Classic Americana, Local Ingredients, and an Eclectic Vibe

Visiting the Neon Newt, a welcoming eatery located in the former Becket General Store

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By Elise Linscott Gladstone

Photos by Anastasia Stanmeyer

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Several years ago, Olivia Pattison was baking and selling bread at farmers markets on Martha’s Vineyard. Today, you can find Pattison at the Neon Newt restaurant in Becket on nearly any given day, working the kitchen when the restaurant is open and prepping food when it’s closed.

Pattison is the chef and owner of the Neon Newt, located in the former Becket General Store location. The tin ceilings and wood floors are original, but the space has an eclectic, welcoming vibe, with a mix of vintage and handmade art hanging on the walls. Music playing on the speakers on my Saturday morning visit ranged from Biggie Smalls to Lynyrd Skynyrd and Fall Out Boy.

Its clientele is varied, too, from groups of friends drinking coffee and sharing pancakes, tourists passing through before visiting Jacob’s Pillow, camp counselors grabbing a bite in the summer months, and hip local families with children in tow.

“We have a really cute selection of old men who come in first thing in the morning at 8 a.m. and have breakfast together at the counter,” Pattison says. “I'm new—they did that before I was here, this is their spot and they're excited that they can do it again. And what I'm doing is absolutely inconsequential so long as I'm serving coffee, which is awesome.”

Pattison does nearly all of the cooking and prep work, including smoking the bacon and making pork sausage by hand for weekend breakfasts. And yes, Pattison bakes bread, sliced thick and topped with butter and a hint of salt for a perfectly crunchy, satisfying toast alongside eggs and homefries that are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Pattison grew up in nearby Troy, New York, but spent many years living on Martha’s Vineyard. Pattison first got into the restaurant business on the island by way of farming, which is usually the opposite path for most people who start in restaurants, then move to farming, Pattison says. During the winter, when the farmers markets were closed, Pattison traveled around the country doing internships and stages at different restaurants before opening a restaurant with a friend on the Vineyard.

The overhead was too high to make the rent, pay employees well, and serve the local food Pattison wanted to source and cook. Pattison was working nearly every minute, and it wasn’t sustainable long-term.

“When Covid hit, houses that were $500,000 were all of a sudden a million dollars,” Pattison says of the Vineyard. That wasn’t in the budget. Pattison’s partner works as a nurse, and both wanted to find a new, more affordable place to live and work. When Pattison and her partner started looking for places to move, the Berkshires was a natural fit. Houses were affordable compared to the Vineyard, and the area is rich with farms and natural beauty. They ended up in Becket on a whim, as Pattison puts it.

“​​I saw this building, and I was like, we need to look at this,” Pattison says, pointing to the tin ceilings and light-filled space. Other than the ceiling and the bar stools, which still remain, the former Becket General Store was an empty shell waiting for a new restaurant. Plus, it has an apartment above, where the couple lived until buying a separate home in nearby Washington, four minutes down the road. The extra space has been helpful since welcoming their new baby toward the end of last year.

Since moving, Pattison has found that the Berkshires has been a welcoming community for queer business owners, too. “Like our restaurant on the Vineyard, we hung the rainbow flag up and the community is here, which is great."

For weekend breakfasts, Pattison says the restaurant is a classic Americana diner. On the menu are pancakes, waffles, eggs and homefries, along with a lunch menu of grilled cheese and cheeseburgers. Baked good specials are available, too, including cinnamon buns, jam scones. and brownies on the day I visited (while they lasted, and they often sell out).

The dinner menu changes weekly. Toward the end of breakfast service, Pattison sat on a bar stool thinking up the menu for the upcoming Monday night’s dinner, which would include braised pork with polenta and lamb-stuffed cabbage rolls. Friday nights are burger nights at the restaurant, and Monday night dinners lean toward a fine dining experience, when many of the locally sourced vegetables and ingredients really shine, Pattison says.

Almost every ingredient the restaurant uses is locally sourced and organic. Along with flour from Ground Pp Grain in Holyoke, eggs are from Cream of the Crop Farm in Russell, and pork from Kinderhook Farm in Columbia County. Pattison even makes the ketchup by hand.

The Neon Newt is located at 30 Washington St. in Becket. Follow the Neon Newt on Instagram @neonnewt.