Listening to the Jazz, I Could Feel Gfld Eclipsing Noho

Everyone showed up; the whole gang of Friday regulars were on the scene in 'Hamp last night, gathered at the very hip Mama Iguana's to share end of the workday tales and catch up on news. But Joe told us he had to leave at 6:20. Why? Because he was heading north to the Next Cooler Place and had a dinner date.

Northampton for years has been the defacto meeting ground for those of us who live up north in Franklin county. We don't have the cool bars and trendy eateries up here, so we have to head 20 miles down 91 to catch up with that kind of action. But tonight I sensed a shift, a seismic shift, from the south to the north. Greenfield has become cooler than 'Hamp.

To bring the point home, you must join the throng at Hope and Olive, set on a sidestreet in this town. We entered and grabbed a corner table, and drank throwback beers...'Gansett anyone?
I had only savored one beer down south and rallied to drive these twenty miles north, to join these friends at this crowded, sprawling restaurant, with tables tucked in sides and nooks and lots of room. Dinner came later, a plate of striped bass, and for others, tiny plump quail with delicious tiny drumsticks.

Half way through this sumptous spread, the music began, the band was called Bok Choy. A man played a compact silver cornet, another played keyboards, a familiar face from the cafe manned a stand-up bass, and a fourth player swished brushes on drums. Good old fashioned jazz, as Bill described it, 'cool California,' like Chet Baker. The tunes were smooth, the players were talented, and I took out my phone to Twitter kudos to the web. No doubt about it, with a big cool place like this, with its unique menu, saavy servers and genuine easy parking, Greenfield has slipped ahead of 'Hamp.

I just wish there was a bistro like this in Deerfield, the world needs and wants more places that take these kinds of risks, offer this creative a menu, and find jazz players as good as this to liven it all up. Come up here on a Tuesday night and it will still feel packed and popular...despite Greenfield's reputation as a backwater, it's surely on the map these days.

At Hope and Olive, a Fine Schmooze It Was

The cafe sponsored a get together for Chamber of Commerce members up at Hope and Olive, a very hip and cool new restaurant that is putting Greenfield on the culinary map. One of their owners, Tim Zaccaro, showed me his selection...more than 30 bottles of wine available by the glass. I enjoyed a crisp Vouvray and waded into the crowd to schmooze.

I met a woman who is a doctor, practicing at Franklin Medical Center. I asked her if being a doctor meant that you got all sorts of soliciations from investment firms, and junk mail by the ton. I also asked her if she worked a lot of hours. She said, yes, she does get approached by these investment sellers, who think she has more money than she does. And she manages to work just forty hours a week, so she's not burning the candle at both ends as one might think.

Then I met a woman I have met before who runs a lumber company. She said that we should sell these capsules full of coffee because everyone loves these new kind of coffeemakers and that we'd get rich if we sold the little plastic devices. But, they don't come filled with the coffee we sell, I said. Still she insisted that I should find these and stock my cafe with them, and that many people will come in and buy them.

I moved on to visit with a woman whom I hadn't seen in years. The memory was hazy---it was a high tech broadband outfit in South Deerfield. Yes, it all came back. We sold her hundreds of denim shirts, and before that she used to work for my friend Denis who died trying to land his high-performance Mooney plane on a foggy South Carolina runway. One of the nicest things about living in the same area for so many decades are these connections, that come about often, and connect you with your past.

Kim now works for her brother's telecommunications business, and like me, is doing well as we enter 2008. It was a festive and fun gathering, glad to have my good friend Jack there and our cafe manager Liz, who deserved a fun night out watching the old master schmooze.