The Puritan Backroom is a 2020 James Beard Foundation Award America's Classic restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire. The restaurant serves Greek-influenced New England cuisine and is known for their mudslides and for chicken tenders, which they invented in 1974. [1] [2] [3]
Arthur Pappas and Louis Canotas, Greek emigrants to the United States, opened the Puritan Confectionery Company in 1917, selling candy and ice cream.
In 1974, their children built a room behind the candy store to house a restaurant. That same year, Charlie Pappas salvaged chicken pieces that had been trimmed from larger cuts, marinating and frying them to create chicken tenders. [4] Although references to chicken fingers and "chicken sticks" predate the introduction of chicken tenders at Puritan, it is difficult to tell if these refer to modern chicken tenders; a 1952 recipe for chicken fingers, for example, involves cream of chicken soup, pie crust, and shredded chicken. [5]
As of 2020, the restaurant was run by the third and fourth generations of the Pappas family, including New Hampshire congressman Chris Pappas. Due to the importance of the New Hampshire presidential primary and the restaurant's location in the state's largest city, Puritan "has become a required stop for candidates passing through on the campaign trail. In an era of division, it is a rare nonpartisan space where everyone feels welcome." [1] [2] George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Marco Rubio, and Mitt Romney are among the political figures who have visited the restaurant. [6] [7]
On November 24, 2019, norovirus struck 18 people who attended a private function at the restaurant, and may have caused the death of one person. [6] In March 2020, a fire caused about $80,000 in damage. [8] In September 2020, the restaurant closed for a short time after a bartender tested positive for COVID-19. [9]
New England cuisine is an American cuisine which originated in the New England region of the United States, and traces its roots to traditional English cuisine and Native American cuisine of the Abenaki, Narragansett, Niantic, Wabanaki, Wampanoag, and other native peoples. It also includes influences from Irish, French-Canadian, Italian, and Portuguese cuisine, among others. It is characterized by extensive use of potatoes, beans, dairy products and seafood, resulting from its historical reliance on its seaports and fishing industry. Corn, the major crop historically grown by Native American tribes in New England, continues to be grown in all New England states, primarily as sweet corn although flint corn is grown as well. It is traditionally used in hasty puddings, cornbreads and corn chowders.
A Buffalo wing in American cuisine is an unbreaded chicken wing section that is generally deep-fried, then coated or dipped in a sauce consisting of a vinegar-based cayenne pepper hot sauce and melted butter prior to serving. They are traditionally served hot, along with celery sticks and carrot sticks, and a dip of blue cheese dressing or, primarily outside of New York, ranch dressing. Buffalo wings are named after Buffalo, New York, where they were invented, and have no relation to the animal. They are often called simply chickenwings, hot wings, or just wings.
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The New Hampshire Fisher Cats are a Minor League Baseball team based in Manchester, New Hampshire. The team, which plays in the Eastern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Chicken tenders are chicken meat prepared from the pectoralis minor muscles of the animal. These strips of white meat are located on either side of the breastbone, under the breast meat. They may also be made with similarly shaped pieces cut from chicken meat, usually the breast, or sometimes just pulverized chicken flesh.
Tetrazzini is an Italian-American dish made with diced poultry or seafood and in a butter, cream or milk and cheese sauce flavored with sherry or white wine. Some recipes use a bechamel sauce, mornay sauce or condensed cream soup. It is combined with or served over linguine, spaghetti, egg noodles, or other types of pasta, sometimes topped with breadcrumbs or cheese, and garnished with parsley or basil.
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Christopher Charles Pappas is an American politician who has served as the U.S. representative from New Hampshire's 1st congressional district since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, Pappas previously served on the New Hampshire Executive Council from 2013 to 2019.
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The 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in New Hampshire were held on November 8, 2022, to elect the two U.S. representatives from the state of New Hampshire, one from each of the state's two congressional districts.
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