44 Railroad Street
Great Barrington, MA 01230
413-528-2118
This was probably the single best three course meal I have had thus far since writing this blog. I have been here once before and had a very nice meal, but this time all three courses hit it out of the park.
First off, if you make a reservation, and you are a party of three or four, ask to sit in the window. There are two tables for four in window nooks - great for people watching if you are so inclined. We were seated in the window by chance and it was fun to see the goings on in the center of Great Barrington on beautiful late spring evening.
Allium is one of the many Berkshire restaurants that tries to build its menu around seasonally available local produce. So two of us tried the spring vegetables with goat cheese as an appetizer - turnips, beets, broccoli were blanched and cooled, and then radishes were on a generous bed of fresh local goat cheese - incredibly flavoful. My dad had the spring lettuces, which he said were uncommonly crisp.
For an entree, I had a soft shell crab po boy on toasted ciabatta with greens and lightly fried onion rings on the side. The crab was delectable, with a slightly spicy remoullade on the bread. I disassembled the po boy and the reassembled the components in smaller bits - the salty, crispy, spicy, crunchy sandwich all surrounding the soft crab - excellent. I also ordered a side of hand-cut fries which were the kind of fries that make you realize you eat most fries mostly out of habit. These were generously sliced, cooked to a crisp golden brown with just the right amount of salt. The size of the entrees is not overwhelming, so splitting an additional side is a nice compliment to your meals.
My parents had grilled salmon and a slow-roasted chicken - they reported both were excellent.
For dessert, my mom and I both had maple pot de creme. This was the kind of dessert that I kept scraping the sides of the bowl to make sure I had retrieved every last bit. My dad got an almond and apricot bakewell tart, which was served with ice cream but the tart itself was also cold, which he found disappointing.
I would have those three courses again in heartbeat! And the decor is interesting as well - we sat in front of a large, weird painting that was a topic of conversation, and many of the light fixtures are artisan-made.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Frankie's Ristorante
80 Main Street
Lenox, MA 01240
(413) 637-4455
www.frankiesitaliano.com
This was the first visit to Frankie's, a cozy-looking storefront in Lenox with an inviting porch. It's a block away from Church Street a.k.a Overpriced Restaurant Row. A friend of mine calls the Church Street Cafe "Home of the $16 side salad." So, it had several things to recommend it, but I had not heard a word about the food.
Google searches revealed a number of customer reviews, with three ecstatic ones for every two mediocre, and a really terrible one thrown in once in a while. No consistency, but the extremely positive were in the majority. Did this place look like it would have "the best Italian food I've had outside of Italy"? Did it look like a dive? No to both. So - worth trying to see what we thought.
We arrived at 6 and were seated on the porch - very pleasant. Overall, a low-key vibe, playing up the "traditional red sauce joint" sensibility with red and white checked tablecloths. I would feel very comfortable showing up here in shorts.
The menu is also super-traditional with pastas, piccata, marinara, parmiagiana, etc. The cocktail list was truly putrid - a martini with gin and prosecco, a margarita with amaretto. One cocktail featured half and half. Luckily, they have a downright cheap wine by the glass list with a very fine chianti for only $5/glass. They also have a full bar and will be happy to make you a plain old boring martini. I had a vodka gimlet that was perfectly respectable.
The bread was fresh from the oven and service friendly and generally responsive. We ordered salads to start which were fresh and reasonably sized for starters. The balsamic vinagrette was serviceable but undistinguished.
The mains were solidly in the category of "fine." I had a pasta carbonara that was closer in consistency to an alfredo, and if a forkful did not have a generous helping of pancetta, it tastefd underseasoned. But overall, satisfying if not transformative. My mother had a gnocci in tomato sauce with kalamata olives. The gnocchi had a nice consistency but the sauce was a bit too intense - it almost tasted as if it were made with sundried tomatoes. My dad had one of the house specialties - lobster and shrimp ravioli in a cream sauce - and he reported it was good, but average.
