
BEYOND THE PLATE WITH CAROL
byCarol Erickson
ArtsFoodBusinessEntrepreneurshipSocietyCulture
Carol Erickson ran the iconic Red Arrow Diner for nearly 40 years. Now, as host of "Beyond the Plate with Carol," she sits down with the people behind New England's food and hospitality scene. From chefs and restaurant owners to entrepreneurs and local personalities, Carol shares the stories, journeys, and communities that go far beyond what's on the plate. New episodes every Tuesday. Subscribe so you never miss one. đź”—Connect With Beyond The Plate
Episodes(40 episodes)
5 Recipes Later, They Started a Cinnamon Roll Business
Welcome to Episode 77 of Beyond the Plate with Carol Podacst! This week, Carol sits down with sisters-in-law Brylie Murphy and Kylie Murphy, the duo behind Daily Dough Co., a homemade cinnamon roll stand in Manchester, New Hampshire!
It started with one cinnamon roll recipe. Then another. Then about five. By June 2026, sisters-in-law Brylie and Kylie had turned their shared love of baking into Daily Dough Co., a small home-based cinnamon roll stand on Front Street in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Carol first discovered their Saturday setup thanks to a friend's recommendation...
Published: Oct 20, 2026Duration: 39m 30s
Phil Meyer of Nourish New England: Cyber Warfare to NH Eats | Ep. 76
Phil Meyer grew up on a dairy farm in Iowa, joined the Air Force at 18, and worked his way into cyber security before becoming the volunteer CEO of Nourish New England, the man behind New Hampshire Eats, and the Farmboy Foodie. In Episode 76, Phil is back on Beyond the Plate with Carol for a redo of his first interview, and it kicks off with a chai latte taste test between Williams & Sons Coffee and Mocha Pot at the Studio at the Beacon in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Carol Erickson and Phil trace how a farm kid whose...
Published: Oct 13, 2026Duration: 1h 28m 4s
$95k From the City, $1.2 Million to Run: Why Manchester’s Animal Shelter Needs a Gala | Ep. 75
On Friday, October 23, 2026, Manchester Country Club turns into the Emerald City. The Wizard of Pawz Gala -- There's No Place Like a Furrever Home -- is the annual fundraising gala for Friends of the Manchester Animal Shelter, and in this episode Carol Erickson heads to 490 Dunbarton Road in Manchester, New Hampshire to find out what it pays for. She sits down with Judie Brown, Vice President of the Board of Directors, Executive Director Michael Constance, and Director of Operations Hannah Hurley.
Here is why the night matters. The shelter gets roughly $95,000 a year...
Published: Oct 6, 2026Duration: 54m 1s
Travis Greene of The Lake Estate: Banquet Chef to Executive Chef in 11 Months | Ep. 74
Being executive chef was always the dream for Travis Greene -- he just never expected to find that kind of fine-dining opportunity in the Lakes Region. He started as a first-year culinary student at Lakes Region Community College, plating baked haddock for the public at a student-run cafe. Now he's the Executive Chef at The Lake Estate on Winnisquam, one of New Hampshire's newest luxury resorts, running a Dining Room, a Bar, a poolside grille, a wine cellar, and four event spaces that hosted roughly 500 guests in a single weekend.
From Hart's Turkey Farm in Meredith...
Published: Sep 29, 2026Duration: 40m 51s
Jenny Cyr: She Quit Macarons to Feed Cancer Patients Instead | Ep. 73
Jenny Cyr of Live Life Bites never planned any of this -- she was 14 years old washing dishes at a small bakery, and now her protein bites are feeding cancer patients at a treatment center affiliated with Dana-Farber. In this episode, Jenny sits down with Carol to trace the whole path: a Pastry Arts degree from Johnson & Wales, staging in NYC kitchens under Bobby Flay and Todd English, burning out and becoming an art teacher in Hampton, NH, and nine years bartending at 900° in Manchester just to stay close to food.
During COVID, Jenny started selling F...
Published: Sep 22, 2026Duration: 1h 1m 17s
Bianca Alicea of Mama Bear’s Cookies: A Whimsical Cookie Cottage in the NH Woods | Ep. 72
Bianca Alicea of Mama Bear's Cookies didn't set out to become a baker. She ran a successful jewelry manufacturing business in Rhode Island with her mother -- then sold everything, packed up her family, and moved to the quiet woods of Sullivan, New Hampshire for a completely different life. When COVID hit while they were still unpacking boxes, Bianca started baking cookies to keep herself sane. Her family got a little sick of being the taste testers. The neighbors loved them. And what started as a small self-serve stand became one of the most talked-about food destinations in the...
