Arnie's Place

FAQ

General Restaurant Questions

Are you open year-round?

Unfortunately, due to seating constraints in our dining room during cold winter months, we are not open all year. We normally open on the Friday at the start of the New Hampshire February school vacation ( one of the last Fridays in February) and close the Wednesday after Columbus Day (midway through October).

We open in late February when it's still cold out because it takes a while to get up and running. We make all our ice cream out back and since that takes significantly more time than just popping the top off a tub and serving it, we like to start the season a little slow. We end up with ice cream that is fresh and delicious.

Where is your restaurant located?

We are located on the "Heights" of beautiful Concord, New Hampshire at 164 Loudon Road. You'll find directions and a map on our Directions page.

What hours are you open?

Our hours vary throughout the year, but we're open 7 days a week from February to mid-October. We always open at 11:00am and during "summer months" we stay open until 10:00pm. During the school year, we like to close a little early so everyone will stay home and do their homework!

Do you cater special events?

Yes! We love serving our ice cream and delicious BBQ at special events. We've done both small and large parties for various school groups and corporate functions. For information, see our restaurant Catering page or call us at (603) 228-3225.

Do you offer restaurant tours?

We don't have a formal tour program in place at this time, but we've done tours with small school groups and assorted friends. We'd be delighted to show off our production process with just about anyone.

Just contact us, either by email or by speaking with us at the store, and we'll set up a tour. If you notice that we're making ice cream when you visit, don't be afraid to ask if it's possible to come in and watch. If it's not busy, we'll be more than happy to let you stand inside and watch. If we are busy, we'll let you know when would be a good time to come back and see our ice cream making process.

Ice Cream Questions

Do you make ice cream cakes?

YES! Not only do we make them, but they're the best ice cream cakes you'll find in New Hampshire! You can read all about it on our Ice Cream Cakes page!

What kind of ice cream do you sell?

We make our own ice cream, on site, using only premium ingredients. Our ice cream is handmade by us, not bought from a distributor.

What do you mean by "homemade?"

We don't actually make the ice cream at home but we do make it right out in the back room of our shop. It is just like the ice cream you can make at home - fresh and creamy, and the process is physically similar, but we use a bigger machine called a "batch freezer." Our machine can only produce 2 1/2 gallon tubs at a time, allowing us a great deal of control over the quality of the ice cream.

The other guys sell stuff made in a factory somewhere and their goal is to make lots of ice cream to be served somewhere across the country at some later date. That means they have to include preservatives and other artificial ingredients to make certain the ice cream "holds." They also add whey powder and other ingredients to stretch their ice cream, and whip in lots of air, stretching it even further. This reduces the flavor and taste of their ice cream.

Who actually makes the ice cream?

Tom (or Arnie to most) puts in many hours a week making sure his ice cream is the best you can find around. He is very protective of the quality of his ice cream and although many people may question him about getting into the production side, he is quite picky about who he'll let touch his really old ice cream machine!

Ice cream making sounds like a ton of fun (and it totally is!) but it's also a demanding skill that requires thought, focus, precise timing, some physical strength and a dedication to quality. Being able to produce high quality ice cream definitely requires a craftsmanship that isn't easy to find.

How long does it take to make a batch of ice cream?

The preparation time to get the ingredients together varies depending upon the flavor being made. Vanilla ice cream is easy to make; Extreme Chocolate, on the other hand, is quite the process. But once the ingredients are poured into the batch freezer, it takes between 9 to 15 minutes to turn the mixture into something resembling ice cream.

The semi-frozen ice cream is then poured into 2 1/2 gallon containers and cooled in a hardening cabinet at -25° for at least 12 hours. This fast freezing reduces the formation of ice crystals, and keeps the ice cream so smooth and creamy.

After hardening, the ice cream is incredibly hard and definitely not ready to serve. We then move the ice cream to a storage freezer, and leave it there for another 3 to 6 hours before it tempers to the correct temperature to serve.

What is the difference between ice cream, sherbet, and sorbet?

