image description
Dan Flatch of Bon Tricycle and Hot Tomatoes owner Matthew England teamed up to create Crisp.

Hot Tomatoes Pizza Now Served At Bright Ideas Brewery

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Crisp by Hot Tomatoes Pizza is now served at Bright Ideas Brewery.

“They are good with beer we are good with food,” Hot Tomatoes owner Matthew England said. “It’s pizza and beer; what more could you ask for?”

Dan Flatch of Bon Tricycle previously manned the food cart at Bright Ideas Brewery, however, he needed a little help so he teamed up England and created Crisp, which features an abbreviated Hot Tomatoes menu and some of Bon Tricycle’s signature dishes.

“It is a fun casual idea and it is just a kind of a play off the menu but a little more fun,” England said. “We pre-make all of our crust, have it delivered and people can order a signature dish or customize.”

England pointed to a cart with standard pizza toppings such as cherry tomatoes and pepperoni but also more exotic toppings such as roasted garlic, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto to enhance the many craft beers Bright Ideas offers.

England said the magic of Crisp comes from their special oven that can cook a pizza quickly and in some instances 90 seconds.

Bright Ideas owner Orion Howard said he hopes that having a larger menu in the brewery will bring more people in, especially locals.

“Anything we bring in here that will bring in people from the city is a welcome thing, and we want this to be a community melting pot,” Howard said. “We want to get people from the city in here and keep people that are leaving the museum in town. You can do it with beer but you can’t do it for everybody with beer and having pizza in here is going to help.”

Howard said Bright Ideas wants visitors to explore the city and not just visit the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts and go back to their hotel.

“Anything that keeps visitors here in town is good for everybody,” he said.

England said he hopes to have a grand opening next week and plans to use this weekend as a soft opening.

“We just want to get our feet in the door and figure out the feng shui of all of this,” England said. 

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Macksey Updates on Eagle Street Demo and Myriad City Projects

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

The back of Moderne Studio in late January. The mayor said the city had begun planning for its removal if the owner could not address the problems. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Moderne Studio building is coming down brick by brick on Eagle Street on the city's dime. 
 
Concerns over the failing structure's proximity to its neighbor — just a few feet — means the demolition underway is taking far longer than usual. It's also been delayed somewhat because of recent high winds and weather. 
 
The city had been making plans for the demolition a month ago because of the deterioration of the building, Mayor Jennifer Macksey told the City Council on Tuesday. The project was accelerated after the back of the 150-year-old structure collapsed on March 5
 
Initial estimates for demolition had been $190,000 to $210,000 and included asbestos removal. Those concerns have since been set aside after testing and the mayor believes that the demolition will be lower because it is not a hazardous site.
 
"We also had a lot of contractors who came to look at it for us to not want to touch it because of the proximity to the next building," she said. "Unfortunately time ran out on that property and we did have the building failure. 
 
"And it's an unfortunate situation. I think most of us who have lived here our whole lives and had our pictures taken there and remember being in the window so, you know, we were really hoping the building could be safe."
 
Macksey said the city had tried working with the owner, who could not find a contractor to demolish the building, "so we found one for him."
 
View Full Story

More North Adams Stories