This trip is complete, but I don't think it's worth it's own trip report. All of our meals were either a) on the run, b) eaten with four families or c) eaten in the hotel. Travelling with a 2.5 year old, it's no longer about getting great food for me, which is fine, I have my baseball trips and business trips for that.
On the way up, we stopped in the bagel shop in New Paltz that Seafarer John mentioned. The bagels were very good, nice and fresh. The sandwiches were ultra skinny and way too expensive, but fine for eating on the run.
First night's dinner was at a place called
The Rainbow in downtown Pittsfield. Kind of a neighborhoody American-fare kind of place. It was fairly crowded for 5pm on a Friday, in a town with a lot of restaurants. Looked like mostly locals. They very wisely put us in a private banquet room (4 adults and 3 kids under 3). I had the special: prime rib, which was very good. Other had things like manicotti and stuffed shrimp, none of which looked remarkable at all. The lobster bisque was quite good. Every entree comes with dessert, which were tiny slices of a variety of cakes. All very tasty.
We found a cool little roadside soft-serve shack for lunch one day. No idea of the name, but it's right at the crossroads of routes 22 and 43 on the NY/MA border, down the road from the entrance to Jiminy Peak. We were visiting a petting zoo called Uncle Don's Farm, and this was the only lunch option in the area. Just sandwiches and burgers, and quite frankly the food was pretty lame, but it was a fun little place with a classic road food feel. Unfortunately, the ice cream sucked. It was that commercial stuff that blends in a ribbon of syrup to give it a flavor, like creamsicle or blueberry. Yuck. The kids loved it, but what do they know!
Our BIG dinner (9 adults and 6 kids) was at
The Dakota Steakhouse on the border of Pittfield and Lenox. It's a very small chain (maybe 3 or 4 locations?) but it has the look, the menu and the quality of an enormous nationwide chain. It's supposed to look like a hunting lodge, but everything from the rafters to the canoes hanging from the ceiling to all the taxidermy on the walls was fake. Just so unapealing in every way. The place was enormous and jam packed. There's a semi-open kitchen featuring a frenzy of overworked line cooks desperately trying to keep up. Typical steak house menu, but insanely expensive for the quality (steaks were around $28). Just about everyone ordered one kind of steak or another. Every single order had at least one thing wrong- mostly the tempurature. My steak as ordered meduim rare and came out a dark grey. The staff was harried, but very nice and tried to correct everything. In fairness, some of my party really liked this place. I hated it.
Some of us went to a ballgame at historic Wahconah Park on Saturday night- which made me really happy. Independant league baseball: the Pittsfield Colonials vs. the Newark Bears. I had been there before, but it was a fabulous night. One of the oldest still-active parks in the country (perhaps the oldest?) My son was conked out at the hotel with my wife, but a nice group of us enjoyed the game. Tim Raines Jr. hit a game-winning grand slam. Beautiful night.
Sunday we picnicked (picniced?) at Tanglewood with provisions from
Guido's Marketplace in Pittsfield. It's a very good gourmet food store with the best curried chicken salad I've ever had.
Breakfast both days we all had the overpriced ($18) and very mediocre breakfast buffet at the Crowne Plaze in Pittsfield.
All in all, an awesome trip. An easy 3 hours each way with no traffic to speak of. My son had an absolute ball at the Berkshire museum, the petting zoo, the pool, and at
Tanglewood, which for my money, just might be the most wonderful place in the world. I plan on going back every year.
<message edited by Pigiron on Mon, 07/11/11 11:37 PM>
