New England Style
Season 6 Episode 604 | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Co-hosts Amy Traverso and Richard Wiese bring you an inside look at New England.
Co-host Amy Traverso ventures into the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, where a young couple from Paris has opened their first restaurant. Next, co-host Richard Wiese explores the idyllic town of Essex, Connecticut. Finally, visit Manchester, New Hampshire to get an up-close tour of the only two Frank Lloyd Wright homes in New England that are open to the public.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Distributed nationally by American Public Television
New England Style
Season 6 Episode 604 | 26m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Co-host Amy Traverso ventures into the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, where a young couple from Paris has opened their first restaurant. Next, co-host Richard Wiese explores the idyllic town of Essex, Connecticut. Finally, visit Manchester, New Hampshire to get an up-close tour of the only two Frank Lloyd Wright homes in New England that are open to the public.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch Weekends with Yankee
Weekends with Yankee is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship>> NARRATOR: Coming up on Weekends with Yankee: Amy heads to Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, where a Parisian café is redefining classic French fare.
>> When I think about Boston, it's my home, but Paris is my heart.
>> NARRATOR: Then Richard explores Essex, Connecticut's quaint maritime past.
♪ ♪ Finally, we tour two Frank Lloyd Wright homes in Manchester, New Hampshire.
>> It's like you're pulling up into a picture of New Hampshire.
>> NARRATOR: So come along for a once-in-a-lifetime journey through New England as you've never experienced it before, a true insider's guide from the editors of Yankee Magazine.
Join explorer and adventurer Richard Wiese and his co-host, Yankee senior food editor Amy Traverso, for behind-the-scenes access to the unique attractions that define this region.
♪ ♪ It's the ultimate travel guide from the people who know it best.
Weekends with Yankee.
>> Major funding provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: The Vermont Country Store, purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find, a family-owned tradition since 1946.
Merchandise and products from around the block and around the world.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: Family Tree Magazine-- articles, podcasts, online courses, and webinar resources for discovering, preserving, and celebrating family history.
>> ANNOUNCER: Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts-- the first public park in America; the first fried clams; the first university in America; the first basketball game.
What's first for you?
♪ ♪ >> TRAVERSO: I love hearing stories of people who live in New England not because they were born here and never left, but because they chose to.
And that's the story of Antoine and Anaïs Lambert who grew up in Paris and came to Boston five years ago.
And now they've opened their first restaurant, Café Sauvage, modeled after some of their favorite Parisian cafés, and serving a new and global take on French cuisine.
I'm meeting them here in Back Bay, where their restaurant's located.
Hello!
>> Hi!
>> Hi, Amy, how are you?
>> TRAVERSO: I'm good, how are you?
>> Good.
Thank you.
>> Very good!
>> TRAVERSO: Well, thank you for meeting me here.
I, I wanted to meet you here specifically because Commonwealth Avenue was modeled very specifically after the Haussmann boulevards of Paris.
>> Yeah.
>> Nice.
>> TRAVERSO: And it reminds me a little bit.
(laughs) I wanted to ask what made you choose Boston?
>> So, first of all, there was a job opportunity.
That's why we came here.
And then we just, you know, had this feeling that Boston was a little bit slower than Paris, but with a nice charm as well.
>> TRAVERSO: Right.
>> That's why we decided to stay and even more with, like, you know, the opportunity to, to create something.
>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.
Do you feel now like this is home or do you kind of feel like you have two homes?
>> I mean, as an ex-pat, you always feel in between two places.
>> TRAVERSO: Right.
>> But when I think about Boston, it's my home, but Paris is my heart.
>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.
>> So how we can choose, you know?
>> TRAVERSO: Well, speaking of Paris, why open a Parisian café?
What did you want to achieve there with Café Sauvage?
>> It was to bring a part of home in here and it's really something that not everybody knows about Paris.
There is something different.
>> TRAVERSO: So you wanted kind of a fresher, more global, more modern... >> Exactly!
>> TRAVERSO: ...exploration of French food.
Well, I want to try your food and we're just a couple of blocks away.
So why don't we go check it out together?
>> Let's do that.
>> Of course.
>> Welcome.
>> TRAVERSO: Oh, it's so beautiful.
I love it!
