"We're nervous, but excited to get the acknowledgement and notoriety that we feel like Renee's Diner has really built," owner, Renee Tessier said. "We've built this, and we're excited to share it with not only our community, but now the whole United States is going to know when they come into Massachusetts.
"And how fun for North Adams that they're going to have this ... you got this best restaurant. I think that's huge for our city."
Tessier opened the diner in 2009. She said she loves food and had waitressed at many local restaurants and catered at the Clark Art Institute for awhile before opening the diner.
"I love to show my love through food, and I love the people, and I really feel like I've created an environment in my restaurant where we're just friends, and you're at my house, and you're having breakfast with us, and you know, it's more of a family-type setting," she said.
She added that to run a business, you have to love what you do like she does.
"I would say owning a restaurant is more of a passionate thing than a financial endeavor," Tessier said. "And so I feel like anyone that knows me could attest to the fact that I love the restaurant."
Tessier also credited her hardworking staff — head waitress Mary Jo Nelson, who's been with her for seven years, and head chef, Michael Harris, who has been with Renee's Diner for 13 years.
"I'm good at the restaurant, and I think that's showcased with the staff that I've picked that represent me and our restaurant out front, and the staff that lovingly cooks our food with myself included, and my two cooks in the back, I think that represents what we're about and what I'm about," she said.
"Wouldn't be Renee's Diner without them."
The diner in the former bus depot offers from scratch baked goods, soups and salads, sandwiches, burgers and fries, comfort food and, of course, breakfast. One of her favorite dishes is the vegetable omelet, while her husband, Michael, who also helps out at the diner, loves the hash.
"Mine would be the vegetable omelet. It's all fresh eggs and vegetables, fresh produce. I love feta cheese in my omelet. The way our omelets are made, they're like, big and fluffy and the rye toast," she said.
The diner has had strong support from the community, Tessier added, and spoke of how important the community is to her.
"We are in this for the community and for the long haul, and being recognized by being on America's Best Restaurants really puts North Adams on the map," she said. "Maybe not everybody would agree with, you know, Renee's Diner is the best restaurant, but we surely agree with that, and I know that the customers that love and support us agree with that, and I feel like our community would, agree with that."
She's sure the diner will be going strong the next five years and sees the restaurant being put on the map for Massachusetts as a validation of her efforts.
"I think my hard work has been has paid off with the recognition of what's going to happen at the end of May," she said.
America's Best Restaurants contacted Tessier last year saying they were interested in the diner for the show.
"I think they contacted me last year, last September, and their one of their scouts, his name was Kyle, lives in Tennessee, works for America's Best Restaurant, contacted me through our website and said that they had been scouting us, reading our reviews, looking at the restaurant, looking at our photos, and they were interested in bringing our business to their producers," she said. "And would I be interested if the producers were interested in talking to me, if I were interested in talking to them?"
The answer was "yes" and show's crew will arrive on May 29 to film and taste the food from 9 to noon.
The show is now in its fifth season with more than 2,000 videos on YouTube of between 10 and 13 minutes. It also appears on other social media platforms.
Tessier said she gets to pick three dishes the host will eat and will talk to them about the diner while they try their food.
America's Best Restaurant encourages a packed house and Tessier is inviting the community to come out and support them on this day.
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Main & Mill: A Vibrant New Restaurant on Main Street
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — You can now enjoy another eatery on Main Street by well-known restaurant siblings Colleen and Sean Taylor.
Their restaurant Main & Mill opened for the first time Tuesday, bringing their vision of creating something vibrant and new to downtown North Adams.
"We have created Main & Mill to be part of our day. It's very seasonal ingredients, thoughtful cooking, beauty, beautiful presentation and dishes. And we really wanted to be part of the community, the downtown area, and start a vibrant area on this end, which has been shuttered for a while," said Colleen.
The building is owned by Ginko on Main Street LLC, which has granted 20 years exclusive possession of the property to Latent Builds as the developer. Jack and Suzy Wadsworth, behind Ginko, are development partners with Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry of Latent.
The bank closed in early 2021 and was purchased by Ginko late that year. Plans for the property unveiled three years ago envisioned a restaurant, retail, a park and rooftop bar.
Colleen saw potential and said she initially wanted the building when it first went up for sale. Being good friends with Rothstein and Perry, she helped them design the kitchen and the bar before learning in March that she could lease it as a restaurant space, something she told them would be a great idea.
She said one of the most important things about the restaurant was the collaboration between Rothstein, Perry, and the Wadsworths, who put a lot of time and energy into the building.
"If Sean and I had done it, we would not be able to do what the collaboration supported. The collaboration of the three of us being able to really have that kind of money to put in down here. The design that the architecture firm that Carla and Sal own is stunning," she said. "The time and effort, everyone came together to do this in a really trusting manner."
The two wanted the restaurant to be an all-day venture, so people could eat at any point throughout the day, all week long.
"We wanted it to be open for coffee and socialization in the morning where people can meet, have their cup of coffee, have a quiche, a vegetarian quiche, or croissant or yogurt. Something intentional with their coffee," she said. "Then move into a lunchtime for the downtown business or anybody, and then go into supper, dinner, with drinks later into the evening. So have it really be open all day long, so that there wasn't a void on any particular day."
They also wanted to do something different than the other restaurants they owned.
"We didn't want to mimic any other restaurant in town. We wanted to bring something that was inspiring, something that had some familiar things that people would see, and other things that we would bring to them for them to experience," she said.
As a woman business owner, Colleen said she wanted to bring a female chef into the kitchen.
Colleen brought on Chef Anna DeRose, who she said puts twists on a lot of her dishes.
"So we have a creme brulee, but our creme brulee is topped with marshmallow," she said. "Our creme brulee is like almost two desserts in one. It's a s'mores creme brulee. So you could have a s'mores, and you could have a creme brulee - but when you put both of them together, fireworks go off."
Jake Eberwein showed the committee sections of the nbess.org website, including the resources page, which will be key to keeping residents informed about the study’s findings and collecting information from those residents. click for more
The planes were paper, the buildings cardboard and Main Street was a hallway at Colegrove Park Elementary School, but the setup represented nearly two weeks of creative research and design by the pupils in the public schools' 21st Century Summer Program.
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