Written by Ellen Morrissey Photographs by Abigail Fenton In the second installment of our series showcasing folks who make their mark in the Berkshires, we sat down with some noteworthy talents—both established and emerging—in our vibrant local food and beverage scene. Each of the attendees has a distinct perspective on the state of dining out in the Berkshires. The entrepreneurs elaborated on their challenges, while also identifying the opportunities distinct to the region, including the cultural and arts organizations that help support the eating and drinking scene (and vice versa). Topics ranged from the price of doing business to a curious generational divide to the abiding sense of community here. For the most part, none of these spirited individuals would have it any other way—or in any other place. On one of the hottest afternoons in decades, our group gathered around a long table at the newly opened—and very buzzy—Cliff House restaurant at Prospect, a mountain lake resort in Egremont. Outside, the sun-dappled lake sparkled; inside, the conversation did, too.

ROBBIE ROBLES, Roberto’s Pizza, The Pub, and Robbie’s Community Market Robles may be the youngest of this group, but his age belies his experience, as well as his ambition and determination. Born in California, he came to the Berkshires as a child with his mother, and never left. He got years of hands-on training at The Marketplace Café before opening his own pizza place in Sheffield. He recently added a bar next door and just reinvented a longstanding local market in Great Barrington. “A lot of my success comes from being hands-on and building good culture,” he says. MATT STRAUS, Heirloom Lodge Straus spent nearly 20 years in fine dining on the West Coast before relocating to the Berkshires, opening Heirloom Lodge in West Stockbridge in 2024. As for the decision to relocate: The Massachusetts-born chef (and editor of the culinary journal Kitchen Work) says, “I had an opportunity to build a beautiful restaurant from scratch on a beautiful piece of land. I wanted to be in a progressively minded place with a lot of arts infrastructure. I don’t know if there’s another place in the country that has that same combination.” NANCY THOMAS, Mezze Group It’s not an exaggeration to call Thomas a living legend in the Berkshires. Since opening Mezze, in 1996, she’s embarked on multiple other culinary ventures. Her latest: a collaboration with the owners of Prospect, where she oversees the culinary program. “I feel fortunate to have a restaurant career that constantly offers me new opportunities,” she says. In the Berkshires, the business is “informed by eating within the seasons. And that makes a delicious recipe for great food.”

HANNAH WONG, Haema After cutting her culinary teeth at well-established NYC restaurants, Wong left the city when the pandemic paused the dining scene. She earned high acclaim for her food, inspired by extensive travel through Asia, at the Aviary in Kinderhook. “I think there’s a desire in this area for Asian food and for different flavors, to use a broad label,” she says. The Williams grad is currently hosting a popular series of pop-ups—and did a residence at Straus’ Heirloom Lodge. ADI TALBY AND HAGAI AVRAHAMI, Báladi After training as a chef, Avrahami worked for many years in his native Israel before settling in the Berkshires and creating Báladi with his wife, Talby. The name comes from the Arabic balad, which loosely translates to native, or of the land. It’s an apt description for their Mediterranean food, which is grounded in fresh, local, sustainable ingredients. You can find them at a food truck at the iconic Egremont Barn and the new restaurant at the adjacent Buttonball Inn.

