Ta Bellas Italian Restaurant Opens in North Adams

'Chef Alex' and owner Farhi Karakaya are reopening MediTerra in North Adams as an Italian restaurant.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — New restaurant Ta Bellas is bringing Italian cuisine back to North Adams.

Owner Fahri Karakaya has reopened Mediterra on Main Street as an Italian restaurant, which the city has not had since the closing of Red Sauce two years ago and Isabella's a year or so before that.

"This area in Northern Berkshire needs an Italian restaurant," Karakaya said. "The menu is purely Italian, and the name is Ta Bellas, 'the beautiful tables.'"

Karakaya explained that he made the switch to Italian because his newly hired chef specializes in Italian cooking. "Chef Alex," most recently of Haflinger Haus in Adams, felt North Adams was in need of an Italian restaurant and wanted to bring his skills to the table.

"He is very dedicated and ambitions, and I am hoping it is going to work," Karakaya said. "That’s why I changed it based on his experience and his ideas."

This is Karakaya's third try at an eatery in two years in the corner location that was once the Boston Store. The Local opened in 2012 as a sandwich and coffee shop, similar to previous occupants Petrino's and Cup & Saucer. Last year, he switched to a Mediterranean menu but closed in the fall to concentrate on a new restaurant on Spring Street in Williamstown.

Although Ta Bellas is open, Karakaya chose to have a soft opening to see how it does and how his newly constructed menu and team work. Karakaya is experimenting with the new restaurant so he can provide the best service during a grander opening.

"I don't mind if I serve a couple of tables, and you can't always see the problem when you try something new and different, he said. "Make it go slowly, and if there is a problem you can easily fix it."

Ta Bellas started serving a small lunch menu in addition to dinner. Karakaya said eventually he would like to serve Sunday breakfast.

"Since I have taken over this place, Sundays have been my best days ever," Karakaya said. "Many people are going to church and after church everyone is here."

Hancock Town Meeting Votes to Strike Meme Some Found 'Divisive'

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
10:40PM / Monday, May 06, 2024

Hancock town meeting members Monday vote on a routine item early in the meeting.

HANCOCK, Mass. — By the narrowest of margins Monday, the annual town meeting voted to strike from the town report messaging that some residents described as, "inflammatory," "divisive" and unwelcoming to new residents.

 

On a vote of 50-48, the meeting voted to remove the inside cover of the report as it appeared on the town website and in printed versions distributed prior to the meeting and at the elementary school on Monday night.

 

The text, which appeared to be a reprinted version of an Internet meme, read, "You came here from there because you didn't like it there, and now you want to change here to be like there. You are welcome here, only don't try to make here like there. If you want to make here like there, you shouldn't have left there in the first place."

 

After the meeting breezed through the first 18 articles on the town meeting warrant agenda with hardly a dissenting vote, a member rose to ask if it would be unreasonable for the meeting to vote to remove the meme under Article 19, the "other business" article.

 

"No, you cannot remove it," Board of Selectmen Chair Sherman Derby answered immediately.

 

After it became clear that Moderator Brian Fairbank would entertain discussion about the meme, Derby took the floor to address the issue that has been discussed in town circles since the report was printed earlier this spring.

 

"Let me tell you about something that happened this year," Derby said. "The School Department got rid of Christmas. And they got rid of Columbus Day. Now it's Indigenous People's Day.