When they discovered that the former Becket General Store was for sale, they checked it out and were instantly smitten. It had tin ceilings, fir floors, floor-mounted barstools and, best of all, an apartment upstairs.
Olivia Pattison, in a rare idle moment. Photo courtesy of Olivia Pattison
Olivia Pattison, originally from Troy, New York, opened the Neon Newt last March after spending 15 years running a small bread company and selling at the farmers market on Martha’s Vineyard. “After Covid, real estate, as well as commercial rentals, went through the roof, and my partner, who recently finished nursing school, and I decided we should look elsewhere to set up a life,” Olivia says.
They were first drawn to cities such as North Adams and Pittsfield and then discovered that the former Becket General Store was for sale. They checked it out and were instantly smitten. It had tin ceilings, fir floors, floor-mounted barstools and, best of all, an apartment upstairs.
“We pivoted our plan to simply buy a home in a small city to move to a tiny town we didn’t know much about and open a restaurant,” says Olivia. “We both have fallen in love with the area.”
Everything on the menu, she says, is made with local ingredients. The eggs and vegetables are from farms down the road, pork is from the Hudson Valley, and grains for her sourdough bread come from Ground Up Grain in Holyoke. In addition to bread, she bakes daily pastries. Her own soft-serve ice cream is made with milk from High Lawn Farm. She also cures the bacon and ham, seasons the sausage, and makes ketchup, hot sauce, and aioli.
Along with classic breakfast and lunch fare, Neon Newt, which also serves beer and wine, offers fancier Monday night dinners. On the menu at this writing: peppery beef stew over polenta with fennel salad; lamb stuffed cabbage; warm spiced squash with labneh. The menu, informed by what’s available at the time, changes weekly.
Olivia closed the restaurant this March to hunker down on her latest project: turning the adjacent storage area (formerly a liquor store) into a little general store and bakery. “It will probably open later in the spring,” she says. “All of our pastries will be showcased and we’ll have milk, eggs, butter, and we’ll hopefully be selling our own bread.”
The Neon Newt
30 Washington St., Becket
413-729-6366
Th & F 8am–2pm
Friday Burger Night 5–8pm (until Memorial Day)
Sa & Su 8am–2pm
M 5–8pm (dinner)
