Gateway's Road trip to the Seacoast Fringe Festival

As I promised my road food blog begins. Please understand that this is not a food or restaurant critique but rather the electronic version of those old marks that hobos would scratch on a wall or fence to let other travelling folk know that there was good food to be had at that place.
So here's my hobo sign.....
In October, Sandra and I travelled to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to perform at the 1st Annual Seacoast Fringe Festival.
Just a note, the festival was terrific, the line up of theatre, dance and music performances truly outstanding.
Look for it next year.      www. seacoastfringefestival.com
When we find  a terrific place to eat, it seems to happen like magic - although it's a magic for which Sandra seems largely responsible. Theses places show up and even at a distance she says stop there - and we do and go inside and she's right, its a great place to eat - its a little spooky.
Well, we found three such places while at the Seacoast Fringe Festival.

First, on the night we arrived, we came across the State Street Saloon in downtown Portsmouth. On one side is a small bar that seems to have a very congenial group of regulars that appear to be camped out for the duration. On the other side of the place is a quiet bar and series of small dining rooms. the menu is essentially New England American food with some greek dishes available. Everything we had there was excellent, but I want to tell you about their speciality. they brag that they have the best seafood chowder - and I guess you get to brag when you can back it up. Their chowder has a fish base - maybe haddock - then potatoes and cream, but then they add clams, scallops bigger around then quarters and finally lobster claws. served with fresh oyster crackers. the consistency of the soup was smooth without being too thick and the flavor of the whole thing made every mouthful a sensual  experience. You wanted to never stop eating this chowder - suffice to say we made it back there every day we were in town. http://portsmouth.citysearch.com/profile/6563713/portsmouth_nh/state_street_saloon.html

That would have been enough for any road trip but wait there's more!

While performing at the Fringe we stayed with the festival organizer, Linda Palmer and her husband Tony, at their home in nearby Dover, NH. Once again, Sandra's radar found a wonderful place to eat.
This time it was Harvey's Bakery and Coffee Shop in downtown Dover. (a pattern is emerging here of downtown areas that are still the hearts of their towns and very user friendly.)
Harvey's is a trip back in time to family owned restaurants I remember as a kid. we had breakfast there both Friday and Saturday morning before travelling over to Portsmouth for the festival. The food was like a dream, everything from pancakes to omelets was both well prepared and delivered and everything had that feeling that someone who cared has prepared it. Oh, and they had great bakery!  http://www.harveysbakery.com/

I've got a few very simple ways of deciding if a place has good food:
1. It's got to smell good when you walk in.
2. It's got to taste good.
3. you have to feel good after you eat it.
4. You have to start thinking about going back to the place within just a few hours of eating there.

Well, I've got one final addition to our great places around Portsmouth, NH. On Sunday Sandra and I decide to cross the river that runs next to Portsmouth to see what's over there. No sooner do we cross then we're in Kittery, Maine. as we come off the bridge we see a lobster and seafood take out place on a commercial pier. We drive by and then suddenly its like we have to go back and have another look at the place. So we do.
we find ourselves in Hebert Brother's Seafood Store and Restaurant. well since its close to our last chance for New England food we both order the lobster boil.  Once again we're beside ourselves. Enough food comes out to sink a small ship. The boil includes a bowl of chowder - very good chowder but it can't be expected to compete with the world's best over at the State Street Saloon - at least a dozen steamer clams and a large lobster. then as if that wasn't enough the brothers sent each of us a seared tuna steak, grilled medium, thin sliced with a ripple of wasabi mayonnaise on top. This was way over the top, but we soldiered on and manged to eat everything in front of us. I would have gone back there as well but we had to leave the next morning - but there is next year!   http://www.hebertbrothers.com/

In the interest of fair reporting, there was a place or two that I'm not talking about  because they weren't so good. Also, we have seldom have a trip with this many great places to eat - but every once in a while you just get very lucky.

Allow me to introduce myself...

Hello,
My name is Mike Hickey. I'm a performing and visual artist. a touring artist.
I confess that all this is new to me - not the idea of blogs  - but that I might be attempting to write one.
I don't even completely understand how anyone will ever find or read what I'm writing.

But, my artistic partner Sandra Hughes and I have been talking about some way of letting people know about the amazing restaurants, diners, pubs and taverns that we come across in our travels.

Not usually fine dining, rather the sort of comfort food places that are a balm to the soul when you're on the road. Also, the incredible regional foods that are almost unknown from one region to another - or if this cuisine does appear outside of its home region, it bears little resemblance to the original.

You see we're performers with the mask theatre and mime company Gateway Performance Productions.
For the last 35 years we have been crossing and re-crossing North America and Europe - performing.
This blog is about those travels and the places to eat that we have enjoyed. I hope that some readers might visit these places as they go about their own travels.
That's all for now, I'll be back to write about some places we came across in New Hampshire.
Is mise, le meas,
Mike Hickey