Renee's Diner to be Featured on America's Best Restaurants
Renee's opened in 2009 and offers indoor and outdoor dining (in good weather) with a wide range of breakfast and lunch offerings.
Renee's Diner at 780 Massachusetts Ave. will be featured on "America's Best Restaurants Roadshow," a national media and marketing company that spotlights independent eateries.
"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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