Fashionistas on a budget have a new reason to update their wardrobes this summer. Andover’s First Date Boutique has moved to a new, larger space downtown–and still has chic clothes at affordable prices. Whether you’re searching for that cute and casual summer dress or that sexy stunner for a party, First Date has it all, and most of it’s priced at under $100. Nothing in the store is over $260, so even that fancy prom dress won’t break the bank.

First Date, owned by sisters Brianne and Keri Barrett since 2007, is a sophisticated girly-girl’s haven with the goal of answering the question, “What am I going to wear?” in an easy, affordable way. Frustrated with having to go from shop to shop trying to piece fun, flirty and unique outfits together, the sisters came up with the idea of a one-stop-shop where women can find everything they need for a trip, party or event. The sisters wanted to create a boutique where women could “enjoy a shopping experience that enabled them to find an outfit that guaranteed a multitude of compliments.”

First Date displays its merchandise from brands such as Max and Cleo, Hanky Panky and Alexia Admor by themed sections, displaying a mix of dresses, tops, skirts, jeans, jewelry, accessories, undergarments and gifts: Soirée, which features semi-formal and formal options, is where you’ll find that elegant dress for your work’s holiday party or for that super fancy wedding; Just Cocktails has what you need when you’re craving a new look for a girls’ night on the town; Getaway is where you’ll find the perfect flowy maxi dress and that sexy new bikini for your summer vacation or stay at the beach; and Hitched is the section for gals who are (you guessed it!) getting hitched or have a friend who is, and offers the perfect pretty outfits for bridal showers and engagement parties, along with cute “I do” accessories for the bride-to-be.

Inside the shop’s pink-walled dressing rooms, notes on the mirrors remind shoppers that “First impressions are everything,” boost their confidence that “He’ll love that!” and exclaim what savvy First Date shoppers already know: “You are one stylish gal.”

First Date Boutique
One Main St.
Andover, MA
978-247-8999

Summer hours:

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Wednesday: 10 a.m.  to 8 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

www.ShopFirstDate.com

ANDOVER — Stouts are usually associated with cold weather, sitting by a fire and drinking something that comforts you. It’s a turkey sandwich in a bottle, essentially — it’s got some weight to it. Andover resident, David Rosenbaum, won Samuel Adams’ second annual Patriot Homebrew Contest this year with his recipe.

Rosenbaum’s winning stout is being brewed by The Boston Beer Company and served at Gillette Stadium for Patriots season this year. The next contest is going on now, and the deadline is December 18. The winner also gets a little chunk of change: $2,000.

"The first two pre-season games were hot summer nights, and they sold out the first night. And the first home game, which was also a warm day, it sold out as well. So that’s very gratifying," said Rosenbaum, who holds Patriots season tickets. His stout is lighter than other stouts, but still holds all the depth of flavor that’s looked for. Sometimes when you drink a a beer, you’re tasting it for the next hour or so. Not the case with Rosenbaum’s, which adds to its popularity at the stadium.

Rosenbaum first became interested not so much in brewing, but in beers, when he studied in the UK during his time in college. He found he liked beers quite unlike the ones he could find in the United States, which were usually light and thin. He enjoyed a beer with a lot of flavor — multiple components coming together to form a more harmonious brew. "This was some time ago, but when I came back to the States, there weren’t a lot of imports so I just drank what I could find and was always looking for other interesting beers," he said.

A few years ago Rosenbaum received a homebrewing kit as a gift, and brewed his first batch. "My first batch wasn’t horrible," he says, "but it certainly wasn’t great either."

Looking for guidance, he joined Brew Free or Die, New Hampshire’s oldest homebrew club, and slowly learned what he had been doing wrong with his first attempts at brewing. A few parts of the process had been left out in the brewing kit directions he’d received. There’s a whole list of things of what to do, or not do, so that off-flavors aren’t introduced to a batch of beer. "For example, you have to boil a batch and then cool it. And if you stir your beer really vigorously to cool it down and break the surface tension then you introduce cardboard flavors into your beer," Rosenbaum explained. There are many rules like this in homebrewing, and each recipe has its own quirks.

It took him a few years of practice and four tries to get the batch right. Rosenbaum entered the third batch of his Oatmeal Stout into last year’s Patriot Homebrew Contest (which didn’t place), though he knew going into it that it wasn’t the beer he wanted it to be. "It tasted good but it was a little thin in the mouth," he said. "I had decided to add a kind of bourbon flavor to it by adding whiskey that had been soaked in oak chips. So the flavor was good but it was a little… " he makes a hand gesture to show ‘lacking,’ his palms turned upward to the ceiling.

It was his fourth batch that won. Rosenbaum’s winning brew is full-flavored and full-bodied. It’s rich without being indulgent, flavorful without being bitter. It’s malty and sugary at the same time, the deep black color of the brew paired nicely with a creamy head.

Currently, Rosenbaum is back in his kitchen, settling back into his brewing. His kitchen is more of a mad scientist’s laboratory. Cabinets open to expose large metal bins with grates in the bottom for percolation. Tubes are hooked up to faucets to let fermented brews flow out. He has two refrigerators, one for food, and one that holds three kegs of whatever brew he’s working on at the current moment. To challenge himself, he’s taking award-winning recipes as a base and tweaking them a bit here and there to create something totally new. "Even the smallest change can make quite a bit of difference," he says.

A few weeks ago, Rosenbaum had an English Best Bitter in a plastic bin cooling on his front steps, the keg sitting in a vat of ice water. Since it’s still the fall season and temperatures still vary daily, a mechanized thermometer maintains the temperature by activating a fan if the vat gets too warm. The Bitter is intended to be a beer to drink several glasses of over the course of an evening, while not having to worry about getting drunk.

Winning the Patriot Homebrew Contest added quite a lot of excitement to his life, but Rosenbaum’s ready to try out new recipes. "I think it’s a great thing (Samuel Adams) does for others. They show a lot of support for the homebrewing community," he said. "Their president, Jim Koch, started off as a homebrewer and created a whole company out of it. I don’t think he’s forgotten his roots, and it’s a great thing to see."