Probably the best bite of the night was a cannoli we split for dessert. The shell was crispy and not too sweet, the filling light and mixed with tiny chocolate chips. Very delightful.
There are two other Italian restaurants on Church St - Cafe Lucia and Prime Italian Steakhouse. Both are more upscale, with pretentions of fine dining. Frankie's is less expensive, although still more expensive than it should be for what it is. It is certainly a "restaurant" rather than a "ristorante." In the BG's humble opinion, they would be better off embracing this price point and the casual ambiance even more so - put your gnocchi in a simple fresh tomato sauce, for example. And whoever is in charge of the cannoli - bravo!
Lenox, MA 01240
(413) 637-4455
www.frankiesitaliano.com
This was the first visit to Frankie's, a cozy-looking storefront in Lenox with an inviting porch. It's a block away from Church Street a.k.a Overpriced Restaurant Row. A friend of mine calls the Church Street Cafe "Home of the $16 side salad." So, it had several things to recommend it, but I had not heard a word about the food.
Google searches revealed a number of customer reviews, with three ecstatic ones for every two mediocre, and a really terrible one thrown in once in a while. No consistency, but the extremely positive were in the majority. Did this place look like it would have "the best Italian food I've had outside of Italy"? Did it look like a dive? No to both. So - worth trying to see what we thought.
We arrived at 6 and were seated on the porch - very pleasant. Overall, a low-key vibe, playing up the "traditional red sauce joint" sensibility with red and white checked tablecloths. I would feel very comfortable showing up here in shorts.
The menu is also super-traditional with pastas, piccata, marinara, parmiagiana, etc. The cocktail list was truly putrid - a martini with gin and prosecco, a margarita with amaretto. One cocktail featured half and half. Luckily, they have a downright cheap wine by the glass list with a very fine chianti for only $5/glass. They also have a full bar and will be happy to make you a plain old boring martini. I had a vodka gimlet that was perfectly respectable.
The bread was fresh from the oven and service friendly and generally responsive. We ordered salads to start which were fresh and reasonably sized for starters. The balsamic vinagrette was serviceable but undistinguished.
The mains were solidly in the category of "fine." I had a pasta carbonara that was closer in consistency to an alfredo, and if a forkful did not have a generous helping of pancetta, it tastefd underseasoned. But overall, satisfying if not transformative. My mother had a gnocci in tomato sauce with kalamata olives. The gnocchi had a nice consistency but the sauce was a bit too intense - it almost tasted as if it were made with sundried tomatoes. My dad had one of the house specialties - lobster and shrimp ravioli in a cream sauce - and he reported it was good, but average.
Probably the best bite of the night was a cannoli we split for dessert. The shell was crispy and not too sweet, the filling light and mixed with tiny chocolate chips. Very delightful.
There are two other Italian restaurants on Church St - Cafe Lucia and Prime Italian Steakhouse. Both are more upscale, with pretentions of fine dining. Frankie's is less expensive, although still more expensive than it should be for what it is. It is certainly a "restaurant" rather than a "ristorante." In the BG's humble opinion, they would be better off embracing this price point and the casual ambiance even more so - put your gnocchi in a simple fresh tomato sauce, for example. And whoever is in charge of the cannoli - bravo!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Perigee Restaurant
South Lee, MA
http://perigee-restaurant.com/
Two friends came with me to try Perigee, which replaced Sweet Basil about six months ago in a tavern-like building near two inns on the South Lee/Stockbridge line. The first floor is particularly cozy with beamed ceilings, a six-seater bar, and a handful of tables. Unfortunately, the upstairs is in need of a re-do, with carpeting that looks to be of 70's "colonial dining" era and tables and chairs to match.
Much to my surprise, the weekend before memorial day, we arrived a little before six to find there were no tables and the bar was our only option. Given that we were enticed by the menu, particularly with a $34 prix fixe "farmed and foraged" menu, we opted to stay at the bar. This decision was also influenced by the persuasive skills of the owner and bartender - encouragement that flirted with the obnoxious but just about steered clear.
