Cover Story: Big Easy in the Berkshires
At Wells Provisions, two New Orleans expats honor their city's traditions at a rural corner market.
IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER
August’s Featured Destination: We point you to a Chinese American restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina serving a Sichuan spiced fried chicken dish.
Cover Story: We talk with a couple from New Orleans who moved their family to the Berkshires, where they’ve opened a remarkable cafe and market.
Weekend Reading List: Pensacola cocktails, great places to stay in Maine, and a roundup of the best food halls in the Midwest.
Jackrabbit Filly: Serving Up Southern Heat
NORTH CHARLESTON, SC — There’s a lot of great fried chicken in Charleston, but one of our favorite versions is the Sichuan hot karaage at Jackrabbit Filly, a Chinese American restaurant from Shuai and Corrie Wang (they’re also behind the soon-to-open King BBQ). The two got their start in Charleston at the lauded Short Grain food truck, and at Jackrabbit, they serve a seasonal menu with dishes like charred and chilled local beets with fresh horseradish and tempura crunch, and udon with mole verde and chili crisp. The Sichuan hot karaage is a Japanese-style fried chicken that packs a spicy punch; it comes sprinkled with togarashi and a side of bread and butter pickles (and it’s great with a daiquiri). 4628 Spruill Ave, North Charleston, SC 29405
Jackrabbit Filly is just one of our favorite spots in Charleston. During the month of August, paid subscribers can download a complimentary copy of our Charleston Field Guide, where we’ve compiled all of our Charleston recommendations into a 34-page digital dining guide. Find this month’s promo codes at the bottom of this newsletter.
Honoring New Orleans Traditions at Wells Provisions
CHARLEMONT, MA - After a stay at Tourists, a great little renovated motel in North Adams, Massachusetts, we stopped at Wells Provisions Cafe & Market in Charlemont for collard green sandwiches, shrimp po-boys, and Vietnamese iced coffees on the way to the airport. Levi and Wesley Janssen opened Wells Provisions, a combination restaurant, general store, ice cream stand, and Airbnb, in July 2021 after they decamped during the pandemic from New Orleans to Charlemont, a hill town of 1,300.
In New Orleans, the duo worked for Dickie Brennan & Co. (a restaurant group that includes Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse and Palace Café), where Levi was the director of operations and Wesley worked in marketing. “Levi worked for them for 20 years and I worked for them for 14,” Wesley says. “We had been through rebuilding processes, from Hurricane Katrina to the BP oil spill to the 2008 recession, and we knew what it would take. It takes a toll on us as employees to help rebuild. We had three young kids and we said — maybe now is the time to try something of our own.”
Wells Provisions is named for the building’s original occupant, Wells Corner Store, which was built in 1845. Like its namesake, there are items for sale, but unlike most New England country stores, you’ll find natural wines, pints of Cajun chicken salad, maple cocktail bitters, and take-and-heat meals like coq au vin and sweet potato casserole. But there’s so much more happening here. There’s a menu offering breakfast, lunch, and weekend dinner, along with a coffee bar, an ice cream window with local hard ice cream and soft serve, and fried chicken nights on Fridays. The Wells team also holds pop-ups at Tourists’ restaurant The Airport Rooms (if you visit when there’s no pop-up, be sure to get the excellent burger), bringing their fried chicken and other favorites to North Adams.
“We knew that in a rural community that if we were going to be just one thing, it would be harder to survive and make the business thrive,” Wesley says. “We decided to take on a Vermont general store idea, where they have sandwiches and a deli, but really amp up the food and coffee part. We couldn’t survive just on locals, so we had to make sure it was special enough that people would drive here.”
Opening Wells was a homecoming for Wesley, who grew up in nearby Northfield, Massachusetts. After attending Tulane University for a year, she finished her degree at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst but soon returned to New Orleans, where she met native son Levi. While visiting her parents during the first summer of the pandemic, Wesley spotted the for sale sign on the building. “Charlemont is this under-discovered gem of a town,” she says. “It has all these outdoor activities — from skiing to downhill mountain biking to white water rafting to world-class fly fishing to hiking — but there’s not much in the town to support that industry. We come from a tourism-based economy in New Orleans and I think Charlemont has the potential to have an outdoor tourism-based economy that could thrive, but they need businesses to help it get there.”
