Riverside Barbeque Company Grand Opening!

Last night my wife, Julie, and I had the opportunity to stop in at the all new Riverside Barbeque Company for dinner, during their soft opening. They were up and running a day early, and Dave Manganello, Andrew Thistle, and the rest of the pit crew quietly put the word out to their friends, family, and loyal fans who have anxiously awaited the arrival of Downtown Nashua's newest restaurant. Over the past two months the crew at Riverside Barbeque has been tirelessly working on the final concept, build out, and slow smoked barbeque recipes as they transitioned away from The Sausage King, for a whole new ball game.

No, the motivation wasn't the fact that city workers drew ire after revelations that they had spent city funds, over several months, on a variety of sausage and dog plates while they hammered away at improving our sidewalks and the Main Street bridge. This transition has been waiting in the wings for some time.

It has long been a dream of both Dave and Andrew to bring something new and exciting to our Downtown. While the sausages sold, as evidenced by an often packed dining room, the crew wanted to create a culinary destination that would attract crowds at all hours, beyond the late night eats set.

Passionate about their barbeque, with their eye on the prize for several years now, they finally started the ball rolling this summer with the installation of their own in house smoker. At about the same time Dave and Andrew connected with James Vayo of Visualize Nashua about crowd sourcing their concept. For several months, they have been connecting with future fans through the Visualize Nashua webpage, meetings, tastings, and through Facebook, to get feedback from the crowd on everything from the concept, to the build out, to which recipes folks like best, and how they could be improved.

In addition to crowdsourcing ideas from Nashuans and area barbeque enthusiasts, they have also reached out to masters of the craft from all over the region. That hard work has paid off. The final result is an impressive set of slow cooked barbeque offerings and a heart warming set of downhome sides. Pulled pork, Texas Brisket, smoked pulled chicken, smoked wings, Memphis style ribs, and Kansas City burnt ends, in hefty portions, are some of the protein highlights from their menu. Accompanied by corn bread, and sides like mashed sweet potato with bacon, BBQ baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad, collard greens, pie and cobbler. Sausages, burgers, and fried Oreos also made it over to the new menu... are you hungry yet?

I know I am, and before I get carried away, and walk on down for a second day of slow cooked barbeque for dinner... we'll move on to other details. Riverside Barbeque Company has been about choice, it seems, from the start of the project. They wanted to create a new choice for Downtown Dining by bringing authentic barbeque to the table as an option. They've been reaching out to future customers as they developed their concept. Oh, and btw, they have a great selection of many original from scratch barbeque sauces, as well as a craft beer selection that rivals a number of other great downtown bars and restaurants. 

What did we have for dinner? I ordered the half rack of ribs platter, she had the pulled chicken platter. We got cornbread, baked beans, coleslaw, mashed sweet potato with bacon, and shared the lot. We were both stuffed to the gills, and had fair portions to take home for my late night snack and her lunch today. Let's just say that words cannot do these dishes justice. Riverside Barbecue Company is open for business, and you can find out first hand what months of thinking and legwork can do for a simple plate of downhome comfort food, right here in the heart of Nashua. 

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Riverside Barbeque Company is located on Main Street, directly north of the Main Street Bridge. In addition to dine in, their menus is available for take out, and can be found at the link above. Enjoy!