Two of us had the prix fixe and it can be summaried as follows: Course one: small asparagus salad with buttermilk dressing and orange garnish - lovely. Nice balance of flavors and a dressing so tasty I asked for more bread to sop it up. Course two: "foraged" soup - the description was lovely - potatoes, mushrooms, etc with a flavoring of chorizo. It was bland, under-seasoned and over-processed so the consistency was baby-food like. I counted three tiny tidbits of chorizo. Course three: Strip steak with a brandy peppercorn sauce, mashed potatoes, ramps. The strip steak was enormous, particularly for one included in a four-course prix fixe. Impossible to eat the whole thing. The steak was done adequately although the color varied throughout - I ordered medium rare and parts were definitely on the medium to medium-well spectrum. However, the meat itself was so tender it could be cut without a steak knife. The pepper was much to much, however, and both of us are lovers of peppered steak. It overwhelmed the meat. The potatoes were fine and the ramps freaked me out in their little crunchy pinwheels - not the fault of the chef, however. Just not my thing. Course four: OK - this was the real Waterloo of the prix fixe. It sounded quite delightful - a mixture of fig and date in a dessert wine sauce with a touch of chocolate. I imagined a small, finely diced fig and date tart-like dessert. Instead it was a large dessert plate filled with barely sliced large pieces of fig and tart, with a sickly sweet sauce. I could barely eat two bites. The bar tender told us she had complaints about it earlier in the evening - just completely misguided.
The third in our party had a caesar salad that she reported was excellent, and a vegetarian tortellini in a cream sauce that she said was very tasty but too heavy.
We drank a bottle of local Cabernet from Furnace Brook Orchards after the bartended kindly let us sample (generously) from that and another wine. Service was friendly and efficient and the house made breads were terrific. However, even though we were at the bar, it still took a little over two hours to get in and out - the kitchen is not so swift.
All in all, we deemed Perigee to be ambitious but not quite able to live up to their menu just yet. However, they are adding outside tables and that just might make it tempting enough for us to return.
http://perigee-restaurant.com/
Two friends came with me to try Perigee, which replaced Sweet Basil about six months ago in a tavern-like building near two inns on the South Lee/Stockbridge line. The first floor is particularly cozy with beamed ceilings, a six-seater bar, and a handful of tables. Unfortunately, the upstairs is in need of a re-do, with carpeting that looks to be of 70's "colonial dining" era and tables and chairs to match.
Much to my surprise, the weekend before memorial day, we arrived a little before six to find there were no tables and the bar was our only option. Given that we were enticed by the menu, particularly with a $34 prix fixe "farmed and foraged" menu, we opted to stay at the bar. This decision was also influenced by the persuasive skills of the owner and bartender - encouragement that flirted with the obnoxious but just about steered clear.
Two of us had the prix fixe and it can be summaried as follows: Course one: small asparagus salad with buttermilk dressing and orange garnish - lovely. Nice balance of flavors and a dressing so tasty I asked for more bread to sop it up. Course two: "foraged" soup - the description was lovely - potatoes, mushrooms, etc with a flavoring of chorizo. It was bland, under-seasoned and over-processed so the consistency was baby-food like. I counted three tiny tidbits of chorizo. Course three: Strip steak with a brandy peppercorn sauce, mashed potatoes, ramps. The strip steak was enormous, particularly for one included in a four-course prix fixe. Impossible to eat the whole thing. The steak was done adequately although the color varied throughout - I ordered medium rare and parts were definitely on the medium to medium-well spectrum. However, the meat itself was so tender it could be cut without a steak knife. The pepper was much to much, however, and both of us are lovers of peppered steak. It overwhelmed the meat. The potatoes were fine and the ramps freaked me out in their little crunchy pinwheels - not the fault of the chef, however. Just not my thing. Course four: OK - this was the real Waterloo of the prix fixe. It sounded quite delightful - a mixture of fig and date in a dessert wine sauce with a touch of chocolate. I imagined a small, finely diced fig and date tart-like dessert. Instead it was a large dessert plate filled with barely sliced large pieces of fig and tart, with a sickly sweet sauce. I could barely eat two bites. The bar tender told us she had complaints about it earlier in the evening - just completely misguided.
