North Adams' Mohawk Bar on Track for Reopening
.JPG) The Mohawk is being updated and should reopen in the next couple months. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Nearly two years after it closed, a newly refurbished Mohawk Tavern is expected to open by late spring.
The tavern's new owner, Alexander "Sandy" Smith, also chef-owner of Gramercy Bistro, was approved on Monday night by the Planning Board.
"It's just going to be a nice, warm, safe, welcoming spot to have an adult beverage — beer, glass of wine — maybe play a little pool," Smith told the planners.
Smith is operating the historic bar as Pickled Olive LLC; Scott Harris, who has worked at a number of restaurant bars in the area, has been hired as general manager. He was approved for an alcohol license in February.
The business owner may be new but the name will remain the Mohawk as building owner David Moresi pledged last year.
Moresi's grandfather opened the Mohawk in 1933 and had owned its current location in the 1913 Mulcare Building on Marshall Street until 1960. When the building came up for foreclosure in 2013, Moresi, who owns local contracting and property management company Moresi & Associates, snapped it up.
Work on the building began last year but it wasn't until a recent break in the frigid cold that crews could really begin serious construction.
"It was so cold this winter there'd have been no productivity here," Moresi said. Instead, his employees have been busy at larger projects around North County. But as those neared completion and the weather improved, the work began shifting to the century-old building.
"This has been going on for a while," Moresi said last week amid a cacophony of carpentry noises.
There's still lots of work ahead before opening the rejuvenated bar and a new Italian restaurant, "Grazie," next door. But the bulk of the "non-sexy" but critical work — plumbing, electrical and heating — has been completed. Historic windows are being refurbished and upper windows in the three-story structure have been replaced with energy-efficient sound-deadening replacements.
Downstairs, the Mohawk's long bar has been shortened to allow access to a central foyer and the new restaurant. It also has two new handicapped accessible bathrooms to replace the single unisex restroom that dated back to when the Mohawk was considered a "man's bar."
The 1930s moldings and woodwork is being retained and buffed up, although the 1970s-era chandeliers will be swapped out for something more appropriate.
The restaurant, most recently Smith's short-lived RUB barbecue joint, has been mostly gutted to make way for a new commercial kitchen, updated bathrooms and space for informal eating, a lounge and a dining area proper. Here, too, most of the original American chestnut moldings and components are being restored in place or repurposed in new areas.
Sheets of faux beadboard — all chestnut — will be reused in the lounge, other large pieces have been transformed into custom doors.
"The whole entire restaurant and the bar is a restoration," Moresi said. "The apartments, there's not a real set theme for the apartments. It's preservation of the features that were there but we're not doing a restoration."
The main foyer on Marshall will open onto the tavern (through an arched brick opening that had been closed up), the restaurant and the central staircase to the apartments above. A large skylight in the stairwell gives the illusion of being outdoors.
 What is believed to be an old incinerator has been restored. |
The six long- and short-term units in the upper floors will have modern, updated kitchen and bathrooms. The original plaster walls and floors will be refinished; the worn and notched chestnut moldings repaired but painted.
"There was a lot of years of neglect, water damage, it's all been taken care of," Moresi said. Other than modernization, the units themselves aren't undergoing any radical changes. "We've gone with the original layouts. That's sufficient for us here."
The backs of the units open out onto porches and exterior exits. Also in the back, a trash chute and what was probably the brick incinerator has been restored and its cast-iron Hunter Machine door rehung. Local historian Paul Marino believes its the only garbage chute left in the city.
Moresi has high hopes for the building's commercial and residential opportunities, describing its location as "ground zero" in the redevelopment being sparked by Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
The museum, just a few steps away, is about to undergo a $60 million expansion and the building it owns across the street from the Muclare Block — the old Brien Center — is set to be removed in favor of a park and outdoor gathering space. Paths through and around the museum are being designed to encourage some of the 150,000 or so visitors every year out toward the downtown. In partnership with several other development groups, the museum hopes to create a circular path through Western Gateway Heritage State Park, the downtown and Marshall Street.
The city lost out on a $6 million MassWorks grant to complement the museum's efforts with a redesign of Center Street to make it more attractive and walkable but Moresi is confident that the next attempt will bear fruit.
"Here's the private investment for that grant," he said. "If we can get the public investment, that will transform this whole corner."
The Mohawk will definitely be open by late June's Solid Sound Festival, and likely before that. The restaurant's target date is August, about the same time the residential units will be open.
"Restaurant is going to be a homerun ... It's all local, local ties, local names and local reputations," he said. "And it's a good following. This is the Italian restaurant."
Moresi's holding the name of the restaurant operator close for now.
"There are a lot of reasons why I bought this building, there were personal reasons," he said. "It's a good building."
Tags: new business, alcohol, bars, taverns, historical building, renovation, reopening,
