Molly and Jesse are getting a sibling.
Blue Sky Restaurant Group, the owner of Hanover restaurant stalwarts Molly’s and Jesse’s, will open a third restaurant in Lebanon later this year — named Snax.
“The premise is like an American-style tapas bar. We’ll serve traditional bar food done up a notch and everything from-scratch preparation. Our Molly’s and Jesse’s chefs are experimenting with ideas and developing the menu now,” said Tony Barnett, who with his wife Erin Barnetttook over ownership of Molly’s and Jesse’s two years ago after founders Marc and Patty Milowsky retired.
Barnett is coy about exactly where in Lebanon Snax will be located because the restaurant it will take over has not yet told the public it is closing. But Barnett said the restaurant has a bar area, which Blue Sky will expand.
Barnett said renovations will begin in the summer, and the plan is to open by foliage season.
“The idea will be to complement Molly’s and Jesse’s and not compete with them,” Barnett said, adding that he expects seating to handle about 150 customers.
The bar will offer a selection of craft beers and “top-shelf” spirits, and in addition to creative tapas platters there will be sandwiches and everyday simple fare.
“Everything from ball-park food to higher entrees … it’s going to be kind of a mash-up,” Barnett said.
Want a business that has a financial reward after decades of hard work? Consider owning a general store.
Small-town general stores are supposed to be — and usually are — struggling businesses in which owners eke out a living after putting in 80-plus-hour weeks. Countless roadside general stores have closed in recent years in the Upper Valley and the Twin States as they can’t compete with the service station convenience chains that now dominate.
But, for Rob and Cathy Romeo, who earlier this year sold the Sharon Trading Post to the Maplefields chain and retired after 32 years, the decades of hard work and serving the community paid off.
Maplefields, which closed on its purchase of Sharon Trading Post on Feb. 4, paid just under $2.1 million for the property, according to Sharon town records. That includes both the historic, 19th-century store building fronted by massive columns and the neighboring residence.
The approximately $2 million consideration might seem more what a hedge fund honcho would pay for an equestrian farm in Woodstock or a home near Occom Pond in Hanover. But given the Trading Post’s strategic location as a fuel stop at the Sharon exit on Interstate 89, it’s not hard to see why South Burlington-based Maplefields might think it’s worth the price.
The purchase price “comprises everything including the Victorian house next door,” Maplefields CEO Skip Vallee said via email when queried about the price.
True to form, the Romeos kept it simple on their last post on the Sharon Trading Post’s Facebook page on Jan. 30.
“Only a few days left before we leave, we are having some great sales on steak and pork chops while they last, come take advantage of the savings! Thank You all for the support over the years! Rob & Cathy.”
What looked like a mere legal annoyance at the beginning may be shaping up to be a more serious challenge to Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs, the Grafton County-based processor and distributor of organic eggs to markets around the country.
A judge in New York federal court is advancing a portion of the lawsuit filed by animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals against the Pete and Gerry’s-owned Nellie’s Free Range Eggs brand, alleging that the Monroe, N.H., company misleads consumers about how hens are treated on its contract farms.
That’s not good news for Pete and Gerry’s, which sought dismissal of PETA’s complaints.
At the same time the judge narrowed the scope of PETA’s lawsuit and denied several claims, including barring non-New York state residents from joining the suit and PETA’s claim for injunctive relief.
The judge also granted Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs’ motion to dismiss PETA’s claims of express warranty because it cannot be established that customers purchased Nellie’s eggs based on what they read on the company’s website.
The judge further denied PETA from going after Nellie’s for certain marketing that involves “statements identified as non-actionable puffery,” hyperbole that the courts have ruled doesn’t cross the line in selling products.
“Much of the conduct that the plaintiffs allege to be materially misleading is non-actionable,” New York District Court Judge Katherine Polk Failla wrote in her 30-page opinion dated Feb. 21.
But then the judge zeroes in on a 76-word paragraph printed on the container of Nellie’s eggs that begins, “Most hens don’t have it as good as Nellie’s.” It goes on to say how 90% of the hens are crammed into “tiny cages at giant egg factories housing millions of birds” but that the hens on Pete and Gerry’s contract farms “can peck, perch and play on plenty of green grass.”
That paragraph could be problematic. Failla notes that “there is significant authority supporting the idea that it is inappropriate for a court to decide whether a reasonable consumer could be misled” by such a claim “and the court finds that authority persuasive here.”
“Similarly, this court cannot conclude as a matter of law that a significant portion of the general consuming public would not read defendant’s claims about its hens having plenty of green space to (peck), perch, and play in … and not believe that (Nellie’s) hens have significant access to the outdoors,” she wrote.
Those allegations, according to the judge, are “all that is needed” to elevate the defense beyond the “mere puffery” threshold and “survive a motion to dismiss.”
Pete and Gerry’s, in a statement, said it is “pleased with the court’s recent ruling, which dismissed the overwhelming majority of PETA’s baseless claims.”
The company said the paragraph on its cartons that the judge singled out is “based on a statement of fact about how our hens are treated” and that “by allowing this portion to proceed the court is simply allowing PETA to dispute this statement of fact in court, not deeming that it is untrue.” Nellie’s described the lawsuit as “meritless” and that it “can only be seen as a thinly veiled publicity stunt to promote PETA’s vegan agenda and ultimately only serves to hurt consumers that are reaching for a responsibly sourced food product.”
One thing is clear, this case is going to drag on until the cows come home.
The Hanover Co-op has tapped Paul Guidone to become the interim general manager while the board conducts a search for a permanent replacement for departing general manager Ed Fox.
Guidone, a Hanover resident, is currently the Co-op’s strategic adviser and has been a member of Fox’s leadership team.
Fox announced Feb. 21 that he would depart the Co-op in April after three years as general manager to accept a new opportunity that he did not identify.
My business is knowing your business. Reach out to me at jlippman@vnews.com.