The two pulled from their decades of experience opening restaurants in New Orleans. ‘We’ve probably opened a dozen restaurants, so we learned a lot from those experiences, but you learn even more when it’s your own,” Wesley says. “We’re not just the operations director and marketing manager, we are the chefs, the accounting person, the logistics person.” Levi manages the team and does the beer buying, and Wesley manages the kitchen, coffee bar (they use beans from regional roasters, including Barrington Coffee Roasting Company and No. Six Depot Roastery), and wine buying. “I am passionate about small producers doing things the environmentally conscious way,” she says. “I’m trying to make wine a little more approachable; 80-percent of our wines are under $20.”
Giving folks the chance to grab a maple latte or affordable bottle of wine for dinner are key to Wells’ identity as a place for locals, but as a traveler, you need to stop here and eat. “We wanted to make authentic New Orleans cuisine, but we didn’t want to be a New Orleans restaurant since those can get hokey,” Wesley says. “We wanted to bring some of our favorites from New Orleans that would translate well here, and marry them with local ingredients. We have a bananas foster sundae but also a maple rhubarb sundae, which is so New England.”
The menu includes dishes like gumbo ya-ya and shrimp remoulade, and they sell king cakes during Mardi Gras season (their version is slathered with maple cream cheese frosting). The collard melt, with provolone, Creole-dressed slaw, and house Thousand Island on rye, will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s dined at the fantastic New Orleans sandwich shop Turkey and the Wolf. “The collard melt is totally an homage to that sandwich,” Wesley says. “The boys used to get their haircut right around the corner from Turkey and the Wolf and then we’d walk over for lunch. There are little modifications, but the inspiration came from that outstanding sandwich.” They source collards from Good Bunch Farm in nearby Shelburne Falls and cook them with local apple cider vinegar.
The fried shrimp po-boy, dressed with tomato, lettuce, pickles, and mayo, is a standout. “We’re very particular about our po-boys,” Wesley says. “The number one thing is the bread. Gambino's in New Orleans ships their po-boy bread overnight.” That bread is the key; since New Orleans is below sea level, it has a different humidity level from other parts of the country and the bread has a crunchy exterior and light crumb. The Janssens use wild-caught Gulf shrimp, but “if they’re not available, we don’t run the sandwiches,” Wesley says. “If there are only a few ingredients, each ingredient has to be outstanding. It’s a real-deal New Orleans po-boy but in the hills of Western Massachusetts.” 159 Main St, Charlemont, MA 01339
Hot Dog Heaven: If you like half-smokes as much as I do, you’ll be excited to hear that Ben’s Chili Bowl is planning an expansion outside of D.C. The Washington Post’s Emily Heil spoke with owner Virginia Ali about their franchise plans.
Leaving Nostalgia Behind: In Condé Nast Traveler, writer Latria Graham says the city of Charleston is taking steps to confront — and honor — the difficult parts of its past. It’s an effort to “make visible that which has for so long been hidden,” she writes.
Shuffle on Down to the Bar: Also in Condé Nast Traveler, Emily Pennington has a roundup of some great places to stay near Acadia National Park, including a quirky new inn with an onsite bar and shuffleboard court.
Rum and Pensacola: Carrie Honaker shares her picks for Pensacola, Florida with Garden & Gun. Of particular note are cocktails at The Well (we’ll have the Punch & Judy, made with rum, Campari, guava, and chamomile tea), a food hall serving local oysters and lobster rolls, and a Thai sticky rice–inspired sour at Alga Beer Co.
Halls of Fame: Speaking of, Erika Ebsworth-Goold has a roundup of the Midwest’s best food halls in Midwest Living. We recently visited The Garage in Indianapolis, a new food hall in the middle of the city's downtown Bottleworks District.
— Compiled by Kenney Marlatt
Thank you for being a subscriber! All month, paid subscribers can head over to our website and use the promo code CRABRICE at checkout to download a complimentary copy of our Charleston Field Guide.
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