Connolly Brothers Dairy and Farm Store

Connolly Brothers Dairy and Farm Store

Temple, New Hampshire

Connolly Brothers Dairy and Farm Store Facebook Page

As I often too, I was watching a local tv program that spotlights various things to do, places to go, and places to eat here in New Hampshire, and I was rather surprised to see that there is a place just over the mountain in Temple, that is considered some of the best ice cream in the state, I was more surprised that I hadn't ever heard of this place, thinking I am one of those local in the know on where to go types. I quickly remedied this situation last Saturday on my way back from seeing a movie, and though it was abit hard to find the place at first, I have to admit, I am very glad that I have, because the hype honestly doesn't do the ice cream of this place justice, it really doesn't.

The farm itself, is very clean, its a straight up fully functional farm, they produce and sell Dairy, meat and maple syrup mostly, which is the standard for most farms up here that aren't crop, and though their meat and syrup look excellent, I was there for the ice cream, now, you can get your ice cream two ways here, either right outside in a cone from their little ice cream trailer, which has their best selling flavors, or you can go inside and buy from their case, that has tons of various different flavors, old standards and some they've created themselves, some created by visitors that they either really liked or thought might sell well, they have a "if you can think of it, we can make it" policy that, if you're willing to pay alittle extra, which really isn't that bad, honestly their regular prices aren't all that bad for what you get, infact its actually pretty fair over all for the quality of product if I am being honest.

The key to just how excellent their ice cream is, happens to be how they make it, instead of using milk, like is traditional in ice cream, they instead use the freshest heavy cream that floats to the top of every freshly milked unprocessed milk, or "raw" as they call it, each day they use it fresh from the cow that day, which makes the ice cream not only smoother and softer, but it also gives it a lovely, sweeter taste, which is just amazing. I wasn't really a soft serve person outside of Dairy Queen or New Hampshire's legendary King Kone ice cream, but Connolly Brothers sort of rides the line between soft serve and the more traditional harder ice creams, its sort of like a hybrid of the two, which is unique, and something i've never had before, its truly awesome, it really is. There is just something amazing about this kind of localized home made style stuff, its just so wonderful. And honestly, the price isn't so bad for what you can get. So if you are ever in the area, take a trip out in the backwoods of the lower end of Temple NH, follow the ice cream and maple leaf signs till you see the red barn, you won't be disappointed.

-----

Chris

Grill Em All

Grill 'Em All

Alhambra, California

Grill 'Em All Burgers

@GrillEmAll 

Yesterday, myself and 5 other drove down to Santa Monica to the beach. We laid around in the sun, watched the ocean, and later walked the promenade a bit, nursing our mostly horrible sunburns. Later four of us decided to drive to Alhambra and visit a burger joint called Grill 'Em All. If the name doesn't give it away, this is a heavy metal themed burger joint and it totally lives up to it!

Grill 'Em All began as a food truck, and after winning a Food Network competition, they opened up a brick and mortar store, which makes them even easier to find! We couldn't hear much of the music playing inside because there was something going on outside that was pretty loud, but the atmosphere was good. Lots of metal themed stuff, like paintings, posters, and concerts playing, and the menu was just insane. All items on it had a metal twist- things such as the Napalm Death, Behemoth, Immortal, and Dee Snider. The burgers are big, with a ｽ pound of meat in every patty.

The Napalm Death Burger with Primate Fries

It took me about five minutes to decide on the Napalm Death, and a side of Primate Fries. My boyfriend ordered the Behemoth and the Pomme Fries, which we were about to find out really was a behemoth. I've had some good burgers, but this was easily the best burger I have eaten.

The Behemoth Burger with Pomme Fries

I started with a few bites of the fries, which are basically like In n Out's Animal Fries, but so much better. Then I took a bite of the burger, which was nothing short of amazing. The Napalm Death features pepper jack cheese, jalapenos, cream cheese, pickled jalapenos, jalapeno poppers, and habanero aioli. It was nothing short of amazing. Every bite I took resulted in more cheese oozing out from somewhere, and the heat was just right

My boyfriend has a tremendous appetite, but the Behemoth won. He managed to eat about 2/3rds of it but had to stop. The Behemoth is basically a big bacon cheeseburger, but with grilled cheese sandwiches as buns. Three sandwiches in one. Mattie vs Behemoth! Behemoth wins! The Pomme fries are just regular fries and he did quite a bit of damage to them.

The burgers are cooked medium rare unless you request otherwise, and are big, and juicy. Yes, its pricey for a burger joint but these burgers are worth every penny! We spent about $40 for our two burgers, two orders of fries, and 2 drinks. We got soda but they also have beer on tap and in cans, and margaritas. Service is friendly, outgoing, and very good. The owner came out and socialized with us, and the cashier who took our order hooed over my awesome lobster earnings. We had no complaints with anything there. Bathrooms are clean and single occupancy, and the place is nicely decorated staying with the heavy metal theme. We can't wait to go back again! 