Published: Sep 15, 2026Duration: 43m 20s
Tyler Isabelle of Hap’s Roast Beef: My First Guest Was My Son | Ep. 1
Throwback -- this is Episode 1, originally recorded in spring 2025 and first aired June 19, 2025. Hap's Roast Beef closed in July 2025.
Seventy episodes ago, before Beyond the Plate with Carol had a studio, a logo, or a single subscriber, it had two chairs at a table, a camera Carol Erickson's son set up for her, and that same son sitting across from her. This is Episode 1 -- Carol's very first podcast -- recorded with Tyler Isabelle of Hap's Roast Beef in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, eight days after Tyler and his partner Amanda Long brought home...
Published: Sep 8, 2026Duration: 23m 27s
Deb McCluskey: From Lil’s Cafe to 7 Restaurants | Ep. 71 Beyond The Plate Podcast
Deb McCluskey bought one small cafe in Kittery, Maine in 2021. Five years later, she and her son Michael McCluskey run seven restaurants across Maine and New Hampshire -- and she signed the lease on the seventh one without telling him.
Carol Erickson sat down with Deb inside Salty Spirits, the 500-square-foot oyster and cocktail bar in Kittery Foreside with just 14 seats at the bar, to walk through all seven concepts one by one: Lil's Cafe and its famous crullers in Kittery, the Islander Cafe on the water in New Castle, New Hampshire, Stella's...
Published: Sep 1, 2026Duration: 1h 4m 57s
Nick Carnes & Dan Haggerty: Manchester’s First Alcohol-Free Bar | Ep. 70
Nick Carnes and Dan Haggerty have close to 40 years in restaurants between them, and they just opened a bar that will not pour you a single drop of alcohol. Without is Manchester, New Hampshire's first fully alcohol-free bar and restaurant, on the corner of Elm Street and Hanover Street across from City Hall -- and Carol Erickson recorded this entire episode of Beyond the Plate with Carol inside it, before the doors officially opened.
Nick Carnes runs Shoppers Pub & Eatery in Manchester and co-owns the Moka Pot and City Club Golf. Dan Haggerty...
Published: Aug 25, 2026Duration: 1h 12m 31s
Corey Fletcher: The Dish He Trusted But Never Tasted | Ep. 69
Corey Fletcher started out washing dishes at a family-style restaurant in Milford, New Hampshire -- and almost 30 years later, he owns one of the busiest kitchens in downtown Concord. Revival Kitchen and Bar opened on Depot Street in 2016, taking over the space of the shuttered Sunny's Table, and it has been a farm-to-table anchor of the Concord, NH restaurant scene ever since.
In this episode, Corey Fletcher tells Carol about the seared sea scallop dish that has been on the Revival Kitchen and Bar menu since day one, the lobster poutine he put on the menu...
Published: Aug 18, 2026Duration: 49m 40s
Chef Evan Hennessey: Winning the 2026 James Beard Award | Ep. 68
He wanted to be a Disney animator. Instead, Chef Evan Hennessey became the first chef in New Hampshire history to win the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northeast -- and this year, he opened his fourth venture in Dover.
Carol sits down with Evan right at Stages at One Washington to talk about the whole arc -- from a dishwashing job with no career plan, to staging in some of the country's best kitchens, to building three completely different restaurant concepts and a culinary travel company, all without leaving his hometown.
In...
Published: Aug 11, 2026Duration: 1h 5m 5s
Andy Day: Competing for New Hampshire in Favorite Chef | Ep. 67
Andy Day built way more than a bar -- he's the owner and chef behind Cask & Vine in Derry, NH, and the founder of both Doire Distilling and Daydreaming Brewing Company, all under one roof.
This week's episode is mixed up a little bit -- we're on location at Cask & Vine in Derry, New Hampshire! Carol sits down with Andy to talk through how a 2010 beer festival turned into an entire craft beverage empire -- and how Andy Day became Chef Andy Day, now in the finals for the Favorite Chef competition hosted...
Published: Aug 6, 2026Duration: 1h 7m 34s
John Milliard: From Toast Boy to Pappy’s Owner | Ep. 66
John Milliard ran the toaster at Pappy's Pizza & Subs when he was just 12 years old. Over three decades later, he owns the place -- and he's carrying forward the legacy of the man who mentored him, founder Ron Pappas.