♪ ♪ You're a designer.
I mean, this is your vision.
>> I wanted to bring that wide statement for the café, and I choose the green because it's calm, it's relaxing, I want people to feel welcome here.
>> TRAVERSO: Yes.
So soft and inviting.
I think in some ways when you're thinking about the cuisine of another country, you think that it sort of was created, and then it stopped, and it's just the same forever.
You know that, oh, you'll have moules frites, and steak frites, and, you know... so how is what you're doing different?
>> I mean, my mom is African, so she's also French.
She was born in France as well, but our roots are there.
So we're bringing, like, African touch on our French regular plate.
♪ ♪ For example, the roasted chicken that we offer here.
>> TRAVERSO: Oh!
Wow.
(gasps) Beautiful!
>> It's not just your regular roasted chicken.
>> TRAVERSO: Right.
>> It's like sauvage.
>> TRAVERSO: So what are the flavors that you grew up with that are reflected in the food here?
>> So the jollof rice is a rice that comes from West Africa.
And the plantains are actually from my mom own recipes.
>> TRAVERSO: Oh really?
>> So I've grown up with it.
In most of the West African countries, especially the ones where I'm from, like Congo and Ivory Coast, you can find it displayed like this.
>> TRAVERSO: So in Paris how, how much do you see, um, that mixing of culture in the food?
I mean, did you... >> Everywhere.
>> TRAVERSO: Everywhere.
Now when you go in the bistro in Paris, it's normal to have like couscous on the table, to have maybe plantain on some restaurants.
That diversity, that's what we wanted to bring to Boston.
Well, I...
I'm so excited to try this.
Thank you so much.
>> Bon appétit!
>> Bon appétit!
Enjoy!
>> TRAVERSO: Mm... Oh that's delicious.
The first bite is the better.
>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm...
It's so juicy and, and the beauty of food is that we can represent all those different parts of ourselves on the table, and come together and understand each other, and share, "This is part of me.
This is what I grew up with."
>> Exactly.
>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.
>> It's everything that we wanted to, to have for people to see every facet of ourselves and also our history, our love story, because he's white, I'm a Black woman.
We are like this interracial couple.
So we wanted for people to see that we're mixing food.
We have Nutella crepe for snack time, and then we can have a burrata salad for one time.
And the other time, African food, like roasted chickens.
>> TRAVERSO: You've been in the restaurant industry for a while, but this is your first restaurant... >> Yes.
>> TRAVERSO: ...of your own.
>> Thinking about this like for a while now.
>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.
>> And we were hesitant.
I won't lie.
Like, it was kind of scary because we don't find this kind of place in Boston.
So we'll be as the first one to make it.
If the Bostonians will like it, we didn't know.
>> TRAVERSO: Right.
>> When you're thinking about French place, you're not thinking about a place with no white tablecloths, for example.
>> TRAVERSO: Right, right.
So it was scary, challenging.
But at the same time, the response from our neighbors, our clients and guests.
>> TRAVERSO: Right.
>> It's so great that now when I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming to bring more places like this around Boston and maybe other states, if we have the chance.
>> TRAVERSO: Yes.
Well, I, I am so excited that you're here.
>> Thank you.
>> TRAVERSO: I plan... Get used to my face because (laughing): you're going to be seeing it a lot here.
And I just love what you're bringing to this city, because these are just the kind of places that remind us to keep growing and expanding and appreciating how culture is always evolving and, and that it's always getting better because of that.
>> Yeah.
And this is exactly the feeling that I want people to have.
>> TRAVERSO: Yeah.
>> So, santé!
>> TRAVERSO: Santé!
Thank you.
♪ ♪ >> WIESE: Right now I'm standing in Essex, Connecticut, along the eastern coast of the state.
And as a resident of Connecticut, this is the part I like to brag about.
The towns are quaint.
It's steeped in its maritime past.
And it's always fun to explore.
Hey, Steve.
>> Hey, what's going on?
>> WIESE: Nice to meet you.
>> Nice to meet you too.
>> WIESE: So, wow, what a beauty.
The Onrust.
It's a replica of Adriaen Block's boat that traversed the river way back when.
>> WIESE: So the Connecticut River here has a real maritime past.
So where does its maritime history start?
