#7 NEW HAMPSHIRE – The Leaning Tower of Lard

The healthy one headed home, not because she overdosed on yogurt and granola, but because she had a meeting to attend.  After dropping her off at the Manchester Airport early in the morning, I headed to Milford NH which was not too far away and in the direction of Vermont. 

It is not difficult finding a place to eat breakfast in New Hampshire. It seems every small town has at least one restaurant or general store serving breakfast. Milford, a town of only about 15,000, had three excellent options for breakfast:  Café on the Oval, Red Arrow Diner, and Riverhouse Café. I picked Riverhouse Café based on their excellent motto: “Love, Peace, and Bacon Grease”.

Riverhouse Cafe
Milford, New Hampshire

AMBIENCE:  The  Riverhouse Café is on the small size with about ten to twelve tables on the inside and five tables outside on the sidewalk. Being a Sunday morning, it was not surprising that all the tables were taken with a mix of locals and tourists. Fortunately there was a large counter with plenty of stools. That’s where I ended up along with a number of other lonely people and couples who didn’t want to wait for a table.

The first thing that caught my attention was the place setting. Instead of a napkin there was a washcloth!  I didn’t know whether to put it in my lap or wash behind my ears. My guess is that a local hotel closed down and the Riverhouse got a great deal on washcloths. I should have checked the tables to see if they were covered with bedsheets.

   

The walls were covered with framed pictures, and cute sayings. A large window in the back provided a beautiful view of the Souhegan River.

The place was pleasantly loud giving one the sense that everyone was happy and all was right with the world.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

FOOD:  I ordered the Pig Pile which the menu described as “local, house made sausage patty nestled between two cheesy hash browns, two eggs, sausage gravy, and fried onions.” I let out a little gasp when it arrived in front of me.  It certainly was a pile! The Pig Pile could have been named for the sausage or for the person who ate it.

Do I eat it from the top down? Do I topple the thing and eat it as one big mash? Do I deconstruct it and separate all the individual parts on the plate?  Or do I just stare at it?

I ended up laying the pile on its side (was I glad I had that washcloth) and going at it from both ends. It was sinfully good, especially with that sausage gravy smothered over everything. I was a little disappointed in the sausage patty, which was the size of a small burger, but lacked the spice I like in a sausage.

I was also sorry that The Healthy One had gone home. The Riverhouse had a dish called the “Compost Heap” which would have been perfect for her.  It was described as having roasted veggies, monterrey jack cheese, and tomato between two cheesy hash browns, topped with two eggs, organic pea shoots, avocado, and salsa verde. Maybe one of these days I will get over my aversion to eating vegetables for breakfast.

                                  

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  The coffee was good but nothing special.

4 out of 5 stars

SERVICE: The service was adequate. The wait-staff was made up entirely of teenage girls dressed in black. There were plenty of them to handle the full house and for the most part one didn’t have to wait long to get an order placed and for the food to show up. My waitress was competent but not very friendly, but then again what teenage girl wants to give an old guy sitting alone a smile, especially if he ordered a Pig Pile. I did notice that the waitresses did more talking with each other than with the customers.

One thing you get to do when dining alone is to listen to other conversations while pretending to look at your smart phone. The man sitting next to me was having a really difficult time deciding what to order. His companion would say “why don’t you get such and such” and he would reply that he “didn’t feel like it” or that “it was too much food”, or that “I had that last time”. This went on for a good 15-20 minutes. The waitress kept checking in with him every three or four minutes. Finally, he ordered one blueberry pancake. The pancake arrived, he cut a piece and put it in his mouth, and then promptly spit it out with great disgust. He had gotten a chocolate chip pancake!

  

3 out of 5 stars

COST: $16.65 with tax and tip.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT MILFORD:  Milford calls itself the granite town in the Granite State because it was once home to numerous granite quarries. The pillars of the US Treasury in Washington DC (which you can see on a 10 dollar bill) are made of granite quarried in Milford. The town, like many other river towns in New England, had textile mills that eventually moved to the South. Smack in the middle of downtown Milford is a green space known as The Oval. It is not an oval but a triangle. Go figure.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

-          Walked a trail along the Souhegan River.

-          Walking tour of Keene NH and the campus of Keene State College.

-          Hike in Chesterfield Gorge State Park.

August 28, 2016

NEXT UP: VERMONT