The third in our party had a caesar salad that she reported was excellent, and a vegetarian tortellini in a cream sauce that she said was very tasty but too heavy.
We drank a bottle of local Cabernet from Furnace Brook Orchards after the bartended kindly let us sample (generously) from that and another wine. Service was friendly and efficient and the house made breads were terrific. However, even though we were at the bar, it still took a little over two hours to get in and out - the kitchen is not so swift.
All in all, we deemed Perigee to be ambitious but not quite able to live up to their menu just yet. However, they are adding outside tables and that just might make it tempting enough for us to return.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Rubi's Coffee and Sandwiches
264 Main Street
Great Barrington, MA
(behind Rubiner's Cheesemongers)
Rubi's is hard to resist. It has a warm atmosphere with its wooden floors - when I picture it in my mind, it seems to be a small-scale renovated barn. There is very limited seating with a counter that seats three next to the counter where you order, and a few small tables and one large communal farm table in an adjoining room. I have yet to be in there when it is not bustling. The menu is written on chalkboards behind the counter and the baked goods are arrayed in front of you under large bell jars. They serve a real macchiato - espresso with a bit of foam on top, not the latte-ish thing Starbucks makes. Today I enjoyed the Halloumi Toast sandwich - basically, an open-faced grilled cheese on a baguette, made with halloumi cheese (a greek cheese that's a cross between mozzarella and feta) and bits of preserved lemon. Delicious. I also took home a slice of hazelnut ricotta cake that was both chewy and delightfully moist.
Rubi's turns into more of a bar/cafe in the evening, featuring oysters and cheese plates and wine - I haven't been there yet in the evening but I look forward to it.
There is one downside of Rubi's. On the three occasions I have been there, the place is generally populated by two sorts of people. One sort - pretentious hipsters in flannel with dyed hair (girls) and long hair or really short hair - hair that has been very much paid attention to - (boys) and conspicuous eye wear. The other sort - loud New Yorkers who complain frequently, inform the entire line of their debate about what to order, and don't seem to mind stepping on your toes to get an extra napkin. Such is the price of irresistibility - even the obnoxious are drawn in.
Great Barrington, MA
(behind Rubiner's Cheesemongers)
Rubi's is hard to resist. It has a warm atmosphere with its wooden floors - when I picture it in my mind, it seems to be a small-scale renovated barn. There is very limited seating with a counter that seats three next to the counter where you order, and a few small tables and one large communal farm table in an adjoining room. I have yet to be in there when it is not bustling. The menu is written on chalkboards behind the counter and the baked goods are arrayed in front of you under large bell jars. They serve a real macchiato - espresso with a bit of foam on top, not the latte-ish thing Starbucks makes. Today I enjoyed the Halloumi Toast sandwich - basically, an open-faced grilled cheese on a baguette, made with halloumi cheese (a greek cheese that's a cross between mozzarella and feta) and bits of preserved lemon. Delicious. I also took home a slice of hazelnut ricotta cake that was both chewy and delightfully moist.
Rubi's turns into more of a bar/cafe in the evening, featuring oysters and cheese plates and wine - I haven't been there yet in the evening but I look forward to it.
There is one downside of Rubi's. On the three occasions I have been there, the place is generally populated by two sorts of people. One sort - pretentious hipsters in flannel with dyed hair (girls) and long hair or really short hair - hair that has been very much paid attention to - (boys) and conspicuous eye wear. The other sort - loud New Yorkers who complain frequently, inform the entire line of their debate about what to order, and don't seem to mind stepping on your toes to get an extra napkin. Such is the price of irresistibility - even the obnoxious are drawn in.