>> Well, for one thing, it's very rich with food source.
You know, you've got fresh water, you've got salt water.
And the fishing in this river was incredible-- still is.
We get further into the revolutionary years, and this was a gigantic boat-building area.
That's why the British attacked right here and marched right up the main street, burned 22 ships, and then went and had grog at the Gris.
>> WIESE: It goes from a huge boat-building hub in the Revolutionary War.
How does it proceed forward after that?
>> It was a much bigger commercial river with tugboats going by every couple of minutes, steamships going by, and this was the fastest and most pleasurable way to get to New York City.
But 1831, the railroads bought out the steamship companies, including the Fall River line, the Hartford-New York line, on and on it went.
And then the railroads took over.
>> WIESE: There's the transition from the boats to the trains, and I've been told that's your big sort of passion.
>> Here we are.
>> WIESE: Oh, my gosh, this is unbelievable!
Is this a real town?
>> It's more of a time than a place.
Although there are aspects of the town in here such as Steamboat Dock, the Hartford that came here.
>> WIESE: You created this?
>> I did.
I've been doing this since I was a little child playing with trains, and I've turned it into a livelihood and a passion.
>> WIESE: I mean, this is nothing that gets built overnight.
Each thing seems like it has a distinct story to it.
>> Yeah.
There's stories to this stuff, that's for sure.
>> WIESE: When did trains play a role?
And what role did trains play in Essex?
>> You know, when World War II came, all the little factories in this area were producing stuff that was used in World War II.
At one point, trains were actually the lifeline of Essex.
♪ ♪ >> WIESE: And I know you're a painter and an artist in general.
Do you feel like this was a reflection of your artistic prowess?
>> Definitely.
You know, an artist tends to look at the details, and that's my favorite part, is weathering stuff.
That's what makes it look realistic.
>> WIESE: Where is it, that time that you get that deep satisfaction from a job well done?
>> When you see the kids going crazy, when you see them coming back, when they come back and they're grown up.
Three, sometimes even four generations come in here, all sharing this together.
And they're all smiling and having a good time.
What could be better?
You're the local here.
What must I see?
>> My favorite room in the Griswold Inn, the bar room in there is fantastic.
>> WIESE: Thank you so much for showing me around this.
This is really fantastic.
>> You're very welcome.
♪ ♪ >> WIESE: Hello, Joan.
>> Oh, hello.
Welcome.
>> WIESE: Yes.
Thank you so much.
You know, I haven't been here probably in about ten years.
>> Wow.
>> WIESE: But it looks exactly as I remember.
Spectacular.
What is the formal name of this room?
>> This is actually the Covered Bridge Room, and maybe for obvious reasons.
It's all constructed from reclaimed boards from an abandoned bridge in New Hampshire.
>> WIESE: You know, and you can't help but notice all the great maritime art that you have on the walls.
>> Yeah.
We actually have the largest collection of maritime art in private hands today.
It's really museum quality.
And, in fact, maritime museums borrow it from us all the time.
>> WIESE: And the Griswold, how old is it?
>> 1776.
So it's 245 years old.
It's the oldest continuously operating inn in the country-- at least one of them.
And maybe when I say that, you quickly think, "Hmm, I thought I saw a tavern in Boston, 1763 or some such."
>> WIESE: Sure.
>> But when you actually look into the history, you'll find it was boarded up for a period of time, it may have been a residence at some time, certainly it may not have made it through Prohibition.
And we-- >> WIESE: Yeah, I was going to say that.
How did you make it through Prohibition?
>> We were actually a speakeasy during that period.
So Yankee ingenuity always brings us through.
And here we are 245 years later, doing exactly what we started out to do.
Can I show you around?
>> WIESE: Absolutely.
>> Okay.
So this is our smallest dining room.
My favorite piece of history in the entire Griswold Inn is right here.
And here's this musket here.
>> WIESE: Right.
>> And there's a note right there, if you can see it, that was found in the barrel of that musket, dated 7th day, July 1776.
And it says, "My dear son, Jared, take this, my gun.
"Do not handle it in fun.
"But with it, join ye ranks of Washington, "and make ye British run.
"And when our independence is won, "we shall take a drink of good old rum.
Signed, John Francis Putnam."
>> WIESE: Ooh, I got goosebumps on that one.
