Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [30]
Four Aces Diner
23 Bridge St.
603–298–6827
West Lebanon, NH
BLD (B & L only on Sun & Mon) | $
“Nothing Beats a Home Cooked Meal…Except Four Aces!” boasts the menu in this 1950s diner that seems to have been partially ingested by a large Colonial house surrounding it on three sides. Breakfast is served from predawn until mid-afternoon and includes interesting pancakes (with blueberries, bananas, chocolate chips, or walnuts). For an extra $1.50, you’ll get real maple syrup to pour on them. We are partial to the pork chop and egg plate with home fries and a grilled biscuit, as well as to “the joker,” a meal of pancakes, eggs, potatoes, sausage, and bacon. Also on the menu are such traditional morning meals as hot oatmeal, corned beef hash, and creamed chipped beef on toast.
We automatically like any restaurant that makes a big deal out of franks and beans. Here, epicures in search of local tradition can come for a mighty handsome plate of genuine baked beans—al dente, not too goopy or sweet—with a brace of hot dogs and a biscuit. Other old-time favorites include chicken and dumplings and macaroni and cheese with hot dogs. The menu even lists that locally beloved supper specialty, fried tripe—in our opinion, a taste that needs to be acquired at an early age. Among traditional diner fare, you’ll find superb liver and onions and bacon, meat loaf with a choice of either brown gravy or tomato gravy, and pork chops served with potatoes and applesauce.
Gilley’s PM Lunch
175 Fleet St.
603–431–6343
Portsmouth, NH
LD | $
Gilley’s is an old-fashioned night-owl lunch wagon made by the Worcester Dining Car Company, now semipermanently anchored on Fleet Street in Portsmouth. It was named for Ralph “Gilley” Gilbert, an employee who slung hash here for over fifty years. If it is the wee hours of the morning, and all the normal restaurants are closed and even the bars are shut, you can count on this joint to be serving up hamburgers with chocolate milk on the side to a rogue’s gallery of city folk who range from derelicts to debutantes.
Many dine standing on the sidewalk, but there is limited indoor seating at a narrow counter opposite the order area and galley kitchen. Gathered here under some of the most unflattering lighting on earth are insomniacs, die-hard partiers, and late-shift workers with no other place to eat, feasting on such quick-kitchen fare as chili dogs, French fries gobbed with cheese, and fried egg sandwiches with ultra-strong coffee on the side. The best dish in the house, or at least the one that seems most appropriate in this reprobate restaurant, is the hamburger, actually the cheeseburger…no, make that a double cheeseburger, with bacon and onions, too.
L.A. Burdick
47 Main St.
603–756–2882
Walpole, NH
BLD | $$
We’re not quite sure how to describe L.A. Burdick, but let us start with “ohhhh….” That would be a chocolate-induced moan of pleasure. Here is a magnificent chocolatier, specializing in the highest-quality bonbons. Among the stars are truffles with flavors that range from mint and honey-caramel to Scotch whisky (single-malt, of course); full-size dessert tortes, chocolate fondue, marzipan, nougat, and pâte de fruits. The signature chocolate is a mouse—a small rodent-shaped delicacy (complete with ribbon tail) filled with dark ganache, milk chocolate and mocha, or dark chocolate and cinnamon. Ourselves, we get weak-kneed over the chocolate-enrobed thin-sliced candied ginger. It has a sweet-spicy kick with a just a hint of saltiness that amplifies its confectionery intensity. Thin-sliced candied pears are another of our heartthrobs.
All these sweets are available in beautiful boxes to take home or to buy via mail order—check out www.burdickchocolate.com—but there is far more to this wonderful place