142 GOURMET TRAVELLER
In Kent that night we have dinner at Swyft,
a restaurant in a restored 18th-century historic
house run by Joel Viehland, an alumnus of Noma
in Copenhagen and Gramercy Tavern in Manhattan.
We eat grassy green gazpacho and pizza topped with
clams, with American IPAs from Kent Falls Brewing
Company. It’s fresh and sourced locally – and a
merciful upgrade from a granola bar.WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
The next morning we head 120 kilometres north
to North Adams, a creative community in Western
Massachusetts. It’s best known for the Massachusetts
Museum of Contemporary Art, and Tourists, an
abandoned roadside motel that’s been transformed
into a hip resort by a group of investors including John
Stirratt, the bassist of alt-rock band Wilco.
The most popular hike in these parts takes walkers
to the top of Mount Greylock; at 1,064 metres, it’s
the highest point in Massachusetts. On a clear day,
summiteers can see more than 140 kilometres in all
directions, and across five states. The mountain’s
elongated shape is said to have been the inspiration
for the white whale in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.
A Mount Greylock trek is as tough as you want
it to be. Thoughtful trailblazers have carved a couple
of routes to its summit – the longest takes about
a day, while the shortest begins close to the top
and takes just 90 minutes.
Today, in pouring rain, the mountain is true
to its name. Its peak is locked in a grey haze of fog,
so instead of walking we drive to the top. Here we
have roughly the same visibility as Jonah, mid-whale.
Disappointed, we’re about to head back when
a lone thru-hiker appears, wraith-like, from the
mist. Her face is set grimly as she pulls a rain hood
tighter and trudges on stoically. She reaches the
peak and unceremoniously turns and starts her
descent. Not for the last time I’m grateful for the
promise of a hot shower, a cooked meal and a place
to dry soaked gear.
All that and more is waiting in the nearby town
of Great Barrington, where I unpack in a bright,
retro-Scandi room at the Briarcliff Motel, an updated
1960s roadhouse. “There were bears outside the other
morning,” another guest confides in an unruffled tone,
though the wildlife fails to appear during our stay.
We finish our day at Prairie Whale, a bar and
restaurant owned by New York chef Mark Firth,
formerly of Marlow & Sons. He walked away from
his Brooklyn restaurant empire in 2012 and started
cooking local produce, American-style, in small-town
Massachusetts, prompting hordes of New Yorkers
to follow on long weekends. A cocktail of grapefruit
juice, agave and locally distilled Greylock Gin is as close
as we’ll get to the elusive Mount Greylock tonight.