PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTINA RAHR LANE
In the bucolic Berkshire hills, Oklahoma transplant and restaurateur Nancy Thomas has been crafting meals for almost three decades, leaving an indelible mark on farm-to-table eating and espousing a philosophy of hospitality that has helped this region become a destination for quality dining.
Alongside her, quietly supporting that journey, is Thomas’s business partner, William “Bo” Peabody, Williams College alumnus, serial entrepreneur, and hospitality‑tech venture leader, who has helped bring structure, scale, and sustainability to her vision.
Thomas and Peabody are co-founders of Mezze Hospitality Group, which comprises the 30-year-old Mezze Bistro + Bar in Williamstown, Bluebird & Co. at the base of Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort, catering and event planning Mezze Events, and Mezze Guesthouse. Most recently, Thomas led the creation of The Cliff House, the restaurant at the new Prospect resort in Egremont.
Influenced by Thomas’s Moroccan-born mother, Theano, Mezze’s vegetable-focused, Mediterranean-inspired menu emphasizes olive oil over cream or butter, with a strong commitment to local sourcing. “I grew up in a home that cooked even in the ’70s, when people started replacing meals with takeout and boxed meals,” Thomas says. Because of her mom, Thomas says, “I probably knew how to make vinaigrette at age five and had a mortar and pestle for as long as I can remember.” Her grandparents tended a wartime victory garden and her grandfather owned a café. Every Sunday, her family gathered for dinner.
Perhaps this instilled in Thomas an early appreciation for the attention to detail, care, and warmth that defines her focus on both the guest’s experience and that of her staff. In addition, Thomas considers herself “a holistic thinker,” concerned that all parts of her enterprise, from the menu to cooking to values of health and wellness, make sense together.
“At the end of the day, one of the beauties of hospitality is that it will never be replaced by anything digital.” —William “Bo” Peabody
As for her employees, she says that employment is “reciprocal.” “None of the team I work with are interested in a transactional life, meaning ‘I take your order, I bring you food,’” she says. Instead, she wants her employees to understand culinary choices and become critical thinkers. “We want people to say, hmm…why does chef put these ingredients together?” Thomas considers the daily halfhour pre-service meeting “the most important part of the day”—an invitation to her crew to engage in learning conversations, and to discuss “what’s happening tonight.”
As part of staff mentoring, Thomas and Peabody sent executive chef Kevin Orcutt, and his wife, front-of-house manager Maddy Orcutt, to Italy last year to, Thomas jokes, “eat pasta in Rome.” Orcutt’s family operated an Italian American restaurant in upstate New York, and Thomas sensed his passion was cooking from that region. “He loves dough, pasta, bread,” she says, “and he loves the Italian focus on quality ingredients and simplicity. I said, ‘Kevin, you’re home. Stay in this lane.’”
Thomas considers famed New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer one of her heroes. “He’s always said ‘employees first, vendors second, guests third, and investors fourth,’” she says. “And the reason is that if your employees and vendors are helping you succeed, they will take care of your guests, which will take care of your investors.”
Meyer aside, Thomas credits Peabody with her success. In turn, Peabody says Thomas is “as good a CEO as I’ve ever seen.” Thomas homed in on serving guests, while Peabody gently pushed her to take this laser focus and reach higher. “He nudged me just enough to grow in a way that in the beginning I wasn’t sure I knew it would work, and he showed me that it could,” she says. Peabody also brings tech expertise to the business, but, he says, “at the end of the day, one of the beauties of hospitality is that it will never be replaced by anything digital.”
Thomas also credits Peabody with teaching her how to negotiate. “I think he knew as a young person that everything was negotiable and I did not. And that happens in society more often than we think. I recognize that in a lot of young people I’ve worked with who come from communities where they didn’t learn how to negotiate. I’ve always tried to help them to ask for what they need.” Peabody, a former Williams ski racer, describes Thomas as “the ultimate coachable athlete” who is also a great coach.
Thomas says her team is always evaluating the salad, making sure leaves aren’t bruised or crushed and that each leaf is properly dressed. The message to her team: “We care for the most humble ingredients as much as we care about everything else.”
“When our chefs and management get feedback, they don’t take it as if it’s coming from a place of criticism,” Peabody says, but from a team working in sync. Their management team—including the Orcutts, Linda Stripp, director of Mezze Events, and Halle Heyman, director of business development, are essential to their success. “Without the team of chefs and restaurant leaders, I couldn’t have extracted myself to create Bluebird or Mezze Guesthouse,” says Thomas. “I almost want to cry in gratitude.”
Thomas is also grateful to the local farming community. “Williamstown still has an older generation of farmers we’ve been buying from that are at retirement age,” she says. “And it’s a very physical, demanding job. I hold my breath a little about the future of that.”
She references Bill Stinson of Peace Valley Farm, the first farmer she worked with, who “has been growing the most beautiful head lettuce forever.” That lettuce is featured in Mezze’s simple green salad, “the number one ordered menu item for its simplicity.” Thomas says her team is always evaluating the salad, making sure leaves aren’t bruised or crushed and that each leaf is properly dressed. The message to her team: “We care for the most humble ingredients as much as we care about everything else.”
Thomas buys pork and beef from longtime farmer Kim Wells of East Mountain Farm and from Mighty Food Farm over the line in Vermont but also from new farms like Bigfoot Farm, Red Shirt Farm, and regional food distributor Marty’s Local. Peabody seemed almost mystified when asked why buying local is so important. “Why would you do anything else?” he says. “The tragedy of Covid put in stark relief how having a food system and an economy that can sustain itself is really important, and that matters to me.”
Nancy Thomas (left) still treasures and uses the pestle and mortar from her childhood (above).
Thomas and Peabody are now celebrating Mezze’s 30th anniversary. “In the current eight or nine months, that’s high on my list,” Thomas says, but she’s also planning for winter. “You need to give guests a reason to get in their cars on a Thursday in 20-degree weather. You never take your foot off the gas even though in summer you need to be churning operationally.” For Peabody, the key to getting regulars in the door on that snowy night is offering consistency. “You do that just by being on it, every single time, no matter how many people are in the building, no matter what you’re serving, no matter what the occasion. You put out a product, both culinarily and guest-experience-wise, that is consistent.”
I spoke to Thomas during her rare hours off. After our conversation, she was returning home, where her mother, her Mediterranean inspiration, was visiting. “We’ll make a couscous, perhaps a brochette, and different salads that go with that,” Thomas says. “Just thinking about them makes me extremely happy.”
MEZZE BISTRO + BAR AND MEZZE GUESTHOUSE
777 Cold Spring Rd.
Williamstown
413-458-0123
BLUEBIRD & CO.
137 Brodie Mountain Rd.
Hancock
413-738-9002