 -------

Deb

 

Kings

 

Kings

Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts

Kings Boston

Last night I went out with my family for my cousin Casey's 21st birthday party, I was rather excited to go, because we were going to place I'd only heard of recently, and thought would be a great place to try, after all I do love all in one locations, where you can eat your food and then have all your entertainment right there in one spot, places like this are starting to pop up all over the food landscape here in the United States, and though by design that can be, for lack of a better term, Chuck E. Cheese for adults, thankfully, Kings is no such place. Also, if you are from outside of the United States, or from somewhere other then the east coast, and don't get the Chuck E. Cheese reference, please, be grateful, you're not missing anything other then terrifying foam rubber mice and a history of even more terror inducing early animatronic anthropomorphic animals singing country jamboree songs that will haunt your nightmares for decades to come.

The Main Dining Room, if you look all the way to the back on the left, that is where we sat

The Main Dining Room from the opposite end of the room.

Located in the Back Bay area of Boston, down the street from both The Berkley College of Music, and the often buzzed about Dillon's Pub, and attached to a parking garage for easy parking, infact, Kings is technically under the parking garage, which allows them a tremendous about of space for a location in Boston where everything is compact and ontop of everything else. From the moment you open the front door and see that giant disco ball that shines about as you descend the kind of steep stairs into the main seating area, you find yourself noticing two things, first, that the look of this place is sort Retro-1950s/Rockabilly meets modern Pub/Sports Bar, and that you kind of wish they would turn the lights up, because its very cave like, maybe they kept the lights low because the restaurant wasn't busy the night we went, apparently were were the only people in the area not going to see country singer Jason Aldean at Fenway Park, but i didn't mind that, I like to check places out when they aren't that busy, it allows you more time to relax and look around and truly think about what you want, instead of the order, eat, pay, tip and leave mentality so many busy restaurants give you, i am sure they have nights like that, but thankfully, for us, this wasn't one of those nights. The staff was very polite and friendly, and went out of their way to make us happy, which truly was impressive, normally i wouldn't mention such thing, but, two of our servers were in training, and one of them accidentally dropped two of the entrees, and though we didn't make a big deal out of it, because mistakes happen, they not only deducted the price of the two dinners off our bill, as well as knocked off afew of the appetizers as well, they continued to ask if there was anything they could do to make things better for us, as if we were the most important people in the place, infact, after finding out it was my cousin's birthday, they gave her a free slice of their triple chocolate cake free with a candle on it, and sang her happy birthday. I'm not sure if thats how they handle every single mistake, but their constant making sure we were ok after the incident and going above and beyond with the bill was very impressive, I've never seen a restaurant go that far out of their way to please visitors after that sort of accident. Truly a class act if there ever was one.

Mini Cheeseburger Empanadas

The last of the Buffalo Wontons

As for the food, oh my god! I wasn't expecting the food to be as good as it was, because again, lets be honest, this is a bowling alley/pool hall with a pub attached, you sort of expect pub level food, even though they want you to think they're high end. I started with a large order of mini cheeseburger empanadas, in a large you get six of them and what they call "fancy sauce" which is basically the big mac sauce with out the hot dog relish in it, they were abit to small for my liking and were mostly dough instead of cheeseburger filling, and you'd think you'd get more for the price, but, they are "mini" after all, so i guess i should have expected what I got. Don't get me wrong, they were excellent, I just wish there was more of them for the $12.oo price tag. My mother and one of my aunts split a small order of Buffalo Wontons, which is buffalo chicken and a creamy cheese sauce lightly fried inside of a wonton wrapper, served with a dill ranch dip, they both rather enjoyed them and happily gave me the last one for tasting reasons, I can tell you, i would much rather order those again then my empanadas, though i would order a large instead of a small, given their size, but for $8.oo for a small they were pretty nice sized and very tasty, i would go back just for them infact. For dinner itself, I had what is called a Texas Burger, which consisted of two 4oz. beef patties served on a bun and covered with bacon, a very large helping of pulled pork, a very large helping of coleslaw, pepperjack cheese, half and half pickles, and covered in a texas style barbecue sauce, OH. MY. GOD. was this a dish made in heaven, I am a burger guy, I always have been and always will be, but I must tell you, this might be, with out a doubt, the greatest non-fast food/national chain burger, I have ever had. Seriously, it was so flavorful and juicy, like a burger should be, and all the stuff piled ontop of it, was just so many excellent flavors ontop of other amazing flavors, I almost didn't mind that I had to pay an extra three dollars for fries to go with it, and though i would have liked a bit bigger of a burger for almost $9.oo, the taste truly makes up for the very few short comings for this, I was seriously in heaven, and can not wait to go back for another one as soon as I can. My mother had a meat pizza, which was a light thin crust style pizza with bacon, pepperoni, hamburger, sausage and mozzarella and romano cheese, to say my mother enjoyed her pizza would be an understatement, when she was full and slid the plate my way to try it, she did so very regretfully, because she truly loved this pizza, though everything was properly cooked and tasted amazing together, I wish it had just alittle more sauce, in bites you barely had any at all, and in a pizza, you need your sauce, that aside though, it was still very excellent for what is almost twice the size of a pizza hut personal pan pizza, and alot more flavor packed inside. 

