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Harvest Fare: Dining at Morgan House
By Bess Hochstein, Berkshire Visitors Bureau contributing writer
October 2008
When word got out that Pamela Loring had purchased the Morgan House this spring, there was no need to advertise for help running the historic inn and restaurant in Lee. Loring had previously run two successful businesses in Lee, including the Devonfield Country Inn, and her family roots span six generations in the town. She was prepared to enjoy her retirement, but friends kept telling her she should buy and revive the Morgan House, which was originally built as a home for the Morgan family in 1718. As Loring explains it, the neglected inn was calling to her, until she could no longer resist bringing new life to the former stagecoach relay that has served as  the gateway to the Berkshires for more than two centuries. Lee being such a close-knit town, the news spread quickly, and local would-be employees came knocking on her door to work at Morgan House.
Though Loring had never run a restaurant, she is a veteran of the hospitality industry, having begun her working life at the Red Lion Inn long before she owned her own B&B. She also drew upon her own experiences dining out to formulate her recipe for success: Good food. Good atmosphere. Good service. Starting with the atmosphere, Loring immediately spruced up both the white tablecloth dining room and the tavern, as well as refurbished the kitchen and the eleven guest rooms above it. She made use of vintage wallpaper she found in the upper floors, and commissioned a local artist to paint a mural on the dining room walls, incorporating Mount Greylock and many landmark buildings in Lee. She brightened up a smaller room with a band of mirrors, attractive sconces, and sheer, flowing curtains, plus a portrait painted in the 1870s by Annie Foote – whose family was among the original settlers of Lee – a member of the Morgan family. The new décor draws attention to the massive, rustic beams that span the ceilings throughout the dining area. Functioning fireplaces enhance the dining room’s warmth.
In addition to employees, the revived Morgan House instantly attracted customers – both locals and visitors – for its affordable meals made from scratch, featuring as much local produce as possible. The restaurant’s lunch and dinner menus are replete with salads and traditional hearty fare, but also offer a few surprises, such as the house-made pierogies (cheddar and potato-filled dumplings) on the lunch menu. Lunch features a diverse array of sandwiches, including toast turkey with cheddar and cranberry aioli, a turkey wrap, the requisite burger, a Mediterranean vegetable wrap, and a pulled pork barbecue sandwich. Two miniaturized sandwiches make the lunch appetizer list:  mini Angus beef sliders and mini Carolina pork sliders. There’s always a quiche and pasta of the day, as well as the perennially popular New England clam chowder and Angus beef chili.
Dinner tends toward the elegant, with appetizers such as shrimp martini; wine-steamed Prince Edward Island mussels; and Caprese salad. Dinner entrees include filet mignon; lamb shank with French lentils and apple-smoked bacon; herb-grilled shrimp with spring pea risotto and roasted tomatoes; and lemon and rosemary grilled chicken breast. There’s a Far-East touch in the sesame-crusted pan roasted salmon with Asian noodle salad and Thai peanut sauce, and the baby back ribs with cornbread, southern slaw, and Morgan House barbecue sauce bring us back to the United States and offer up a taste of the South. Saturday evening diners enjoy live music, and every so often chef Micah Stone, a native son who is also a musician, takes the stage.
Because Loring is astute enough to recognize that people can actually get hungry between the typical hours of lunch and dinner, she instituted a tavern menu with pub fare and finger food. From 11:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. the tavern serves up a wide variety of smaller dishes, including those mini sliders plus mini Reubens. Other popular appetizers from the lunch and dinner menu also make the list, such as crab cakes, calamari, roasted Portobello bruschetta, and nachos with house-made salsa and chips. Those popular pierogies also reappear, as does a smoked salmon platter. There’s even a new take on fish and chips, which at the Morgan House Tavern means New England clam chowder with hushpuppies. But if you just want the chips part of that dish, “puppies by the pint” gets you hushpuppies with Dijon mustard sauce.  The tavern offers two distinct dining environments: the cozy bar area, which has a large, flat-screen TV, or a separate room with windows looking out on Main Street.
Loring has other plans to make Morgan House even more of a gathering spot. She’s planning to institute trivia nights on Thursdays in the tavern, and traditional high tea in the dining room, complete with pastries, scones, and cucumber watercress sandwiches. With the change of seasons, she’ll be tweaking the menu, adding more comfort food for the coming cold weather, as well as dishes that reflect the autumn harvest, such as squash soup and beef and stout pie. Loring says she gets a lot of repeat business – folks who come to the Morgan House three or four times per week. This hospitality pro listens to her clientele; they miss the native turkey dinner, so she’s putting it back on the menu in the lead-up to Thanksgiving.
Changing seasons, changing menus
The Morgan House isn’t the only Berkshire County eatery adapting to the changing seasons with heartier fare. The Red Lion Inn’s new dinner choices – appetizers such as BBQ Vermont quail with sweet corn grits & warm onion marmalade or goat cheese stuffed red potatoes with mustard dressed field greens & balsamic reduction; entrees such as sesame seared sea bass with julienne leeks & Swiss chard or pan seared moulard duck breast with roasted cauliflower, sweet potatoes & quince demi strike an autumnal chord. Lunch dishes like pan fried rainbow trout with lyonnaise potatoes, spinach & grain mustard butter or sautéed calf’s liver with bacon, onions & balsamic braised kale fortify hungry leaf peepers. The widow Bingham’s Tavern also obliges, with pasture raised lamb stew with root vegetables or mac & cheese – up scaled with orecchiette and Shelburne Farms cheddar – two ways: with apple-wood-smoked bacon, or vegetarian, with smoked Portobello mushrooms. And warming potato, cheddar & Barrington Ale soup has found a place on all three menus.
About Bess Hochstein
Bess J.M. Hochstein came to the Berkshires as a second-homeowner before deciding to move here full time. Previously a communications executive, she's now a freelance writer living in Tyringham with her corgis Duffy and Hobbs and K. She writes for several publications, including Berkshire Living, the Boston Globe, New England Wine Gazette, and Healing Lifestyles & Spas magazine.
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