By sourcing almost everything locally – from decor to food – the Hotel on North guaranteed itself international attention.

The depth of story in the Hotel on North surprised and delighted me. The independent, boutique lodging in Pittsfield, Massachusetts’ revitalizing downtown opened last year and serves the hosts of cultural and nature tourists who visit the Berkshires every summer.

The floors tell the story of the hotel’s former lives as manufacturing space, men’s clothier, sporting-goods store, and white-collar offices. In the upper stories where 45 uniquely appointed guest rooms lie, a major architectural feature makes the overall space: a soaring, skylit atrium that reaches down through the third floor, opening a view to a lounge with comfortable seating and bookshelves on the second. Each view of the space catches the eye: a wall display of openly kitsch television lamps in one direction, a glimpse of a reproduction Greek statue in the other. I was unsurprised that the Hotel on North recently earned a nod as one of Architectural Digest’s favorite new hotels of 2015.

The rooms are spacious and restoratively simple, decorated with a mix of custom furniture and fixtures along with antique-store finds. The bedside alarm clocks are astoundingly simple: analog, even nostalgic. There are outlets everywhere, but not ugly-making. The free wifi is backed by a fiber-optic link. There are small glass jars of pre-measured Barrington Coffee for the in-room, coffee-snob-grade drip coffee makers. The bathrooms boast Beekman toiletries, many incorporating goat’s milk from the region. One room claims a claw-foot tub. Another boasts a fireplace with a timber from the old building burnished into a mantle. It was the mini-bar that really got me, containing as it did a bottled gin and tonic from Berkshire Mountain Distillery. There are also subtle jokes: in one room’s bathroom, hung like a commemorative plate, rests an ornately painted ceramic lid … of a chamber pot.

One of the big stories at Hotel on North is the food and drink to be found in its restaurant, Eat at North. Operated by the same company that sustains the Berkshire’s renowned Red Lion Inn, Eat at North echoes the hotel’s industrial chic with its enormous and beautiful zinc bar serving fresh oysters. As befits the region, the menu is new American comfort food, highly seasonal and locally sourced. There are ample wines by the glass, carafe, or bottle, and a panoply of local beers. One of the house cocktails is the barrel-aged Man About Town, a mix of Berkshire Mountain bourbon, Campari, and Carpano Antica. Oh, there’s also cold-brew coffee on tap.

As befits a boutique hotel, it is connected to an actual boutique: Dory & Ginger. Its large glass storefront looks into a carefully curated selection of decorative goods, jewelry, accessories, kitchen and barware, print items, and the like. “Dory” is Laurie Tierney, who, with husband David Tierney, also owns the hotel. They see their investment as part of writing a new story for Pittsfield itself.

Photos by Martin Albert

The post Take Place: Hotel on North appeared first on Take Magazine.

My glass holds an impeccably clear gin. The aroma of juniper berries is on the nose. The effect is like having the lapels of my jacket tugged down to improve the fit: It has my attention. This gin from Windsor, Vermont’s SILO Distillery is 45% alcohol by volume, or 90 proof. Alongside the juniper, there is another presence, a faint sweetness like summer corn pleasantly balanced by dryness. The finish is akin to calvados. Another glass holds a light amber liquid with tones of green: colors of Vermont autumn. It is SILO’s Reserve Gin, the result of gin resting in American oak barrels first used to create SILO’s bourbon. It is delightful. Vanillins and char round the juniper and dryness, drawing out subtle fruit aromatics.

Drinks sage David Wondrich believes that “story makes a drink taste better.” And it’s true—the savor of SILO’s gins (along with its vodkas and whiskeys) is also in the company’s story. After years working for biotechnology and medical companies, eighth-generation Vermonter Peter Jillson wanted to get back home. With his life and business partner, Anne Marie Delaney, he settled on the idea of crafting spirits that deeply reflected Vermont. Jillson and Delaney dug into Vermont agriculture with experts from the University of Vermont and studied distillation at the University of Michigan. Today, SILO’s story mainly takes place in and around its soaring, wood-timbered distillery-barn. Here arrive sacks of corn and rye grown on a family farm in Rutland, Vermont. Here, just off I-91 in “Artisans Park” on the Connecticut River, which SILO shares with the Harpoon brewery and other shops, the grains are milled and fermented. In a gleaming still from renowned German maker CARL, the fermented grain is distilled to spirits. For the gin, a second distillation with juniper berries and local apples does the trick. Barrel aging and bottling happen in SILO’s barn, around the corner from its tasting room and events loft. Out back, a pig farmer harvests the spent grain, turning what might have been waste into valuable feed.

Distiller Chris Maggolio captures SILO’s story perfectly by saying he considers the spirits “to be a food.” Why does craft distilling fit so well with the locavore and slow-food movements? Because it is the same thing: farm-to-table is farm-to-flask. I delighted in SILO Distillery’s gins not only for their physicality, but also for the story of community and sustainability that put them in my glass.

Photo by Eric Medsker

The post Farm to Flask appeared first on Take Magazine.