Sunday, September 12, 2010

Recreation and Dining in New Hampshire


A restaurant is a restaurant, the basic concept being to go out and pay someone to make some chow for you and -- just as crucially -- do the dishes afterward as well. Still, many states and regions have managed to develop their own styles of restaurants over the years. New Jersey has its diners, Chicago has its pizzerias, Texas its barbecue ranches. What culinary legacy has New Hampshire bequeathed to the nation? Well, the state was primarily settled by English people, and we all know how attractive English cuisine is -- so that's one strike against the ol' 603.

Despite this handicap, New Hampshire has decidedly gone in two directions, the high road and the low road. I'm not sure which developed first, but as we've explored before, New Hampshire became in the late 19th and early 20th centuries a prime destination for lots of rich people trying to get away from the hustle and bustle of The Big City -- the latter can be understood to mean Boston, New York, Philadelphia, etc. For anyone who wanted to avoid either hustle or bustle, New Hampshire was (and to a large degree, still is) a great place to escape to as it is indeed lacking in exactly those two qualities -- to the utter horror of many youth native to this state -- but while (getting back to our point) it may be scenic, quiet and "rustic", it is also rural, and that became problematic for many of the rich city folk.

The difference between rustic and rural is like the difference between nude and naked: "Rustic" is nature and rural life as framed by a painting or window, often with sepia tones and soft, nostalgic music playing in the background, kind of like the opening credits to The Andy Griffith Show. Rural, however, means dirt roads, difficult access, unreliable electricity, and severely limited options in the dining, entertainment and shopping categories -- with restroom facilities often also thrown into that mix. The rich city folk wanted rustic vacations, not rural, and some enterprising New Hampshirites (or, just as often, other rich city folk from out of state) saw the need and met it: huge, glamorous, luxurious (and über-modern) hotels sprang up all over northern New Hampshire, catering to the need for rich city folk to "get away from it all" without really getting away from it all. The Bretton Woods Hotel, for instance, the Manor at Golden Pond, the Balsams, or the Castle in the Clouds all served the whims of wealthy out-of-staters. Some of these started out as private homes, while others were exclusive clubs, but most now are 4 or 5 star luxury hotels willing to take anyone with lots of $$$.

Now, cost-conscious New Hampshirites have not neglected the other end of the scale, either. In the summer, small seasonal seafood stands like Clam Haven in Londonderry open all over Rockingham County, the New Hampshire county that hugs the coast. A typical New Hampshire experience -- although we'll admit that this one, being on an island in the middle of the Piscataqua River, very much walking distance from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is technically in York, Maine -- is that of Morrison's Lobsters. You park your car in Portsmouth, walk across the bridge to Badgers Island, and when seated outside a small shack, and asked by the owner/waitress what you want -- no need for a menu since they only offer lobster, clams, potato salad and hot dogs; everything else is BYO -- your order is brought out, and the gruff waitress disappears. Forever. You eat, leave the appropriate amount on your table, and leave. I've also seen maple syrup stands in New Hampshire that work on the same honor system.

Now, increasingly New Hampshire has all the usual chain restaurants that any American is familiar with, and as we've explored before, New Hampshirites are utterly addicted to Dunkin Donuts, but when it comes to eating out, NHers tend to either go full-out five-star grand scale, or a local clam bake joint.

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