image description — The former owners of the Olde Heritage Tavern in Lenox are opening a restaurant in the Holiday Inn in Pittsfield.

Former Lenox Tavern Owners to Open Eatery at Pittsfield Hotel

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
02:20AM / Monday, August 09, 2021Print Story | Email Story

The new logo speaks to McNinch's love of Dalmatians.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The former owners of the Olde Heritage Tavern in Lenox are opening a restaurant in the Holiday Inn after selling the eatery in March.

The new venture called 101 Restaurant and Bar is named after John McNinch and his family's love for Dalmatians and will serve a slightly elevated version of the American cuisine that they are known for.

Their goal is to create another feel-good space where residents and visitors can have a nice meal or a drink.

"We want to bring just a nice, local friendly location, like The Heritage was in Lenox," McNinch said. "Obviously, we're gonna have the hotel guests as regular, direct customers and then we want just a place for people to be comfortable and happy."

On Monday, he announced in a Facebook post that he and his son Tucker will be re-entering the hospitality industry but this time, in downtown Pittsfield.

"Here we go again! So happy to announce that Tucker and I will be starting the McNinch Restaurant Group (MRG)!" McNinch wrote. "Ever since we sold the Heritage 4 months ago, we have been looking for the best way to create MRG, and can now share that our first restaurant, 101, will be opening soon at the Holiday Inn in Pittsfield. (the old Crowne Plaza) Follow us at the MRG and 101 pages for updates!"

The plan is to be open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a focus on more entree offerings as well as bar food. McNinch wants to open for just breakfast as soon as possible while the liquor license is being transferred over and they plan for full-day operations.

"Our dinners will be more on the entree side and you know, we will still have some of the similar things, we'll still have burgers but we're just going to have more steaks and things like that," he said. "It's what you want to call sort of a next step up from the Heritage."

McNinch announced the sale of their former restaurant in March to buyers who are currently operating it under the same name. He said it was time to move on after 21 years and test different waters.

Though they weren't specifically searching for a location in Pittsfield, the opportunity to be in the Holiday Inn was presented and they saw it as a chance to add to the downtown dining scene.

The empty space within the hotel previously housed Jae's One West Asian-fusion restaurant and has been shuttered for months.

"My son and I, when we decided when we were selling the Heritage, that we were going to go into business together and start a business together, we had some things that we were thinking about doing, and trying to do that didn't work out," McNinch explained.

"We thought we would be helping to operate some restaurants in the area, and then as we were looking for different things, we're looking to purchase and do other things here, this sort of just fell into our lap and we started looking at it, and we got excited about it."

In addition, he and his son have future plans to start a training program that gives people who are not experienced in the restaurant industry skills that can be used to make a fulfilling career while filling jobs in the area.

This would be possible because of the large size of the kitchen facilities at the hotel.

"Getting staff has always been, especially on the kitchen side, has always been an incredibly hard thing to do in this area, getting trained staff is really hard," McNinch said.

"So we want to sort of work on a little training program where we bring people in, we train them, and then we help them find jobs in the area, it's just sort of an extra thing we want to do to sort of bringing just a lot of a lot of people to work in this industry."

They are currently beginning the hiring process for a chef, kitchen, and wait staff. Because of local and national trends that are rendering the hospitality industry short-staffed during the pandemic, he has some concern with staffing and won't begin dinner until they are fully staffed to best serve new and old customers.

McNinch is excited to be applying the principles that made the Heritage a well-loved destination into a new location with a new spin.

Tags: new business, restaurants,

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Texas-Style Barbecue Opens for Lunch, Takeout in Downtown Pittsfield

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:16PM / Tuesday, October 06, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — FireKing BBQ is making it easier to find its smoked ribs — they're in the Clocktower Building in downtown Pittsfield.

Owner Ethan Sumner has been operating as a catering service for more than a decade, with a mobile smoker for his award-winning barbecue.

"We specialize in low and slow cooking as well as grilling over charcoal and hardwoods," he said. "We love using cherry wood, apple wood, and a little kiss of hickory wood in all of our cooking. Most of our cooking, I should say. And we don't use any propane. I'm a purist in that sense. I love cooking over open flame and hot coals."

He works alongside Robear Robespierre, who helps with Sumner's sales and distribution.

Sumner said he spends hours cooking his meat, like his baby back ribs that won him first place in the 2019 Grillsdale competition in New York State. It takes him about six hours, two of them smoking at 250 degrees, to cook the ribs.

He said he wanted a space to be able to keep up with demand. Business dropped off every winter because people think of barbecue as outdoor food, and while he will cook outside even in negative temperatures, an indoor space lets him serve year-round, including football season and the Super Bowl.

He is now located at 75 South Church St. and he is no stranger to the building. Sumner had run the publication Berkshire's Best: Buys, Business, and Beyond out of the building so he knew its possibilities.

"It's funny how I've come full circle here back into the building. So I've always kind of seen this space. But I was never into culinary then. I was into publishing. So this is 13 years in the making, and I had my paper for 13 years, which again, is coincidental," he said. "So I just really like this space. It's modern. It's nice. It's clean, and that's how my food is. It's clean. It's fresh, and it's local, just like me."

Sumner is originally from New York City and made his way to Great Barrington with his family. One of the inspirations behind his business was his father, who loved to grill outside.

"Even when we lived in New York City, he would go on the terrace of our 36-story apartment building on the third floor there was a terrace, and he would always cook on a Weber charcoal grill with charcoal, and I always was fascinated by that. And he always loved cooking outside, and he loved cooking over charcoal. And he would always make this mustard and tea leaf steak," he said. "That was a standout. It was a family favorite of ours and I could always taste the difference between something that was cooked [with charcoal]. Even when I was 7 years old I could, I always craved that certain taste that you could only get from charcoal."

He wants customers to know he cares about his food and its quality, making sure he gets the best ingredients for his dishes.

"I want them to know that. I'm a barbecue guy, but I also offer so much more. I consider myself somebody who loves cooking over open flame, smoking meats, but I also love using fresh ingredients to create deli sandwiches and fresh salads," Sumner said. "So I want people to associate FireKing with quality. I also want to point out that I get a lot of my meat from Mazzeo's meat market. So I don't sacrifice quality, which I think is half the battle in doing what I do is getting quality meats and produce."

He hopes customer will find the eatery a comfortable atmosphere to enjoy their lunch and hangout, or grab a sandwich and go.

"They could grab a pulled pork sandwich in about a minute and a half flat and be out of here if they want to. So there's no pressure," he said. "I love the community. I love talking to people here. Everyone in this community has been super kind and gracious, and I appreciate them. And I want to give back what they've given me."

He also plans to have DoorDash and barbecue pickup packages for families, and to have vacuum-sealed, pre-cooked smoked ribs with reheating instructions, also available for local pickup.

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