Food - Marblehead Current

29 Jul

PERFECT PAIRING: For owners of new wine bar, opening worth the wait

Marielle SabbagBusiness, Food, Top Stories

Customers can now “say cheese!” — or better yet, taste cheese — at Le Petit Comptoir Wine and Cheese. The new wine bar, owned by Marblehead resident Alex Lewis, officially opened its doors earlier this month. Located at 1 Atlantic Ave., Le Petit Comptoir offers rotating wines selected specifically to pair with artisan cheeses, along with cheese boards and gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. Lewis, a 2005 Johns Hopkins University graduate, briefly operated a hookah lounge until changes in smoking laws forced it to close in…

27 Jul

NEWS IN BRIEF: ‘Marblehead’s Liquor War,’ food drive and more

Kris OlsonAbbot Public Library, Community Resources, Culture, Food, Local News

The Current welcomes 150- to 200-word submissions to News in Brief. Send them to info@marbleheadnews.org. Museum presents ‘Marblehead’s Liquor War’ On Wednesday, Aug. 12 at 7 p.m., the Marblehead Museum will host a lecture featuring new research on the history of drinking in Marblehead. Jarrett Zeman, the museum’s associate director, will present “Marblehead’s Liquor War: The Temperance Movement, 1840-1930.” Zeman will showcase how Marbleheaders fought each other for the right to buy alcohol. Fed up with their unruly men, the local temperance movement made Marblehead…

16 Jul

FOOD 101: How to season the season with anchovies & capers

Linda BassettColumns, Food, Opinion

I like to keep my refrigerator door shelves orderly. Nothing irks me like sticky bottles and jars of condiments and pickles haphazardly arranged. I keep a single shelf for “fixings” for burgers, hot dogs or sandwiches — mustard, relish, ketchup, mayo, pickles, olives. I group jams, jellies, etc. with similar ingredients. On another shelf, I keep soft drinks and bubbly water. No bottled salad dressings: I create mine on the spot. And space for my Diet Coke. Food 101 columnist Linda Bassett COURTESY PHOTOS Some…

09 Jul

FOOD 101: Crumbs of comfort: Why cornbread still reigns

Linda BassettFood, Linda Bassett, Local News

Cornbread is baked into our American DNA. At the nation’s beginnings, colonists had no access to wheat flour, so replaced it with what was available — ground, dried corn (cornmeal). They baked their humble loaves in an alcove of the fireplace. (Some of these fireplaces can still be found in Marblehead.) Farmers and soldiers, in their disparate fields, baked cornmeal “hoecakes” using farm implements to hold them over open wood fires. Over centuries, Americans developed an affinity for cornbread. Each region developed its own tweaks…

28 Jun

PHOTOS: Champagne Reception sparkles at 60th Festival of Arts

Leigh BlanderArt, Entertainment, Food, Recreation, Top Stories

More than 500 people came out to toast the 60th Marblehead Festival of Arts at its popular Champagne Reception at Fort Sewall Sunday evening. Wearing hand-created hats and decked out for the annual summer event, folks sipped on bubbly, sampled food from local restaurants and danced to live music. Here's a quick photo gallery by Current Editor Leigh Blander. Story below.... Wearing hand-decorated hats and dressed for the signature summer event, guests sipped bubbly, sampled food from local restaurants and danced to live music by…

23 Jun

FOOD 101: Asparagus while it lasts

Linda BassettColumns, Food, Opinion

Fresh local asparagus exists for only a moment in time. The pencil-thin spears show up in grocery bins and farmers’ market stalls every spring. I gather large bunches for myriad recipes. Stored in the vegetable crisper until time to cook, they only need a fast rinse or quick bath in cool water. I bend each spear and this intelligent veggie shows a cook precisely where to trim. It will snap in the right spot. The slender stalks cook quickly when dropped into a skillet of…

19 Jun

Photo gallery: Driftwood’s last day before changing hands

Leigh BlanderFood, Top Stories

There was a special energy at the Driftwood Restaurant Friday morning — the last day it is owned by the Galvin/Losano family. Folks lined up outside the beloved breakfast/lunch spot, waiting for a table and the chance to say goodbye and thank you to Colleen Galvin. Galvin and her family posted this message on Facebook Friday morning:"To all of our customers and friends it is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that I am retiring and selling the Driftwood. The Driftwood has a…

17 Jun

‘It’s Marblehead as we hope it always will be’: The Driftwood changes hands

Leigh BlanderBusiness, Food, Top Stories

After more than four decades in the Galvin/Losano family and more than 60 years as a Marblehead institution, local landmark the Driftwood is changing hands. The beloved breakfast and lunch spot at 63 Front St. has been sold by owner Colleen Galvin to Maria Torres, owner of Maria's Gourmet in town. For generations of Marbleheaders, the Driftwood has been more than a place to grab eggs, pancakes and coffee. It has been a gathering place where regulars know one another by name, tourists discover a…

09 Jun

FOOD 101: Berry delicious: Sweet ways to celebrate the season

Linda BassettColumns, Food, Opinion

New Englanders are “pick-your-own” enthusiasts. When autumn waves its glorious color, we drive to the nearest orchard carrying baskets to fill with sweet ripe apples. Late spring finds us wandering fields peeking under vines for red and blue treasure — blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. Some of us with little proximity to fields pick these jewels at the weekend farmers’ market. While fresh berries are perfect eaten out of hand, cooks find myriad other ways to enhance them. Piled on homemade (or storebought) biscuits and dolloped…

18 May

NEWS IN BRIEF: Senior tax assistance, sewer rates, Coffin School and more…

Leigh BlanderCommunity Resources, Food, Local News, Municipal Matters, News in brief

The Current welcomes 150–200-word submissions to News in Brief. Send yours to info@marbleheadnews.org. Info session on Senior Tax Assistance programsCome Thursday, May 21, 1-3 p.m., to learn about Marblehead’s senior tax assistance programs.Representatives from the Assessor’s Office and Council on Aging will share resources about tax assistance options and discuss Marblehead’s newly enacted Means-Tested Senior Tax Property Exemption and the state’s Senior Circuit Breaker Tax Credit programs. Jacobi Community Center, 10 Humphrey St. RSVP by calling 781-631-6225. Town dodges larger hike in sewer ratesWhile some…