Concord

The Purple Pit brings cool to Concord

Although my day job is located in Concord, I must admit that I don't spend much time in the Capital City outside of a quick lunch on Main Street or Fort Eddy Road. On the rare occasion, I'll shoot back into town to catch an indie film at Red River Theatres, a true NH gem, or a stage production at the Capitol Center for the Arts. But after researching this piece, I plan on becoming more of a Concord regular.

Craving a cocktail, my date and I started our evening at O Steaks & Seafood on Main Street. Here, the bar steals the show with its curvature and backlighting; the huge windows and lively bar scene just beyond them will surely catch your eye while driving through downtown. A perfectly made cosmopolitan and a perfectly poured scotch eased us nicely into what was soon to become, in Courtney speak, a "full on" evening.

From there, Sunny's Table was only a couple blocks away. Owned and operated by the former purveyors of The Korean Place in Manchester, Sunny's Table is their foray into higher-end-yet-accessible Asian- inspired dining. Although many of the entrées sounded tempting, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have Be Bim Bop like I remember from The Korean Place. Everything else we ordered led up to this finale, including beef and veggie potstickers, shrimp skewers, a kimchi quesadilla and some red zinfandel. The best part, like our pause at O Steaks, was sharing the same side of a booth facing the corner window. This allowed us to cuddle up while still keeping an eye on downtown Concord.

From there, we stopped back at the car for the bottle of prosecco chilling in my trunk and hopped the next block over to The Purple Pit, a jazz, R&B and blues club, which happens to be BYOB. This stop was a tip from esteemed Concord resident and super-hip dude, Rick Broussard, whose name you might recognize from the table of contents. And lo and behold, who did I find inside but the Editor himself! Mr. Nick & The Dirty Tricks were in full swing, so to speak, by the time we arrived around 9 p.m., although the dancing had yet to kick in – so Rick and I did our part by engaging in some sort of Sharks vs. Jets dance-off in front of the band. The crowd followed suit, encircling us as if we were all living in a musical production. Then the Sharks and the Jets made peace and I found myself falling in love with my new favorite spot in NH. I often complain that there are few places for adults to dance in NH and The Purple Pit fits the bill nicely. Our great state could use at least four more pits sprinkled throughout.

But no, dear readers, the night did not end there. Despite shouts of "one more song!" the show could not go on and the riled-up revelers were forced to after- party in the basement of the Beijing & Toyko Restaurant a few blocks away. It was karaoke night so I felt it necessary to treat the crowd to my rendition of "Faith," which I've since learned that Rick caught on video. When my screen went dark in the middle, the crowd, which was apparently comprised of huge George Michael fans, helped me through the mid-section. But despite my prodding, Mr. Broussard did not take the stage and my evening would have felt incomplete were it not for my date giving me and my aching feet a piggyback ride to the car.