By Ann Volkwein
Photographs by Gregory Cherin
Olivia Pattison runs a strictly from-scratch, farm-to-table establishment. Pop in under the rainbow flag for breakfast or lunch, burger night on Fridays, or a “fancier” Monday night dinner, hop on a counter stool, and you’ll be served what’s in season, full stop. One bite of bread says it all, as the local grains don’t lie.
The tin ceilings, neon signs, and chalk-drawn menu are core to the vibe and faithful to the authentic, unassuming bones of the building. It’s a key point, as it was this room that sold the area to Pattison, chef-owner of the Neon Newt, and her partner, Molly Stevens, a nurse. “I literally walked through the front door and was like, ‘this must be mine,’” says Pattison. Becket is also comfortably situated between Pattison’s family in Troy, New York, and Stevens’ in Connecticut. They moved from Martha’s Vineyard in 2022.
And that fresh, local ethos is core to the chef herself. Unable to find a summer job beyond camp counselor in Troy, Pattison went to Martha’s Vineyard, where her aunt lives. “I lived in a pop-up camper in the back of some family friends’ yard and worked doing a bunch of different things, but I ended up farming. I also always cooked, there was cooking throughout my life. With farming, you’d leave work with bags and bags of stuff and then say, ‘what are we going to do with it?’ It’s nearly perfect, you just want to cook it lightly. I basically never really cooked not farm to table.”
Pattison landed her first gig in a restaurant on Martha’s Vineyard off a banana cream pie that she brought to a dinner party. Her friend’s then-boyfriend offered her the job. “I learned fast and loose because I had to. It was very much a restaurant with all the problems that restaurants are famous for. I got yelled at; I got called stupid.” But as pastry chef, she was generally able to carve out her space and, as it was seasonal, she worked internships in San Francisco in the wintertime to further her baking craft.
From there she began to sell her bread at the farmers market, and honed her restaurant skills at the Dock Street Coffee Shop. “It was a super-fast pace. You had to focus. A tiny place that cranked out food. I fell in love with the griddle, and breakfast, for that matter.”
Eventually, she started doing once-a-week pop-up dinners, serving locally sourced Americana-style foods. “It was basically the start of what became the Neon Newt.” This experience and a year co-owning her own place on the island, Seaweeds, convinced her to follow the restaurant thread and import it to the Berkshires. “That’s how I learned that I love having a restaurant.”
But not dinner every night. “We own the building, so our overhead is low, which is how we’re able to do what we’re doing and have a life.”
Pattison feels embraced by the wider community here, and people stop in from far and wide on their way to Jacob’s Pillow or MASS MoCA. To the side of the dining room, she has set up a small grocery, selling local milk, bread, eggs, meat, sandwiches, candy, and her creamy soft serve. Friday burger nights please everyone, while Monday night dinners are special and can range from Italian to French bistro, Mexican to “Silk Road,” with the added inspiration of her treasured team of people. Breakfast and lunch are her main events, and that griddle is bangin’. Try the pancakes—Pattison is confident they’re the best in the area. Salads are not an afterthought here, and her unusual wine offerings pair beautifully.
Pattison buys whole pigs from Kinderhook and uses every bit of them; one recent Monday night menu included pork rillettes, lardons, and “GIANT” pork chops. She cures her own bacon and makes her own jam. “I’ve got tons of jams in the freezer. And I’ll roast fruit and have that in quart containers so that we have exciting things to pull out for desserts on Mondays in the winter. Blueberries, strawberries, just bag them up and then you feel rich.”
She reflects, “It’s exciting and new because every season is different.” Future plans include improvements on the space. Pointing to a side building, she adds, “I’m still going bit by bit. Do you see that ugly building there? I’m going to tear that down, that’s our future patio. One day we’ll have nice silverware, too.”
Why the Neon Newt?
“Because newts are awesome! Such magical little creatures. How could you not be filled with joy by a little orange friend?” exclaims Pattison, who has drawn an animal a day for over 12 years (she has a BFA in printmaking), without missing a day—@animaleveryday. “Which is maybe more interesting than my restaurant, but who can say. It’s a part of my story.”
