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Treat Your Beasties Well: A Guide to Pooch Pampering In The Region

By Dale StewartNo need to say it: People feel more strongly about dogs than they do about any other breed of domesticated animal (sorry cat and ferret owners), holding a category no other animal has attained. Paul McCartney wrote "Martha My Dear" about his sheepdog. Virginia Woolf wrote

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Food

Dining: Table Six at the Kemble Inn

By Elizabeth Goldfarb Richardson Legendarily witty as the Algonquin Round Table was purported to be, I can’t help wondering if any of its regulars (including Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, and George S. Kaufman, with guest appearances by Harpo Marx, Tallulah Bankhead, and the like), ever actually tasted the food

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Food

Dining: Two Boots, Many Pleasures

By Robert Burke Warren Two Boots Hudson Valley, the newest addition to the Cajun-Italian restaurant franchise, is approximately one hundred miles from the original — and still thriving — Two Boots in New York’s East Village. Filmmaker-cum-restaurateur Phil Hartman posted that first shingle among run-down tenements and drug traffic in 1987,

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Food

Dining Al Fresco: Celebrating the Great Semi-Outdoors

By Sarah Todd There is real alchemy when a fresh-grilled ear of corn and a pot of softened butter make contact with the great outdoors. If you’re in the mood to take a night off the grill and let someone else do the cooking this summer, head to these

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Food

Locavore Versus Organic Versus....

By Sam Pratt Has local replaced organic as a prime selling point for the region's top restaurants? Is farm-to-table a bigger deal to people than pesticide-free? And what about Animal Welfare approval? Rural Intelligence consulted with several of the area's dining gurus to see where their—

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Food

Dining: Smoked and Satisfied at Big W's

By Elizabeth Goldfarb Richardson Husband Edgar had had enough. It was time to get off the sofa and on our way from NYC to our home in the Berkshires. “If you take me to one more locavore, non GMO, vegan, nouvelle vegetarian, organic, or whatever place, I’m not moving

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Food

Fish & Game: An Ode to Hudson's Tasty Past

by Dale Stewart It was around this time last year that Zak Pelaccio, pioneer of the nose-to-tail culinary movement, made his Hudson debut, holding court like a rock star at his booth at the second annual Ramp Fest. One could hear Pelaccio’s deep belly laugh throughout the packed building.

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Food

A Connecticut Bakery and Cafe with a Brooklyn Pedigree

by Dan ShawWhen Audrey and Sam Leary left Brooklyn last summer to take over the bakery — now the Blackberry River Baking Company — across from the Stop & Shop on Route 44 in Canaan, CT, they stumbled into a plot worthy of a sitcom about artisanal urban foodies who discover the

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Food

No Yawns at Yianni's in Chatham

By Elizabeth Goldfarb RichardsonThere are just some times when a restaurant brings out emotions that a mere dining experience shouldn’t necessarily bring forth. Edgar and I felt all sorts of things during  — and after  — dining at Lippera’s, located in a rather grand complex carved out of a once

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Community

Black Velvet: Gentle Giants in Litchfield

By Nichole Dupont“Never turn your back on a stallion," Ann Egan says as she enters the dusty paddock where her prize stud stands. “A stallion can have an off day, you just never know. I love this big guy, he's my heart horse. But he'

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Food

Out of the Blue and Into the Mouth of The Red Lion

Jane, an old anthropologist friend who has been living overseas for many years, suddenly announced she was coming on a visit to the Berkshires and wanted to take a day to revisit a number of her favorite places here. “Could we get together for lunch?" she asked. Expecting her

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Community

Season Preview: 30+ Tix Pix Not To Nix

As the Rural Intelligence region gets more and more love on the national and international front, it seems like the summer seasons just keep expanding, pushing the limits of culture and celebrity. From world-premiere stage offerings to indie, eclectic (and electric) music venues, we have scoured the schedules of performing

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