clinton’s appreciation for his service on Team Nutrition, which helped the U.S. Department of Agriculture improve its school lunch program.

“I was never a big political junkie,” said Martineau, an independent voter, who was not politically active. “Of course, in Washington, you’re bombarded with (politics) every day.”

Martineau has worked in kitchens where agents from the Secret Service brought dogs through to sniff for bombs, and has prepared meals for presidents under the agency’s watchful eyes.

One day when Martineau was cooking in a kitchen, agents escorted Bill Clinton through the room.

“They don’t want people to know what route they’re going to take,” said Martineau. “They always have three or four ways of getting in and three or four ways of getting out.”

Martineau has also made meals for famous newsmen – Brit Hume and Sam Donaldson among them – and cooked at a law firm where John Roberts, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, practiced law.

Martineau acknowledges being “a little star struck” when he first began cooking for famous people. But eventually, he said, the novelty wore off.

Martineau currently runs Damian’s On the River restaurant in New Boston, a refined casual dining establishment he opened in July 2007.

On the day the old restaurant building on the site was being auctioned, Martineau – with a cell phone in one hand and a saute pan in the other – was cooking a luncheon for President George W. Bush in Virginia while placing his bid.

Life in Washington had changed dramatically following the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks. The stress of working in the nation’s capital, and the desire to raise his four sons away from the city and closer to his large New Hampshire family, prompted Martineau and his wife, Sonia, to move to Bedford last year.

Despite leaving Washington, he has fond memories and keeps a collection of memorabilia, some of which are on display in his restaurant.

A photo of him and Hillary Clinton hangs on a wall. A bottle of champagne from Bill Clinton’s 1993 inaugural sits on the dessert case.

Martineau also has a small bottle of champagne with the presidential seal from Ronald Reagan’s presidency, an autographed tie clip from the first President Bush, a photo of him with Attorney General Janet Reno and a wristwatch featuring the presidential seal.

During his tenure in Washington, Martineau became a member of the American Academy of Chefs, the honor society of the American Culinary Federation.

Henry Haller, who spent 22 years as the White House Executive Chef, nominated him.

Martineau also served five years as president of the Nation’s Capital Chef’s Association. During his tenure, he increased the organization’s membership from 80 to 400 members and vastly improved its finances – from being in debt to having more than $100,000 in the bank.

In 1992, the group raised more than $250,000 for charity.

Since opening his restaurant, he’s donated 700 pastries to the Bedford Rotary Club for its pasta dinner and gave away free ice cream cones to the 250 children participating in Goffstown Public Library’s summer reading program.

“I’ve always believed if God gives you a talent, use it for good,” he said.

Most Bedford restaurants pass inspection

Bedford Editor — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:43:00 GMT

One-third told to address violations
BY STEPHEN BEALE

Nearly a third of restaurants in Bedford were storing food at the wrong temperature, handling meals with bare hands or had insects and rodents, among other critical violations, yet overall most scored a 90 percent or better on their most recent inspections.

In addition to restaurants, the town inspects food service at nursing homes, day care centers, supermarkets and schools as well as everything from a strip club to a flower shop and home bakery.

Out of 94 restaurants and other places, 82 had scores of 90 or better; 11 were above 80; and one was below 80. Those below a 70 fail the inspection and are closed. But that has not happened in Bedford in more than 10 years, said Wayne Richardson, the town health officer.

The scores are a snapshot of a restaurant or other business on one day, town officials said. Many minor violations could cause a low score, while a restaurant that had one critical violation – minus four to five points – could still have a 90 percent. “It sounds kind of contrary,” Richardson said. “I can get a 90 and that should be an OK place to eat but, here again, ‘What caused you to get that 90?’”

There are 13 possible critical violations, ranging in seriousness from employees not washing their hands to rotten meat and contaminated water. There are 44 items town health inspector Gary Pariseau checks per visit. Restaurants start with an automatic score of 100, losing points for each violation.

The town has an agreement with the state that allows its officials to do health inspections in exchange for a commitment to use the state health code and inspection checklist. Bedford is one of only 15 towns and cities that goes it alone on food inspections.

Bedford officials say the program is evidence that local control works, at least when it comes to food safety. Since the town has its own health inspector, he can be more thorough, spending up to 45 minutes during each visit, following up several times if necessary, and doing full-scale inspections of the nearly 100 eateries once every six months, said Richardson.

The town program has made the public safer in Bedford, questioning whether state-run inspections would have achieved the same result, Richardson said. “The last I know there were 10 state inspectors to do over 5,000 restaurants,” he said. “You do the math.”

Bedford officials say their goal is to work with businesses. “I think it’s important that we work with them to make sure that the public is well-served,” said Town Manager Russ Marcoux. “That’s basically the premise. I think we do more than an excellent job.”

Richardson said there are two ways of approaching health inspections: enforcement or compliance.

“Enforcement is not the position you want to be in because all you’re doing is enforcing the rules. You’re not making the situation better,” Richardson said.

“Our goal ... is compliance. You work with people, you educate them, and try to help them understand why compliance is in their best interest.”