Ben's Shop
68 Main Street
Lee MA
Ben's facade looks like something out of 1961 - the sign written in script, the window displays are simple and crowded with merchandise. It says "Clothes for Work and Play"- and the sign doesn't lie. One side of the shop has both men's and women's shoes - practical, comfortable shoes like Clark's and Dansco, and boots and slippers. The other side is all men's wear. In between is a selection of nicely chosen, adorable children's clothes. There is something comfortably jumbled about the inventory at Ben's. I found some great gifts for kids of friends of mine and if I weren't such an internet bargain shopper for dansco, I would give them my business for my once-every-four-year dansco replacement. And just like very place I've shopped in Lee, the proprietor and staff could not be more delightful. No pretense, no fancy or trendy presentation, just quality goods.
Lee MA
Ben's facade looks like something out of 1961 - the sign written in script, the window displays are simple and crowded with merchandise. It says "Clothes for Work and Play"- and the sign doesn't lie. One side of the shop has both men's and women's shoes - practical, comfortable shoes like Clark's and Dansco, and boots and slippers. The other side is all men's wear. In between is a selection of nicely chosen, adorable children's clothes. There is something comfortably jumbled about the inventory at Ben's. I found some great gifts for kids of friends of mine and if I weren't such an internet bargain shopper for dansco, I would give them my business for my once-every-four-year dansco replacement. And just like very place I've shopped in Lee, the proprietor and staff could not be more delightful. No pretense, no fancy or trendy presentation, just quality goods.
Morningside Bakery
283 Tyler Street
Pittsfield MA
http://www.morningside-bakery.com
I drove by this place three times before I found it. It's tucked into a small set of five store fronts, at the end next to a fence. I made the trek to Pittfield because I was trying to find a genuine German stollen for my dad for Christmas, and lo and behold, here was a place nearby! This place is a real old fashioned bakery with donuts and pies and cookies. I did notice some bread but didn't examine it closely - it looked to be rolls of the soft-crusted variety. Besides the stollen (which the helpful counter lady told me could keep up to a month after it's opened, and up to a year if frozen - !!), I bought a chocolate cake donut which looked and smelled delicious but was rather dry and uninspiring - a disappointment. I will report back on the stollen after Christmas!
Pittsfield MA
http://www.morningside-bakery.com
I drove by this place three times before I found it. It's tucked into a small set of five store fronts, at the end next to a fence. I made the trek to Pittfield because I was trying to find a genuine German stollen for my dad for Christmas, and lo and behold, here was a place nearby! This place is a real old fashioned bakery with donuts and pies and cookies. I did notice some bread but didn't examine it closely - it looked to be rolls of the soft-crusted variety. Besides the stollen (which the helpful counter lady told me could keep up to a month after it's opened, and up to a year if frozen - !!), I bought a chocolate cake donut which looked and smelled delicious but was rather dry and uninspiring - a disappointment. I will report back on the stollen after Christmas!
Hats and Jewels of the Berkshires
Hats and Jewels
83 West Center Street
Lee, MA
Next to Joe's Diner
I love this little store and the owner is completely down to earth, helpful, and friendly. The store is a treasure trove of vintage, consignment, and costume jewelry, purses, hats and other accessories. There is an especially impressive collection of necklaces - I bought three for my mom for Christmas today. The prices range from "steals" to "reasonable." There is a nice array of classic evening bags, vintage/on consignment, and I plan to buy one for an annual gala event I attend for work once I pick out the dress. There is something very appealing about carrying vintage Bergdorf. I bought a little fabric flower pin today - I had my eye on one I had seen in a web add from a place in Sheffield - $42. The H&J version was $8.
83 West Center Street
Lee, MA
Next to Joe's Diner
I love this little store and the owner is completely down to earth, helpful, and friendly. The store is a treasure trove of vintage, consignment, and costume jewelry, purses, hats and other accessories. There is an especially impressive collection of necklaces - I bought three for my mom for Christmas today. The prices range from "steals" to "reasonable." There is a nice array of classic evening bags, vintage/on consignment, and I plan to buy one for an annual gala event I attend for work once I pick out the dress. There is something very appealing about carrying vintage Bergdorf. I bought a little fabric flower pin today - I had my eye on one I had seen in a web add from a place in Sheffield - $42. The H&J version was $8.
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