The Tap Room is open Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to closing, and Saturday and Sunday from noon to closing.
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Adam Steele and Tyler Purdy opened The Tap Room on Nov. 25, a new space designed for community members and visitors to gather.
Purdy, whose wife Ana Bradbury owns the Lanesborough Local Country Store, took over the original storefront after Bradbury moved her business to a larger location across the parking lot.
"When we moved over to the bigger location, I did a lot of work in this space initially and didn't really want to give it away to someone else. Me and him have always talked about just, like, opening a bar, a brewery, or doing something," Purdy said.
Lifelong friends, the duo always wanted to start some sort of business venture together. Steele operated a home brewery for 15 years, and together the pair previously ran a mobile bar business called Farm Truck Catering Company. When the storefront became available, they decided it was the right moment to establish a dedicated space for people to enjoy.
"We wanted to make a cool spot that has a lot of games, TVs with, like, cool stuff on—you don't typically see, like skiing and fly-fishing and mountain biking, stuff that's not typical—and have good drink options, good beers, and live music a lot, because it just seems like this area is lacking all of those things," Purdy said.
Purdy noted that few local establishments offer the variety of activities found at The Tap Room. The space features darts, a stage for live music, pool tables, cornhole, karaoke, and ping pong. His experience at the country store often involved tourists asking for recommendations on local entertainment.
"When we have people, like tourists from the Lanesborough Local, and they always ask, 'What food is there to do around here?' And really it's a lot of, like, restaurant bars; like, there's not a lot of, like, activity places," Purdy said.
The Tap Room features a busy schedule of themed events: Mondays are "Bring Your Own Vinyl" night, followed by Trivia Tuesdays, Open Mic Wednesdays, and Karaoke Thursdays. Fridays and Saturdays are dedicated to live music, while Sundays feature tournaments.
"We're very open to suggestions with things. We've had people suggest bands. We've had people suggest beers, and we've changed them. People suggest something, yeah, we'll get it, and we get it," he said.
The owners are also encouraging patrons to start their own leagues for the various games available in the space.
When renovations began in October, Steele and Purdy handled much of the work themselves, including painting and construction. They also commissioned local Pittsfield artist Bobby Diesel to create a custom graffiti mural on the interior wall.
"Built the stage, built the tables, built the bar, built the tap system," they said.
Based on patron feedback, they are currently adding more high-top seating to accommodate the growing crowds. The duo hopes The Tap Room will become a staple music venue and the go-to destination for entertainment in Lanesborough.
The Tap Room is open Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to closing, and Saturday and Sunday from noon to closing. Information on upcoming events can be found on their website and social media pages.
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Prospect Meadow Farm Opens New Vocational Barn
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
A charcuterie board at the event displays fare from some of the regional producers.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Prospect Meadow Farm last week officially opened a new barn to sell plants and other goods it produces.
Prospect Meadow Farm Berkshires is an expansion of ServiceNet's first farm in Hatfield that has provided meaningful agricultural work, fair wages, and personal and professional growth to hundreds of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities since opening in 2011.
The Berkshires farm opened on Crane Avenue two years ago and has now introduced a new vocational and unwinding space for the more than 25 farmhands who get paid a minimum wage.
"This is a facility for our folks who work on the farm to learn additional skills and do additional work," said Vice President of Vocational Services Shawn Robinson at the Friday event. "So we have a food packaging space, we've got a walk-in cooler space, we've got a floral design space, we've got a farm store room for staff, lunch room, and then a meditation room that we're standing in now, which is when you're having those hard moments and you need to get away from everything.
"This is going to be a peaceful place you can find and sort of find some comfort, and then hopefully get back to work."
The barn was built by funds from the state Executive Office of Economic Development and the state Department of Agricultural Resources that equated to around $600,000, with ServiceNet contributing around the same amount. The structure took over a year to build.
The state's Department of Developmental Services Commissioner Sarah Peterson spoke on how meaningful this farm and ServiceNet is to her and that this place is important to those who need it.
"Places like this are so crucial because they create opportunities for people living with disabilities that aren't plentiful," she said. "People living with developmental and intellectual disabilities have an unemployment rate over 25 percent five times the rate for people without disabilities, even more jarring is under appointment, which is at 80 percent. That means that four out of every five people with disabilities earn below market rate wages and have limited upward mobility.
"The building itself is really impressive, but what you're really seeing here is the result of vision. It's about opportunity, it's about community, and it's founded in the belief that every person deserves the chance to learn and work and contribute to thrive under the leadership of ServiceNet."
One aspect of the barn will be the market where produce from the farm and other local growers will be sold as well as keeping the tradition of Jodi's Seasonal, which previously occupied the location, alive with plant sales. The market will be open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
"Everything you see in terms of the tomatoes, the fresh produce, that's all done with the hands of our farm hands here, individuals with disabilities who get out every single morning, get in those greenhouses, put their hands in the dirt, and make all of this happen, and this is just the start," said Robinson. "This farm is a little over a year old at this point, but give it another two years, and we hope to be growing enough food to share throughout the Berkshires."
Robinson said the farm is focused on local food security, recently partnering with the Hatfield Council on Aging and planning to work toward making enough food to partner with places in the Berkshires.
He said the barn serves the Hatfield farm and what the employees here needed.
"We've been able to learn the needs of the farm hands who work there and so we have learned that they need a comfortable break space for those times where it's hard to be out in the fields, we've learned that a quiet space for when you're going through something you need to be away from people are key, and then also we have a small farm store in Hatfield, but we've seen increasing interest in retail work from our participants, so we thought it was time for a larger-scale farm store," he said.
Robinson noted that Prospect Meadow Farm has helped the individuals working there feel valued and head.
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