The Old Inn On The Green Celebrates 20th Anniversary W/new Exec Chef Peter Platt

THE OLD INN ON THE GREEN
CELEBRATES 20th ANNIVERSARY
WITH NEW EXEC CHEF PETER PLATT


Built in 1760 as a stagecoach stop, the distinctive white clapboard building with a two

story piazza in the center of the village green in New Marlborough, Massachusetts had

served as a tavern, general store and post office until it was abandoned in the early 60s.

Bradford Wagstaff bought the empty, dilapated and largely rotted old colonial in 1973,

and set to work restoring the property along with then partner furniture maker and

designer, Peter Murkett of Monterey, Ma. In 1976, aspiring pastry chef Leslie

Miller, began her baking career at Suchele bakery in Lenox and rented a room at the

yet unrestored inn. Leslie was instrumental in completing the guest rooms in time for

their debut in the summer of 1979. In 1980 the couple were married.


On October 2nd 1982 the restaurant at The Old Inn opened with its first Saturday night

prix fixe seasonal menu. Chef Michele Miller presided in the kitchen. A crackling fire

was set in the carefully restored Tavern Room and the Wagstaffs greeted their first

guests. The totally candlelit dining rooms, a longtime signature of the Inn, remains

essentially the same today but has achieved star status as a destination restaurant and inn.


A NEW CHEF FOR THE OLD INN


Beginning in October, Executive Chef Peter Platt joins Chef de Cuisine Jeffrey Waite,

Banquet Chef Jeremy Smith and Sous Chef John Sarno in what no doubt will be

considered the kitchen dream team of the region say the Wagstaffs.

Peter comes to the Inn from Wheatleigh where he led their kitchen for 12 years. A

Williams College graduate who trained at Cordon Bleau and with Bostons Jasper White

and Lydia Shire, Peter has received extensive praise, (stylish, brilliant, sublime) from

national publications ranging from The New York Times to The Wine Spectator.



The Old Inn On The Green, together with the historically and architecturally significant

restored barns of Gedney Farm and Gedney Manor, an elegant, gilded-age estate, were

recently named one of the 30 Great US Inns, by Travel and Leisure, and Food and

Wine listed the Inn as one of Americas Top 50 Hotel Restaurants. This has been an

amazing year, and while this is our 20th anniversary we feel like were just beginning,

says Wagstaff; we are all excited to have Peter on board and with a new spa facility

being built this winter, we are all committed to becoming a world class Berkshire

destination.