Normally when we're heading along the I-90 through upstate New York we like to pop into Dinosaur BBQ for a great meal but our timing on our recent trek was off - we'd either arrive to early for lunch or too late so that we'd be famished. While doing a bit of research online I found that there was a BBQ joint in Great Barrington. I made reservations there for Friday night figuring we'd be too tired to cook.
The owner describes the Route 7 Grill like this:
We at Route 7 Grill are proud to be providing fresh, local food to our Berkshire neighbors and friends. All of our meats are naturally raised from local farms or small family farms.
Perfect - BBQ AND farm-to-table.
Once the reservations were made though I found some troubling reviews on Yelp. Troubling to the point that I was tempted to cancel my reservations. There was one thing that held me back - even the bad reservations spoke of a busy or full restaurant. If things were really that bad there was no way the place would be consistently that full.
I'm glad that I ignored my reservations (pun intended). We had a great meal at Route 7 Grill.
The fall menu had just started so the ingredients were 'fall-like' - kale, greens, squash, etc.
We started with an appetizer order of the famous smoked-chicken wings and the kale chips with chipotle dip. They were both great (although mom was hesitant to try kale chips she did). I'm not sure if I have ever had smoked wings prior to this and I thought that they'd put Buffalo out of business if they caught on!
For my main course I ordered a half rack of ribs. They came delicately smoke with a delicious house-made sauce.
This was all washed down with their feature drink - a 'fall' lemonade made with freshly squeezed lemons and locally distilled bourbon. YUM.
There are lots of great restaurant choices in Great Barrington - don't be put off by those Yelp reviews (I had to join Yelp to post my OWN review in response to those haters). Route 7 Grill is a great restaurant adhering to the slow food movement. The ingredients are locally sourced wherever possible from farms with natural traditions. . . I liked knowing the greens I was eating came from Equinox Farm and not a bag labelled 'Dole' or 'Andy Boy'.
As you drive along Route 7 just south of Great Barrington look for the Holstein on the east side of the road, pop in and be impressed.
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