CHRIS WELD, Berkshire Mountain Distillers Recognized as a pioneer among craft spirits makers in the U.S., Weld founded his business after bringing hundreds of heirloom fruit trees back to fruition on his property in Sheffield. From his early forays into apple brandy, he branched out into award-winning varieties of gin, vodka, rum, and whiskeys. “When I started, there were maybe 50 of us in the country. Now there are around 3,000,” he says. MARK FIRTH, Prairie Whale Firth was regarded as one of the godfathers of the nascent Brooklyn dining scene of the early aughts, thanks to the allure of Diner and Marlow & Sons. In 2010, he and his wife, Bettina Schwartz, uprooted their family, trading city life for a farm in the wilds of Monterey. Since opening Prairie Whale in Great Barrington, in 2012, it’s become an institution among tourists and locals alike, inspiring a new breed of dining spots throughout the region. When you think about food in the Berkshires, what are some words that come to mind? Matt: Growing. Robbie: Local luxury. Hannah: Scrappy. Community-oriented. Evolving. Nancy: I think about the narrative of the landscape. What has historically grown here and what continues to be farmed here by our community informs us of what we might offer to our guests and our restaurants. Mark and Nancy, you were trailblazers here and your establishments are still going strong. How have things changed since you opened? Mark: Nancy was the first, so thank you to her. Culturally, the way people treat restaurants has changed, and that’s an issue we’re all dealing with. It’s way less casual than it used to be. If they don’t have a reservation, they don’t want to wait and have a drink and meet friends. I don’t know if I found that out the hard way or the easy way, but we never did reservations until this past April and, in May, we were up 20% from the previous year. So the experience loses a bit of that organized chaos that I like, but it’s busy. People don’t just say “Let’s go out for dinner” now. Nancy: It’s changed a lot since 1996, but the great thing about restaurants is the constant feedback. With social media, you’re being informed by the public at all times. You do have to have a bit of a thick skin to listen, respond to that feedback, and stay the course of your business model. The way we live by our phones now is quite different. Yet the operations inside the restaurant still feel very 19th century. We’re doing old-fashioned labor, taking orders, making food from scratch, walking it to the table—that feels historical. Matt: I think it’s safe to say that none of us sitting at this table feels hugely threatened by AI. Robbie: You want to stay up to date by integrating technology. You want to move things as quickly as possible and double down on what’s working. It can be painful. There’s a lot of change within this industry, but I see us moving in the right direction. And I’m still learning by being around so much talent. What about other business models—pop-ups and the like? Robbie: To give quality food at a good price is always such a battle. I learned a lot—hands-on learning—with Marketplace when I helped them with their three locations. That was 18-plus years ago now, and the fast-casual model just made 100% sense. At the time it was so new for the customers—we had to train the customers, too. When I opened my first restaurant, it was kind of a hybrid of that—a fast-casual restaurant. You’ve got to really listen to what’s working. Hannah: To respond to what Mark was saying about people wanting to make reservations and plan their experience, I would push back a bit, because the pop-up business model is so reliant on people who don’t do that. The whole idea is that we say, “Hey, we’re going to be at this farm on this day.” And we’ve been busy.

“The first people that I met were the farmers I would be working with. That is probably the biggest reason I stayed.”

Hannah Wong

What attracted you to the Berkshires—do you consider it a food destination? Matt: The obvious reasons for me were topographical beauty and the arts that were preexisting here. I was itching to be in the food business outside of a city, in an agricultural area. There aren’t a lot of choices in the country when it comes to places that are pretty progressive and have a great art scene. Hannah: I had worked in cities my entire adult life, so this was new to me. As soon as I moved up, I knew that I made the right decision, because the first people that I met were the farmers I would be working with. That is probably the biggest reason I stayed. Hagai: We came here because we have friends in the area, but we stayed because of the people we met. Adi: We’ve learned a lot since we opened. We had a vision of what we wanted to build, something very simple. We got pretty incredible recognition from the community. Chris: I don’t think you can extricate food from culture and everything else. You’re going to be hard pressed to find areas in the country where there’s great culture where there isn’t access to good food. Which came first? They are linked together, and so, inherently, we are a food destination. Whether you come here for Jacob’s Pillow and then go to eat, or you come here to eat and then go to Jacob’s Pillow, it’s a package deal. Let’s talk about the social scene for young people. There’s a lot of talk about Gen Z not drinking as much. How does that affect things? Mark: There’s no late night anymore. There’s so much more food, and we’re busy, but there’s no longer a 9–11 crowd. Chris: A lot of things are changing in the bar business. Consumption of cannabis, in particular, is cutting back on consumption of booze. Not in a huge way, but it’s affecting it. There’s a component of health consciousness and what people are viewing as healthy. There’s a component that’s starting to affect the alcohol industry and probably restaurants, as well, with Ozempic and the likes coming in. Matt: I think you put those multiple elements together—Mark’s talking about the demographic shift and you’re talking about cannabis and Ozempic and all these things—and it sounds like a perfect storm. Chris: There’s a much bigger problem in the Berkshires for young people though: housing. It’s super hard to find and it’s expensive. At the crux of the issue is how tough it is to draw people in because they try to find a one-bedroom apartment and it costs a fortune. That takes us to the issue of staffing. Matt: That’s the gift that keeps on giving. You bring people in, you’re looking for people who are smart and have integrity and character. In a lot of situations, you should expect to show them everything. They may come in with virtually no food service background whatsoever. That’s an interesting challenge. Nancy: You hire for character and train for the rest. There is an enormous amount of training in the Berkshires. It’s akin to an apprenticeship culture in restaurants, front and back of the house, that you’re constantly bringing people up and through, and then you pray that they might stick with you for a while. Mark: It’s also a generational thing. This is such a blanket statement—sorry—but with younger people, nobody asks questions anymore. I worked as a bartender at Balthazar, probably one of the busiest restaurants in New York, but when I bring people on, nobody says to me, “How did you make a martini?” With the cell phone, there’s a perception that we have so much knowledge at our fingertips that we no longer need to ask basic questions. Matt: One of the things that I find myself trying to train for is an openness to not always being sure about what the best answer is. We’re going to try and find what the best answer is. There are going to be things that are beyond your control, there are going to be surprises. This is inevitable. Hagai: It’s worldwide. One thing that’s changed the restaurant scene [in Israel] has been all the cooking reality shows. People don’t get that it takes peeling 1, 2, 5,000 potatoes before you come to the stove. Hannah: When I moved up here, I learned that the demographic was very different from the city pipeline of industry people who work their way up. Here, it was a lot of local farm kids. Even though they may not have the tangible skill set, they have this work ethic that’s ingrained in their way of living, and the attention span and the ability to do different tasks. Chris: Anyone who grows up on a farm is a problem solver.

