PHOTO: B.A. Nilsson

A Fresh Take on History
By B.A. Nilsson

The Berkshires offer summer homes to New Yorkers, many of whom also spend year-round weekends there. You’ll also find some Bostonians. But add to the year-round identity a large number of artists, creating an intellectual level that’s undimmed even by the warm-weather population boom. Thus the quirky dining identity, unsullied, as yet, by too many of the chain and chainlike places.

You can’t recall the Stockbridge area’s eatery history without naming Alice’s Restaurant (which actually was on the road between Stockbridge and Great Barrington); less-famous, but nevertheless beloved, was Miss Ruby’s Café in West Stockbridge, a free-form mecca for summer people, artist types, you name it. You’ve endured my reminiscences about my days in the business; Miss Ruby’s was where my wife put in her formative kitchen years, before moving on to the old Beverwyck in Albany.

I learned to cook from a classically trained chef, a technique-based approach; Susan’s training, from the immensely talented Ruth Bronz, was more ingredient-based, and included a food philosophy well in line with what’s associated with Alice Waters and her followers.

This digression is to set the stage for Susan’s encounter with Mary Feuer at the Card Lake Inn in West Stockbridge. Did Mary remember Miss Ruby’s? Of course she did—and the women set off on a reminiscence spree.

Feuer and her husband, Robert, joined forces with three others to buy this place last year. They offer seven rooms in addition to the dining, and they’re members of the Berkshire Grown consortium that encourages members to buy locally grown ingredients.

With such a philosophy, I don’t think you can have anything but a splendid restaurant. And what this restaurant also exemplifies is the comfortable notion that fine dining need not be restricted to a room decked out with fancy linens. As you enter, you’re in the tavern, with a bar to your left and a scattering of tables there and to the right. Also to the right is a stage occupied by musicians when performances are scheduled (live jazz takes place on Friday and Saturday nights, for example).

Through a set of doors you’ll find the main dining room, but even here the feel is casual, almost rustic. A handsome display of paintings covers the walls; antique furniture sets off the corners of the room. Beyond this room is an outdoor, but covered, patio.

Choose your meal from one of the two single-page menus. Tavern fare includes baby-back ribs ($16, half-rack for $8), burgers (turkey or Angus beef, $10), a trio of crab cakes ($13), and even those ubiquitous, anatomically dubious chicken tenders ($7).

The caprese salad ($9, also available as an appetizer) pairs tomato slices (isn’t it a treat to be getting the real thing again?) with fresh mozzarella and basil slices, tossed in a light mix of oil and vinegar. Great flavors to kick off a meal.

Which brings us to the dinner menu. Five appetizers, a couple of pasta dishes, and four entrees, abetted by daily specials.

One of which was coconut shrimp ($8), that odd combo of fried, sweetened seafood. The bed of greens on which it (and other dishes) appeared told you much about this place: a mixture of fresh baby lettuce leaves, as good in its own way as that which it accompanied. And the shrimp was tasty, as expected, with a wasabi-spiked sauce in case you desire that extra fat content to prolong the lingering flavor.

New England clam chowder (or “chowdah,” as the menu styles it) is $4 or $2, so we opted for the former to allow the brew to circulate around the table. Not as sauce-thick or seafood-crammed as I expected, it still boasted a heady freshness of flavor only cream can impart.

Those aforementioned greens show up again in the house salads that precede most entrees, with the addition of homemade croutons and a splendid basil vinaigrette.

Co-owner Liz Waldman is the chef, and she has won my undying admiration for stuffing ravioli with broccoli rabe. What a brilliant idea! I can speed through mounds of the stuff when it’s lightly sautéed with plenty of garlic: to turn it into a creamy filling gives it a whole new dimension. As an entrée ($15), the pasta is served with a tomato-cream sauce that I found too distracting; a little garlic oil would have sufficed. Susan, naturally, disagreed, and found the whole shebang entirely to her liking.

We also sampled an entrée of lemon-caper chicken ($17), in which a split breast is egg-battered and sautéed, then served with a saute of artichoke hearts and tomatoes. And not presented over pasta, which can be a relief. The sides of rice pilaf and sautéed squash were just right.

Because I learned to cook in the classic French style, I have drowned many an entrée in a succession of too-rich sauces. I’m trying to move away from that, and Waldman’s swordfish special ($17) showed an alternative. The fish itself had a perfect, still-tender doneness, and was topped with a salsa made with blueberry and peach. This allowed the fish a much greater identity on the palate, and I hope to see more of this approach.

Peaches and raspberries starred in a dessert pie ($5), a fairly unremarkable compote that nevertheless ended the meal with sweetness.

The building started its life as a stagecoach stop, and has always offered food through the years. For us, it was a stopping point on a trip to Boston, and I see it beckoning with the months of Tanglewood ahead.

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