The Ultimate Creator

Since putting down roots in Williamstown a decade ago, Tu Le has taken on many roles: farmer, chef, florist, designer. Everything he does is about creativity and community—and this summer, he’s everywhere.

By Neil Turitz
Photographs by Ashley Weeks Cart

Tu Le is not a fan of what people might consider conventional planning. How else do you explain going from industrial project management—building warships and barges for Northrop Grumman—to running a homestead in Williamstown and opening a series of pop-up restaurants in North Adams?

“The normal path didn’t work for me,” said Le, owner of 328North farm, sitting in his studio at Greylock Works in North Adams. “Graduating early from high school to go to college early and not being able to live on campus because I’m underage and having to live with my sister an hour away? It made me grow up fast.”

It also instilled in him a need to do things his own way. Like when Le and his husband, artist Matt Bertles, purchased the vacant lot beside their Pittsburgh home to start a community garden. Or, after a fire destroyed that home, deciding to start anew in upstate New York, a plan that short-circuited when they passed through the Berkshires.

“We weren’t even thinking of the Berkshires or Massachusetts,” he recalled of their 2014 move. “But when we came through, we didn’t make it past Williamstown,” he added with a laugh.

Once they and their three children were here, they set to work redefining their lives. Even though they had no real experience, they started growing their own food and quickly became a part of the community. As he describes it, “The ultimate goal was never to have a business. It was never about commerce or money, it was really about living a sustainable life. We wanted to prove that we could grow 80% of what we were consuming and try to barter for the rest. It got to the point, after year three, we were only going to the grocery store like once a month. Just for basics.”

It took six years before growing food for others became a business. The plan had been to open up to the public as a flower farm, but then COVID changed everything.

THE GOAL WAS NEVER TO HAVE A BUSINESS. IT WAS NEVER ABOUT COMMERCE OR MONEY, IT WAS REALLY ABOUT LIVING A SUSTAINABLE LIFE.

Instead of just a flower CSA, Le and Bertles’ 328North added a vegetable CSA. Le—the youngest of 12—came over from Vietnam when he was 15 months old and was raised in San Diego, and he grew up cooking with his mother and siblings. He decided to include recipes in the CSA so people could experience his produce—including ingredients like lemongrass and Vietnamese garlic—the same way he did.

“I wanted people to know, ‘here’s how I cook it, here are the proteins you should or should not use from these local farms,’ and so on,” he said. “So it was really this way to have a conversation with our community and challenge the notion of what is farm to table.”

Something else happened during the pandemic: The Williams College Museum of Art connected Le with Aaron Oster, one of the owners of A-OK Berkshire Barbecue at MASS MoCA. The pair was asked to be a part of a Zoom series called “Cures for Strange Times,” which connected people from different fields to collaborate and have a conversation. Le explained, “So Aaron and I decided to do a cooking demo of my recipe at his restaurant because people did not know of me as a chef.”

Le and Bertles had opened a restaurant in Seattle years earlier, and vowed never to do it again, so instead, they were soon opening pop-ups, selling banh mi, but with a Berkshire spin. Everything was grown locally. Thanks to word of mouth, the business grew organically, just like Le’s vegetables. Part of the appeal was that Le wasn’t just selling food. He was offering an experience.

One recent July night, guests attended a special farm dinner cooked by Le at Hancock Shaker Village. Before serving the summer salad with chili lime dressing (to be followed by grilled lemongrass chicken and garlic fried rice), Tu stood up to greet his guests, saying, “I’m so excited to feed you tonight.

“The foundation of how I like to do things is with storytelling,” Le said. “Where does this food come from? Why are the ingredients together? I still work in that vein. It’s all connected and, for me, every little detail is really important. Who I get my produce from, how it’s grown, how the dish is served.”

That intentionality comes across strong. (Fun fact: when he works with a couple on their wedding—yes, he designs weddings too—he finds out what flowers they love, and then he grows them for their wedding.)

Between the talent, the vision, and the sense of kindness you immediately feel upon meeting him, it’s no wonder everyone wants to work with Le.

And that’s good for the rest of us—there’s more of his cooking to go around this summer. On Tuesdays—make that Tu’sdays—he’s serving up Vietnamese street food on the deck at TOURISTS in North Adams. For the rest of the week, you can have breakfast or lunch at Tu’s newest pop-up, the 328North Café at 90 Main in North Adams; stop in for banh mi, rice and noodle bowls, Vietnamese coffee, and more, Wednesday through Sunday through Labor Day weekend.

Le is also providing food for The Adams Theater. Yina Moore, its founder and artistic director, had been looking for a partner for a while, someone who could help her find the right solution for the food and beverage operations. “When I talked to Tu the first time, I just asked: What do you think I should do?” Moore said. “I was desperate for some ideas. Most restaurateurs come here, they don’t like the uncertainties of the number of seats or what the experience will be. Tu said, ‘I love that.’ That’s what’s special about him. He embraced that uncertainty as an opportunity.”

How does Le accomplish so much, with so much on his plate? Dedication, to be sure, but another big part is his overall outlook. To him, it’s all about the long term. “We live in a world and society where we’re constantly pushing and doing things to perfection,” he said, then added with a smile, “I don’t care about perfection. I care about permanence.”