One of the great things about working in real estate is that sometimes you find yourself with a lunchtime sized gap in your schedule for the day. Last Thursday, I happily filled aforementioned gap with a date with my friend Carol who also works hard to have some flexibility in her schedule. We both love eating out and I've been following @bistroonmain867 on Instagram for awhile so I suggested we go try it for lunch.
Bistro on Main is a social enterprise owned and operated by the Manchester Area Conference of Churches (MACC Charities). As a social enterprise, their mission is twofold: (1) delivering an exceptional dining experience for their guests, while (2) breaking cycles of poverty through transitional employment and work readiness training. Inspired by both classical and modern French bistros, they are a scratch kitchen focused on using high-quality local, seasonal, sustainable ingredients including farm-to-table poultry, dairy and produce; dock-to-chef sustainable seafood; and locally produced artisan products like cheeses, breads and charcuterie.
I stole the above from their website because I obviously could not have explained it better myself. A restaurant with a mission beyond serving up delicious dishes is a restaurant I want to support so I was delighted to have a wonderful lunch experience.
I stole the above from their website because I obviously could not have explained it better myself. A restaurant with a mission beyond serving up delicious dishes is a restaurant I want to support so I was delighted to have a wonderful lunch experience.
Our service was excellent and started with a friendly greeting at the door. It was a Thursday around 1pm and we were seated quickly in the bar area. Our server was very friendly and knowledgable about the menu and was training someone new while taking care of us. We ordered mini bottles of bubbly to start and while we reviewed the menu our server turned our muselets (that's the fancy word for cork cage, don't worry, I had to look it up.) into turtles! What a fun trick! Turns out he spent some time working in Hawaii and picked it up there.
On to what we ate!
We started with the Moules Frites, but opted to not have the Frites part of the dish. So we can't tell you how the fries are, sorry! The mussels were delicious though! They use wild Chatham mussels and the broth is a red coconut curry with basil, mint and cilantro. Carol said they were some of the best mussels she's ever eaten and I have to agree.
We both had a salad with chicken for our main course, mine is picture above. The Salade De Carrotes Roties which I'm going to say translates to "roasted carrot salad" It was baby carrots, bitter greens, orange supremes, crumbled goat cheese, toasted pistachios and pomegranate vinaigrette. It was very good and left me a proud member of the clean plate club. Carol had the Salade Chassee "Cesar" or the chicken caesar salad and was just as pleased as I was.
We finished off with coffee and assorted macaroons, managing to just eat one each and take the rest home for Carol's kids. The coffee comes to the table in a french press and was very good.
Overall, we had a great first experience at Bistro on Main and I can't wait to return and try it again! If you're in the Manchester area, put this place on your radar!
We started with the Moules Frites, but opted to not have the Frites part of the dish. So we can't tell you how the fries are, sorry! The mussels were delicious though! They use wild Chatham mussels and the broth is a red coconut curry with basil, mint and cilantro. Carol said they were some of the best mussels she's ever eaten and I have to agree.
We both had a salad with chicken for our main course, mine is picture above. The Salade De Carrotes Roties which I'm going to say translates to "roasted carrot salad" It was baby carrots, bitter greens, orange supremes, crumbled goat cheese, toasted pistachios and pomegranate vinaigrette. It was very good and left me a proud member of the clean plate club. Carol had the Salade Chassee "Cesar" or the chicken caesar salad and was just as pleased as I was.
We finished off with coffee and assorted macaroons, managing to just eat one each and take the rest home for Carol's kids. The coffee comes to the table in a french press and was very good.
Overall, we had a great first experience at Bistro on Main and I can't wait to return and try it again! If you're in the Manchester area, put this place on your radar!
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