Head to The Mountain _ View, that is

By Glenn DrohanPrint Story | Email Story
CLARKSBURG — Michael Milazzo started out looking to buy a nice little bar where he and his wife could enjoy a couple of drinks and some live music. He found the bar but never dreamed it would be attached to one of the largest dining facilities in North Berkshire with one of the best views around. Milazzo’s newly revamped Mountain View, just over the North Adams line on Easy Street (off Houghton) opened in October for drinks and quietly expanded last month into a steak and seafood restaurant with late-night dancing to live bands every weekend and seating for more than 300. Along the way Milazzo has added some personal touches — game dinners every night (ostrich, elk or venison, and, soon to come, alligator), a piano in the main dining room and a 34-foot-long bar with a section of metal railroad track as a footrest. The most popular addition, and a regular topic of conversation in the lounge, is an “ice rail” running the length of the bar on which patrons can rest their beer or drinks and know they will always stay cold. “Everybody talks about it — of lot of them don’t even notice it until they put their hand down and say wow that’s cold!” Milazzo said during an interview at the restaurant Tuesday. Well, sure. It’s a half-inch of ice 6 inches wide kept perpetually frozen by a compressor in the basement. It has to be seen (or felt) to be appreciated. Milazzo got the idea from a tavern in Colorado. But there’s a lot more to the Mountain View than the ice rail. Virtually everything is new except the 40-foot-by 40-foot hardwood dance floor, which Milazzo and his father, Tony, managed to salvage from the long-vacant former nightspot — previously infamous for hosting male strippers nearly two decades ago. The Milazzos replaced the roof, the doors, the windows, the floors. They added new siding. They repaved the road. They added all new kitchen equipment. They built the bar. They installed two televisions and a video game machine. They did keep the knotty-pine walls in the lounge and dining areas, which gives the restaurant a rustic feel in an atmosphere of casual elegance. The bar business so far has been “phenomenal,” Milazzo said, and the weekend entertainment popular, but people are just starting to realize the Mountain View also offers food — a lounge menu from 1 p.m. to midnight and dinner from 4 to 9 p.m. Anyone who misses the OLD Captain’s Table in Williamstown (before the change in ownership two years ago), take note: Randy Beaudoin, chef there for 18 years, is now executive chef for the Mountain View. “I’ve given him free rein,” Milazzo said. So far that means high-end steaks, shrimp, scallops, cedar-planked salmon, chicken, the specially ordered farm-raised game and huge cuts of prime rib (“I’ve never seen anyone finish the king cut,” Milazzo said). Beaudoin will also entertain customer requests. The price range is $15.95 to $22.95 (for the king cut). The lounge menu includes appetizers in the $4.95 to $8.95 range, from buffalo wings (made from chicken, not buffalos — so far), to jalapeno poppers, shrimp, scallops and calamari. Children can order a hamburger, chicken fingers, linguine or even calamari for $5.95 to $7.95 — or anything on the adult’s menu for 60 percent of the cost. Milazzo said he really wants to add alligator spare ribs to the menu but hasn’t been able to find a supplier yet. On most evenings, the piano, which he bought for one of his sons, is put to good use in the dining room — quiet background music by popular local artists, including the Paul DiLego Trio, Josh Sprague and Ricky Lauria. Weekend entertainment runs the gamut, from classic rock and roll to popular new bands. This Friday [Dec. 17], it will be RU Ready from 9:30 to closing (2 a.m.). On Saturday, Sarcastic Gnat from Vermont, specializing in older rock & roll and cover songs will play. Minor Setback, a South County band that features old rock, will perform on Dec. 23. The restaurant and bar will be open Christmas Eve from 1 to 9 (lounge menu only) but closed Christmas. The Mountain View New Year’s Eve party $10 cover includes party favor and champagne toast) will feature the local band Plumb Crazy. Milazzo has plans to host a nationally known comedian as well as more regionally known bands. The cover charge usually is $3 but goes up to $5 for bigger acts. Check The Advocate Nightlife calendar for upcoming entertainment. Milazzo is no stranger to entrepreneurship. He and his father are partners in T & M Auto, on Curran Highway in North Adams and Columbia Street in Adams. The younger Milazzo joined his father in the business after graduating from the automotive program at C.H. McCann Technical School in 1986. He also owns Twisted Ink, a tattoo emporium next to T & M in Adams, which he started two years ago. But the Mountain View is his new love — and his new labor. With his kitchen staff, bartenders, wait staff and maintenance crew, he employs about 45 people, three of them full-time (himself, Beaudoin and Jennifer Beverly of North Adams, “front end manager,” who handles scheduling, coordinates the staff, does the restaurant’s ordering and performs other tasks). Milazzo and his wife, the former Jodi Lescarbeau, have two children, Anthony, 14, and Michael, 12. Jodi Milazzo, a registered nurse, is health administrator for the city school system and also works at North Adams Regional Hospital. She’s also taking classes in her “spare time.” “Between her work and mine, we really don’t see each other enough,” Milazzo said. They do manage to find time to enjoy their new enterprise, which came about, he said, because of their desire to find a “nice, clean place we could enjoy on the weekends.” “My kids got old enough to stay home by themselves. My wife and I wanted to go out dancing and to have a good time, and there was no place locally,” he said. “The area was lacking in a spot that was clean and safe, so we decided “let’s do one.’ We thought there had to be more people like us who wanted a nice environment to go to.” Milazzo said he hadn’t even heard of The Mountain View until a friend suggested it might be just the spot he was looking for. It wasn’t on the market, but Milazzo said he went up and knocked on the door one day, talked with previous owner Sandy Lemieux, who had been living in the apartment downstairs, and struck a deal. The Adams Cooperative Bank helped with the financing (“They’ve been great,” he said), his father helped with the carpentry, and there they were, opening their own place with the stuff that dreams are made of. To get there: Go to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art on Marshall Street in North Adams and proceed past it to the stoplight at River and Houghton streets. Go straight up Houghton nine-tenths of a mile. Just past the Clarksburg line, look for Easy Street and the Mountain View sign on the left. The restaurant is at the top of the hill. Ample parking is in back. Mountain View offers not only views of the nearby Hoosac Range and a partial view of Mount Greylock on the enclosed and heated porch (which seats at least 60) but also views of downtown North Adams, now adorned in its holiday finery. Reservations are not necessary but are recommended, especially for special events. Call 664-9111.
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Friends of Great Barrington Libraries Holiday Book Sale

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Friends of Great Barrington Libraries invite the community to shop their annual Holiday Good-as-New Book Sale, happening now through the end of the year at the Mason Library, 231 Main Street. 
 
With hundreds of curated gently used books to choose from—fiction, nonfiction, children's favorites, gift-quality selections, cookbooks, and more—it's the perfect local stop for holiday gifting.
 
This year's sale is an addition to the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce's Holiday Stroll on this Saturday, Dec. 13, 3–8 PM. Visitors can swing by the Mason Library for early parking, browse the sale until 3:00 PM, then meet Pete the Cat on the front lawn before heading downtown for the Stroll's shopping, music, and festive eats.
 
Can't make the Holiday Stroll? The book sale is open during regular Mason Library hours throughout December.
 
Proceeds support free library programming and events for all ages.
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