Tourists Hotel Nixes Plan for Restaurant

The Berkshire Eagle  reports the plans for a new restaurant linked to the Tourists hotel have been abandoned, and its chef is walking away from the project.

Work was already underway in converting the former Our Lady of Incarnation Church on Massachusetts Avenue into a modern restaurant, dubbed "Loom," overlooking the Hoosic River below.

The restaurant was tied to the Tourists hotel, which sits opposite the river on State Road and opened in 2018.

In a statement on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the hotel confirmed partner and chef Cortney Burns is leaving Tourists "to focus on her much-anticipated cookbook and other culinary projects."

Instead of Loom, the hotel will open a new restaurant, "The Airport Rooms," in its 19th-century farmhouse property on State Road.

The group of investors behind Tourists include lead partner Ben Svenson and Wilco bassist John Stirratt.

Since the initial outline of a relatively modest renovation of the former Redwood Motel after acquiring the property in 2015, the partners expanded the scope to encompass more than 50 acres of surrounding property — including the historic Blackinton Mill on Massachusetts Avenue.