Blantyre

A long time Provincetown resident, artist and chef, Alice Brock, has died just days before Thanksgiving. In 2014 we reminisced about the fame game. She returned to the Berkshires to host a dinner at Dream Away Lodge. She described her cuisine as "heavy handed" which may well be a metaphor for her remarkable life.

Please join Close Encounters With Music for an End-of-Summer Celebration and Auction. You will enjoy beautiful vistas, a scrumptious lunch, an appearance by the PRISM quartet (saxophones). and an auction of exciting items to bid on,

Now elderly, infirm, and living in Provincetown, Alice Brock, the famed proprietor of Alice’s Restaurant in the Berkshires, has always helped others. Her restaurants were staffed with friends and neighbors. She was always a soft touch for a free meal, job, or handout. Today it’s Alice, afflicted with ailments, who needs a helping hand.

There are certain time in life you must express yourself-at the moment you feel the passion. This poem about Cafe Boulud was one of those creative moments.

Chef Daniel Boulud, a two star Michelin Chef at 'Daniel' in Manhattan has brought his crew to run his one star Michelin restauarant, 'Cafe Boulud' at the Gilded Age Mansion, Blantyre (Lenox, Massachusetts). The French inspired restaurant will remain open, Wednesday to Sunday, through mid-October.

BTG is expanding its 2017 summer festival offerings, including The Music Man and the Million Dollar Quartet, Arsenic and Old Lace, as well as two productions by playwrights, Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo (Zoo story) and David Auburn's Lost Lake.

The Berkshire Theatre Group announces a full schedule of musicals, plays and performances at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield as well as its two stages in Stockbridge. The program includes events from June through October. As usual a musical, Little Shop of Horrors, opens at the Colonial just after the July 4th holiday weekend which launches high season in the Berkshires.

Blantyre means elgance, old world charm and to most of us, perceived, high prices. Think again. Lunch with wine and sunset views with a glass or bottle of Port and a cheese plate won't set you back as much as you would expect.

Blantyre in our backyard, is only minutes from Tanglewood and the arts of the Berkshires. Rooms are beautiful and wine and gourmet food is affordable.

Berkshire Theatre Group announces 2015 Summer Season Musical, the 10th Annual Community Theatre Production, The Fitzpatrick Main Stage productions and a medley of lively acts scheduled to perform at The Colonial Theatre and The Unicorn Theatre. BTG will be announcing a second round of programming, including The Unicorn Theatre's Summer Season, in the next several weeks.

Tanglewood isn't just Music. The annual "Wine and Food Classic" takes place from August 7th-10th, 2014. Hundreds of wines from around the world and locally sourced food, cooked by local chefs will be available to sample on the beautiful Tanglewood grounds.

The rambling song “Alice’s Restaurant” by Arlo Guthrie is an icon of the 1960s. It spawned the film by Arthur Penn as well as “The Alice’s Restaurant Cookbook” which has gone through four printings. For the past 36 years Alice Brock has lived in Provincetown. She returns to Dream Away Lodge May 17 and 18 with evenings of her recipes prepared by Chef Amy Loveless. It is the second in a series created by Loveless to honor renowned women chefs of the Berkshires.

With a winning combination of Asian Fusion food, ambiance, and moderate prices Spice Dragon in Pittsfield is a popular destination. Over several visits, however, the food and service has been inconsistent. Busy nights stretch the limits of understaffed and inexperienced front of house and an ability to get food to tables in a timely manner. In Pittsfield, however, there isn't much competition for dining on this level.

Broadway in the Berkshires, produced by Deborah Grausman and hosted by John Douglas Thompson, was presented as a benefit for the Education and Training programs of Shakespeare & Company. Singer and actor Grausman, appearing this summer in Master Class, was able to call in favors from her many and diverse Broadway, Off Broadway and S & Co. colleagues. Over 300 tickets were sold and upwards of 75 Shakespeare & Company artists and other special guests were also in attendance. The benefit raised $110, 000.

During the July Fourth weekend which launches the Berkshire season the Colonial Theatre will stage the perennial tribute to Ameriana the classic musical Oklahoma. The Stockbridge Main Stage will get a jump start on June 25 with Treat Williams starring in The Lion in Winter. Local legend Karen Allen, who made her directorial debut at the Unicorn Theatre with Moonchildren will return to that stage directing Extremities.

Chef Kirk Grippo has owned and managed the popular Berkshire pub Olde Forge Restaurant, in Lanesboro on Route 7, for the past fifteen years. He was setting up for a party but paused long enough to chat with us. The annual Festival of Trees at the Berkshire Museum is among the events which he caters. He discussed how it takes a staff of 60 to keep up with the busy restaurant.

On a glorious fall weekend WordFest was held at Edith Wharton's estate The Mount. There was an intense program of back to back panel discussions, interviews and poetry readings. It seemed like many in the audience were New Yorker readers while the speakers were top loaded with contributors. Surely it was a well read and well-heeled assembly in the posh Berkshires.

The Mount announces the launch of its second literary festival, Berkshire WordFest 2012, to be held at Edith Wharton's historic estate in Lenox during the weekend of September 14-16, 2012. The festival will bring nearly twenty nationally acclaimed writers--John Berendt, Adam Gopnik, Heidi Julavits, Matthew Pearl, Francine du Plessix Gray, and poet Mary Jo Salter among them--to The Mount for panels, interviews, and public conversations. The festival will also include many free readings by writers and poets with ties to the Berkshire region.

Shakespeare & Company Artistic Director Tony Simotes proudly announces the benefit performance of Broadway in the Berkshires Monday, August 15th at 6:00pm, Founders’ Theatre, 70 Kemble Street , Lenox , MA . Proceeds will go to Shakespeare & Company’s internationally-acclaimed Education and Training Programs.