Renee Tessier and 'America's Best Restaurant' host Theo Williams, who's trying some of the diner's hash. The show is featuring the diner and some of its menu items.
Theo Williams of 'America's Best Restaurants' tries three menu items at Renee's Diner on Thursday morning.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — There was a hubbub Renee's Diner on Thursday morning as the "America's Best Restaurants" rolled in to highlight the eatery's specialties.
"The place was packed with a lot of excited people and I think it's great for our community to put us on the map," owner, Renee Tessier, said.
Tessier and crew have been burnishing the Massachusetts Avenue diner this week in preparation for its debut on the video program. The national media and marketing company spotlights independent eateries around the country.
The host tries three meals with the owner and on Thursday, Theo Williams enjoyed the hash in the kitchen and then dug into an order breakfast tacos and the popular turkey club.
He was enjoying the hash so much he couldn't stop eating it.
He's been with the "America’s Best Restaurants" for two years now and was warm and welcoming to the diner's customers.
Williams explained that Renee's Diner was noticed by a fan, who submitted the diner to the show to try. After the team did some research, they contacted Tessier for a visit.
Williams said he likes the city of North Adams and loved to see the community here.
"It's beautiful out here in North Adams," he said. "It's a beautiful area and you can tell this is an area where people really come together. This is a community that always has each other's back."
The diner's patrons came to enjoy breakfast and celebrate the accomplishment.
Sue Downey and Maggy Button sat at a booth and enjoyed their favorite meals: apple cinnamon french toast and the Mexican omelet.
"It's very worthy for her [Renee], we've been coming here since she opened up," Downey said. "I am so happy for her because she really deserves that.
"I mean there are other people around here who deserve it, too, but she really deserves it."
Another longtime customer, Pete Milesi, was enjoying a meal of over medium eggs, bacon sausage, and rye bread. He said also the loves the eggs Benedict and breakfast burritos. Milesi says he feels very welcome every time he comes.
"I really love the cook. He is great, he really caters to the customer and gets to know the people which is nice because not a lot of restaurants do that, and the waitresses here are phenomenal," he said. "They are very friendly and very welcoming."
Waitress Stacy Pettengill has worked at the diner for 15 years, ever since it opened, and likes to see the customers happy and the employees' hard work be recognized.
"To watch us grow from the beginning from where we started to where we are today, I guess I could say it's mind blowing and flattering and it's an honor for Renee to receive this opportunity because she worked so hard," she said. "When you say blood, sweat, and tears go into things that statement couldn't be more true. A lot goes into trying to be successful and keep people happy and it's hard to keep people happy nowadays.
"So people come here happy and they leave here happy and that's just what makes me happy."
Renee’s husband, Michael Tessier, was excited to see and proud of his wife, the diner and the cooks' hard work.
"It's nerve wracking to be in the spotlight but you do the hard work and I'm happy that the staff is being recognized for what they do," he said.
Williams says to keep checking the show's social media pages to know when the Renee's Diner episode will air.
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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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