>> I...
I did too.
And it's right here, and you're sort of sitting among all of this history.
This is our wine bar, but it's also called our Steamboat Dining Room.
>> WIESE: I feel like I'm in the state room of a ship.
>> Well, it's interesting you say that because it was built in 1969.
They created the look of a dining room in an old steamship.
And this mural... >> WIESE: I love that mural.
>> ...of course, is what you would've seen off the stern of the ship.
And you can see this.
So that's what you were leaving behind as you left the port of Essex.
>> WIESE: Sure.
>> Well, let me just show you one fun little thing.
>> WIESE: Okay.
Okay.
>> Just take a moment.
>> WIESE: Why do I feel like I've had wine?
>> Mm-hmm.
As you can see-- >> WIESE: Oh my God, I feel like I'm pitching.
>> Yes, it was created to move from port to starboard.
So again, you felt like you were in the dining room of the steamship, having just left beautiful Essex and out to sea again.
>> WIESE: That's very cool.
So it's a Monday night here at the Gris.
It's actually the most spirited night of the entire week.
>> WIESE: Monday?
>> Monday.
I know.
It's crazy.
But we have the sea shanty tradition, which has been going on for over 50 years in our tap room.
The tap room also is the soul of the Griswold Inn.
>> WIESE: I'm Richard.
>> Michael.
Pleasure to meet you.
>> WIESE: Hi, Michael.
How are you?
>> Good, good.
So this is your first time here at shanties?
>> WIESE: Yes.
Yes, it is.
How about yourself?
>> I've been coming here for, well, say nigh on ten years or so.
>> WIESE: I know what a sea shanty... it's... it's a song, right?
>> Yeah.
So, sea shanties are work songs.
There's songs that are sung for work on the ship or adjacent to the ship.
After a while you get all these different traditions.
You have the African American and the slave tradition.
You have these Irish songs and English songs.
And they all start to cross-pollinate at these ports, from stevedores and people carrying things down.
And then we get the sea shanties that we all know and love.
Folk music is music for working class folks, whether they were singing it as a work song on the ship, or in a field, or in a bar.
It's about their hopes, their dreams, what their life was like.
We have this connection to the past.
We have this connection with each other.
>> WIESE: Cheers.
>> Cheers.
>> WIESE: I'm looking forward to my first sea shanty.
>> Well, I hope you love it.
♪ ♪ >> ♪ Amble is a fine town with ships about the bay ♪ ♪ Fain, very fain, I'd be there myself today ♪ ♪ I'm wishing in my heart ♪ ♪ I was far away from here ♪ ♪ Sitting in my parlor and talking to my dear ♪ >> ♪ And it's home I want to be ♪ ♪ My topsails are hoisted ♪ ♪ I am out to sea ♪ ♪ The oak and the ash and the bonnie birchen tree ♪ ♪ Are all a-growing green in the North country ♪ ♪ And it's home, dearie, home.
♪ >> I've just been fortunate to be here at the Griswold Inn.
And I've been almost 50 years now, doing this.
>> WIESE: 50 years?
>> (chuckling): Yeah.
>> WIESE: Every Monday?
>> Every Monday.
People come here; it's a new thing to them.
They say like, "We've never seen anything like this before."
The songs are not hard to learn.
So, you know, and they just follow the crowd and say, "Oh."
And they come in and enjoy themselves because they can sing along, be with friends and stuff.
It's a great atmosphere.
You just don't find this kind of music hardly anywhere.
>> ♪ And straight up the channel ♪ ♪ To New Bedford we'll go.
♪ (cheers and applause) >> Thank you very much.
♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: In Manchester, New Hampshire, the Currier Museum of Art holds in its collection two homes designed by the visionary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whose philosophy of living in harmony with nature has stood the test of time.
>> Frank Lloyd Wright, he really was America's first "star-chitect."
He had designed the house Falling Water in the mid-'30s, and he really wanted to pioneer all kinds of different types of designs.
But in many ways, Wright's greatest passion was in trying to create affordable homes for the middle class.
He called this type of architecture "Usonian" architecture, after United States of North America.
And this was a Depression era concept, really focused on giving the public beautiful homes in nature with a smaller footprint.
