Congratulations Topside Grill & Pub! Now serving great food, drinks and fun year round

Topside Grill & Pub, 50 Rogers Street, Gloucester, MA (978) 281-1399

Topside Grill shut down January through April, but no longer! I asked restauranteur Doug Silva what it means to Topside Grill to have a year round liquor license awarded by the licensing board?

“First of all, we are very excited and feel pretty lucky to have been selected with all the choices.” Other businesses vying for the license included: Captain Carlo’s; Jasmine Garden Restaurant; Dennis Senecal for the former Espresso location; Simon Prudenzi for the former Dog Bar space; and Karma Liquors. You can read more about the process and see a map of all MA licenses on my earlier GMG post. 

“What does it mean to us? It means many things. We can stay open year round. We can hold on to our staff which will really help out with turnover. It’s great for our customers who come on a regular basis and won’t need to shift plans in the winter anymore. A year round schedule will stamp out any lingering seasonal perception that we cater solely to tourists. We’re all about local. We live downtown. We help downtown. We’re here for Gloucester and part of the community.” 

And?

“It’s been super nice to hear congratulations and feedback from everyone, and so so so nice to hear from the professional community, too.”

Anything else?

“We get to play with a year round cocktail menu, too.”

If you hadn’t heard, Doug is a master mixologist. What’s popular now? Topside Grill makes a delicious homemade artisan ginger beer–fresh ginger!— refreshing on its own or shoring up a signature Moscow Mule or Dark & Stormy.

Topside Grill serves a great menu selection of seafood and steak entrees, and creative daily specials. My kids love the appetizers and delicious homemade lasagna and chicken-eggplant Parmesan which are family recipes. They think Doug is so lucky because his mom could cook these, you know, probably after school. Anytime. Just like that.

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Topside Grill is part of the downtown cultural district and the Chamber. Doug serves on Gloucester’s Tourism Commission

In case you missed this sign in the background.

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Blue Shutters Beachside Chili Cookoff Report From Tony Sapienza

Joey — here’s a report on last night’s Blue Shutters Beachside Chili Cookoff..  I’ve attached some photos..and included a link to our blog post on this.

Thanks

Tony

It’s been just a few hours since the last of the chili leftovers were stowed in the fridge, but folks are already talking about plans for our next Blue Shutters Beachside Chili Cookoff. Last night’s event — our first-ever — featured nine different chili contestants…and even more very happy unofficial chili tasters. It was up to our judges — Jeremy Goldberg of the Cape Ann Brewing Company and Doug Silva of the Topside Grill and Pub — to chose the winner. Taking the trophy was Joe Paonessa of Stoneham, who was awarded a gift card for a free return visit to the Blue Shutters. Jeremey and Doug also chose second- and third-place runner-ups — Mark Sapienza of Stoneham and Sheri Dellagrotta of Rhode Island — and rewarded them with gift certificates to the brewery and the Topside (Mark had an a bit of an advantage…he’s the executive chef at the Langham Hotel in Boston; he’ll be back at the Blue Shutters next month to headline our wine and food tasting). The judges agreed: it was a tough decision, with a varity of chili recipes and every one was a winner. In addition to chili, guests enjoyed a selection of Cape Ann Brewery beers (courtesy of Jeremy), wine and sangria, Valentine’s desserts and all of the usual chili accompaniments. Thanks to everyone who helped make this a fun evening. We’ll be holding another Blue Shutters Chili Cookoff — once we finish off the left-overs…which could take quite awhile. But for now, our focus is set on our next event: a Mardi Gras Murder Mystery on March 5. If that’s half as much fun as the Chili Cookoff (and our pastmurder mystery nights) we’re all in for great evening.

http://www.blueshuttersbeachblog.blogspot.com/

judges and our chili winners

judges set to begin tasting

GMG Questions and Answers- Doug Silva

Doug is the GM at the Topside Grill

How long have you lived in Gloucester? 25 yrs

What is your favorite season In Gloucester?Summer

What is your favorite pizza joint in Gloucester? Sebastions


What is your favorite sub shop in Gloucester? Mike’s Place


What place would you go for a romantic dinner in Gloucester?

Duckworth’s

What is your favorite bar in Gloucester?

Madfish

What is your favorite breakfast joint in Gloucester?

Sugar Mag’s

What is your favorite local event in Gloucester?

Fiesta

In the summer do you prefer the beach or to be on a boat?

Beach

Who is your favorite local artist?

John Jerome

Which is your favorite local beach?

Good Harbor

Who has the best chowder in town?

Topside Grill

Excluding GMG what is your second favorite local blog?

Barstoolsports.com

Do you prefer haddock chowder or clam chowder?

Clam

What is your favorite Gloucester neighborhood?

Castle View

As A Reward For Filling Out The Form For Use On GMG Feel free To Provide a Link Here to Any Business, Band or Website You Would Like Promoted

Topsidegrill.com

Doug Silva- General Manager At The Topside Grill

 

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Some exciting new changes have taken place since Doug Silva has taken over as GM at The Topside Grill.  Find out in an upcoming video but in the mean time check out these food pics (click them to enlarge)

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Last weekend of the season at The Topside

From Doug Silva-

Hey everyone,

As you may or may not know, this is the last weekend we are open for the season at the Topside Restaurant. I wanted to say thank you to everyone that helped make this last season a great one! Even in this “not so good” economy, we were able to have a great year and a lot of that is because of you! This weekend we are hoping to go out with a bang. We are featuring entertainment Thursday, Friday, & Saturday. I hope you can make it over to help us say goodbye to 2009 at The Topside and see some old friends and familiar faces! To anyone that has not been able to make it by yet, I hope this is the weekend you can finally make it 🙂 i will be behind the bar tonight and tomorrow, come by early for some dinner and to say hi!! All show’s start at 8:00 here is a lineup of what’s going on:

Thursday – Ric Saint Germaine – Electric guitar, singer/song writer. He has come in almost every Thursday and supported the music. He has even gotten up a few times and did a few songs himself. Covers some of the older classics

Friday  – Ryan Fardy – Rhythm & Blues, rock and funk. He is probably the best act we have had at the Topside and puts on a great show. He’s from Boston and I’m expecting a great night there! If you can only make it to one night, I highly suggest this be the one!

Saturday – Sasquatch (Paul Cohen)- I have not heard him yet, but I hear he’s great and somewhat of a Gloucester legend. He has been playing for years and is well known.

I hope to see you all there, and thanks again for a great year!!

Thanks,

Doug Silva
Manager
Topside Grill
50 Rogers st.
Gloucester, MA
(978) 281-1399 (restaurant)
(978) 335-1014 (cell)
www.topsidegrill.com