Until 2005, the town did not have a dedicated health inspector. Instead, one person inspected food service and buildings. During the building boom of the 1990s, food inspections were put on a back burner.

“The majority of our time was taken up with building permits,” Richardson said. “I mean it was just a phenomenal time of growth. We did the best we could.”

Three years ago, the Town Council put more resources toward the program, hiring Pariseau as a part-time health inspector. At first, restaurants had low scores. That they are higher today is evidence the effort paid off, officials say. “I can unequivocally tell you that in town right now there is no place in Bedford that is not safe to eat now because of the job that Gary is doing,” Richardson said. “There is no place that I don’t feel that any resident or visitor to the town should not feel comfortable going to.”

Skip Jackson, the managing partner of Carrabba’s Italian Grill, praised Pariseau for his diligent and methodical approach. “There’s been times where he has been very, very rigid but it’s been to our benefit,” Jackson said. “I think we’ve been very fairly handled.”

Jackson has managed restaurants and one microbrewery in six other states. The food safety inspections have been the strictest here, Jackson said. Carrabba’s has done well on the town program, he said, thanks to a private inspector the company brings in.

Marcoux touted the fact that he has never received a complaint about the food inspection process as another sign of its success.

“I have never had a call or visit from a restaurant or food establishment complaining about our inspection process,” he said. “Never. That says volumes, I think, for what we do.”

Even the restaurant that happened to have the lowest score within the past six months, Outback Steakhouse, had good things to say about the town program. As of Aug. 8, Outback was at the bottom with a 78. But since then, the restaurant has had another inspection, scoring a 94, according to Steven Gerrish, the managing partner.

Gerrish credited the quarterly food safety class run by the town as making the difference.

When the town inspected his restaurant in January 2008, Gerrish had a new manager on the job. The manager has since taken the town course. “That was a major improvement with the new management team,” Gerrish said.

Information about restaurants and other food service organizations is a matter of public record. Anyone who wants to know more about one of the food service establishments in townmay contact the Bedford Health Department at 472-3838. Pariseau and Richardson also can be e-mailed through the town Web site, www.bedfordnh.org.

How restaurants in Bedford scored

The list below shows the restaurant name, score, critical violations, if any. The scores and violations noted are for during the last inspection within six months. Health officials say the scores are a snapshot of a restaurant on a particular day and do not necessarily reflect on its overall safety. They emphasize the history and track record a business is the best guide.

Restaurants are listed in the order of their license number:
No Wheat Kneaded, 100
Quality Inn Restaurant, 94, holding temperature not cold enough.
Bedford Village Inn: Great House, 96; Bedford Village Inn: Carriage House, 100; Bedford Village Inn, 90, sanitizer rinse temperature not hot enough.
Harvest Market of Bedford, 95
Riddle Brook School, 100
Slammer’s, 93, holding temperature not hot enough.
Country Inn & Suites, 94, holding temperature not cold enough.
T-Bones, 87, sanitizer rinse temperature not hot enough, bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat food.
Manchester Country Club, 97
Carlyle Place, 100
Weathervane Seafood Restaurant, 93
Riverwalk Cafe, 89, barehand contact with ready-to-eat food, inadequate protection of food during self-service.
Bedford Foursquare Food Warehouse, 93, holding temperature not cold enough.
Walgreen’s, 99
Manchester Country Club: Snack Shack, 100
Carrabba’s Italian Grill, 98
Cityside Marketplace, 98
Bedford Springs Cafe, 100
Lunch Break Cafe 100
Laurel Center, 96, inadequate prevention of plumbing backflow
White Avenue Irving, 98
Chen Yang Li, 88, need insect screens, food contact with unclean equipment.
Frederick’s Pastries, 99
The Flower Cart, 100
AFC Sushi at Hannaford, 99
Yianni’s Pizza, 97
Papa Gino’s, 95
Dunkin Donuts (license no. 29), 99
Mark’s Showplace, 100
Ridgewood Center, 88, holding temperature not cold enough, sanitizer rinse temperature not hot enough.
Panera Bread, 94, food contact with unclean equipment
The Arbors, 95, inadequate protection of potable water.
That Extra Touch Gourmet & Gifts, 98
Luisa’s, 98
Taipei Tokyo, 97
Bedford High/Middle School, 98
Hannaford Food and Drug, 87, food contact with unclean equipment.
Mobil Convenience Store, 100
Camp Allen, 91, sanitizer rinse temperature not hot enough.
Kindercare, 88, sanitizer rinse temperature not hot enough, unacceptable hygiene practices
Hot Spot Cafe, 98
CVS Pharmacy, 99
Dunkin Donuts (license no. 45), 97
Hampton Inn and Suites, 100
Laurel Hill Jams and Jellies, 100
Briston Manor West, 99
Northeast Ice Cream, 100
Subway at Wal-Mart, 100
Celebrations at the Wayfarer Convention Center, 95
Bedford Cafe, 100
Dunkin Donuts (license no. 53), 95
Upper Ninety Cafe Building 1, 98
RPM Fuels, LLC Mobil Station, 100
Casa Blanca, 97
Pizza Mia, 99
The Meat House, 99
Target Store T-2009, 95
Bedford Deli & Catering, 99
Sushi by Jay, 98
Harborside Healthcare, 97
Pizza Bella, 99
Bedford Irving, 93, food contact with unclean equipment
Memorial Elementary School, 96, need insect screens.
Peter Woodbury School, 100
McKelvie Intermediate School, 92, evidence of rodents, inadequate sanitizer concentration.
AFC Sushi, 100
Bugaboo Creek, 94
Desserts by Donna, 100
Karen’s Kitchen, 83, need insect screens, unacceptable hygiene practices.
Dream Dinners NH. 100
C.R. Sparks, 81, inadequate protection of potable water, evidence of insects, sanitizer rinse temperature not hot enough.
Wal-Mart, 97
Rite Aid, 100
Stop ‘n Shop, 81, holding temperature not cold enough, evidence of insects, sanitizer rinse temperature not hot enough.
Outback, 78, unacceptable hygiene practices, evidence of insects, food contact with unclean equipment. Recently reinspected, scoring 94.
Dunkin Donuts (license no. 78), 97
Bedford Prime Meats, 94, inadequate sanitizer concentration.
Royal Bouquet, 100
Quality Inn Retail Food Area, 100
Upper Ninety Cafe Building 2, 98
Gloria Jean’s Coffees, 94, unacceptable hygiene practices
Applebee’s, 89, inadequate protection of potable water.
SERESC, 100
Pierogi Etc., 100
Auntie Kay’s Cookies, 100
Bedford Stadium Concession Stand, 100
PJ’s Flowers & Antiques, 100
Harmony Learning Center, 98
House on the Hill, 100
Bentley Commons at Bedford, 88, cleaning items not properly stored.
Bedford Custom Baskets LLC, 100
Joan Major, 100

