The Airport Rooms: Sharing the Kitchen and the Vibe

Connected to the North Adams boutique inn Tourists, The Airport Rooms restaurant has been serving elevated modern bar fare and cocktails in a former motel, buzzing with vintage ambiance, since 2017. But on special evenings, visitors can also get a taste of new upcoming projects and one-off menus from popular restaurants across the region.

Past partnerships have included Casita, a Mexican spot that started as a taco truck at MASS MoCA and has since grown into its own full-service restaurant on the museum campus; Little Viking in Troy, with a vegan menu featuring beet pastrami and coconut oat custard panna cotta; and Hudson tropical comfort food hotspot Lil’ Deb’s Oasis, with whole fried fish and sweet corn arepas.

Photo by Karissa Ong

“A lot of us who work at the hotel come from culinary backgrounds, and are excited by good food and talented chefs doing cool things in the area,” says Bryn Clarke, director of operations at Tourists. “It felt like a no-brainer to incorporate that into the offerings.”

The Airport Rooms is well worth a visit when there isn’t a pop-up in town. It continues Tourist’s Bo-Ho chic aesthetic and is Whimsically named in reference to the motel’s former life as a haunt for patrons of the small Harriman and West airport across the street. The former run-down motel was in a pretty sorry state of disrepair when Tourist’s owners took over, and while they have restored and repaired it completely they have intentionally co-opted the vibe, the modern business feels lovingly haunted by the ghosts of the motel’s past.

Tourists, also called Tourists Welcome, is named in reference to the original sign out in front of the inn. It’s nostalgic here, retro even, but with a laid back wink and nudge. 

Regular service is casually refined with a menu that highlights regional ingredients and inventive pairings. Notable dishes include the grilled carrot salad, featuring skyr (Icelandic yogurt), pesto, guajillo, and almonds ($17), and the smoked braised pork, accompanied by roasted mushrooms, crispy Brussels sprouts, polenta, and gremolata ($32). For a classic option, the cheeseburger is served with house sauce and fries, with a vegetarian alternative available ($18).

Complementing the dining experience, the cocktail program includes drinks like the Burning Down the House, blending smoked pineapple spirit, Lillet, passionfruit, and sesame, and the Opal Wallpaper, a mix of gin, Cocchi Americano, pear-ginger shrub, and bitters, each priced at $15. 

Hotel guests come from far and wide, and Clarke says it’s meaningful to offer pop-up menus as a deviation from the norm, as a way to alleviate some staffing holes during a busy summer, and offer locals something new. “We offer pop-ups on nights that the hotel isn't open to guests, so they are intended to bring in the local community,” Clarke says. 

Quite a lot of planning goes into a pop-ups menu, but chefs are in charge of determining what they’d like to cook. “We want them to use this opportunity to be creative and make what they want,” Clarke says. On the back end, Tourists researches potential chef partners, makes sure events are timed around what’s happening at the hotel and around town, and shares important details about the kitchen setup. 

“If you are a chef whose main form of business is pop-ups, you may have a catalog of dishes that work well for these types of events,” Clarke says. “Other times we’ve worked with chefs who either have a restaurant with a very specific concept or a food truck that has its own limitations, and they want to use the pop-up to break out and be creative with new dishes. 

“When we initially worked with Casita, they just had the taco truck, so doing pop-ups at The Airport Rooms gave them the opportunity to branch out and try new things,” Clarke says. “When we did a pop-up with Little Viking from Troy, their regular menu was very casual, so they were interested in doing something a bit more elevated and coursed out. Each chef takes a unique direction with their menu.”

The area has a pretty connected food scene, so partnerships tend to happen organically. The first, with Vietnamese-inspired Little Truc from Easthampton, Massachusetts, connected through a wine rep. Asian street food-inspired Haema, which held a popup on January 14, is “an old friend from New York.” One of The Airport Rooms’ owners happened to eat Little Viking at the Troy farmers’ market and asked if they were interested in a partnership. “We try to keep an open mind,” says Clarke. 

The Airport Rooms announces regular pop-up events throughout the year. The best place to see new offerings, which often sell out, is on Instagram or via its email newsletter. So far, upcoming collabs are pointing to Portland, Maine, with events featuring Eventide Oyster Co. and Honey Paw noodle bar.