Inns, Taverns, and Breweries

2024 was a busy year for me with many interesting photo assignments of inns, taverns and breweries in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York State. I will be sharing the photos from my travels in the next few posts. I gave up my map books many years ago and have relied on Google Maps to navigate to my destinations. This has worked great until I encountered an area in Massachusetts that has no internet service available. It is very scary being hundreds of miles from home on a lonely backroad, without GPS. I am aware that the sun is always on the South side of the horizon, and I was able to head in the right direction when I lost my navigation signal. About twenty minutes later my GPS was working again. Most of the businesses I photograph are privately owned and the owners have interesting stories to tell. I am sure that it takes me longer that other photographers because I like to ask questions about how each business operates, what time of year is busy, and how the business was started. Hearing the story behind each business is as much fun as taking the photos. Barrington Brewery and Restaurant in Great Barrington, Massachusetts has an interesting story as one of the first brewpubs in Massachusetts, with an unusual feature..

Barrington Brewery and Restaurant in Great Barrington, MA https://www.barringtonbrewery.net/ was started by college friends who saw an opportunity in an abandoned building. They had little money and a big dream. Through hard work the building was transformed into a beautiful brewery. The really interesting feature of this brewery is that they own a field of solar panels that produces 50% of the energy for the hot water for brewing and 85% of the electricity they use in the restaurant. All spent grain from the brewery is used to feed cows at a local beef farm. They must be happy cows!

All the food at Barrington Brewery and Restaurant is made from scratch including comfort foods like mac & cheese, "Mom's meatloaf" and chicken pot pie as well as BBQ ribs, fish & chips and smoked salmon salad. Their famous dessert is their three layer chocolate stout cake with chocolate ganache frosting.