>> NARRATOR: Two homes that Wright designed in this style stand on the same street in Manchester's North End neighborhood.
They're the only homes designed by the renowned architect in New England that are open to the public.
The first of these two homes was commissioned by Isidore and Lucille Zimmerman in 1949.
>> Isidore and Lucille Zimmerman were a very hardworking doctor and surgical nurse.
And they were living in the '40s in this large colonial revival house in Manchester.
They came increasingly to feel rather oppressed by this house.
It had many rooms, and they loved nature, and were musicians.
And so they purchased a lot right here in the North End of Manchester, in a more rural area, (chuckling): had a hard time finding anybody, and eventually stumbled upon Frank Lloyd Wright at the Manchester Public Library.
So they reached out to him in a letter, asking him if he would design for them, as they put it, "a small, simple, spacious house that would allow for the least possible housekeeping," which is a pretty awesome goal.
The Zimmermans were absolutely thrilled with the design.
As you can see, it's completely oriented around nature.
It's like you're pulling up into a picture of New Hampshire right out your window.
And Frank Lloyd Wright, in the car port and throughout the house, uses the same materials that are just woven beautifully throughout: concrete block, cypress, brick, and polished plate glass.
And with those simple materials, then he creates an immeasurably rich multi-sensory experience.
On the outside, we encounter this sort of fortress-like exterior, but now he has thrown the other side open to nature, creating a kind of seamlessness between the inside of the house and the outside.
So it's very private for the inhabitants, and yet it's really like you have the whole show of nature just for your own enjoyment.
What Frank Lloyd Wright does with light is you'll notice the decks above just have this wonderful dappling effect.
So it's like you're inside in the forest.
>> NARRATOR: Dr. Toufic and Mildred Kalil became so inspired by the design of their friends' home that five years later, they decided to commission a Wright home of their own.
The house was built in 1955 and continues to be an example of Wright's vision of national architecture-- homes built to be beautiful, streamlined, and in harmony with their surroundings.
>> As you can see, this house is completely different from the Zimmerman house.
And Frank Lloyd Wright was thinking very much about this hilly site when he created the design.
And he's establishing, to me, kind of a visual rhyme with the tower that just harmonizes in such a beautiful way with the Uncanoonuc Mountains.
And he's molding the house... You can really see it here so nicely.
Right over the rise and the landscape, this house is just so sensitive to siding.
And then he has this whole amazing modular concept, but it's individually crafted concrete blocks, the giant grid of windows that creates this wonderful panorama of the trees.
One of our visitors likened them to a green curtain for the house.
Wright's connection to the outside world is really exquisite.
One of my very favorite spaces in this house is this hallway.
Just take a look at the incredible array of shapes, and materials, and lines that just echo each other.
It's just this wonderful play of geometry.
We are so excited about how well-preserved these properties are that we have all of the original furnishings still to this day, which is such a rarity with Wright houses.
They do require continued upkeep.
As our chief curator likes to say, "These are the largest objects in the Currier's collection," and they are outside in New England weather conditions.
But they've held up remarkably well for 70 years.
♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: For exclusive video, recipes, travel ideas, tips from the editors, and access to the Weekends With Yankee digital magazine, go to weekendswithyankee.com and follow us on social media, @yankeemagazine.
Yankee magazine, the inspiration for the television series, provides recipes, feature articles, and the best of New England from the people who know it best.
Six issues for $10.
Call 1-800-221-8154. Credit cards accepted.
>> ANNOUNCER: Major funding provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: The Vermont Country Store, purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find, a family-owned tradition since 1946.
Merchandise and products from around the block and around the world.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: Family Tree Magazine-- articles, podcasts, online courses, and webinar resources for discovering, preserving, and celebrating family history.
>> ANNOUNCER: Massachusetts is home to a lot of firsts-- the first public park in America; the first fried clams; the first university in America; the first basketball game.
What's first for you?
♪ ♪ (record scratch) ♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: Closed captioning for Weekends with Yankee provided by the Woodstock Inn and Resort, an American legacy resort in Woodstock, Vermont.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> You just don't find this kind of music hardly anywhere.
♪ ♪ >> Here.
>> TRAVERSO: Beautiful!
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
Support for PBS provided by:
Distributed nationally by American Public Television