My Texas Burger with crispy double fried french fries

The Meat Pizza, a thin crusted bit of Italian goodness

We seriously enjoyed our meal here, and are already talking about going back again as soon as we can get a group together to do so. Which, really is the best sign of just how good this place is, and how good the food really is as well. And if you're ever in Boston's Back Bay, and need a place to eat, please, make your way to Kings, you'll truly enjoy your time, plus, they've got bowling, skeeball, pool and shuffleboard too, you can't go wrong with that. My only complaint, if there is one at all, is that there is a very strict dress code, no work boots or steel toe shoes, no overly baggy cloths, nothing to trampy for the girls, and afew other things, i get the point of it, but, I always feel abit sad about dress codes in general.

----

Chris

Yummies Candy And Nuts

Yummies Candy And Nuts

Kittery Maine

Yummies.com

Tucked away at the end of the Outlet District in Kittery Maine, is a little, and I do mean little, candy shop that might honestly be, the closest thing to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory any of us are going to encounter, which is probably good thing honestly, orange faced singing midgets creep me out. The place is called Yummies, and they might actually be the greatest candy shop there has ever been, because they stock and make just about anything you could ever want, any type of candy you can think of, current, favorites of the past, and old timey old world candy, as well as their own home made chocolate, fudge and nut creations. 

the parking lot at Yummies Candy And Nuts, yes it really is that small of a shop

I will admit, though most might scoff at the idea of driving all the way to Kittery Maine for candy, it truly is a place you should visit atleast once, just to take in the whole magic and wonder of the store, but if you aren't up for the drive, don't worry, you can order over the internet, they ship all over the country and the world. The shop itself is very clean, very well organized, everything is labeled and grouped with other things of its same family, and unlike many other of the smaller shops in the Outlet district of Kittery they don't have to supplement their regular wares with tacky tourist bait like plush lobsters and teeshirts and such, I seriously hate when you go into a shop looking for what you think is one thing, and finding out half their stock is generic tourist bait you can get at every single shop around you, it just takes away from the purity of the store's concept you know? And yes, maybe that sounds silly, but if you're like me, and like to make sure you're money's going to a business that truly does its best to give you want you want, stuff like that is important, or maybe i'm just cranky, I dunno. Either way its true.

Inside Yummie's Candy And Nuts

As far as stock goes, Yummies really is any candy lover's dream come true, every type of candy or sweet you could ever dream of is literally right there at your finger tips, from current favorites like M&Ms of every possibly variety, some of which I didn't even know they made, to harder to find classics, like my mom's favorite Mallow Cups, though how anyone can eat marshmallow is beyond me, i always thought it was ghost poop. It should pointed out at this point, most things are not in their traditional packaging, Yummie's deals in candy by the pound in most cases, not whatever the normal bag's weight, all in neat and clear packaged bags wth the Yummie's name and logo on it, and in some cases you can actually get afew of the more popular candies by the case as well, and ofcourse, when its in season, they have their own amazing traditionally made Maine Salt Water Taffy, another personal favorite of mine, their in house specially made fudge is excellent also, though you do have to be there on the days they make it to get any of it, otherwise you're SOL sadly.

As you can see, all nicely labeled and in their place, i kind of want a bit o'honey at the moment...

If it there is anything I can say thats bad about the shop, its that it really is far to small for its stock and its customer volume, don't get me wrong it has an amazing selection of products, but, they're all piled to the ceiling and the shop, which is honestly about the size of a mini-mart attached to a gas station, just feels so cramped and clostrophobic given how popular the shop is and how there is also always so many people there, and if i'm nitpicking, they should also turn the A/C on if for nothing else then to take the edge off the heat that happens from having just so many people stuffed into such a small space all at once, and so the chocolate doesn't melt, much like how no one likes weepy meat, no one likes to buy melted chocolate or melted specially made fudge. Maybe its just me, but a candy shop shouldn't be so small that only a rail thin person can get around with out accidentally knocking things over and letting someone go past you in an isle shouldn't be like a game of Frogger. or maybe thats just my belief. Honestly, though I love their stock, and if i am in the area i will make a stop, I feel its probably best to just order your candy over the internet from them and for those outside of the Maine/New Hampshire area, its definitely easier to just order online from their Wonka like variety, there is no need to sail your Downeaster Alexa this far north just for candy, well unless you're really REALLY into candy.

So, if you're up in the Kittery area partaking of the outlets and all their wonderful stores there in, or you're up enjoying the beaches of York and get a craving for something sweet, check out Yummie's, if not just go nuts with their online shop, its alot more roomy.

-----

Chris