Dover Dines ’11 Restaurant Week: Take a Bite Out of Dover

DOVER—
Dover, NH has claimed its place on the map as a place to find fine dining at a reasonable price. In an effort to promote the fabulous restaurants Dover has to offer, Dover Main Street and the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with Reverie Designs and PortsmouthNH.com, along with support from Foster’s Daily Democrat, The Shark, Seacoast Media Group, The Wire and Taste of the Seacoast, are all very excited to announce Dover Dines ’11!
June 4-11th will be a week of fine dining at a great fixed price with each participating restaurant offering a 3-course prix fixe dinner for $15.95 or $21.95; many restaurants will also offer a $7.95 two-course lunch.
“This is a great opportunity for people to get out and rediscover a restaurant they might not have been to in awhile or to support a few of their favorites without breaking the bank,” says Carrie Eisner, program director for Dover Main Street.
With 11 local restaurants participating, from a full range of cuisines and tastes, event organizers and Dover Main Street board members. Mike Cartelli and Martha Mason are looking forward to a successful event. “There really is something for everyone being offered this week. We hope people will take advantage of the event and try a couple of different places throughout the week.”
Restaurants participating are Alexander’s Italian Restaurant, Blue Latitudes, Cartelli’s Bar & Grill, Harvey’s Bakery & Coffee Shop, The Farm Bar & Grille, Krave, Kelley’s Row, La Festa Brick & Brew Pizzeria, Orchard Street Chop Shop, Three Chimney’s Inn and The Weathervane Seafood Restaurant. With participation from most of Dover’s fine restaurants, you are bound to be treated to a great meal at a great price.
Molly Hodgson Smith, Executive Director of the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce, notes, “It’s the perfect week to come to Dover for dinner with family and friends, or lunch with co-workers. The fixed price menu gives you the opportunity to sample all the unique and interesting restaurants in the city at a very affordable price. Now more than ever, it is important for everyone to be supporting locally owned businesses in our community.”
For more information visit the Dover Dines website dedicated to the event through www.WeShopDover.com or by calling the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce at 603-742-2218 or Dover Main Street at 603-740-6435.
Photo caption: Dover Dines ’11 Restaurant Week Logo (Courtesy image)

Annual Wentworth Marina Striped Bass Tournament Returns

NEW CASTLE—

The fourth annual Wentworth Marina Striped Bass Tournament for Kids returns June 12, with a brand new category for entrants. The alumni category now allows anyone who fished in any previous Striped Bass Tournament as a youth entrant to participate in this year’s tournament.
The popular catch and release fishing tournament for Striped Bass added a Mackerel division in 2009 to increase the opportunity for success for its youngest participants. Fishing begins at sunrise Sunday, June 12, and concludes with an awards ceremony and entertainment on the Marina docks by 2 p.m. Registration is limited to the first 100 entrants. Thirty-five spots will be available on a Tournament vessel for Mackerel Fishing, on a first come, first serve basis.
Organized and managed by the Little Harbor Charitable Foundation Board, each year the Tournament supports a designated beneficiary organization in service to children and youth on the Seacoast.
This year, Tournament proceeds will build upon the success of a 2010 initiative to expand development and delivery of enrichment service programs and opportunities for children and families living at Cross Roads House and the Portsmouth Housing Authority.
Lead sponsor Mercedes-Benz is joined once again by a number of returning organizations, including Holloway Automotive, WMUR-TV 9, Wentworth Marina, Pro-Mariner, Mark and Eva Stern Foundation, Clear Channel, Bid2Win Software, Inc., Construction Services of NH, Center for Assessment, Actio Corporation, Seacoast Media Group, and many others.
Little Harbor Charitable Foundation is credited with gifting over 57 programs and raising over $1.5 million dollars in support for Seacoast area organizations since 1997.
Sponsor funds, 100% of which is annually channeled directly to the designated beneficiary organization, have subsequently assisted thousands of children with basic health, welfare, education services and crisis care in addition to stimulating interest in and access to the arts and personal enrichment opportunities.
Please visit www.stripertournament.com for additional information and your application.
Photo caption: Pictured is a participant in the original Wentworth Marina Striped Bass Tournament in 2008. The event, now its fourth year, will take place on June 12. (Photo courtesy www.lhcfonline.com)

