Pittsfield Licensing Board OKs East Side Outdoor Dining

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Licensing Board approved several business alterations on Monday, and two neighboring owners were able to step out and clarify the terms of outdoor seating. 

East Side Cafe secured outdoor table service in about 10 feet of property next to the longtime business.  Owner Marco Allessio said there will be a few tables with lattice fencing for privacy. 

His cousin, Amy Koenig, owner of Lakewood Creamery and an abutting residential property, had opposed the outdoor seating out of concern for her grandmother on Lombard Street, explaining, "If you stand in my grandmother's parlor, it's not even my wingspan from the property." 

She has owned the home since 2018, but her grandmother has lived there for about 70 years. They are members of the Capitanio family, who sold the business to Allessio, another relative, last fall. 

"While I certainly understand the allure of outdoor seating, and I understand the financial gains of outdoor seating, my family has owned, nearly 100 years, four generations, the East Side Cafe, and what has always been agreed upon is that there wouldn't be outdoor seating in those areas," she said. 

"… the trials and tribulations of owning a small business where you literally live on the property, there's noise, there's patrons, there's no privacy in the yard, and you take the good and the bad, because you own the business. Really not wanting to exacerbate it and have all of these patrons there with formalized alcohol service and food, really was something that my family avoided." 

"That was my original plan," Allessio explained. 

The board also approved: 

• A change of manager, a change of officers/director/LLC managers, and a change of name to Pittsfield Lodge No. 272 BPO Elks. This reflects the Adams Elks lodge merging with the Pittsfield Elks lodge. 
   
• Lodging house licenses for Side By Side Assisted Living Residence’s locations at 54-56 Gilbert St., 53 West Union St., and 55 West Union St. The facility applied for a lodging license after adding a bedroom and two bathrooms to 53 West Union St. and adding sprinkler systems to the other homes. 
   
• A downtown annual wine and malt restaurant license for Espetinho Carioca, located at 48B North St.
  
  "You may or may not know that this restaurant has been on North Street for about two years. It serves Brazilian food, and in that time has become really a hub of the large Brazilian community in Pittsfield," attorney Jesse Cook-Dubin said. 
  
  "They have never had a license to serve alcoholic beverages, and they would like one, because we know you cannot make money in this business without one. Right now, the only license available is one of the special downtown wine and malt licenses. So that will have to do for now." 

WWII Veteran Reflects on D-Day at VFW Post Induction

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:25PM / Saturday, June 06, 2026

The members in the picture are Bret Miller, Coast Guard, Desert Storm; Hank Morris, Army, Vietnam; Brad Havill, Navy, Global War on Terror; VFW Post 448 Vice Cmdr. Mark Pompi, Army, Global War on Terrorism, Afghanistan; Post Cmdr. Arnold Perras, Korea; Joe Difillipo, Army, Vietnam; Teri Billington, Navy, Desert Storm; and Carmen Ostrander, Air Force, Afghanistan.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Anthony Salatino Jr. says his memory is getting a little foggy about his time in the Army. 

But he remembers how terrible D-Day was, and feeling lucky he wasn't among those in the initial invasion force 82 years ago. 

 

"One of the most horrible things was in Normandy. We went shortly after D-Day. I got lucky, very lucky on D-Day. We went to a staging area the night before … and at the very end, somebody called, I was in headquarters, they called all the headquarters personnel at the center," the 103-year-old said. "We did not go. There's about 30 of us. The rest of the battalion was gone, and the reason for that was because there was another battalion coming from the States, and they had no headquarters. 

 

"We stayed back, but we did go to Normandy shortly after that, and when we went to Normandy, it was all over."

 

Salatino was attending an induction ceremony on Thursday at the Lt. John N. Truden VFW Post 448. Joseph Texidor, who served in the Army for 17 years with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was sworn in as the post's newest member. 

 

Salatino served in the Medical Corps and wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, a World War I veteran wounded at Verdun. Salatino was in the Army for about three years.

 

"The whole memory is what I just told you, very, very alive to me," he said. "That is, I can never forget, never forget that."

 

D-Day on June 6, 1944, was the start of Operation Overlord, and the largest invading force to cross the English Channel since 1066. Their goal: to liberate Europe from Nazi Germany.