Subway shop robbed, two are arrested

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:24:00 GMT

By JENN McDOWELL

Two Manchester residents are being charged with robbing a Subway sandwich shop in Allenstown after a collaboration of police efforts in Allenstown, Hudson, and Nashua revealed that robbery was unrelated to a recent string of Subway robberies in the southern part of the state.

Phillip Rawnsley, 30, and Michelle Despres, 22, both of 390 South Main St. in Manchester, allegedly held up the Allenstown shop on Thursday, Dec. 27, at around 9:40 p.m. The two employees on duty at the time were forced to empty the cash register of $180, according to Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland.

The next day, Mulholland met with Nashua and Hudson police to determine whether the Allenstown robbery was connected to two Nashua Subway robberies, one that occurred later the same evening and another on Monday, Dec. 24, and a fourth Subway hit in Hudson shortly before the Allenstown robbery on Thursday.

Surveillance tapes from the Allenstown shop did not match the tapes and descriptions of the suspects in the three other robberies, Mulholland said. “At least the people that went inside the building were two separate people,” he said.

Despres and Rawnsley were being held at the Valley Street jail in Manchester for a recent city convenience store robbery when Mulholland said it was found that female foot impressions at the Allenstown Subway matched those of the convenience store robbery evidence.

Police interviewed Despres on Sunday, Dec. 30, at the Manchester Police Department and confronted her with the evidence match. It was determined Rawnsley was also involved in the Subway hit.

Rawnsley was also being held on felony possession of a firearm in an unrelated state police case, Mulholland said.

While the two have not yet been officially arrested, grand jury indictments will be filed and both Despres and Rawnsley will likely be arraigned the week of Monday, Jan. 7, he added. Rawnsley will be charged with armed robbery and Despres with accomplice to armed robbery.

Neither Rawnsley or Despres had prior knowledge of the three other Subway hits in Hudson and Nashua, Mulholland said.

“It was just a matter of convenience. They drove by, and it looked like a convenient place to hit,” he said, adding both suspects have lengthy prior sheets.

Three other suspects have been charged in connection with the robberies in Nashua and Hudson.

Re: John Edwards:The Bilderberg Candidate/SKULL BONES (Revised)

Rich — Tue, 15 May 2007 15:46:17 GMT

Hey.. I think I ate there, too!

Re: Best place for food and drink

skidoogirl2 — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:15:12 GMT

I also have been to the woodstock brewery.several years ago when i used to frequent cannon mountain to snowboard.great atmosphere to enjoy a few drinks after a day at the mountain.

Portsmouth

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 02:59:12 GMT

Jumpin' Jays has the best meal around! Haddock piccata is soooo good!!!

Re: Best place for food and drinks

mark g — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 11:39:51 GMT

skidoogirl2:

Billy's Sports bar is by far my favorite place to have a great night.Located in manchester NH.
The food is great,have a few drinks and catch a game.

A great family restaurant is Avandi's in Londonderry. They have great food at reasonable prices.

The veal parmesan for only $12 is especially good there.

Best place for food and drinks

skidoogirl2 — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:21:12 GMT

Billy's Sports bar is by far my favorite place to have a great night.Located in manchester NH.

The food is great,have a few drinks and catch a game.

Best place for food and drink

rcarrita — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 03:30:58 GMT

Best place in Woodstock, NH is The Woodstock Brewery.. a++ service and quality