Museums Open Free to the Public in the Piscataqua Region

PORTSMOUTH/
SOUTH BERWICK, ME—
For over one hundred years, Historic New England has served as the region’s storyteller, opening its doors to share four centuries of New England home and family life. On Saturday, June 4, Historic New England celebrates the 2011 season opening of their historic house museums by welcoming visitors free of charge. Come hear about the people and stories of coastal New Hampshire and Maine as you tour through houses that range from the c.1664 Jackson House in Portsmouth, NH, which chronicles the evolution of rural life over three centuries, to the majestic Colonial Revival interiors of the Hamilton House of South Berwick, ME. Six of Historic New England’s Piscataqua Region museums will offer tours beginning at 11 a.m. and the last tour will start at 4 p.m.
In Exeter, visitors will be welcomed to Historic New England’s Gilman Garrison, 12 Water Street. John Gilman’s 1709 “Logg house by the bridge” was gentrified by his son with a finely ornamented addition c.1770. The interior was restored in the 1950s by direct descendant William Dudley, who opened the house to the public as a private museum.
In Portsmouth, visitors are invited to experience three of Historic New England’s houses. The Rundlet-May House, at 364 Middle Street, is a Federal-style mansion built by merchant James Rundlet in 1807. It is filled with most of its original locally crafted 19th century furniture and a variety of “modern” heating and cooking technologies. The formal garden at Rundlet-May blooms all spring and summer with fruit trees, trellised roses, fragrant peonies, abundant hollyhocks, and vibrant poppies, to name a few, all scattered along narrow pathways original to the 1812 garden plan that survives in the house. The c.1664 Jackson House, 76 Northwest Street, is the oldest surviving wood frame house in northern New England. Visitors at Jackson House will find themselves in the midst of an old two-acre apple orchard overlooking the North Mill Pond, the last surviving orchard in NH that still abuts tidal water. The 1784 Governor Langdon House, 143 Pleasant Street, home to John Langdon, a signer of the United States Constitution and three-term governor of New Hampshire, is considered to have the best interior carvings to be found north of Boston. The garden of the Governor Langdon House features a 180-foot rose and grape arbor as well as expansive lawns edged by a perennial border, and an intimate shade garden hidden among a stand of mature evergreens.
In South Berwick, the 1774 Sarah Orne Jewett House, 5 Portland Street is not to be missed. Set in the heart of downtown South Berwick, this special home is where the famous 19th century writer spent many years of her life. Visitors can pause in the wide hall on the second floor hallway, by the author’s desk, to look out the center window and imagine Jewett’s artistic inspiration. Also in South Berwick is the c.1785 Hamilton House, 40 Vaughn’s Lane, which was restored at the turn of the century into a romantic summer retreat that draws from the house’s Georgian design and colonial past. Surrounded by beautiful formal gardens, the Hamilton House sits on a high bluff overlooking the Salmon Falls River. The interior of the house displays the height of fashion for summer residences at the turn of the 20th century.
In all, thirty-one of Historic New England’s historic house museums will be open free of charge that day. For a full list of sites, please visit www.historicnewengland.org and click on Open House under the Events tab. While visiting Historic New England’s six Piscataqua region historic house museums, plan to check out several other nearby events. Taste the best area restaurants have to offer at the all-you-can-eat 27th annual Chowder Festival in Prescott Park (www.prescottpark.org). Immerse yourself in maritime fun at the free Piscataqua Waterfront Festival, presented by Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden (www.moffattladd.org). Discover the Kids’ Day Festival in downtown South Berwick (sbkidsday.blogspot.com) where free and low cost activities make for a great family-friendly day of games, crafts, a parade, touch-a-truck, free cotton candy, giveaways, and entertainment.
Photo caption: The 1784 Governor Langdon House in Portsmouth is one of the six Historic New England house museums in the Seacoast region that will be open and offering free admission on June 4. (Photo courtesy Historic New England)