new café suits South Berwick
Pepperland Café in South Berwick, just opened on July 1, borrows its beauty from its former identity as Café Brio and its brains from new owners John Medlin and Kevin Hahn, formerly running the kitchen at Crescent City Bistro in Dover, along with their third business partner, Lindsey Altshul, a financial planner recently helping out at the Barley Pub in Dover. 

The trio are working 17-hour days, serving fresh, buying local—everything from greens to goat cheese to free-range chickens and lamb, often from organic farmers—and making as much as they can from scratch. That includes pasta, salad dressing, jellies and sausage. They also smoke their own cheese.
The hours are long, but “it’s so worth it,” Altshul says.

The menu is a selection of recognizable favorites with a twist, “all with a little bigger flavor,” according to Altshul. At dinner, there’s roast duck pizza with house-smoked mozzarella. The pot roast sandwich is by far the lunchtime best-seller—“it’s funny seeing a little old lady tuck into it,” Altshul says. The tuna salad is meaty and ever-so slightly warmed with peppers, with fresh peas to set off the heat. Also popular is smoked tomato bisque, which Medlin, who goes by Popper, learned to cook in Texas.
“What I learned to cook (in Texas) I discovered goes well with a northern influence. I can tilt (traditional recipes) a little bit, grab the cilantro or coriander, or find the mellow heat,” he says.

Kids are welcome, and the restaurant offers box lunches. Fans of sustainability will also be glad to note they compost, recycle and don’t use Styrofoam.

Pepperland Café (279 Main St., 207-384-5535) serves lunch—both sandwiches and meals—Tuesday through Saturday, starting at 11 and serving dinner through 10 p.m. (the lounge, with food available, is open until midnight). On Sundays, the restaurant is open for brunch only, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

first keg of Piper’s Ale tapped
The first keg of Piper’s Ale, the beer developed and brewed by Redhook to celebrate the New Hampshire Highland Games, was tapped by Donald Munro, managing director of the Highland Games, on Aug. 9 at the brewery. The light ale with a Scottish kick will be distributed locally by New Hampshire distributors and available at restaurants and bars across the state beginning this week.

The New Hampshire Highland Games, presented by the New Hampshire Gathering of the Scottish Clans, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the music, dance, athletics and customs of the Scottish people, will take place Friday, Sept. 23 through Sunday, Sept. 25 at the Hopkinton State Fairgrounds in Contoocook.

Stonewall Kitchen hooks up with Barefoot Contessa
Nationally syndicated television cooking show host and cookbook author Ina Garten, known as “The Barefoot Contessa,” has partnered with York, Maine-based specialty food manufacturer Stonewall Kitchen to manufacture and distribute an exclusive line of Garten’s products, named “The Barefoot Contessa Pantry.” The 40-product line will be formally introduced at the 2006 Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco.