By Amy Conway
Photographs by Stephanie Zollshan
One Saturday night in July, during Doctor Sax House’s soft launch phase, people were coming up the front walk and through the front door, which was standing ajar invitingly. “Are you…open?” they would ask. There wasn’t even a sign outside yet—fitting for an establishment said to have had a speakeasy in the basement at one point—but it was already giving off the vibe that good times were to be had.
The nine-room boutique hotel and lounge/café, formerly the Candlelight Inn on the corner of Walker and Church Streets in Lenox, was named after a 1959 Jack Kerouac novel. New owners, Bryan and Kelly Binder, who have an 8-month-old daughter, were visiting the area from New York a few years ago when they noticed that the building was for sale.
“We started peeking in the windows,” said Kelly, “and saw how beautiful it was.” It has “good bones,” agreed Bryan, but required extensive renovations. Kelly designed the spaces with an elegance that’s tempered by playfulness.
While this is their first foray into hospitality—Bryan is in finance and Kelly has a background in healthcare technology—they have traveled extensively together and those experiences inform their vision for Doctor Sax. “That European sense of leisure, at 4:00 p.m. it becomes aperitivo hour and you’re having your snacks and your drinks and you’re not rushed,” says Kelly. “That’s something that we love.”
The space lends itself to that, with two parlors, a “four season” room, and a chic, cozy bar; there will be live music and other programming as well, and Bryan has the spot picked out for dancing. The all-day menu offers both small and large plates so people can stop by for a quick bite or settle in for a meal; Chef Tiffany Flowers was previously at Antimony in Lenox.
“There’s just some very good energy here,” said Bryan. And the cocktails are classics—French 75, anyone?
B35 Walker Street, Lenox
doctorsaxhouse.com