In the United Statesm there are federal standards for butterfat content of dairy products (butterfat being the fatty portion of the milk). The USDA requires a minimum of 10% butterfat content in order to be sold as "Ice Cream."

Ice Cream —contains at least 10% butterfat content. Ours contains 15% butterfat.

Soft Serve — contains 5% butterfat content (not making it "ice cream" at all so the USDA labels it a "frozen dairy dessert!)

Sherbet — contains roughly 1-2% of fat dairy product. The dairy is replaced with water (and usually some sugar), making this a lighter, cleaner tasting product.

Sorbet – contains NO DAIRY content. Instead it is made from sweetened water flavored with fruit (typically juice or puree), wine, and/or liqueur.

What's the difference between a frappe and a shake?

Depending on where you're from or what search engine you use online, the answer varies. I'll keep it simple and tell you how we do it at Arnie's:
Frappe —Hard ice cream (16% butterfat and all), milk, syrup.
Milkshake: —Soft serve or "frozen dairy dessert," milk, syrup.

Do you have frozen yogurt?

Yes! We carry frozen yogurt in multiple flavors that can change throughout the year, depending on what sounds yummy at the time or if we get enough special requests for a specific flavor.

Why don't you carry my favorite flavor?

At Arnie's we try to offer a variety of flavors that appeal to the masses but, unfortunately, we can't please everyone all the time. Throughout the season, we try to rotate in different flavors or combine flavors that sound yummy (like Extreme Chocolate and Fudge Brownie).

If we're temporarily out of your favorite ice cream flavor, we can almost guarantee we'll have another one you'll enjoy. ( Feel free to ask our staff to recommend one.) We've got plenty of great varieties. Maybe you'll find a new favorite! Also, if you would like us to make a specific flavor we don't have, be sure to mention it! Maybe we'll make a batch of it and have it ready for the next time you visit!

Why do you run out of certain flavors?

Well, we promise that it's not intentional! Although Arnie's Place may look big from the outside, after you subtract the restaurant dining space, the grill area and the front serving line there's not much space left. Filling the remainder of that space are 4 different freezers that we scoop ice cream out of, a freezer that we use to make ice cream cakes, and a big freezer that is used when we make ice cream. Because of our limited freezer storage, we need to closely watch our inventories and try to forecast which flavors we'll be needing in the upcoming days.

Unfortunately, sometimes we misjudge the demand for an ice cream flavor (or we get an unexpected run on one of the popular flavors). We try to restock as quickly as possible when a flavor runs out, but it takes at least 12 hours for ice cream to "harden" correctly to be served. On the positive side, having this limited storage means that our ice cream is always fresh!

Barbecue Questions

Do you smoke your own pork?

YES! First we rub the pork shoulder with a dry spice marinade made especially for us. Then we slow cook the pork in our smoker for 14 1/2 hours over hickory wood. We then take the shoulders out and "pull" the meat apart (hence the "pulled pork") and lightly sauce it using our smoky BBQ sauce (although the pork is best straight out of the smoker with no sauce needed!)

Do you smoke your own ribs?

We smoke those too! After pulling the membranes off the St. Louis style ribs and rubbing them with the dry spice marinade, we smoke them for 4 1/2 hours over the same delicious hickory wood.

Do you sell your barbecue in bulk?

Yes we do and you can find all that information on our Bulk BBQ sheet.

About Arnie's Place

Arnie's Place is a Concord, NH Restaurant specializing in Barbecue Ribs, Pulled Pork, Char-grilled Hamburgers, and Hot Dogs along with Handmade Ice Cream and Ice Cream Cakes.

We also sell Restaurant Gift Certificates, coins, and T-Shirts and are a popular location for local team fundraisers.

If you visit us in the summer on a Tuesday evening, you'll see Classic and Antique Cars on display in our parking lot. And in the winter, you're likely to spot Christmas Trees and Wreaths for sale. Stop by. We have the friendliest restaurant staff in Concord, New Hampshire.