In this episode, Carol sits down with John at Pappy's on Elm Street in Manchester to talk about buying back his mentor's restaurant, the three-month renovation that brought it into a new era, and what it means to honor someone who changed the course of his life.
They cover:
â—Ź The story be...
Published: Aug 4, 2026Duration: 59m 25s
Meet Oli An 8 Year Old’s Life in Lucca, Italy | Ep 65
What's it really like to be 8 years old and growing up outside the walled city of Lucca, Italy -- with a go-kart, a backyard full of chickens, and grandparents who make their own tomato sauce every summer? On this special episode of Beyond the Plate with Carol, Carol sits down with her great-nephew Oliviero -- Oli, as the family calls him -- for a conversation that has nothing to do with restaurants and everything to do with what makes a childhood in Tuscany so special.
Oli walks Carol through a day in his...
Published: Jul 31, 2026Duration: 35m 59s
Meet Oli: An 8-Year-Old’s Life in Lucca, Italy | Ep. 65
What's it really like to be 8 years old and growing up outside the walled city of Lucca, Italy -- with a go-kart, a backyard full of chickens, and grandparents who make their own tomato sauce every summer? On this special episode of Beyond the Plate with Carol, Carol sits down with her great-nephew Oliviero -- Oli, as the family calls him -- for a conversation that has nothing to do with restaurants and everything to do with what makes a childhood in Tuscany so special.
Oli walks Carol through a day in his...
Published: Jul 30, 2026Duration: 35m 59s
Ryan of Crazy Dreamers: Free Money Fridays, Honest Reviews & Life as a NH Content Creator | Ep. 64
Ryan of Crazy Dreamers never planned any of this. A random line his wife said years ago -- "keep dreaming, you crazy dreamer" -- became the name of the New Hampshire food content account that's now grown to roughly 20-26K followers on Facebook and more than 50,000 on TikTok. Ryan builds all of it around a full-time job at his family's concrete company in New Hampshire and raising his 4-year-old son, also named Ryan.
In this episode of Beyond the Plate with Carol, Ryan of Crazy Dreamers sits down with Carol Erickson to...
Published: Jul 28, 2026Duration: 49m 4s
Jim & Deanna Varney: Solar-Powered Coffee in Steel Cans | Ep. 63
Jim Varney spent 25 years designing consumer products -- until he saw one of his own designs sitting in a pile of "trash" at a modern art museum, and it changed everything. Now he and his wife Deanna run Wavelength Coffee Roasters out of a solar-powered former rope mill in Shirley, Massachusetts.
In this episode, Jim and Deanna talk about the industrial design background that led to their steel-can packaging (no foil bags here), why they use air roasting instead of the 150-year-old drum roasting method, how Deanna's library science background became an unexpected...
Published: Jul 21, 2026Duration: 1h 1m 19s
Camp Allen NH: The Best-Kept Secret in New Hampshire | Ep. 62 | Beyond The Plate with Carol Podcast
There is a camp in Bedford, New Hampshire with a 250-person waiting list. And most people in this state have never heard of it.
In this episode, Carol Erickson sits down with Mel Gosselin, Executive Director of Camp Allen NH, and Emily DiRusso, Camp Director -- to talk about 95 years of changing lives for people with developmental and physical disabilities. Camp Allen is not just for kids. Their oldest camper is in his 60s and has been coming for 50 years. This place is the best-kept secret in New Hampshire, and it is time...
Published: Jul 14, 2026Duration: 50m 32s
Early Preview: Camp Allen Campers Share Their Experience | Ep. 62 Drops Tomorrow
I just could not wait to share this -- so here it is early!!
At Camp Allen in Bedford, NH, Carol sat down with Executive Director Mel Gosselin and Camp Director Emily DiRusso to talk about everything that makes this place run. But she also got to do something even more special -- she sat down with the campers directly and heard about the Camp Allen experience straight from the people who live it.
If you have ever been curious about what Camp Allen really has to...
Published: Jul 13, 2026Duration: 8m 54s
Jason Hopkins: Behind 212K NH Foodies, a $500 Race Car & NH Eats | Ep. 61
He helps run a Facebook community of 212,000 people who love food in New Hampshire. He is a truck driver by day. He organized the food trucks at Granite State Comic-Con. He flew to New Zealand in 2024 for a budget endurance car race -- and got sent to the penalty box.
Jason Hopkins is one of the admins and moderators of New Hampshire Eats, one of the largest food communities in the state. Carol sat down with him at her original Red Arrow Diner on Lowell Street in Manchester -- the first At the...
Published: Jul 9, 2026Duration: 1h 3m 41s