Lynn and I went Upstate a couple of weeks ago and had the opportunity to hop over the border to Massachusetts to check out Great Barrington and Sturbridge. Lynn checked out the dining scene prior and settled on Allium Restauraunt on Railroad Street in Great Barrington. Allium prides itself on stocking its menu with offerings sourced from local farms and food producers in the region. In addition, the building itself was also created with the same sense of care and mindfulness that the owners have put into the menu being built with a majority of recycled materials while utilizing low VOC paints and sealers.
Of course all of the good intentions in the world won't make for a superior dining experience which this was definitively. Lynn had PEI Mussels and I had locally foraged hen of the woods mushrooms which I have never had except once from our local CSA the Hamlet Organic Garden. I also had a great Vesper martini whose origin is of course from the Ian Fleming/007 novel Casino Royale (again not something I had seen on a menu previous). Most charming of all was the way our attractive, sweet waitress (improbably named Huckleberry) knocked a glass of water into my lap, Lynn laughed and laughed at her momentary and uncharacteristic lapse in agility and I, flattered somehow that she chose me among her patrons to dump water on, tried to take it in stride as did Cary Grant when Audrey Hepburn spilled an ice cream cone onto him in Charade. I laughed to myself thinking what a great story this waitress helped create for Mark and Lynn....