Speaking of farms, what flavor, so to speak, do our local growers give your businesses? Nancy: I love farmers. Starting with great ingredients, we can all attest, makes our jobs easier and more beautiful. It’s extremely difficult to work in the fields, with everything that it takes from the time commitment to how physical the labor is, so supporting the stewardship of the land and the quality of the food is correct on all levels. Now that the food in the supermarkets has gotten more expensive, it makes it easier to buy from the farmers. The quality of all of it is really special, and it attracts talented cooks to come here. Mark: I just love seeing them pull up in their vans every Thursday. How is business this season? Mark: I don’t know if it’s completely due to the fact that we’re taking reservations, or that last year was an election year and people hoarded their pennies, and maybe people went abroad more because we were still in that post-COVID period, and they’re thinking, “We saved up, let’s go to Greece,” but to be already 20% up in May is kind of insane. Hannah: The response to our pop-ups has been very receptive, very warm, very open to a different kind of dining experience. I’ve been very encouraged by that. I don’t know if that’s partly why we may be so busy, because we have a different flavor profile. Matt: It might also have something to do with how good your food is. I manage a nonprofit called the Kitchen Work Foundation [which provides financial support and mentorship to food entrepreneurs, and recently awarded its first residency]. Hannah won that award; I was lucky enough to have a week’s worth of Hannah’s cooking at Heirloom Lodge in April. From the staff collaborating with her, the clientele experiencing her food, and me working hand in hand with somebody so talented, it was just incredibly gratifying. One of the most thrilling professional experiences of my life.

“Starting with great ingredients makes our jobs easier and more beautiful.”

Nancy Thomas

These days, everybody’s buzzing about the place where we’re sitting—The Cliff House at Prospect. Nancy, how does it feel to be so in demand? Nancy: In the beginning we had a limited amount of staff in the kitchen and on the floor, so we said we’re only going to do X amount of covers and test the system. I want this operation to be well run. We’re all tired of hearing about businesses where people say, “If they can only get it together.” That’s not a good look for the Berkshires and not for this beautiful property. With the food, I always say “go slow to go fast,” which feels very Berkshires to me. Meaning be very intentional as you approach everything. Try to get the details right and then be ready with a strong foundation to accept more business. What do you love about being in hospitality? Hagai: It’s all about the people. Here, they are not shy about giving you reviews immediately. I worked at very high-volume restaurants and it’s just less stressful here. Even on a busy day, it’s more chill. Hannah: Moving from a larger city, [I appreciate] the ability to have real relationships with farmers and professionals. Coming up here meant more attention around the conversations, more space, more time to really problem solve together and support each other. To me, that’s the reason to be in business here. Chris: The food is great but so is everything else. There are so many different components that come together and make the Berkshires the Berkshires. When you get older and you travel around, most of us can choose where we want to live. We’re all super fortunate to be here. Nancy: I love that you just said that where we live has a high quality of life. It aligns with my values, which is a choice. In my career, I get to have a lot of creativity—to problem solve, to work with farmers, to be a part of the narrative and the storytelling of the Berkshires, to join organizations and work with young people, and to move 100 miles an hour, which suits my personality. This community has supported that as a business and allowed me to be operational, to be the female leader that I want to be. That feels like a gift, and I’m grateful to share that. Matt: I have been living here now for about four years, so I’m more junior than some people. But I can’t help but feel that this is a growth moment and I have the sense that just about anything is possible here. I sometimes make a joke that the restaurant business would be a breeze if it weren’t for the people—the staff and the clientele and the whole thing. Of course, the reason that joke gets a little laugh is the flip side, which is that the restaurant business has the capacity to be magical because of the people.

“The thing that thrills me more than anything is when guests walk in with very open minds and then we do something a little bit different.”

Mark Firth

What are some things that customers can do to support you? Mark: Be patient. Be nice. The thing that thrills me more than anything, and I can imagine that I’m not the only one at the table that feels this way, is when guests walk in with very open minds and then we do something a little bit different. Adi: I hear it when I talk to every table. My favorite example is this: I brought shakshuka to two 90-year-old friends. As I was leaving their table, one of them said to the other, “I’m feeling so exotic.” I loved hearing that. Conversation has been edited for length and clarity.