Pittsfield, Massachusetts’s Hotel on North

In neighboring Pittsfield, Massachusetts, sitting gloriously on North Street is one of the coolest boutique hotels in New England. It’s named plainly Hotel on North. While located in the Berkshires where there are artisans and artists and entertainment of all kinds to enjoy, this hotel may just be reason enough on its own to take a trip to Pittsfield. It would however be a shame to miss out on a fall trip to the entire Berkshire region!
Once a home to a local department store that closed as many did years ago, this hotel with bucco personality, preserved and restored many of the original architectural features and blended them with native charm. With the exposed brick walls, tin ceilings, funky columns, and all the idiosyncrasies that today’s newly constructed buildings just do not have, Hotel on North is a feast of old and new.
Prowling around on a tour of the rooms that surround an atrium of sorts netted the most wonderful look at what a boutique hotel should be—comfortable and individual. Each room is different, with only perhaps three or four color lines being used throughout them all. The mixture of ironwork, woodwork and incredible decorating style choices makes this place a Feng Shui aficionado’s dream as well as just a plain feast for the eyes.
Each of the 45 rooms has the modern necessities like Wi-Fi, cable and in-room dining that appears at your door in a galvanized pail. OK, perhaps that one is not a necessity but it is a fun and charming way to experience the awesome food from Eat on North (the hotel’s aptly named restaurant) in your comfortable room.
Eat on North is a much more casual restaurant then I expected, given that the food is prepared expertly by Executive Chef Brian Alberg. Alberg is described as an enthusiastic food ambassador for the Berkshires and long-time James Beard-featured-chef. Unpretentious appears to be at the heart of the restaurant and his food. Make no mistake, the food prepared and served at Eat on North is amazing and what you would expect from a chef of his caliber but the setting is one that encourages dropping by for a cocktail with friends as well as tasting the wonderful food after work.
At Drink on North, the bar and lounge of Hotel on North, the cocktails are often mixed in chemistry beakers! There is an awesome array of craft beers, wines and, of course, the contents of the beakers. The options for sitting and enjoying your adult beverage are as vast and funky as everything else at this property. You can sit at the bar and watch the chefs. You can sit with friends on one of the comfy sofas and play a board game or, better yet, sit in the elevator/birdcage that was a part of the original building.
I know what you are thinking—all this in downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts? Well, the answer is yes and it is a must-do either for dinner, cocktails after a show or a stay and, if you are really lucky, all three.